Evaluation

Question 1

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

of real media products?

My music magazine uses most of the conventional things normal found in a music magazine,

masthead, coverlines and model credits. I researched many different magazine front covers

that cover different genres of music including Rolling Stone and Billboard. The main

magazine that I took inspiration from was the urban magazine VIBE especially for the layout

out for the contents page. To help take good images for the pages in my magazine, I

analysed images of artist to understand what makes them strong images. To analyse them I

used the lighting, rule of thirds, Guttenberg principle and various other techniques that

made them strong images. For my double page spread I created an article about my cover

star. To make this article have the tone that wouldn’t be about of place in real issue of a

music magazine I read a few articles from VIBE and NME. This helped my get an idea of how

to layout the article. I set the article out in 3 columns of text, similar to most magazines that

is separated into columns. I also used drop caps a feature which is commonly seen at the

start of most articles in magazine furthermore I also used a pull quote another technique

used in many different magazines

Question 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The magazine is designed to appeal to teenagers, both male and female as it covers more

than 1 genres of music. By covering the pop and hip/hop genre will help the magazine

appeal to more than one group of teenagers. The magazine contains the two genres

because in my market research which the people that I asked said that they would like to

see the two genres of music in the magazine. The magazine will to teenagers not just

because of the genre content but through the house style and images used in the magazine.

The house style of the magazine is very informal throughout especially which is evident on

the contents and double page spread, this would appeal to teenagers. The layout on the

contents with the title contents being split up of 3 lines further adds to the informality of

the magazine. The imagery in the magazine is of a teenager. Normally when a teenager is on

the front cover of a magazine the target audience is teenagers. The images that are on the

double page spread further induce the idea that the magazine is aimed at teenagers as they

very informal address to the camera as the model is stick his tongue out. The tone of the

article on the double page spread is an interview with the artist which makes the teenage

audience feel closer to the artist.

Question 3

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

To distribute my magazine i would use IPC media. The company distributes many magazines

such as the long running music magazine NME. IPC media is the UK's leading consumer

magazine publisher and reaches out to 26 million adults in the UK, just under two thirds of

British women and 42% of British men. As IPC media distributes NME the long running

magazine this shows the company has a lot of experience in this field of media. Furthermore

the target age group for the magazine targets older teenagers to middle aged adults. This

shows that the company can direct a magazine towards a younger audience in the price

range that would fit how much a teenage student will want to pay. I fell Bauer media, that

distributes the magazine Q, isn’t the right company to distribute my magazine as they are

more interested in the older audience and are more involved with TV and radio.

Question 5

How did you attract/ address your audience?

My target audience is based on the market research which was a questionnaire that was

carried out in Eccles college and handed to students between the ages of 16 and 1. The

results that i obtained i based the ideas for the layout, house style and the genres of music

the magazine will cover. The based on the results the magazine covers two genres of music,

pop and hip/hop as the came out with the same percentages for the question “which genre

of music of music magazine do you prefer?”. The photography used to create the magazine

is of teenagers themselves as magazine that are aimed at teenagers e.g. top of the pops,

mainly have teenage artists on the front of the magazines so I didn’t challenge this

convention. Most of the images on the double page spread are informal as the model in the

images is pulling faces and not giving formal connection to the camera. Furthermore The

layout of the magazines pages is very informal which is clearly evident in the title on the

contents page. This is further back up by the comments from my focus group.

Question 6

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

product?

To create the product i used different types of technologies including Photoshop, Nikon

cameras, blogger and many more. At first when i started to use Photoshop to create the

ancillary project i struggled using the programme as i was unsure how to use most of the

feature in the software. To help get a grasp of it i asked my teachers and peers how to used

certain aspects of the software. I did however find linking and aligning text on the contents

page much easier. I also found that i progressed using the software through the ancillary

project. Furthermore i struggled on how to create my blog as it wouldn’t let me post

anything. I stayed behind i one of my free periods and a my teacher went through the basic

of creating the blog and i was then very capable of blogging myself. When I used the

colleges cameras to create strong images for the product, i found that didn’t struggle as i

was younger i took pictures and a similar camera of my granddads. Furthermore i didn’t

struggle on making the facebook focus group as it is a technology that I’m used to a use

frequently socialising.

Question 7

Looking back at your preliminary task, (college magazine) what do you feel you have

learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

From the ancillary project to the creation of my final product I learnt more about taking

better photographs and how to use so different technologies such as Photoshop and the

website blogger.

I learnt how to take better quality photographs through the use of lighting, composition and

the rule of thirds. These allowed me to take better quality photographs that look

professional on my final product. On Photoshop I developed my skills in terms of adding

effect to photographs. This helped as the photographs I took needed a little editing to make

them even more effective and professional. Furthermore I learnt more about the layouts of

magazines. In my product research I looked at various different magazines and looked at the

conventions that already exist in them. For example I learned that where to place different

coverlines on the page around the model and where the model credit is usually placed. Then

to link these layers so that they don’t become un aligned and stay in the right position on

the page.