AS MEDIA STUDIES

G321

FOUNDATION PORTFOLIO

EVALUATION

By Hannah Maxwell

In what ways does your media

product use, develop or challenge

the forms and conventions of real

media products?

1.

Front Cover

My Front Cover subscribes to the conventions of a music magazine, because the main image covers the masthead. Also, Adam looks straight at the camera and creates direct address, which also subscribes to magazine conventions.

However, I have challenged the conventions because Jake doesn’t look at the camera.

My front cover was influenced by Kerrang! (target audience) and ID magazine (design).

I have explored the Generic Conventions of magazine through

this Forms and Conventions exercise;

http://hannahmaxwell.blogspot.com/2010/10/forms-and-

conventions-of-magazines.html

Kerrang! magazine influenced NOISE, because

of the way the main cover line cuts across the

main image. It also has the same target

audience I also liked the posters puff on the

front, and the use of the bottom cover line. I

have used these ideas on my magazine, ‘Still

Nameless’ cuts up the main image, and I have

used the bottom cover line to give names of

additional bands. I have also done a poster puff.

ID magazine influenced NOISE because of

the relationship between the masthead and

the main image. Each cover person on ID

pulls the same sort of winking face as the

masthead. On my magazine, I made Jake

put his hands in his ears to replicate the

hazard symbol I had used instead of the ‘O’.

Contents

My contents has been influenced mostly

by Kerrang! magazine. In K! magazine, a

different article to the main cover line is

the main focus on the contents. Bands

featured on the bottom cover line are

also featured inside the contents in more

detail, and the contents uses a different

colour than the front cover, but remains

within the house style. The captions of

articles are linguistically

appealing/persuasive to the potential

audience. Simple vocabulary is also

used, which relates to the audience, and

there is also an advert for a subscription

to the magazine. I also liked the use of

the editors note, which most music

magazines have done.

On my contents I have used another

story as the main focus (No

Direction), band that are featured on

the bottom cover line of the front

page are integrated on my contents

and I have used orange instead of red

in the colour scheme. I have used

persuasive captions and I have also

made a subscription advert in the

bottom right hand corner. I have also

used an editor’s note too, addressing

the reader and making the magazine

seem more appealing. Therefore I

have subscribed and developed the

generic conventions of a contents

page in a music magazine.

Double Page Spread

Kerrang! was the main influence for my DPS too.

I’ve subscribed to the conventions of a double page spread through the use of a

full page picture and the article on the next page. These are often used as artist

features. I also used additional information boxes with Q&As. K! influenced my

article through language, structure and content. e.g. conversational, introducing

a scene (backstage), and telling readers what the band is all about. The pictures

show the band offstage, which, paired with a casual interview makes the band

more relatable to my target audience.

How does your media product

represent particular social groups?

2.

My magazine targets mainly teenage

people, who listen to a variety of

rock music, like Kerrang! and Rock

Sound.

I have represented rockers through

the images I have used, such as Still

Nameless and Jessie Mac. Still

Nameless are meant to be down to

earth, out for a laugh guys, who

don’t take themselves too seriously.

Jessie Mac is a confident, trend-

setting, in-control female, who

makes damn good tunes and does

what she wants.

I have gone with the stereotypes of

21st century young people – live fast,

not taking ‘crap’ from anyone.

What Social Groups have I represented?

Are they stereotypical representations?

What kind of institution might

distribute your media product and

why?

3.

Bauer Media http://www.bauermedia.co.uk/

NOISE magazine would be

distributed by this company

because NOISE would appeal to a

demographic similar to that of

Kerrang! and Bauer Media

distributes Kerrang.

It is a major distributor that

distributes magazines like; Closer,

Heat, FHM, Zoo, Kerrang and Q. It is

also the distributor of many local

radio shows etc. I think NOISE

would be distributed through a

major distributor because I think it

would be a big seller.

Who would be the audience for your

media product?

4.

Target Audience –

My magazine is aimed at females

and males aged 15+ who

enjoy/listen to rock music. My

magazine aims to give information

on everything rock, whether it’s

indie or heavy metal. It would

therefore appeal to older people

who listen to rock music. (the

above link shows a questionnaire

where I explored my target

audience, by asking them what

they liked and didn’t like about my

magazine. Kerrang magazine is the most

similar magazine to mine, as they

have the same target audiences.

How did you attract/address you

audience?

5.

Colours

I chose Red, Black, White and Orange to

be my colour scheme because they appeal

to my target audience through the way

they stand out against each other, and the

fact red is such a statement colour. Red

also has strong connotations of passion,

anger and love, which is also what a lot of

rock music is about.

Masthead

My masthead – NOISE – is appealing to

my target audience because it has a tone

of rebelliousness that is associated with

rock. It is also a pun, because that is how

some people would actually describe rock

music in general. It could be argued that

NOISE gives a bad name to rock music,

however I think the irony would be

amusing/intriguing to my target audience.

Using the hazard symbol, which could

symbolise earphones for music, also made

my masthead more appealing.

Language/RegisterThe language I have used is

rebellious, colloquial and simplistic.

This is appealing to my target

audience because it is easily read,

easily understood and most of all

they will enjoy reading it because it

uses the same rebellion associated

with the music they love. The

register of my magazine is very

informal and loud, representing the

rock genre.

Pictures

I have a variety of pictures, from gutsy

blonde rockers to acoustic playing indie

folk. This shows that my target

audience is broad and diverse. There is

also a certain rebellious attitude to my

pictures, e.g. Jake on the front cover

with his fingers in his ears. This is

appealing to my target audience

because it contradicts the conventional

look of a magazine and would therefore

stand out – which rock music does.

Exclusives

I have used posters as my puff, which

appeal to my target audience because

band posters are essential to any rock

lover. I have also said that my artist

interviews (Still Nameless) is exclusive,

because that way my readers know they

won’t find my article anywhere else.

What have you learnt about

technologies from the process of

constructing the product?

6.

I used Publisher to construct my

magazine, and I used Paint.NET to edit

my photos.

Strengths

Publisher:

Easy to use

You can clearly see construction lines,

unlike word, and you can construct outside

the document

It is simple to insert objects without

everything else moving around

Print Preview usefully shows exactly how

my magazine would look at each stage

Paint.NET

Simple

Files can be saved as PNGs so that they

have no background

There are many effects that are good to

test out

You can change the brightness and

contrast of a picture very easily.

Weaknesses

Publisher:

It’s hard to place things exactly

where you want them, so it can get

quite fiddly

It’s unclear how to shrink the border

of a text box, without moving the

text.

Paint.NET:

It can be very time consuming to cut

out a picture

It easy to ‘over-edit’ a picture, so it

looks awful

Photographic Choices

I chose my front cover image because

I wanted it to tie in with the hazard

symbol on my masthead and the

theme of my masthead. The image of

Jake with his fingers in his ears fits

the theme of NOISE so well because

it’s like he’s hearing a noise and that’s

his reaction. I think it captures he

attitude of the magazine. I made the

image better from my original photo,

by changing the brightness and

contrast, and cutting out the

background.

Here are some other photos I

chose, because I felt they

captured the attitude or

showed the diversity of NOISE

magazine.

In creating the 3 elements, I found it

easiest to roughly sketch a contents page

before anything else. From my contents, I

could then deduce what would feature on the

front cover and then in my article.

When I started to construct, I completed my

contents page first, just in case I made any

alterations which then meant it would not

affect my front cover or article.

I have learnt that doing the contents page first

gave a really solid guide to the rest of my work,

which ultimately speeded it up, and meant I had a

vivid picture in my head of what I wanted to do.

I found using Blogger really easy. It meant that I

could do work whenever I wanted without having

to print off and I could do it quicker than a folder,

because all I had to do was upload it onto my

blog.

LOOKING BACK TO YOUR PRELIMINARY

TASK, WHAT DO YOU FEEL THAT YOU HAVE

LEARNT IN THE PROGRESSION FROM IT TO

THE FULL PRODUCT?

7.

On the front cover alone I can see that my preliminary looks very basic

compared to my final magazine front cover, because it appears to just be

word art over a main image.

PRELIMINARY FINAL

I can see that changing the programme from word (preliminary) to

publisher (final) has greatly improved the authenticity of my magazine. In

addition to that, my image manipulation skills have improved a lot.

PRELIMINARY FINAL

Overall, I think my end product is reasonably successful, and fits the brief well. I have

thoroughly researched all aspects of magazines, and I believe that has been reflected in

my construction. I think the strongest aspect is my contents page, and the weakest is my

front cover. I am really pleased with my use of language and how I have captured the

styling's of a rock-music magazine.

BY

HANNAH MAXWELL