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

I think that I've learnt a lot about having to plan what I wanted to do. If I hadn't thought and researched on things such as colour scheme or where the text would go, it wouldn't have looked like a good or realistic magazine.

I've learnt what images look best, as well as what my magazine should include, instead of just making things up as I go along.

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

Throughout the process of constructing my media product I've learnt a lot of new techniques on the computer, which have all helped me throughout constructing my whole media project.

I've learnt how to use a lot more of  the applications, and will now use them a lot more frequently with other work I have. Microsoft office publisher was one of these applications. I used this application in producing my double page spread of my media product.

While working through my front cover and contents page, I wanted to change how some of the writing looked, and learned about the application 'wordart', which changes the shapes and colours of your text.

The last thing i learnt through constructing my media product was how to 'print screen' an image, paste it onto "Paint", crop it and (which I also learned to do) and then save it as a new picture that I could then put on my blog, shown as either research or an image I had already created.

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

I attracted my audience in a lot of ways, I tried to use as bold and eye-catching colours as possible, without making my coursework tacky. I tried to use the right images, to make the reader want to take a look. I also researched a lot of what a typical music front cover would have on it, such as something to win and so on. I tried to make my magazine fun, as well as informative, as when I looked up music magazines on the Internet, they all seemed dark and depressing, when I wanted mine colourful and intriguing.

4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

I think I have a wide audience for my music magazine, contents page and double-page spread.

I tried as best as I could to make my magazine for both genders, so included blues, as well as pinks. I also looked at music magazines made ideally for women, and then for men, and tried to make mine so both sex's would want to read it as in the things I had for people to win, such as the iTunes voucher, which would appeal to everyone.

I don't think there is a specific age on who the audience of my music product really, but if I had to put an age on it, I would say for both males and females aged around fourteen to twenty. I would say this as I wouldn't see anybody older than around twenty, really being interested in a magazine of mine. The language used isn't basic, but isn't of much intellect either, so could be read as boring and un-interesting. I also asked a few people around the ages of twenty five to thirty five if they knew who Lady Gaga was, as my image for my front cover looks a bit like her, to which five out of twelve didn't know who she was. This is another reason why I believe there is a specific age for my magazine also.

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

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

I think that my product represents the media group "Chart music" as in music that is new out and played on the radio and television often, and is included in the top 40 chart list. I believe this because I include a lot about artists that are in this music chart such as Lady Gaga.

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

My media product is all based on what you would typically find in the music industry. I researched a lot for my work on my front cover, my contents page as well as my double page spread to make sure it didn't just look like a students work, it looked like what you would find on a shelf in a shop.

I used images you would typically find in a magazine, and that is why for my front cover, i got a friend of mine that looks similar to Lady Gaga, to be my front cover image, as Lady Gaga is in the chart music part of the music industry and this is the genre I decided to base my magazine on.

Most music magazines are usually dark, and dim, and in reds, blacks and whites, while mine is all the brightest colours you can get. I did this as I thought it would be a lot brighter and eye-catching to the typical music magazine reader. It would be something different and because of this, it would stand out more.

My front cover and double page spread are basically the same set-up as what you would find in a music magazine, the front cover has writing on both sides of the page, a large image with text written over it, a date, an issue number and a price. My double page spread is an interview, which when I researched, is mainly all I found double page spreads contained. I used around the same amount of images as a typical double page spread would have in it, as well as similar questions and colours for the text.

Finished double page spread

This is my final double page spread of my music magazine. I took the pictures myself, and edited them to fit best.

I researched a lot on double page spreads on search engines such as google, to see what double page spreads usually contained. I also asked other people on the course what they would include and they also said that they were doing interviews.

I researched what questions would usually be asked, and answered, and the length of questions and answers also. I thought that seeing as I was doing a music magazine, that i would do an interview about a singer, and seeing as my front cover included my friend named Lauren, I would do my double page spread about her too, so I named her "Ladee Laur" and made up that she had just brought a single out.

I thought a lot about my colour scheme, and finally decided on a black back round with pink, purple and white writing. This might make it look like it's aimed more towards females, which was not it's intention, I just thought it looked better.

This probably took the most time to do within my whole media product as I wasn't totally familiar with the application "publisher" and my work didn't go as I wanted it to. In the end I learnt how to use publisher, as well as to save my image as a "jpeg" so I could place it onto my blog.

Over all I'm really happy with my double page spread, I put a lot of effort into it, and think it has turned out well, I wouldn't change anything about it, except for maybe changing the pinks for blue, or more masculine colours.

Final contents page of my music magazine

This is my final contents page. I've changed a lot on it that I wasn't happy about, and now I'm a lot happier with my end result. I've added an extra picture of a friend of mine, as I thought it would fit in well with my contents page.

My contents page is a lot different to my front cover though. It's a lot darker than my front cover, as I thought it would make the writing and images stand out more, but didn't want my whole coursework to be dark. I've removed the back round image as when i thought about it, it made my contents page look tacky and didn't go well with the text I had over it.

I've changed some of the colours of things such as the "features and regulars" as there was a lot of pink on my contents page before, and could look like it was aimed more towards women.

I've kept the stars on my contents page, much the same to my front cover, as I thought that they would look good on both my front cover as well as my contents page. Over all I'm very happy with how my contents page has turned out, and wouldn't change anything about it, except for maybe some more text, or smaller images, but I think as it stands, in my opinion it looks fine.