AS G321: EvaluationBy Cheyenne Blanche

1) In what ways does your media product use, develop or

challenge forms and conventions of real media products? In my final product I have stuck to the usual kind of magazine, as this would appeal more to the audience. On the next slide it shows my front cover and as you will see the I have kept the masthead big, at the top of the page and able to attract to people, and also keeping the barcode and the price on the right hand side. I’ve kept the date and issue number at the side of the barcode as in magazines that is usually where it is found and also to inform readers which issue it is. The image I used is to show that my magazine is about a girl the similar age of my target audience and it is made clear as the image is big. Using these colours, fonts and pictures shows that young adults in particular will buy this magazine. Also in my final front cover, my cover lines are also conventional, as they inform readers what the magazine contains but also the main cover line which shows the highlight of the magazine is kept is bigger and bolder than the rest. With this final front cover, Young female students are more likely to buy this magazine as the price is reasonable fitted for them.

Similar magazine, with audience and genre.

1) Front cover, contents and double page spread conventions.

BarcodeBottom right hand corner-As well as a similermagazine Top of the Pops

Picture kept to the left which is unique

Posters addedJust like Top of the Pops magazine

Using Textboxes

Title is kept to the side of the page rather than across. For example Top of the pops magazine contents page.

Page numbers kept to the left hand side.

Added headers.

On my double page spread after researching magazines for double page spread on award ceremonies, I also kept to conventions by keeping most of my article on the right page and keeping bigger photos on the left hand side. But I wanted to create something unique by putting the title of the double page spread on the right hand side as well. In my article for my double page spread I kept the quotes in different colour, this is a convention, as other magazines might either made the font bolder for quotes or use a different colour. The colour I chose for my quotes was the same shade of pink, which is a big colour throughout my final products.

Quotes in different colour.

Not just one picture

Title on the left side

2) How does your media product represent particular social

groups?

I think my final media product represents a young social group. Ranging from teenagers to young adults who listen to POP music. My research helped me have the right kind of font styles, layout and coloring to the final products. I have used informal language as teenagers can relate to this and used the colours on a typical Pop magazine.

My media product I have created also divides between age and gender. As the colors show using the pinks and the yellows that this magazine is aimed for girls. Also adding green and blue to make it more urban.

The images used in my final products can relate to my audience as it is pictures of celebrities a similar age so my target audience are more likely to know who they are. I think my images relate well to the style and genre of magazine. The price of my magazine, is a reasonable price for my audience.

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

The colour pink as it’s a girls colour.

A similar aged model to my target audience.

Pictures of people similar age.

The bright colours, my target audience of girls 16+ care about the appearance.

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

As my magazine is a music magazine places such as WHS, HMV act will sell my magazine, as they have a wider range of the same genre of magazine. Also with my audience being mostly students my magazine might be found in colleges. If my magazine was owned by Bauer which is a successful publisher then it would be sold In places such as tesco, sainburgers and other places which sell magazines. Bauer publishes other magazines such as ‘kerrang’ ‘mojo’ and aslo ‘Q’ which are all popular magazines. With WEB 2.0, my magazine is more likely to also be distributed online as my target audience use the internet more often.

4) Who would be the audience for you media product?

During my research of other magazines research like surveys, group interviews and indivdual interviews, The results shown that the best genre to was Pop as my target audience is 16-20 and found that they prefer Pop and R’n’B. I thought this would be more effective as I wanted to do a magazine for people aged around 16-20 because I feel like I can relate more to them. I also felt that I can relate to people who like pop as I like that as well so it was easier for me.

As the genre Pop is more likely a girls genre, I had to think about the colouring of my final product, so I choose the pinks and the yellow to attract the female audience for my magazine. I feel that the style and layout used will attract the younger target audience.

Also with my target audience mostly being students they may listen to the latest music and this magazine keeps up the gossip and has the names of new singles by the latest celebrities.

Who would be the audience

I love POP

I am 18

Just finished college

I love reading magazines

I am a full time student

5) How did you attract/ address your audience?

After choosing my magazine genre, I looked at magazine with the same genre to get ideas about the layout of my magazine, the colours I use and the language my target audience can relate to. With my magazine I found that bright bold colours are more likely to attract my target audience, as they may be attracted to the appearance of a magazine. I also used the language which my audience can relate to. 16-20+ yr olds are interested in cheap things as they may not have much money and after looking at other magazines with this audience I seen that they had a reasonable price for this audience. Being a magazine reader, I knew what my magazine had to feature in order to attract my audience, also speaking about the fashion in my magazine will also attract my audience as they would want to wear the same things as their favourite singers.

I also took into consideration my audience feedback on my drafts of my three pieces.

Front cover• Needs more font

(bigger, use different font)

• Change the colourof the front e.g. yellow may be to bright to read.

Contents page• Needs more

page numbers to make it look more professional

• Needs better images

• Add editors letter.

Double page spread• Needs a layout• Use less blurry

photos• Keep the text in

columns

6) What have you learn about technologies from the process

of constructing this product?

Before this course I only knew very little about adobe Photoshop and nothing on in design. But through out this project my knowledge has expanded on both photo shop and in design. I have learnt how to edit things such as photos which has became very useful. While using photoshop I have experienced changing an image to fit more with m y style magazine, I have also learnt how to edit a picture by cropping around the part of the image I want. With using text in photoshop . I have aslo never blogged before so learning how to blog has helped me and also gave me the opportunity to work from home.

7) Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you

have learnt in the progression from it to full product?

My preliminary task, looking back on it, isn't as professional as my final product. I didn’t add more colour of different font and also I had a lot of space on my preliminary task, which can make it look less professional.

On the next slide is my preliminary task (front cover) and my final product of the front cover. I have learnt that the picture makes a big difference. On the preliminary task I only had to pictures which is unusual to have only two, after researching other magazines I seen either magazines with one picture or magazines with more than two. Also on my preliminary task it lacks font styles and there is also no barcode. I feel that my final product shows just how much I have learnt with how effective font styles, better quality pictures and use up more space is.

Looking at my contents page of the preliminary task (shown on the next slide), It isn’t eye-catching and is boring because it lacks in information. With the information provided on my first draft, it still isn't professional as the numbers on the magazine just range from 1-10 whereas professional magazines vary from 1-80 pages. After my preliminary task I then knew what I need to do in order for it to be more eye-catching, by adding colour, varying the font styles and the sizes of the font.