Evaluation Guide – the Short Version

Answer the following seven questions with one blog post per question. Aim to be detailed

with a range of multimedia used. For more detail, see ’12 – Full Evaluation Guide’.

Don’t just write what’s great about your magazine. Be critical too and try to suggest possible

improvements. Why not get people to comment on your blog posts for your magazine itself

and perhaps some of the evaluation questions? See here and here for some old but

detailed written examples (but nowadays you need more use of multimedia).

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and

conventions of real media products?

WHAT IT MEANS: Is your magazine typical or a bit different and in what way?

HOW TO DO IT: Use a Powerpoint to upload pictures of your own production alongside

those of other magazines and compare them. Pick out the conventions on the pages and

say why they have been constructed in that way. You can find the conventions in the ‘REF –

Flat Plans’ at the bottom of the coursework folder.

TYPICAL EXAMPLE: The first sections of this powerpoint: Question 1 covering all three

pages of your magazine in detail.

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

WHAT IT MEANS: Which social groups are you catering for and how are they seen by the

media?

HOW TO DO IT: Name your social group e.g. rock, indie etc. and try to broaden it a little if

it’s too specific e.g.Rn’B, rap and Grime are a part of ‘urban music’ (use Wikipedia to find the

connections between social groups). Use Google to find both positive and negative views of

these social groups. You can use links to articles, photos and videos. Another good

approach is to show how the scene has changed over ten years. How does the photos and

language you used communicate these ideas? Put this into a separate blog post.

TYPICAL EXAMPLE: “The rap scene comes from urban music…generally, the media shows

this audience as….it’s positive side shows when….but it’s seen in a more negative light

here…this has changed since ten years ago because….” (use examples as you go, similar

to this example)

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

WHAT IT MEANS: Which company are likely to publish your magazine and be a good

partner to work with?

HOW TO DO IT: Find the websites and logos for the following companies: IPC Media,

Dennis Publishing, Bauer Media, Hearst and Future Publishing. For each one, bullet point

comments on how rich they are (find info on their website or download the magazines

pdfhere to find out how many of the top-selling titles they own), how influential they are

(whether they are owned by one of the ‘big six’ top media companies in the world by looking

at the ‘publishing’ section to see if any of their magazines show up here) what other

magazines they own (and whether your own would fit amongst them e.g. Bauer already have

Kerrang so probably wouldn’t want another hard rock/metal magazine), whether they

specialise in anything (Future are good with online mags; Hearst with gender-specific titles),

whether they have won any awards through the PPA or Webby (online) awards. Put this on

Prezi.

TYPICAL EXAMPLE: Has a section each on a range of publishers with their logos and might

bullet-point the following: magazines they publish, selling power, influence, speciality,

awards, as shown in this example.

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

WHAT IT MEANS: What sort of people might buy your magazine?

HOW TO DO IT: It helps if you already have your audience research such as a readership

profile like the NME or a recorded interview with your audience. Remember to refer to social

grades, psychographics , general behaviour and consumer behaviour – whether your

audience are likely to respond to a magazine, whether they might only use it as an app, how

much they’re likely to spend if you use advertising (which is the only way that many online

magazines are funded) and how much they use the web or other means to get in touch with

each other. Do this as a video clip, an audio clip, an Xtranormal video, a Voki avatar, a blog

post or a video of post-it notes . Try to get photos and videos of your audience doing

‘typical’ things. Also, try to get people to post comments on your blog as feedback including

what they think of your final magazine production.

TYPICAL EXAMPLE: Uses facts, discussion and audience theory to explain who these

people are, how they behave, what interests them and what they might look for in a

magazine, possibly by referring to audience research like the readership profile.Example 1

and Example 2 show two good but different approaches.

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

WHAT IT MEANS: What language, pictures and ideas did you put in your magazine that

would get the audience interested?

HOW TO DO IT: Pick over your article, your use of language across the three pages (try

‘10A – Language Use’ for tips), your photography and your house style for examples on how

you are talking to the audience in a way that excites and interests them. Use terminology

like camera terms and language use from the language task here. Also, how are you selling

the magazine through using plugs (selling words) and flashes like ‘plus’, ‘exclusive’ and ‘free’

or captions and anchorage that tease you and create enigmas (little mysteries where you

have to turn the page to find out)? Do this as a blog post, Powerpoint or Prezi.

TYPICAL EXAMPLE: Similar in style to question 1, it picks out examples to use but

concentrates more specifically on language used and photographic effects as shown in

Example 1 and Example 2.

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

product?

WHAT IT MEANS: What technologies did you use and which are easy, difficult, new, useful,

awkward, effective etc.?

HOW TO DO IT: What hardware (digital cameras, computers, professional lighting

equipment etc.) and software (Photoshop, InDesign, blogs, online hosting likes like Scribd,

Slideshareetc) did you use? How did you achieve particular useful effects? What tools did

you use e.g. the magic eraser, text tool etc. (there is a jpeg picture diagram in the Photoshop

and InDesign folders of these) and how valuable were they? Give examples. Do this as a

blog post, Powerpoint, Prezi , a video of you working on-screen (with or without audio) using

the camera’s video and a camera stand, links to tutorials etc.

TYPICAL EXAMPLE: Perhaps uses screenshots or videos of the desktop for Photoshop /

InDesign and explains how tools were used to achieve effects besides any other

photographic evidence, preferably in this style or with this level of written detail (see slides

16-25).

7. Looking back at your preliminary task (the College magazine), what do you feel you

have learnt in the progression from it to full product?

WHAT IT MEANS: What have you learned?

HOW TO DO IT: What did you not know then that you don't now? What could you not do

then that you can now? What skills have you picked up? What, in a nutshell, have you

learned about all the other areas here such as audience, forms and conventions,

representation, design styles, photography, technologies, software like Photoshop / InDesign

and magazines as a whole?Do this as a blog post, video, audio clip, Powerpoint or Prezi.

TYPICAL EXAMPLE: May refer to old blog posts but is mostly a written, reflective (looking

back) conclusion. The last few slides of example 1 and example 2 should give you some

ideas but always try to make it well presented and in full detail.