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

I always knew my magazine was going to be mass produced when i was making it. this was due to the music genre and social group my magazine was based around. if it was a rock magazine like Kerrang, or NME that are more niche, self publishing might seem more appropriate. Considering this I decided that using a big publishing company like the IPC media company. IPC has over 60 iconic magazine brands, and has sold over 26 million of their media products to adults across the UK. they already publish quite a few magazines similar to mine such as Marie Claire, Look, and Now.  Their websites also reach over 25 million global users every month. With all in this in mind it seemed a very appropriate choice of the institution to distribute my magazine.

I also thought IPC would be a great choice for a number of reasons.  firstly when I'm making the magazine each month and try to publish it I wouldn't be alone. although it may be a little more expensive with IPC I would a large team of people at my side helping me along the way if they agree to invest in it such as editors, printers, packagers, sales people, distributors, and accountants. Another good reason for using IPC is the sponsorship. If I was to choose a third party publisher such as IPC I wouldn't have to spend my time on the sponsor ship of my magazine. IPC would do all the work when approaching the advertisers, and settling prices. all this wouldn't take time out of your daily schedule, as far as I'm concerned my job would just be making the magazine. another problem I wont have to deal with, is the marketing. It could be very difficult getting someone to buy my magazine especially when I'm first starting off.  this would take both time and money.

However there are quite a few problems with choose to go through this method of publication. One of the main problems I would come across is the lack of control. By choosing IPC I would loose a lot of control in term of when I'm making the magazine. For example people who self publish have complete control on every process of the magazine. every decision would be theirs. But because I would be paying IPC for investing in my magazine I would have to let them make changes if they decided to, in order to sell it. I would have all the right and I would have complete control.

Overall I think choosing IPC would be the most appropriate for the type of magazine I created. As my magazine is mainstream and mass produced it could be advertised in places such as HMV, Itunes, on the TV, and on the radio. this would attract my target audience as these are the sort of places where young people would go, be involved in. 

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The particular social group I'm aiming my magazine at are Young girly girls aged 16-20 who are interested in pop music. the group my magazine is targeted at doesn't really have a specific name but the magazine I made is very much for the mass. The magazine would mainly be aimed at lower class or lower middle class which is why i put the price as three pounds. this is a little more expensive than some magazines such as "hello", "pick me up" and "ok". their prices can range to even below a pound which shows there aimed at the working class. My magazine is mainly aimed at white Caucasians living in the UK but that's not to say all ethnic group cant enjoy it.

My magazine also gives people the chance to buy a magazine that is based on chart music. There are very few magazine on the charts with the exception of rolling stones and billboard. I wanted to make a magazine like cosmopolitan which combines fashion and glamour with music. It gives people the chance to become a fan of it if they are not already and discover other bands that come into the charts. because of how widely produced the music genre is there is a huge gap in the market for my magazine and it has a lot of potential.

When taking pictures of my model I took into account the kind of photos that are on most fashion and music magazines today. I looked at a variety of different magazines and the main influences were Cosmopolitan, Elle, Glamour and Sugar.

Posture: The image I used on my front cover of my model was very simple and basic. She is smiling and looking straight at the camera, this is quite a laid back pose and shows that my magazine fun and not too serious. I didn't want the pose to be aggressive, as this pose would be more suited for a rock magazine.  For my long shot I also used a posture that is once again very relaxed and casual. My model leant against a wall this was a very laid back and simple pose to do.

Camera angle: When taking my photos most of my photos were of head and shoulder shots. I did this because most females on the front of fashion magazines are of head and shoulders. it really makes it so you can see all their features, and makeup and hair is a huge aspect of a fashion magazine. I did a couple of shots which were from about the thighs up. these shots were intended to be for my contents page as I wanted an image to take up the whole of one side of the page and when looking at magazines like Vogue most of the people on their contents pages were of a full body shot. I wanted my images to also have a variety.

Lighting: when I was taking my photos I used the strobe lights which were set up in the studio I used. I did this because I wanted my images to be as good quality as possible and I felt like lighting did this as it made them for bright and it really highlighted all the features. When making the magazine in Photoshop I edited the images quite a bit. for example when I took them the quality was ok but they did look that vibrant and I felt like they could look a lot better. on the front cover of some already made magazines their models had a lot of colour in them. to improve my photos I turned up the contrast. this made my photo stand out more and made it look less washed out. I also turned up the vibrance and edited the curves, this gave the photo more colour and gave the model more of a perfect look. with the edited lighting it was a lot more flattering for the model.

costumes: The costume I chose for my model wasn't too extravagant, as my music genre was mainstream pop i wanted what my model was wearing to be reasonably "normal". I wanted it to fashionable and trendy. My model was dressed in a Jack Daniels t-shirt. This appeals to the target audience because the younger generation would probably like to drink this and alcohol appeals to adolescents. also clothes that have trademarks or logos tend to appeal to this audience. My model was also wearing some denim shorts. this also appeals to my audience because short are very in at the moment especially for teenage girls, and shorts are "mainstream" in their own way. Most teenagers wear denim especially when it comes to jeans and for some teenagers, jeans is all they wear. my model also wore some black tights which matched with the whole outfit really well.

Expression: The expression for my magazine was very important. For example in a more rock based magazine the model might look very serious, cross their arms or look aggressive in some way. however as my magazine is pop based I wanted a more light and fluffy expression. To achieve this is most of my photos I got my model to smile and look directly at the camera. this is a very happy expression and fits in with the genre of music really well as pop is known as being joyful and upbeat.

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

Conventions are a way of presentation that the magazine has been following for years. they are a norm of the way things have always been. some magazines are more conventional than other depending on the type of magazine. the genre of my magazine Pop but it includes elements of music, fashion, celebrity gossip, and other aspects of adolescent life. Pop is a music genre enjoyed by the masses and is very much main stream. it is a genre that is occupied by in the charts and it is a genre that affects me a lot. therefore there would be a big fan base for it, and I recognized that there isn't really any Pop magazine out there that combine it with fashion and celebrities. you don't get that many mixed magazines out there when it comes to chart music.  the biggest influences when I was making my magazine was cosmopolitan. Cosmopolitan is quite similar to my magazine in that it is a very mixed magazine and combines aspects of young adult like such as love, boys, careers, and music. i also got a lot of the ideas of where to put things on my front cover and contents page by a variety of different cosmopolitan covers and contents pages. Also it wasn't just the physical appearance of my magazine that cosmopolitan influenced. it was also the content of my magazine, for example the headlines on my cover and on the contents page. although cosmopolitan was the major influence other magazines that influenced it were Glamour, Sugar, and Vogue.

The name of my magazine is "Bubble Gum." the main reason i chose this for my magazine is because one of the words associated with the word bubble gum is pop, as it creates an image of someone blowing a bubble. this is a play on word as the music genre I'm covering is pop music. another reason I chose it is because I wanted a magazine name that is fun, and light and fluffy. Bubble gum also creates an image of the colour pink, and this goes well as my target audience is females. When I was designing my magazine logo I made it so it looks as if it is in bubble writing but this fits in the theme of the bubble effect. I also predictably created it in pink as this fits in with the theme and shows that the target audience is again for females.

When composing the main image for my magazine once again my main influence was cosmopolitan. I wanted a simple head and shoulder shot as this was a close up of the model and you can really see all her facial features. this would appeal to females because the aspects that would mostly appeal to them would be the makeup and the hair. whereas if my magazine had a target audience of males than a whole body shot would be more suited. My model is around 16-17 which shows that my magazine is for a younger audience. she is also female which shows what type of audience the magazine is trying to attract, as girls would probably relate much better to a girl. on the front cover then a boy. I have use headlines that have short quick sentences that stand out so they attract the reader. I have also used them in very feminine colours like pink, yellow, white and black. this fits in with the overall house style and female audience. I have also used certain parts of my headlines in a different font and colour this shows that certain part of the magazine and more important and other. it also makes them very eye-catching and attracts the reader.  For my double page spread I wanted to include an interview of a famous singer, as I wanted to show that my magazine wasn't just music related. The famous singer I chose was Taylor swift as I am a big fan of hers. For my main image on the double page spread I couldn't use a picture of the singer for obvious reasons such as having to take the photo yourself, so instead I used a picture I took of her latest album. this gave the feature article more content and would persuade people to buy the album once they read the interview. I also used other things on it such as drop caps, quotations, and gutters. this made it look professional.

Overall my magazine goes well together as it stick the a colour scheme of pink, black white, yellow and sticks to its young female audience from an age range of 16-25. 

Double Page Spread

Contents Page

Front Cover

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