Exam Number and Blog Instructions

Name: Samuel Holness
Candidate Number: 6225
Centre Number: 55227
School: Poole High School


Blog Instructions:
In order to view the images in greater detail just click on them and they should be brought up in a bigger size, to get back to the blog after this just press the back button.

Introduction to A/S Media Studies Coursework:

This blog will be following and evaluating the production of my A/S level media coursework. The coursework itself is a pop music magazine designed in a similar way to media texts such as, "NME" and "Q" magazine, both of which I took inspiration from when designing my coursework.

Preliminary Task Front Cover

This is the front cover I designed for my preliminary task, this is supposed to be a high school magazine front cover.

I have included a photo of one of the school buildings and a mid-shot a Poole-High School student.

I have also included the Poole-High School emblem (white picture).

I have used images of mobile phones, ipods, etc. as these are the stereotypical types of things that would be reported on in a High School magazine such as this.

Preliminary Task Contents Page

This is the contents page I have designed as part of my preliminary task, which is a High-School magazine.

I believe that a simple layout would be appropriate as it is only a High-School magazine with a few pages, so the contents page didn't need an extravagant design.

I have included the stereotypical types of things that would be reported on in a High School magazine. For example, Music, Sport and Fashion.

Final Designs

Text Used For Inspiration For Front Cover:

This is one of the media texts I have used when producing my coursework.

This magazine has typical conventions of a pop music magazines, i.e. strap line at the top with the logo of the magazine brand underneath it, I have used this convention in the production of my media coursework as it is typical of most pop music magazines and compliments the logo of the magazine well.

This media text also features another typical convention of this type of text by having a central image of a band with the name of the band written in front of them as the central piece of text this is then usually followed with a caption underneath giving some type of insight to the band, this is another convention I have used with the production of my media text.

As with most pop music magazines, this one conforms the the convention of having four different complimentary colours, usually red, white, black and one bright clashing colour such as yellow. I have used this convention with the production of my media text by using the colours red, white, black and a bright yellow, this gives the magazine a more independently and more 'laid-back' feel.

Text Used For Inspiration For Double-Page Spread:

This is the double page spread I used for inspiration and general convention guidelines when producing my media text.

The double page spread conforms to several different typical conventions of a pop-music magazine double page spread, which is what I am producing.

The first convention is the central image, this is the 'main' focal point for the two pages and much like many double page spreads, is spread across both pages, this is very typical convention of double page spread of pop-music magazines and a typical convention of double page spreads as a whole.

The second convention is that there is little text on the double page spread, this is because the double page spread is usually just one main image with a collaboration of several images to go with it. This is a convention I will be using with the production of my media text as it gives a professional look and is a convention that is seen with most pop-music magazines and a convention seen with most double page spreads in general.

Another convention would be that the image its-self is of a member of a band, usually and in this case, of the front man/woman of that band. This image is then followed up by having other images on the page of the rest of the band. I will be using this convention with the production of my media text.

Text Used For Inspiration For Contents Page:

This is the contents page which I used for inspiration when producing my media text.

I was able to use this for inspiration for my media text as it conforms to lots of different conventions of the media text I am producing, which is a pop music magazine.

The first convention I used on the production of the contents page of my magazine is the use of a small central image, this is seen in pretty much all pop music magazine pages and is usually there to attract the reader to a story inside the magazine. I have used this convention in the production of my media text by having a central image of a local music venue as the central image of my contents page.

This text also conforms to another typical convention of pop music magazine contents pages, as it has a list off all of the stories that are within the magazine, listed down one side of the page, I have used this convention in the production of my media text as it is a very common convention of pop music magazine contents page's.

How Does My Media Product Represent Particular Social Groups:

My media product is designed in a similar way to magazines such as "NME" or "Q" magazine. This means that it is designed to represent several different social groups but primarily the so-called 'Indy' social group.

The 'Indy' social group is stereotypically known for bright vibrant colours and fast paced Indy-rock and dance music. I have represented this in my media text by having the front page based on bright complimentary colours such as, black, red, white and yellow, this is also a convention of the type of text I am producing.

I have also represented the 'Indy' social group through the use of bands and artists I have placed on the front cover and within the magazine. An example of where I have done this is by placing a stereotypical 'Indy' looking person on the magazine and advertised them as "DJ AVIATOR" this conforms to the stereotypical genre of music that people in the 'Indy' social group would listen to, which is 'dance' or 'house' music.

The Target Audience For My Media Product:

The target audience for my media product/text would be the same as the social group it represents, this is the 'Indy' social group, the target audience would also be people who are interested in modern music and are interested in it being reported on in a way that acknowledges or 'hails' the reader for reading the magazine (interpolation).

My text does this by asking the readers hypothetical questions such as "RIP MR C'S Good Or Bad?" this shows that the audience are intelligent enough to make their own choices about the media texts they consume and conforms to the audience reading theory of the uses and gratifications model, which is where the consumers use the text they are consuming satisfy or gratify their own personal media needs, it also means that the audience accept, reject, use or play with meanings offered to them by media texts or institutions.

This gives a general feeling that the target audience is of people who are generally intelligent and are part of an intelligent social group. This gives the impression to the target audience that the media product/text 'hails' them for their own personal views, beliefs and opinions and recognizes their personal intelligence. This is a convention of many pop-music magazines that are written and produced in such a way it allows the reader to make their own mind up about issues and stories.


My target audience is the so called 'Indy' social group, this is a social group renown for their alternative clothing and choices in media consumption. For example, a typical male from the 'Indy' social group is likely to have medium-length styled hair and skinny or slim-fit jeans, this shows their attitude as showing that they do not care for conforming to what society expects of them but instead act and dress how they feel comfortable, this also shows a to a certain extent an amount of individuality and intelligence.

How Does My Media Product Attract/Address My Audience:

I believe my media product/text addresses my target audience by conforming to the idea of offering the audience a negotiated reading, this is similar to the uses and gratifications model previously mentioned.

The idea of negotiated reading is that the 'reader' accepts, rejects or refines their understanding in terms of a previously held view/understanding.

My media product/text conforms to the negotiated audience reading idea by allowing the 'reader' or 'target audience' to make up their own mind regarding any issues raised in the media product/text. Such as, "RIP MR C'S Good Or Bad?" this is an example of how the media product/text allows the 'reader' to choose their own personal view, opinion or understanding.

Logo Used For Inspiration For My Media Text:

This is the logo I used for inspiration and convention guidelines, when producing the logo for my media text production of a pop-music magazine.

This is the logo of the "NME" or "New Musical Express" magazine and conforms to the stereotypes of logos in general as it is a few letters which stand for a much longer phrase or sentence.

I have used this idea with my media text because it has a professional style to it but still uses flamboyant and bright colours in a way that reaches out and represents its target audience which much like my media text is the 'Indy' social group.

This is the logo I created by using general convention guidelines from the "NME" magazine logo.

Original Images For My Media Text-Contents Page Of Magazine:

This is the original image I am using as the central image for the contents page of my media text production.

I have chosen this image as it conforms to the typical conventions of the sort of central image that would usually be on a contents page of a pop-music magazine such as "NME" or "Q" magazine.

This conforms to the typical conventions of a magazine contents page such as "Q" or "NME" because the central image in these types of magazine is usually of on or two artists pulling a unique pose, similar to the one show in this original image here.





This is the second image I will be using when producing the contents page of my media text.

I will be using this image as it conforms, much like the image above, to the type of image that would be used on the contents page of a pop-music magazine. such as "Q" or "NME".

Original Images For My Media Text-Front Cover:

I am considering using this image as a photo of a solo artist to go with the cover lines on my front page. I believe this image will conform to the stereotype of type of artist that would usually be featured in a pop-music styled magazine.

I am considering using this original image as the central image for the front cover of my media text.

In order to incorporate these images into my media text I will have to edit them using the cutout studio feature on the serif page plus X3 application software. As well as the image effects options and crop function available on Serif Page Plus X3.

Original Images For My Media Text-Double Page Spread:

This is the first image I will be using with my double page spread.

I will be using this image as it conforms to the stereotypical type of 'Indy' artist who would be featured in a text such as the one I am producing, examples of this would be "NME" or "Q" magazine.

It conforms to this stereotype because of the conventions that are displayed regarding the style of the clothes, hair style and pose.

These conform to the stereotypical conventions of the general type of artist that would be featured in a text such as mine because the person in question has the mid-length styled hair that would be typical of a person who conforms to the 'Indy' social class, this social class/group is also represented through the choice of clothes the artist is wearing, i.e. the white t-shirt with an artistic design and the stylish jacket, this represents the casual laid-back attitude of the social group which is represented through their choice of clothing.

Progress So Far On My Media Text Front Cover:

This is what I have done so far with the production of the front-cover of my media text.

I have tried to keep to the the conventions of a pop-music magazine by having a large central image of an 'Indy' style band with the band name in the centre of the picture with a caption underneath.

I also tried to keep to the conventions of this type of magazine by having a picture of a solo artist on the top right hand corner of the page, this is very typical of magazines such as "NME" or "Q" magazine.

The colour scheme is used with for this text also conforms to the convention of magazines such as "NME" or "Q" magazine, these magazines both base their colour schemes on four or 5 colours, usually red, white, yellow, black and another bright flamboyant colour such as bright pink, which I have used here. These colours represent the 'Indy' social group which this text is aimed at, because this social group is stereotypical renowned for bright, boastful colours through their choice of clothes.

The logo I have created for use with my media text (as featured on the top left hand corner) conforms the the conventions of the "NME" logo, which I used for inspiration, by having a few letters which are used to abbreviate the full title of the magazine, which is "MUSICAL TIMES".

My Progess So Far On My Media Text Contents Page:

This is what I have done so far with the production of the contents page of my media text.

I have used examples from "NME" magazine for examples and guidelines of conventions of a typical pop-music magazine contents page.

The first convention I applied to this contents page is the central image. Stereotypically pop-music magazines have a central image of one-five artists, I have chosen one artist and this original image as I believe it is the most appropriate, and suits the overall style of the magazine.

I have also began to use another convention of a pop-music magazine by beginning to design the areas where all of the articles listed, this is a very typical area where the main articles are presented on a contents page of a pop-music magazine.

Progress On The Double-Page Spread For My Media Text:

This is the progress on my doubler page spread so far. I have used examples from "NME" and "Q" magazine for convention guidelines when creating this part of my text.

The first convention I took was from "NME" which was that they include at least one or two "NME" logos on each page of their magazine, I have applied this convention to my text with the "MT" logo.

Another convention I have applied to my text which is typical of pop-music magazines is having the logo of the artist(s) band or group at the top of the page, usually in a custom font, this is typical of most bands that are part of the 'Indy' genre, this is almost a way of the bands branding themselves and helps their target audience identify them.

How I Edited The Original Images On The Front Page Of My Media Text Production:

This is the central image I have chosen for the front cover, this is what it looked like before I edited it using filter effects, as provided by the desktop publishing package "Serif Page Plus X3".

This is the image once I had edited it using the filter effects feature on "Serif Page Plus X3". The filter effect I used was colour fill, I set the colour to black and put the opacity to maximum, this allowed me to get the gray filter scheme as shown here.
I also used the feather effect in the filter effects feature in order to blend the image in smoothly with new gray colour.




This is the image I have chosen for the image of a solo artist on the front cover of my text, this is what it looked like before I edited it.
















This is the image once I had edited it using the feature as provided by the "Serif Page Plus X3" program.

I first cut the image out using the cutout feature as provide by the program, I then blurred the image slightly to remove rough edges around the cutout image, I then reduced the image in size and gave it a pink background, as this colour fits in with the scheme of my magazine.

How I Edited The Original Images On The Contents Page Of My Media Text Production:

This is the first original image I have taken for use on my contents page. This is before I edited it using the features provided by "Serif Page Plus X3".













This is the image once I had edited it using the features on"Serif Page Plus X3".

The first thing I did when editing this image was crop the the image so that it fitted better on the page, I then changed the angle of the image.

Once I had changed the angle of the image the edges became slightly rough so I used the blur option on the filter effects part of the program to smooth them out again.

I then added a custom-made text from the website dafont.com at the bottom of the image to show the person in the image as being part of one of the bands I have made up for the purpose of this text.

This is the second original image for the contents page of my text. This is the image before I edited it using the features provided by the "Serif Page Plus X3" program.















This is the image once I had edited it using the features on "Serif Page Plus X3".

The first thing I did was flip the image around as I believe it works better this way.

I then rotated the image to fit in with how the previous image has been positioned. This caused rough edges around the image so I used the blur tool to smooth these out.

I then added custom logos to both of the people featured in the original image to signify that they are both in different bands.

How I Edited The Original Images On The Double Page Spread Of My Media Text Production:

This is the original image I have chosen for the double-page spread of my media text. This is how the original image looked before I edited it using the features provided by the "Serif Page Plus X3" program.
















This is the original image once I had edited it using the features provided by the "Serif Page Plus X3" program.

The first thing I did was change the image to grey by selecting the filter effect colour fill, changing the colour to black and opacity to 100%, this gives the black and white look seen here.

I then cut the image out as I believed the original background didn't suit the style of the magazine, I also did this as the cutout image of the front man of a band is a stereotypical convention of what would be featured in a pop-music magazine such as the one I am producing.

What Have I Learnt About Technologies From The Process Of Constructing My Product:

The very first thing I learnt about technologies required was that in order to create a product such as mine, which was a pop-music magazine (front cover, contents page and double page spread.) was that in order to create these the most suitable program would be a desktop publishing program.

The program I used was "Serif Page Plus X3" I chose this technology as it had the particular software package features that I would need to produce my text in a professional way.

The parts of this software which I found most useful were the different image editing options, i.e. filter effects and image cutout studio, these allowed me to manipulate the original images I had taken to fit in with the 'Indy' style of my magazine seamlessly.

Which Institutions Might Distribute My Text:

The type of institution that will distribute my product will have to be the type of institution which would most likely be able to meet my target audience effectively, as stated earlier my target audience are the 'Indy' social group.

This will mean that an effective way of distributing my text would be to find out where people of the 'Indy' social group would most likely go to buy a pop-music magazine by looking at where similar texts which exist already exist such as "NME" and "Q" magazine are distributed.

Existing texts such as "NME" and "Q" magazine are distributed through the retail institution and are always found in magazine racks in institutes such as "TESCO" and "WH Smith". They are also commonly found in pop-music shops such as "HMV" or "Zavvi".

I believe that shops such as "HMV" and "Zavvi" will be the most effective way of reaching my target audience, who are the 'Indy' social group as these are the types of shops which stock the types of text which would be associated with this social group. Also these institutes maintain the type of 'Indy' look associated with the 'Indy' social group, I can use this to reach my audience by distributing my text through these institutes.

The overall type of institution I would prefer to have distribute my text would be an institution that remains to have an 'independent' image through the other texts it produce, i.e. if it had 'independent' record labels and film production companies. This would be most suitable for the type of institution I would use as it would be the type of institution people from the 'Indy' social group would consume their media texts from.

What I Have Learnt Since The Production Of The Preliminary Task:

The first thing I have learnt is that before you begin to create a media product you need to in depth study your target audience and the social groups they are part of. For example, in my text the target audience are members of the 'Indy' social group.

The second thing I have learnt is that with front covers you need to have a set colour scheme of at least 3 or 4 colours. For example, I have used pink, black, yellow and white. This gives a more professional look to the front cover, this is important as the front cover is the first thing the consumer will see and this is what they will make their initial judgement on.

I have also learnt that in order to produce a professional media text for a magazine you will need to use a desktop publishing package with all of the features you require to make the product. For example, text editing functions, image crop, image cutout, image import, etc. These features are all a necessity if you want to produce a professional looking media product.

Final Front Cover:

This is the completed version of the front cover of my media text. Since the first posting of this on the blog I have made several changes.

The first and most obvious change is in the colour scheme, after much research about what my target audience thought looked most suitable, I decided that the pink, black, yellow and white colour scheme worked much better than the red, black, yellow and white colour scheme that was on the text previously.

By changing the colour scheme I have somewhat challenged the typical conventions of a pop-music magazine because stereotypically they feature a red colour scheme, I have changed this as I believe it compliments my magazine's design and from my research members of my target market prefer the pink colour scheme.

I have also changed part of the logo by changing the "MUSICAL TIMES" font because I believe in the previous progress post it was too blurred and didn't suit the overall style of the magazine, whereas this one does.

The strap line at the top of the page is a typical convention of pop-music magazines, especially since it features band names as well as a list of UK gigs, this is the stereotypical type of thing that would be reported on in a pop-music magazine.

I have added cover-lines as they are a typical convention of pop-music magazines such as my one, they usually, as seen here, contain information of what will be reported on inside the magazine.

Final Contents Page:

This is the completed version of the contents page of my media text production, since the last progress post on this I haven't particularly made many changes to what I have already done, instead all I have done is added to what I already had done.

I did this because after showing what I had done so far to members of my target market the majority opinion was that they liked the layout and colour scheme.

I have added a new original image onto the page because I feel that the people in the image and the casual poses they are using reflect the casual attitude of the 'Indy' social group.

At the bottom of the page I have put "09 UK GIGS LIST:45" this is because this is a typical convention of the type of thing that would be featured in a pop-music magazine contents page, because the target audience are very likely to be interested in going to gigs, so that they can see their favourite bands live.

Final Double-Page Spread:

This is the final version of the double-page spread of my media text production, I have made several changes to it since the last progress update.

The first change I have made is editing the image, I kept the image black and white but cut the background out so that it looks more professional and conforms more to the stereotypical type of image that would be features on a double-page spread.

I also changed the colour scheme because after showing my previous progress to members of my target audience their majority opinion was that they disliked it, I then redesigned it with the black and red colour scheme and the members of my target audience much more positive opinion of the product.

I kept the first set of text that I had used in the previous progress post on this part of my production, but I have also added a back story for the band being featured on the page because this is a very typical convention of the type of article that would be featured on a double-page spread in a pop-music magazine.