Question 1
My media product uses specific generic conventions of a music magazine by the elements of the articles, the graphology, the mode of address, the 'perfect' self, the stereotypical view of music and the attitude towards it. It also develops forms of real media products because there are subscription options (to make it look as real as possible) and general graphology that replicates a metal magazine as much as possible.
The masthead is Nailstorm, which has connotations of a metal magazine and is gritty. I have already compared my draft product to a real product, but when the overall product is finished it will look like a new metal magazine to buy. The text layout will be the same as metal magazines, with anchorage, juxtaposition and the like. I have used specific texts, including San-Serif fonts such as Arial, Arial Black and Arial Narrow. I studied many different metal magazines, and although the pull quotes were in font faces such as “Mal de Ojo” (which I downloaded from www.dafont.com (there are similar fonts that I tried to copy as much as possible, and this style font was the best I could find)), it made the pull quotes look much more interesting and decorative as opposed to those of San-Serif font faces.
The house style is very similar to that of Metal Hammer, with the same colours of deep reds, blacks, whites and yellows. In my double page spread I used by-lines to enhance the verisimilitude of a magazine (specifically a music magazine). I used a Drop Cap at the Lead so the audience knew where the article started.
The front cover of my media product was measured with Metal Hammer. This magazine is sized at A4; therefore the dimension in millimetres is 210 x 289. I frequently had to make sure the pixel limit was right because the picture would have become distorted. The masthead was 28 Days Later font, the font has representations of something that’s gritty, and the text seems grainy too. This was a really good font face for me to use because the magazine “Terrorizer” uses a similar font face. Metal Hammer however, does not use a same style font but one that is possibly san-serifs. I have included a sell line, which is “Heavier than everything else” which is very similar to Metal Hammer’s sell-line “Everything Louder Than Everything Else”.
Anchorage has been used on the front cover where the banner is; it states “EXCLUSIVE” grabbing the audience’s attention. Beneath it is “Meshuggah” and an image beneath that – anchorage has been used so the audience know what the image relates to and it doesn’t just look carelessly put on the front cover. Therefore, it is following similar conventions of metal magazines. The kerning of the masthead has been replicated to Metal Hammer, in the sense of the spacing is the same.
Overall, I am pleased with the outcome of my media product and I thoroughly feel that I have achieved developing conventions of a music magazine.
Question 2
My media product represents particular social groups in the sense that the demographic audience would be very stereotypical, perhaps even an archetype. They would be into that particular genre of music, and they would have the attributed attitude and way of thinking towards it. As Stuart Hall suggests, all meanings are encoded within a text and they are decoded by the audience. The audience for my magazine will be able to decode things because the encoding within them will be subjected to one genre or one meaning so they will be able to understand my media product. The images will be very important for mediation and there will be a lot of anchorage on the images. I will also include juxtaposition. The images will be encoded to fit the article or the band. They have to be relevant to the article otherwise it'd be silly and there would be no point trying to put a picture of a pop star next to a metal article. They will be encoded to give the preferred meaning of a metal fan, their posture, their look; everything will be conveyed within my images. As my media product is constructed, I have followed the same rules of the “Representation Theory” where I have compiled and edited material to make it look as real as possible. According to Dyer (’85), representation can be seen in several different ways. These are:
1. As representation: presenting reality over again to us. Reality is mediated through forms of representation available in the culture.
2. As ‘being representative of’ in the sense of being ‘typical’. This, of course, raises the question of what is ‘typical’.
3. In the sense of speaking for and on behalf of somebody or a group.
4. In recognising the existence of audience responses, with different audiences responding to different kinds of representation.
I have taken these elements into consideration when producing my media product as the representation of the product was the key feature of meeting the “entity” (Ien Ang) and the preferred readers.
In any audience there will be individuals or groups of individuals who read a text in different ways. Representations can be reinterpreted and made to have different meanings by different people. This means that even though my “entity” is that of someone who likes metal, it specifically doesn’t have to be one genre of metal, but several. Anyone into the alternative scene or is interested, is welcome to read. Even though it’s particularly male specific, women are welcome to read the magazine also.
Dyer suggested there were five features of representations, and this format was in questions. These questions were
1. What sense of the world is this text making?
This is the kind of world that the text constructs and reflects
2. What does it claim is typical of the world? This means how are familiar ‘types’ used in the text as a form of shorthand to represent people.
3. Who is really speaking? This means who is in control of the representations in the text – whose values and ideas are expressed in the text?
4. For whom are they speaking? And how will different audiences make different readings of the text?
5. What does it represent for us and why? And does ‘representation’ have a political role in, for example, maintaining power relationships? This could be instrumental power or influential power.
The different types of audience members are fit into 3 categories. This is the Archetype, Generic Type and Stereotypes. Below is a list of the three different types.
Archetype
Archetype means literally the ‘original model’. Archetypes exist throughout the history of the narrative form. From folk tales and legends thousands of years old to modern stories we come across ‘heroes’ and ‘villains’, ‘earth mother’ and ‘prodigal son’, ‘princess’ and ‘Shining Knight’ etc. The reference is to a character so well established in traditional stories that the type appears to transcend history or a specific culture.
Generic Type
Genres tend to offer a means of discussing contemporary society by using a ‘stock’ set of characters. These characters are understood more by reference to other films in the same genre than by direct reference to the ‘real’ world. Each new genre film adds to the repertoire of characters that make up the genre.
Generic types are easy to identify in those genres, which have a distinct setting like the gangster film or the teen movie.
Genre knowledge plays an important part in the construction of characters.
Stereotypes
‘Stereotypes’ are composite images that represent people and ideas in society by emphasising certain common features. New stereotypes are created and recognised all the time. Stereotypes depend on a shared cultural knowledge and to this extent some part of the stereotypical image must ‘ring true’ for most people.
Compared to generic types, stereotypes are more accessible. As they rely on shared cultural knowledge, readers can readily make sense of them. Such instantly recognisable people and situations allow for the widest access to a story. But this accessibility is both a strength and a weakness.
Stereotypes emerge and develop through repetition in images of features like dress, speech, behaviour etc. Unfortunately, once a representation has been constructed in a stereotypical way, it can be difficult to fill in the details and make the image unique. The stereotype refers to assumptions that may already exist in the reader’s head; potentially blocking a more considered understanding of the character.
Stereotypes can be very powerful images that embody strong emotional responses. As stereotypes develop, we often respond to them with a sense of identity or alienation (such as an ‘us’ and ‘them’ situation). The stereotypes that are most discussed are those in which typing as ‘them’ is clearest. Such images are seen as ‘negative’ – i.e. they evoke a person or group seen as ‘anti-social’ or ‘not like us’. People typed in this way are justifiably angry and attempt to challenge the process. This struggle over representation is based on a power relationship where the weaker groups in society can be typed in negative ways.
I have particularly used stereotypes as an aid of my audience. I have a lot of friends who are particularly stereotypical in the sense of the way they dress, and how this is repeated within society today. Although the attitude to the magazine is anti-social and possibly anarchy, there is an apparent paradox evident in the sense that “we don’t like to be like everyone else” when in fact you are following that product of your environment/stereotype.
Question 3
The company that will make my magazine will more than likely be Future PLC, as they are popular and deal with magazines such as Metal Hammer. My magazine will be part of a conglomerate because it will have its own music channel, website and radio station. The circulation figure monthly will be around 20,000. Terrorizer magazine only manages to distribute around 14,000 and because this magazine is similar, I think 20,000 per month are perfect. The promotion to the public will take place in places such as the internet, other magazines, venues, TV and radio. It will take part in synergy to ensure that the magazine will get recognition. I think the distribution would be successful as the consumers of the market are seeking out media products of this kind. I think it would be best to distribute over social-networking profiles such as MySpace and Facebook. There are many people who are signed up to both of these sites who like metal, so it would be compulsory to advertise on these sites. Another synergy process would be a website itself, such as www.nailstorm.co.uk. There is a subscription option in the magazine and there will be a subscription option on the website too. There will be a music channel, such as the style “Scuzz”; but it will be called Nailstorm. The music will be the same playlist such as Scuzz, but a little bit heavier. So overall, the way this product will be distributed will be in several ways. These include:
The magazine
A website
A radio station
Adverts on social networking profiles
On sale in shops such as WHSmiths, and newsagents
It will also have a MySpace profile and a Facebook profile. I think this advertising will be the most effective because a lot of young adults use several different social networking sites and it will be effective because it will be easier for them to read about the magazine, the features in it and any important band news – especially new and upcoming bands that haven’t been recognised yet despite their talent. I think the reason for a new consumer product such as this is really useful, or would be very useful; because despite other same genre magazines content, their music is slightly getting more and more commercial and less heavy. This magazine is willing to advertise the bands at a commercial cost, however it’s only because real metal fans who are generally into the magazine want to be recognised as this seems to have died down amongst metal fans.
I think it would be an exceptional idea for someone to bring out a magazine such as mine because it would be successful and it would get the recognition some very talented musicians need. Although there are sites such as MySpace, when it’s printed in a magazine it seems to make it much more official. If I made a MySpace for the Nailstorm magazine, there is an option for several “Top Friends” – I could put new bands in this set who have similar sounds to bands such as Meshuggah, Textures and whoever because the people who have already read the magazine will know the bands content and will seek to look at them on their MySpace profile. Therefore, taking all of this into consideration, these aspects are very important and I think they would enhance the success of others bands and Nailstorm itself. Therefore, the reason why companies would distribute my product would be simply for the reason that it’s a new, fresh magazine and its target audience is fairly easy to target so it would be easy to make a profit for the distributing company.
Question 4
The overall consumers for my media product would ideally be:
16-34
Male
Basic knowledge of metal music.
It will also be a mainstream magazine.
The demographic audience for my magazine preferably would be a 21 year old British male, at University studying music or Journalism and very interested in making a metal band, or just particularly into that field of music. As most metal fans know, there are a lot of new and upcoming bands that are from Sheffield who have been successful and had the recognition to become famous or known. He would be very social, have lots of similar friends and share the same tastes. Including music and fashion-sense.
Here is a picture of a typical demographic:
This picture is of Dave, he is wearing camo trousers and a band t-shirt. This is what a fan would be typically wearing. He does replicate my specific “entity” very well. His hair is extremely long, he’s trying to grow stubble and/or beard (which is a connotation of a man primarily) and he has his arms crossed. This posture also denotes by definition a very manly posture and dominance.
Overall, including from the feedback of my magazine, it’s clear to see that the consumers for this product are all into one of the elements mentioned as I tested this and carried out research over MSN with friends who are like me. They like heavy music, socialising, drinking, anything that’s fun. They’re all young adults, e.g. 21 years old and we all share the same tastes. I asked them what they thought of my final product as an idea and they were all pleased with the concept and commented on the fact that they would read it.
I will include monthly reviews in my magazine, such as reviews on games. I imagine that in doing this, it would even be more successful in targeting my main audience—that of a male gender. Many males like to play games either alone or when socialising. They like to play first person shooters and/or roleplaying games. Because this is specifically a heavy metal magazine, role-playing seems to be quite different compared to first person shooters. FPS [first person shooters] are violent, fast and very fun. Much like a heavy metal band, and in contrast to a role-play game this will appeal to a specific audience. Many males are into consoles and PC Gaming, and I think reviewing games such as “Left 4 Dead” and “Team Fortress” will only persuade that certain reader to read my media product.
So the typical demographic will be into playing games either on the PC or console, as it’s a social thing to do and also fun when you’re alone. I will also have gig reviews in the magazine, which will appeal to many people because they will have information about upcoming gigs and what bands to see live. This would mean that my target audience would have to like gigs, live shows and festivals. Again, this is a very important aspect in regards to my audience because I can empathise with their tastes, and I know that people who would read this magazine would be interested in seeing live shows, whether they’re solo gigs or festivals.
The demographic also likes to drink Jagermeister and Sailor Jerry’s. These drinks are considered “alternative” drinks for some reason, maybe because of the reputation of the beverages. The font for Jagermeister is in a gothic style font as well, so the graphology of the bottle does look as though the purpose of it is to reach out and target an audience who likes heavy music, etc.
Question 5
The way my magazine attracted the audience was through the information it provided. The article of Jonny was important because it was about an underground band – asking general questions such as “What has led to your success...”. The mode of address between the reader and the magazine was at times teacher to pupil but mostly peer-to-peer. Sometimes, the aspect of teacher-to-pupil can be quite demeaning and I had to maintain a relationship between the reader and the magazine. The mode of address was very important on the front cover because it as was extremely crucial that the mode of address was peer-to-peer so the audience felt accepted and equal. The contents page was peer-to-peer in some senses, however the contents numbered list was quite parent-to-child in the sense that they were talking down to the audience, as the text “this is the closest you will get” is quite sarcastic and diverting away from the peer-to-peer aspect. I specifically used convergence of speech/text within my magazine, this was through the colloquial terms and I knew that this meant it would appeal to my target audience because it was a feature of equality between ages and a preference whether that is doom metal or thrash metal.
The magazine uses specific bands that have been juxtaposed to create an effect, e.g. the Textures vs Slayer vs Hand of Grief was juxtaposed to grab the audience’s attention. The masthead was done in a font that would replicate something weird, and overall would attract an audience who liked metal or anything alternative. The whole content of the magazine was done in a colloquial way so the audience felt equal. I knew that this would attract my target audience so this was taken into consideration greatly.
Question 6
I have learnt new skills in each of the categories; these were Web 2.0, Photoshop and Quark Xpress. I will now discuss them individually and explain their features and the strengths and weaknesses I had with each.
Web 2.0 is familiar to me already so I didn’t necessarily find it difficult. The reason why we used web 2.0 was due to keeping our practical work in order. Every bit of work we did, including research, was uploaded to the blog. I think the use of a blog was effective because we could upload our work in a neat manner. The strengths of the blog were it was easier to keep all our work together; it saved time and is more practical than writing everything down. The weakness of the blog was that work sometimes took too long to upload, and even in cases didn’t upload. I was familiar with html so I didn’t find this a problem, and in fact I have quite good knowledge of html so I did enjoy working on the blog. The tools I used on the blog included uploading images, uploading videos and changing text, including the size colour and boldness or italics. I did this through codes such as <"emphasis"> <"/emphasis">, this turned the font into bold. Thus, the programme was easy to use and very effective. I thought it was a very practical programme and useful.
Photoshop at first to me was unfamiliar. They only thing I knew prior to using it at college was changing the light settings and putting text onto images. The tool that I wasn’t too particularly fond of was the Lassou tool; I found it hard at times to select parts of the image to cut it out, so I mainly just used the magic selection tool. This was one of the best tools I thought because I could change the strength of the selection tool which I thought was great as at times I selected too much. I learnt that Photoshop was great for editing photos and I did a lot of this during working on this programme. I extended my knowledge and use of Photoshop as the first project we worked on was a college preliminary task; I only knew how to put text on, add drop shadows and change the opacity of images and text. As I progressed, I found that I was able to change the dimensions manually, adjust the image through different aspects such as hue, saturation, brightness and contrast. I even downloaded my own brushes to make a splatter effect and installed it onto Photoshop and used them on my layers. I was pleased with the outcome of my double page spread as I worked these up in several layers, selecting pieces to cut out so it made a transparent effect when added onto my original layer. I was very pleased with this effect, and it made my work look really good. The weaknesses of Photoshop were really the fact it crashed quite a lot. As I used two programmes of Photoshop, including Elements and 5.0 I found that it wasn’t just Elements or 5.0 but rather the Adobe programme. It took two long to save and it would stall the process of getting anything done. It was very weak on text too, especially very small texts such as the one for my double page spread and contents page. When it was put onto Quark Xpress, the font was very pixelated and very hard to read. So I cut off all of the texts and used Quark Xpress as the main programme for my text.
Quark Express was a very basic programme. I took to it quite well and knew the important tools which had to be used. Text was much more effective in Quark Xpress and easier to place texts. I knew how to use Drop caps in my text, this was done through selecting the first letter of the paragraph and going to edit>formats>drop caps. I applied drop shadows on Quark also, but I preferred Photoshop for this. The weakness of Quark Xpress was the images; they sometimes became distorted so I decided to use Photoshop for this. I learnt how to import an image and I selected it to fit inside the image box. Despite not being familiar with Quark Xpress, I took very well to it and managed to produce a really cool double page spread and contents page. Although, for the graphological element, I certainly preferred Photoshop as the quality was a lot better in Photoshop, especially the images.
Question 7:
