Analysis of My Media Product (1,552 words)

My media product was a magazine diabetic magazine. The audience for this would be females, aged 16-35. These females would be diabetic, or have a close diabetic family member. They would already buy teen/young adult magazines and would have interests in fashion, gossip/news, advice/style tips. These were shown to be the most popular amoung my target audience in my questionnaire. This would make them stereotypically feminine, as well as health and appearance conscious. They would be middle-upper class and modern, making them interested in keeping up with the latest new, technology etc. Due to the unique target audience (in my research I found most diabetic magazines have much older audiences) the magazine was a mergence between female teen and young adult magazines, as well as diabetic magazines. This meant only the most appropriate conventions and features from each were included.

                                                            

My cover consisted of a white background with one main picture of a young female celebrity at the centre, overlapping with the title. This layout challenged the expectations of diabetic magazine covers (one picture for the whole background) but was conventional to teen/young adult magazines. The cover also had lots of text, and included vocabulary such as “hot” and “slated. This again fitted conventions for teen/young adult magazines, while challenging diabetic magazine conventions. However, conventional diabetic magazine language was also used such as “blood testers”. Finally the issue number, date, the use of different colours for each section of text, the inclusion of a banner and finally the use of a circular shape including appealing information (in this case the price) were all conventional to both types of magazines.

The double page spread incorporated images of young females, conventional to images seen throughout teen/young adult magazines. A speech bubble was also used at the top right corner of the right page to state the magazines name, this is also conventional. However every magazine chooses to display their name differently, e.g. in a star. The bulk of the text was written in black, and split into columns where appropriate. This is conventional to the way almost any magazine’s text is presented. Cohesion is conventional to any double page spread. I created this through the use of my blue wave at the bottom of my article, and by using red and blue as my main colours throughout. Finally diabetic topics and language was used to keep the article relevant and appropriate, fitting the diabetic magazine conventions, while challenging expectation of normal teen/young adult magazines.

On top of this the article also followed conventions of a fashion article, due to its fashion related topic. These conventions included the use of many pictures, with reference to the shop and price. Also the mixture of items cut away from their original background and numbered, as well as photos of a female against a white background with a list of the items in the photo with the shop and price. In addition my article uses font and arrows which create an effect that appears like they have been drawn on; this is often used in fashion pieces.

It was important to mainly stick to the teen/young adult magazine conventions to allow the text to appeal to the target audience by appearing as close to the similar product they often buy. The free hand arrows also related to the way young females annotate and doodle. However, incorporating some key diabetic magazine conventions was needed to clearly show the magazine was for diabetics and appeal to them. On my cover the celebrity female’s direct address pulled the audience in by connoting her support for the magazine, and that she wanted her fans to buy it. The direct address in the photos of the model and the writer in the article created a relationship between them and the audience. This was especially essential for the writer as she is an “agony aunt” and would be trusted with the audience’s worries and problems.

My product represented young females, mainly in a stereotypical way. Firstly the cover shows features such as “Fashion advice special” and “Hot new recipes that won’t pile on the calories”. This connotes young females as highly appearance conscious as one of their main interests is how to look good. This incorporates the male gaze theory as the models in the article are made to appear attractive to the males, and the audience will feel pressured to do the same. Through articles such as the recipe article, and the rating of blood tester young females are also connoted as health conscious. This represents them as responsible and mature. However, these self conscious attributes also connote young females as vulnerable and an easy target for the hypodermic injection theory. This is reinforced by articles such as “Fashion advice special”. This connotes that young females seek advice from the media, presenting them as a passive audience. However, the bright colours for the text on the cover, the bright colour theme of the article and the bright dress codes connote young females as fun, outgoing and confident. This is reinforced by the model’s gesture codes such as smiling, and open arms.

The article and some of its pictures followed a narrative. The Equilibrium occurs before the female has become diabetic and found the disruptions the condition brings to life. The article was based around the disruption of a person’s diabetes creating problems in everyday life (bags to fit medication etc). This is shown through the photo of a girl struggling with her pump due to a tight top. The recognition begins when the female writes to the magazine for advice, represented through the question section in the article. The attempt to repair the disruption is demonstrated through the answer section of the article, where the agony aunt writes advice. Finally the reinstatement of the equilibrium occurs when the female uses the advice, illustrated through the three images of the blonde female in fashionable and comfortable clothes. Direct address connotes her newly gained confidence due to this.

The institute that would be likely to distribute my magazine would be Conde Nast. They are very successful and distribute a wide variety of magazines, including teen/young adult magazines such as Glamour, and teen Vogue. They also distribute technology magazines like Wired, food magazines such as Bon Appétit, and lifestyle/home magazines, for example Easy Living. All these categories relate directly to my magazine. Not only this, but due to its success it would be an ideal company to take on a completely new type of product for the industry.

The software I used was Adobe Photoshop CS4. I have constantly learnt new tools and techniques, and improved all my skills. For example I learnt I could cut away images from their background more efficiently with the magnetic tool and gained greater control of the mouse by drawing the arrows and circles free hand. I also learnt how to create a wave at the bottom of the page and experimented with tools such as the red eye tool to create better quality photos and the clone tool to get rid of obvious spots and blemishes. In addition, I used a photography camera to take the photos and put into practice all the types of angles and shots I had learnt in the course. However, I believe an even wider range of shots would have been more interesting and effective. Finally I used a site to create a questionnaire that could then turn this data into pie charts, bar charts etc. However I came across problems as many of the people had answered incorrectly (I only sent out to females yet some put they were males etc.). Instead I had to discount the invalid questionnaires I had received and create a table myself. To improve I would have redone the questionnaire so I could use the software to produce more effective and sophisticated charts.

Through my background research I have learnt detailed conventions of diabetic and female teen/young adult magazines, as well as fashion articles. I have also learnt how the size and positioning of something can change the effect it has, as well as the page’s effect as a whole. I have also discovered the difference between designing two separate pages, and designing a double page article, and the importance of the use of cohesion. House styles are also key, and I have now begun to notice how different magazines create this, and how I could create this for my own piece.

I have constantly learnt how to improve my magazines overall appearance and effect, but there are still further improvements. The F in “Fashion Advice Special” on the cover was very hard to see against the models top from a distance. Although this would have been read up close, it would still have been better to have the texts colour much darker. Another improvement would be to create more cohesion between the article’s pages. This could have been achieved having more text or images spread across both pages. I would have also liked to link the article further to the magazine. I noticed some magazines included the magazine name or website by the page numbers, I believe this would have been very effective in my piece. It would also have been good use more white text against the darker background to make the text stand out more.

A comparison between a Cosmopolitan article and the final draft of mine.



Since the last double page spread I analysed would not scan properly I have compared my latest and final draft to another double page spread. This will also highlight new similarities.

Firstly the title of my text was mainly black, with some words in red and some in bold, to draw the audience’s attention to the key focus. The Cosmo article did this also, but used blue instead. The font was much larger for the title in Cosmo, with the introduction in a smaller font, and the rest of the article in an even smaller font size. This was also the pattern for my font sizes. The Cosmo article, like mine, also mainly had black font. However, it also contained white font for the blue boxes, and blue font for the headings in the white boxes. My articles main text was placed inside red boxes, the other article similarly placed the bulk of the text in white or blue boxes, though there were more boxes/text than in mine. This is due to my article also being a fashion piece; conventionally fashion articles have less text and more pictures.

My article contained multiple photos. There were two long shots and one mid shot of a female model, one high angle shot of the writer, and one over the shoulder shot of a girl with an insulin pump. There were also photos, cut out from their background, of clothes and bags. The Cosmo articles used three main photos. One was a long shot and was sued as the background for the right page, while the other two consisted of one close up and one mid shot. These were smaller on the page, similar to the size of my images. Though one of my long shots o the model was cut away from its background a spanned the length of the page.

The layouts were similar in both articles. The title was placed at the top of the left page, with an introduction underneath, and the smaller photos fitted around the text which was mainly placed in boxes. The magazines name was mentioned in my article in a speech bubble at the top right of the right page, whilst Cosmo did not use any shape to put the text in. Cohesion was created by both of the articles by using the same simple colour theme for both pages. Blue and whit was used for Cosmo, while my article had red and blue. Mine also had a blue wave that continued over the bottom of both pages, lining up at the centre.

Audience appeal was created in both magazines by using pictures that related to the target audience, for example models were the same age and gender. The mixture of bright colours and many images created an exciting and modern looking article which appealed to the young audience. By splitting the bulk of the text up into boxes this also stopped the article from overwhelming the young audience. Relevant issues were also discussed in both articles which would interest and relate to the audience.

Both articles followed conventions by having page number placed at the bottom corners of the pages: on the right for the right page and on the left for the left page. The use of large title by the top of the left page, as well as a good mix of text and images, plus the use of bright colours, were also conventional. Finally both articles had a lot of content, leaving little of the blank white of the page showing.

3rd Draft Layout Ideas

For my next draft the main thing I need to change is the right page of my double page article. To add in a photo of someone with an insulin pump I need to move the page around. So far I have come up with two possible layouts.

 

Further Improvements

For my next draft I need to include another image with a different type of shot to give a better range, for this I plan to do an over the shoulder shot of someone looking at their pump. As I don't have a pump and don't know anyone with one I will have to create a fake one using one of my diabetic machines. I plan to fit this at the bottom left of the right page by moving some of the bags and text closer. This will also eliminate some of the white background.
One worry was that there was too much white showing, but after looking through multiple magazines I noticed there were reasonable amounts of white showing though no block spaces. This is a problem for my right page which should be solved by the extra image.
I realised I also need to grammar and spell check all the writing that has been done.
Finally some of the images and text need to be moved that are too close together or too close to the sides of the page.

Hopefully after more feedback I will have more feedback on how to improve.