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

Since the start of my coursework I believe that I have learnt allot about many technologies such as: blogs, SLR digital cameras, photo editing software and much more. I have also learnt allot of methods to produce the style of front cover, contents page and double page spread. I have learnt allot about the software used that creates a professional finish that I have used in my magazine. There are certain ways of creating a front cover that attracts an audience to buy the product. I leant about these and applied them to my product to give the most professional look. When researching music magazines I learnt allot from popular similar genre magazines. This information was used when creating my product.

I planned the magazine by designing flat plans for my front cover, contents page and double page spread.

My preliminary task was to create a York college magazine for distribution to college students and faculty. I used Adobe Photoshop to create the front cover of the magazine. From this task i learnt the basics of Photoshop that helped me greatly when creating my music magazine. This software is used all over the world and for many media industries.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

How did you attract/address your audience?

I attracted my audience towards my magazine by using these following techniques:

For my front cover I used a picture of a rock artist holding his back towards the camera whilst playing the guitar. The mystery of this mysterious artist attracts the reader’s attention and creates the need to learn more information and thus buying my magazine. I found that many of the major music magazines in the UK use this technique. This is a good technique of attracting an audience because humans natural instinct is to be nosey and find out what things are. I also did this by giving the front cover a dark mysterious look and added sell lines that attract the audience towards my product with the opportunities the sell lines give.

The name Acoustic magazine is a good way of attracting an audience. Because it’s called acoustic this means that it involves either Acoustic guitars or that type of sound. That is what distinguishes my magazine as a particular style. An Acoustic guitar is something that a certain genre of artists use. This is the genre that my magazine publishes and therefore the title for my magazine is a clever way of attracting a certain audience.

What have you learnt about technologies form the process of constructing this product?

Through my media coursework I have learnt to use a blog. We used Google’s blogger in our coursework for uploading our work. I learnt how to upload images from Photoshop and the internet onto my blog.

I have also learnt how to edit and manipulate images to my specification by using digital affects and the Photoshop tools such as color  manipulation for my front cover. I also used stroke for my masthead to help it stand out on the cover. I have also found out how to change the levels of images to make certain details stand out that give the image a greater presence In my magazine.

We learnt how to position models and use settings to create certain atmospheres. I also found out how to create layers so that the text was on top of images and shapes. This was great when I was creating my magazine as it made it look much more professional..

Digital format of surveys to make it easier to manufacture several copies. This is useful for market research. I also found out how to use the data to create graphs and charts. I used pie charts on my blog.

I learnt how to use a digital camera to take photos manually. I used different light settings and focus to gain the affect I wanted. This combined with Photoshop made my photos come out great.

Could you have completed your magazine without using any technology?

What could you have done without?

I could have done without survey software or websites such as Survey monkey because I could have hand written questionnaires or done a face to face structured  interview which may have been  more time consuming but I believe the answers would be more reliable. With survey monkey the answers may not be reliable as people would not answer correctly because they feel it is a burden on them.

For my research instead of using search engines I could have physically looked at magazines and analyzed them with a written report. To put this onto my blog I would have to scan them in.

I could have done without pictures from the internet. Instead of getting my images for my research from the internet I could have scanned images from music magazines. This would have been more time consuming.

 What couldn’t you have worked without?

It was necessary for me to use photographs firstly to get the effect I wanted and so I was able to manipulate them easily and to avoid and copyright issues. Also hand draw images would’ve been very time consuming to produce and of very poor quality.

Identify which of the major UK publishing companies you would like to distribute your magazine. Why would you choose this publisher?

In what way did your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products