Question 7 - Looking back at your preliminary work, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

When I first started this project my knowledge of magazine design and production and technical skills was limited. During the project, from the preliminary activity and throughout the main task I have learnt about the research process before production, how to alter my design to meet the needs of the target audience and the technical knowledge required to equip me with the skills needed for the final production stage.

The Preliminary Task

The preliminary task was to produce a front cover for a school magazine. To help me get started I researched other school magazines and analysed them to see what techniques were used and what aspects I could adapt to use on my own magazine front cover. This is the link to my semiotic analysis of one of the school front covers I researched -

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The programme I would be using to produce my front cover was Corel Draw. It was my first time using Corel Draw, so my knowledge of the programme was limited. This meant that the overall design of the front cover would be rather simple – an uncomplicated layout with quite ordinary text and images that had not been edited a lot. However, the things I learnt during this would help me develop my skills to use in the main task.

Before starting the cover design on Corel Draw I needed to take pictures that could be included. I took pictures of my school building, as well as an image of a student in the library.

I also produced a mock-up of what I thought my front cover would look like. This was a rough mock-up drawn on a piece of paper, simply showing the basic positioning of text and images. This gave me a guide to try and stick to, although there would obviously be changes made when I saw how it looked on the real product.

Looking back at my preliminary cover, I can see that my attention to detail was not very high. The layout is very plain, images do not blend in with the background and it looks more like a poster than a magazine front cover. I have also not included an issue date or a price – a very important part of magazine codes and conventions. This is something I would have to remember to include in the main task.A mock-up of what the school magazine contents page was also produced to give an idea of how it would look in comparison to the design of the front cover. Producing the mock-up gave an insight into how I would design my contents page for the main task later on.

The Main Task

The main task was to produce a front cover, double-page spread and contents page for a new music magazine. I was able to use what I had learnt during the preliminary task to help me with my design and production of my main media products. Again I would be using Corel Draw to produce my products. This time I would have experience of this programme and this would help me design and lay out the products in the most suitable way for my target audience.

After producing my preliminary front cover, I learnt about the importance of image and text positioning for a front cover. I made the mistake of using three images in my preliminary task, and arranged them on a coloured background. This made the front cover look amateur and as if it had not been thought through. Therefore when producing the front cover for Key Change, I chose to use one main image that would take up the whole page. This showed one of the improvements in my magazine design knowledge.

Image manipulation/layout skills and improvement

During the main task I had the chance to practise my photography skills and organise photo shoots that produced images that caught the decoder’s attention. After photos had been taken I also enjoyed the process of manipulating the images to make them more attractive and relevant to the overall magazine layout. This was the first time I had needed to take such notice of how photos looked, meaning my attention to detail increased greatly – using Corel Draw enabled me to adjust photos’ brightness, contrast and saturation, as well as being able to rotate and crop them. I took a long time doing this, resulting in photos that I was very pleased with and felt confident in using them on my final media products.

Examples of photo editing

The photos taken for the main task were a lot better than those taken for my preliminary task. My preliminary task photos were not thought through well enough, and the decisions of how and where to take them were made too quickly, resulting in photos that although were relevant to the type of magazine, did not blend in with each other, were of a lower quality and lacked any eye-catching element. However, I learnt from this and subsequently planned thoroughly for the style of photos I wanted to take and include in my music magazine.

Construction of the Imaginary Entity

Constructing the imaginary entity was a great help in helping me improve from the preliminary task to the main task. By having a clear idea of who I would be aiming my magazine at, I was able to focus my attention on producing images and laying out text in a way that the decoder would understand and find appealing.

Using the questionnaire in class to get feedback on my first attempt at my front cover was extremely useful; from what my peers said about colour, layout and other aspects of my design I could improve it until it met the needs of the decoder.

Textual Analysis Skills

At the start of this project my knowledge of magazine codes and conventions were limited, meaning that my textual analysis of magazines and other media products was often very brief. However, after spending a lot of time researching magazines and practising my analysis skills I have learnt a lot more about how to judge the design and presentation of magazines. I am a lot more critical and am able to use what I have learnt to comment on popular magazines, as well as being able to improve my own media products. My knowledge of semiotics has also deepened, enabling me to both analyse signs and come up with my own ideas when designing and developing my own media products.

Question 6 - What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

While producing my media product I learnt a lot about the various technologies used during the design and production process of magazines. From the initial ideas I had to the development and final production stage I have learnt skills that I didn’t have before and I’m sure will help my with my future design situations.

Blogger

Blogger has been a huge part of my project overall, as it is where all my work is displayed, including media theory, research and the main task. I had some previous experience of using Blogger from other projects I had done before, but there were various different elements I used this time. To make my work look presentable and as interesting as possible I chose from various templates to use on my media blog. I had not done this before and it helped in making my work look less wordy and more presentable.

This is what the screen looked like when I was selecting which background and template I was going to use for my blog.
I eventually decided to use this design of autumn leaves in the background for my blog:

Labels were also used on my blog to make it easier for the user to find particular sections of my work. My work was divided into five sections; Research, Media Theory, Preliminary, Target Audience and Main Task. I labelled each piece of work when had finished it, and the labels are on the right hand side of the blog for the user to select when they want to view a section.

I also had to upload images to my blog to display the various sections of my magazines I had completed so far. I had done this before in other projects, so I had no problem with it at all.

Corel Draw
Corel Draw is the programme I used to put my front cover, contents page and double page spread together. This programme was suitable because the layout of a page can be changed easily, image manipulation is straight forward and there is a wide range of font styles to choose from. Starting on a blank document it was easy to import images to edit and arrange in a way that was suitable for my magazine.

An advantage of using Corel Draw was how easy it was to move, resize and change the order of images. I rotated images to the right angles, edited the brightness and contrast of many of them and changed the order of some so they could be behind text or partly hidden by another image.

Corel Draw is also very useful for finding a variety of font styles to use for different sections of the magazine. I was able to look through all the fonts before I found the ones suitable. I found a bold font style that was perfect for the masthead on the front cover and another font that I chose to use for the article and other parts of the magazine including the interview and headings on the front cover.

The only limitation I found with using Corel Draw as opposed to Photoshop was that it was slightly more difficult to crop images accurately – I would often have to re-crop to make sure I got the section of the image that I wanted. Other than that, Corel Draw was easy to use and allowed me to create my media products successfully and to a high standard.

For the images I used in my magazine, I used an Olympus digital camera. The camera I used wasn’t heavily professional, but allowed me to take high quality pictures in various different styles. The amount I could zoom in to take a picture was high, without decreasing the picture quality. I had used this camera before and was therefore used to how it worked and what I could do in different situations e.g. taking pictures at night. The pictures came out really well and I edited brightness/contrast and saturation using Windows Photo Gallery and http://www.picnik.com/.

Using these programmes allowed me to develop my image manipulation skills in order to create images that created the best possible effect for my media product. Even small changes to an image made a big difference when laid out on a page.I also had a chance to use the ‘’Polaroid Effect’’ option on the Picnik website. This allowed me to angle the image and lay it onto a white background to create a scrapbook look. I also added text underneath the images, pulling out quotes from the interview.

Internet research was also a major part during the construction of my media product. I used the internet to research other magazines, in order to find out more about how they were designed, who distributes them and what the best way is to attract my preferred target audience. I feel my research has definitely paid off, as I have analysed magazines to gain a more thorough understanding of the magazine design process and the media production world in general.

Question 5 - What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Media institutions form a large part of the overall production and distribution process of magazines, distributing millions of magazines around the UK every day. These institutions often focus on a particular type of magazine e.g. fashion, women’s lifestyle and music, although most offer a diverse range of magazine types. I researched the most popular publishing houses in the UK to find out which one is most likely to distribute my music magazine. These included institutions included Bauer, IPC, National Magazines and Dennis Publishing. Visiting their websites allowed me to see which magazines they publish and come to a conclusion about which would be the most suitable to publish Key Change.

The first website I visited was the website for Conde Nast publishing house. Conde Nast is an American company and is a division of the company Advance Publications. Founded in 1905, it is one of the most popular publishing houses in the world. Its headquarters are in New York.

Magazines owned by Conde Nast include the fashion and beauty magazine, Glamour, fashion magazine Vogue and Brides magazine. This is the link to the Conde Nast website - http://www.condenast.co.uk/

The next publishing house I researched was Dennis Publishing. Dennis Publishing is an independent publisher and was founded in 1974. As of April 2010 it published 31 magazine titles, predominantly in the UK. The company is male-orientated, publishing some of the most popular men’s magazines around, including current affairs magazines, magazines about cars and technology magazines. Titles include Auto Express, PC Pro and PokerPlayer. As there don’t seem to be any music magazines published by Dennis Publishing, it would be useful for them to have one. However, my magazine is aimed at females, and would not fit in with the overall impression of the publisher. This is the link for the Dennis Publishing website - http://www.dennis.co.uk/
IPC Media is one of the UK’s leading magazine publications, selling over 350 million magazines every year. Brands published by IPC include the fashion and celebrity gossip magazine Look, the TV news magazine TV Times and Marie Claire fashion magazine. IPC Media covers a wide range of magazine types including music (NME magazine). As there is already a variety of music magazines published by IPC I will not be choosing this publisher to distribute my magazine. This is the link for the IPC Media website - http://www.ipcmedia.com/

I have chosen to use Conde Nast publisher http://www.condenast.co.uk/ to distribute my magazine. This is because my magazine is different to anything else they publish and will create a new scope for the company. A music magazine among the fashion, lifestyle and celebrity magazines they publish will be different and give the company something that other publishers don’t have.

Media Ownership – Concepts

Vertical integration is where one company owns many co-operations that work together in the media line. This means they could own a television channel, radio station and magazine that are all under the same name. An example of this is NME music magazine http://www.nme.com/magazine. With a magazine, website and television channel, NME ensures viewings from every possible form of media, increasing its reader population and total viewing figures.

Horizontal Integration is where two companies that are in the same industry merge together e.g. one music magazine joining up with another music magazine. This is popular in media production as usually when people here that a company is joined with another popular company, their knowledge of the other company increases the chances of the public purchasing products from that company.

Conglomeration – two companies that are part of completely different industries often join together to increase power and popularity, especially in the media world. For example, a media production company may join forces with a food or technology company, making it easy for the public to associate one with the other and gain a wider understanding of what these companies do for each other and the consuming public as a whole.

Question 4 - How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Representation is the way of communicating to a decoder using signs and symbols. These signs include images, text, video and many others. Representation is important in all forms of mainstream media, including magazines, films, radio and prime time television. No representation is completely true, with all signs and symbols going through a mediation process before they are fully suitable for the encoder’s use in their media product. Every sign is a choice and is a result of a sometimes long selection process. After learning about the mediation process I understood that it was important that I selected signs that would ensure the best possible outcome of a product that was suitable for my target audience. Taking my target audience’s social class into consideration, I selected images that I felt were suitable for representing what they could understand.

My magazine represents people from the ABC1 range in terms of social stratification, just like my target audience. Although it is a magazine that would include all sorts of music by people from different backgrounds, it is a magazine that also includes articles which often include emotional subjects experienced by certain people being interviewed, as shown in my interview with Sacha.

Social stratification is widespread across the UK, with magazine companies creating and publishing media products the represent every social group around. Magazines represent people from the ‘’chav’’ end of the scale to people of a much higher class. An encoder can make it clear to the decoder which social class is represented in their magazine by the signs chosen on the front cover. This is why it was important that I selected the appropriate signs to use in my magazine – so my target audience knew the social group that the people in the magazine belonged to.

All representations go through a mediation process, as the original sign is taken and altered until it becomes the representation the encoder wishes to use. This can take a long time to get right, and is based on the assumptions made about the target audience. These assumptions will affect everything from the modes of address to colour scheme of a design. For example, I chose to keep my colour scheme simple, using only three colours. This was so that the mistake of using too many bright colours wasn’t made, which could have resulted in the magazine looking cheap and tacky. Similarly, the photos I used of Sacha focused on natural beauty, rather than altering her image and risking changing the overall representation.

As the encoder of the magazine I felt it was important to make sure I put my own personal opinion forward through the use of the signs I chose to use. My message to the decoder was that although the music industry often represents people who are at the lower end of the social class scale, they are respectful people who simply want their music to be heard and don’t cause trouble. I feel I got this message across with the images I chose to use of Sacha – her beauty and unique presentation signify to the decoder that fame doesn’t always mean the dodgy ‘’rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle’’ that many singers become accustomed to. This message fits perfectly for the social group that this magazine is aimed at. I read similar magazines, so I feel the way I have chosen to produce my media product is suitable for my target audience. My magazine signifies a positive representation of young middle-class women, which is the exact group that it is aimed at, increasing the chance of gaining a preferred reading from the decoder.

The brief was to produce a front cover, double page spread and contents page for a music magazine. Although this was a good selection of items, it was challenging to fit everything I wanted to into these three pages. It meant I had to make sure I selected the most eye-catching images and signs to use to gain the decoder’s interest, as they would not be viewing much of the inside of the magazine. From the numerous photos I had taken, it was difficult to reduce them to a small group I could use. Out of the 15 photos I had taken in preparation, only 7 were used. It was difficult to choose which photos were the most suitable, but it allowed me to experience the often challenging selection process that encoders have to carry out all the time when producing magazines and other media products.

The software I used to create all sections of my magazine was the programme CorelDRAW Graphics Suite. This programme includes all the tools I needed to edit and alter all the signs I chose to use in my media product. Photos could be edited in a variety of ways, there was no limit to whereabouts I could move them and there was a wide range of font styles to choose from. This was definitely the best programme to use for my magazine. There were to limitations to what I could do and I could preview my design in all sorts of ways. I could also zoom in very far to ensure all details were as accurate as I could get them.

During the design process I used intertextuality to help me decide which of my designs was the most suitable for my target audience. I researched a variety of music magazines to see what kind of signs they used and to view their chosen style of layout. Collating all the information I found allowed me to come up with my own unique design and layout for my front cover, contents page and double page spread.

My overall representation is largely denotative. Most of the images of Sacha are simply there to give the decoder a representation of what she looks like. However, other images of her offer connotations for the decoder to read. For example, one image may show her beauty at a first glance, but at a second glance the decoder will be able to see the deeper meaning – her confusion/loneliness.

My magazine goes against the pluralist idea that no representation can ever impact the way a decoder thinks. I believe the signs I have chosen to use in my media product show that the way in which we use the mediation process to create something a decoder understands can have a big impact on the way my target audience will decode the signs and understand the representation. Although there are thousands of representations of the same social group out there, I think my representation has a unique message to offer.

Question 3 - In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions or real media products?

Every piece of media text follows simple guidelines that allow it to be designed and produced in a way that decoders will be familiar with. Media products are put into categories that a target audience will easily recognise due to the similar use of key elements and techniques used by the encoder. These categories are related to as genres. For example, T.V murder dramas will often have similar settings and storylines that have elements that have been used before. This is an example of intertextuality – links have been made from previous media texts to produce a new one. Music magazines follow the same pattern. All music magazines will use the same techniques and include the key concepts that encoders use to fully represent what they want to their target audience.

Many music magazines are focused specifically around one type/genre of music. The encoder will use this genre and design sections of the magazine based on what a decoder would expect to see in that particular magazine.

Numerous music magazines will include a story about a well-known musician, whether it’s about their music or something interesting having happened in their personal life. I have taken this and used it in my magazine – forming an interview with a singer.

Music magazine often have a tag line next to or beneath their title, stating they are a popular magazine or have won some kind of award. I have also used this element on my magazine front cover. This will represent the magazine’s status and popularity to the decoder, allowing them to understand the success of the magazine they will potentially be purchasing.

Another element of magazine design I have used on the font cover is having an offer for the decoder to have an opportunity to see a singer live in concert. This is placed at the bottom of the front cover to take the decoder’s attention as they look down it.

Every magazine, whether music or fashion, will include a barcode on the front or back cover. I included a barcode at the bottom of the front cover. I chose this position because it does not interfere with the main cover image or overall design of the cover, but still completed the look of the magazine.
The masthead for Key Change is placed at the top of the front cover, as with most music magazines. This is so that it’s the first thing the consumer sees when looking at the front cover, drawing their attention to the remainder of the cover.

I have also included the price and issue date on the top left hand corner of the front cover. Most magazines put the issue date and price on the front cover so it is easy for the consumer to see when they are viewing it.
tuart Hall’s Encoding and Decoding Model states that a decoder can decode a piece of media text. They can either have a preferred/dominant reading, negotiated reading or an oppositional reading. A preferred reading, where the decoder fully understands the decoder’s code and accepts the message, is the reading I wanted the decoders to take from my magazine.

As Modes of Address are also an important part of the encoder’s responsibilities, I made sure the signs and the way I wrote in various sections of the magazine communicated in the most suitable way for my target audience. As my magazine would be read by late teenage to young adult years, anchorage was not as important as it would have been if my media product was aimed at a younger audience. Some images included text underneath e.g. quotes from an interview, but most of my images spoke for themselves and would allow the decoder to read and understand the connotations within the images. Language used in the introduction to the interview was not simple, nor heavily complicated, as my target audience is a well educated young woman.

My media product remained within the usual guidelines of magazine design and followed the principles of the Encoder/Decoder Model. The choices I made with regards to images, text and other signs were made based on my target audience and the way in which I wanted them to read my magazine. All these signs went through a mediation process to make sure they represented exactly what I wanted to the target audience. Intertextuality was a large part of the design process, as I wanted my target audience to feel familiar with the overall magazine layout.

Question 2 - How did you attract/address your audience?

Modes of address are important while designing a media product. The media product must communicate in a way that’s suitable for the target audience, be it teenage girls or adult males. To do this successfully, the encoder must make assumptions about their target audience, such as annual income, interests and hobbies. These assumptions about the target audience can sometimes be detected while decoding a piece of media text.

As my magazine is aimed at women aged from late teens to early twenties, it was not important for me to communicate didactically to my target audience. Images could talk for themselves most of the time, so I didn’t need to anchor them.

On the front cover of my magazine, I used a single image that took up the majority of the page and was linked to my main feature article. I chose this image because it’s a sign that represents the star’s personal style and emotions. As the interview contained a subject that was emotional for the singer, the black and white image was the most appropriate to represent her mood, but still signified her individuality and style through a close-up of her face.

The image I chose to use as the main sign on the interview page was chosen because again it represents the singer’s beauty, but at the same time signifies her confusion and inside emotions associated with the content of the interview. A polaroid effect was added to the photo to compliment the casual and stylish nature of both the magazine and the singer being interviewed. Anchorage was used on this sign by placing her name under her photo. This wasn’t to tell the decoder who it was, it was more of an introduction to the interview, as it is likely to be the first thing the decoder sees and they would recognise the name from the text on the font cover.

Other images included on the double page spread included black and white shots of the singer in a park, displaying poses that signified her thoughtful state of mind. Again, these were edited to include a polaroid effect and included quotes of what the singer had said in the interview. I chose to use the most significant quotes from the interview, to grab the decoder’s attention and deepen their interest in reading the full interview.

On the lower left side of the double page spread I included an image that was not taken during the interview, but one that had been taken at a separate photo shoot. This image is polysemic, as the decoder may see it as a representation of the singer’s confidence, or a representation of confusion and or a sense of sadness or loneliness.

My magazine’s colour scheme was made up of three colours; black, pink and white. I chose these colours as I felt they fit in well with the nature of the magazine – being a pop/retro magazine, black and pink complimented each other and are usually seen as being a modern combination of colours for many media products. White font was used for text on black backgrounds, as it is the easiest colour to read and provided an aesthetic contrast for the decoder. This colour scheme was used in all three sections of my work.
As well as using images from my main cover story on the contents page, I included an image from an article that would also be included in another section of the magazine. The article would have been about the Irish pop singer, Ronan Keating. I included this image in the contents page to give the decoder a visual representation of what kind of signs they would find if they read the article. I took this image myself at a concert and edited on Windows Photo Gallery.

Question 1 - Who would be the audience for your media product?

The audience for my magazine would be a young woman interested in popular music. She would be fashionable, have a well paid job and would be interested in the latest events in the music industry. Taste in music would vary from R&B to Rock. I chose this target audience because it gave me a wider choice of design styles for my front cover, contents and double page spread for the magazine.

To allow the best possible result for my media product I devised a questionnaire to find out from other students what they thought about my products so far and if they thought it matched the personality of the imaginary entity. The results of the questionnaire enabled me to create a lifestyle profile for the imaginary entity. They highlighted the aspects of the products that would work well for the imaginary entity and those that would need to be altered to make sure they met the needs of the target audience.

From learning about the Encoder and Decoder Model I knew how important it is for the encoder to take into account every bit of information about an imaginary entity. The encoder must consider the age of the target audience, their social class and the type of media product it is. I studied Stuart Hall’s idea about the three ways in which a decoder can decode a piece of media text. While designing my media products I did everything I could to ensure they would receive a preferred reading from my target audience. When I showed my preliminary attempt at the front cover to my focus group, general feedback was positive, with only a few suggestions being made about changing some of the colour schemes and altering/shifting font style or size.