AS Media Studies Coursework Evaluation

Amy Cunnington

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

For my magazine, I decided to stick to the normal conventions of a music magazine

E.g. picture in the middle, title at the top, cover lines on the side, etc. For my final front cover, I decided to use the colours, red, black and

white because in my research where I looked at other magazine covers, the most common colours for music magazines were red, black and white, I felt this was effective, so I decided to use it and stick to the usual conventions

I did a lot of research of existing music magazines and found that they also follow the normal conventions

The conventions I used were: masthead at the top, picture in the middle, date, price, website, barcode, tagline and cover lines either side of the image

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

My magazine represents teenagers, this is shown by the way that the people on my front cover are teenagers and also the type of music in my magazine is what teenagers like.

It represents both male and female, which is why I kept my colours very neutral, e.g. using black, white and red. In order to appeal to both.

My magazine represents middle class people, this is reflected in price and content, it also affects where would distribute my magazine.

My title: BOOM is very modern, quirky, young and clearly related to music. Therefore it relates to my audience.

My cover mainly uses the colours, white, black and red. These are a real contrast to each other and are all very powerful colours, representing power, modernity and youthfulness.

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

BOOM is a mainstream magazine, therefore the publisher would be something like Bauer (the publisher for Q magazine) or EMAP, (the publisher for MOJO)

My magazine is designed to appeal to middle class people, therefore it would be sold in places where middle class people shop, e.g. WHSmiths and Tesco’s etc.

I decided to make my magazine £3.30, because is my research, most good quality monthly music magazines were about that price, if it was any more my target market (middle class teenagers) wouldn’t buy it.

In my questionnaire, more than half of the people said they would pay between £3 and £4 for a music magazineHow much would you be willing to pay for a monthly

music mag?

6

1

8£1 - £2

£2 - £3

£3 - £4

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

Originally I planned to aim my magazine to males and females aged 13-19, however as my planning went on, I discovered there is a big difference between what 13 year olds want and what 19 year olds want

I also got my peers to look at my cover designs and they felt that it was probably aimed at a slightly younger target market, therefore It is now aimed at 13-17 year olds.

My magazine would be read by high school teenagers, therefore I felt it was important to add in an article about careers in music as that is the age most people are thinking of future careers

I wanted it to be aimed at male and female because it mean I could use a bigger variety of music genres etc,

I original had a pink title, but changed this as when my peers looked at it, they thought it was a girls magazine as this is a stereotypical colour for girls

This shows my progression, I began with a very female title, but changed the colour and style to make it more modern looking and appealing to both male and female.

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

In my questionnaire, I found out that my audience wanted more Tour Dates in their magazines, therefore in my double page spread I added in some tour dates for ELECTRIC! Therefore catering for my target market

I also made sure my cover lines were relevant to the age range, e.g. using celebrities that they would know and like, e.g. Katy Perry and the Ting Tings.

I made sure that my magazine was appropriate for both male and female, which is why I changed a lot of my colours from my original first draft because they looked too feminine and too young.

I made sure that, on my cover, I used personal pronouns such as ‘You’ to address the reader to make them want to read more.

I also did this in my contents by asking questions to the reader, such as: 'looking for a career in music?’

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

Through this process I learnt how to use Photoshop, I learnt about cropping photos, changing/highlighting colours and using the ‘magic wand’ to get rid of the background, whereas in my preliminary task, I just used paint to go around it in white.

I also learnt about fonts, during this process, I learnt how to look at different fonts on the internet and use the ‘print screen’ button to paste it onto my page and then crop it, this is how I got my title

I used a digital camera for my project and learnt about the different settings, e.g. portrate, sports setting, and I also learnt about how to use flash properly in order to get the best quality picture possible.

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

In my preliminary task I used Microsoft Word and I used a photo package called Picasa, I also used paint to cut around my picture,

When doing my music magazine, I learnt how to use Photoshop, therefore used a ‘magic wand’ to cut around my image, this makes it look a lot neater

I also learnt how to use new fonts that weren’t on Microsoft Word and I feel this made my magazine a lot better than my original draft.

My music magazine is a lot better than my school magazine, due to the quality of photos, different fonts used and different skills used.

This shows how I learnt about editing photos through this task, in my preliminary task, I only used black and white and I used ‘paint’ to cut around it, however I used Photoshop for my music magazine and learnt how to change the colours and cut the background properly with the ‘magic wand’ tool.

8. What do others say about your media product (audience feedback)

‘very modern, simple but effective’ ‘The picture on the contents page is really effective

against the black background’ ‘I like the tour dates on the double page spread’ ‘The piano on the front page is good because it shows

straight away that it’s a music magazine’ ‘I like the title, its simple but perfect for a music

magazine’ ‘The target market is really clear because the colours

and title are suitable to both boys and girls