My Media Product Evaluation.

By Sophie Kirby.

My media product uses and develops forms and conventions in real life media products by using them as an inspiration to create and develop my own product.When beginning to think about creating my own magazine I did in-depth research into pre-existing magazines in order for me to get a good idea and clear understanding about what matters a professional magazine company would take into consideration in order to create their magazine to the highest level possible.

Here is an example of a magazine front cover I used in my research and planning to analyse and get a better understanding of how to create my own magazine front cover. This is a great example of how I have used and developed forms and conventions of a real life media product as from analysing this I took away that the title should be the largest piece of font on the page attracting the readers attention, that using one, single, clear image is a possible way of presenting the front cover keeping it looking neat and easy on the eye as well as ensuring that enough text is used to advertise features inside the magazine encouraging sales but not too much so it could become overwhelming for the reader. I used these pieces of information as an inspiration to go on to create and develop my own product helping me to create it to the highest level of quality possible.

1.

My media product was aimed at young people who are interested in hip-hop music. Stereotypically, some hip-hop artists are linked with negativity such as violence and gun culture therefore their fans can be linked to such things too. Throughout my research and planning I found many examples of links between hip-hop music and gun culture, here is one example below of hip-hop legend Dr.Dre holding a gun to his head.

The main artist featured in my article was a female hip-hop artist ‘Ms Beats’. Throughout the front cover, contents page and double page spread there is no links to gun culture or violence through the images which can often be seen in hip-hop magazines. My aim through the images was to make my artist look fierce and strong without using any links to violence or gun culture, below are the main images I used.

Because of this I therefore hope that I represented the social group I was aiming my media product at in a more positive light than some hip-hop magazines may do by avoiding links to negative stereotypes throughout my magazine whilst breaking away from links with gangs, gun culture and violence.

2.

I think that my media product would be distributed by mainstream institutions because I feel as a magazine it appeals to a wide range of people. As music magazines are not the type of product which would be aimed at an overly niche market my product would be distributed in mainstream shops such as supermarkets and newsagents along with music shops such as HMV.

I feel this would be the best place for my music magazine as it would appeal to a heavy amount of people as hip-hop is one of the most popular genres of music around with a humungous fan base, therefore sales would be made in these particular places. A music shop would probably be the best place for my media product to be distributed as people who go in music shops are usually interested in music which is the type of person who would buy my product.

3.

The audience for my media product would be young people of both genders who are interested in hip-hop music. I chose to aim my magazine at this particular audience because I knew it was one which hip-hop music was especially popular within. I also felt that because I am myself a young person I could relate to these fans and hopefully therefore produce a product which will appeal to them.

4.

One of the many ways I chose to attract my main audience was by using an informal tone throughout the magazine. I did this by choosing more simplistic language and creating a chatty, casual tone throughout the magazine by the language used which I felt would attract young people and make it as enjoyable for them as possible. As well as the age of the people, I also chose to use a chatty, informal register throughout the magazine because of the type of magazine it was. Music is something which can usually be quite laid back and fun therefore I wanted to make sure my article gave off this tone whilst discussing it.

5.

Throughout the process of constructing my media product I have learnt a lot about technologies. I have used a variety of technologies such as downloadable photo editing programmes such as Picasa and online programs such as Pixlr to create my product using them to edit images in order to make them look at professional and of standard as high as possible.

Before beginning to produce my media product I had little experience using websites and programmes to edit pictures to a high level and had little knowledge as to what to do and how to use them. Throughout the process I have learnt many things about photo editing and have taught myself to use a wide range of skills using these programmes. One example of this is on the image I used for the front cover of my magazine I chose to edit the photo so that only the artists top was coloured (blue) and the rest of the picture including the artists body and face were black and white. I chose to do this to attract readers attention to the colour which also linked in with the rest of the article as I chose the same blue for a large amount of the text used on the front cover and the magazine title.

Above is an example of how I used editing programmes in order to manipulate my image to how I wanted it to look.

6.

When looking back at the production of my preliminary task and comparing it with the production of my main task I feel I have learnt a lot from the progression from it to the full product. One thing I did learn is that heavy, in-depth planning is a vital aspect of producing the media product. My planning for my main task was a lot heavier and more in-depth than the planning for my preliminary task, therefore when creating my main task I felt I had a much better understanding of what was needed to create the media product and what vital elements to include in order for it to appeal to its target audience.

I have also learnt a lot more about using media technologies to better my images when creating my main task than when I was creating my preliminary task. I used programmes such as Picasa and Pixlr in order to edit my images and tweek any little details to ensure that they were of the highest quality possible.

When taking the images for my main task I was a lot more aware of things such as positioning, camera angles and lighting in comparison to when I was taking the images for my preliminary task. This enabled me to have a lot more professional looking product than I originally did.

7.

Alternative Changes.Throughout the process of creating my media product I made some changes to the magazine from the planning to the main product.

When doing research into what the public wanted from my magazine I handed out a survey in order to gain feedback. The results from the survey were very helpful however when it came to creating the product I had to go against some of the results and wants from the public in order to make my magazine to the highest level of quality possible.

An example of this is when I asked people which font they would most like to see on my magazine these were the results…

After trialing my magazine front cover using the fonts the public chose I realised I could not go along with this decision as they made the front cover look cluttered and unprofessional, therefore had to change to a more simple font. Changing to a more simple font left the magazine looking much more readable and pleasant on the eye therefore this was my final decision.

Another change I made from the research gathered from the survey to the main product was the colour theme that was used throughout the front cover, contents page and double page spread. Below are the results from the survey on colour themes…

As you can see in the results above the most popular choice for colour theme was red and black which I was originally going to go along with before testing this out in my magazine front cover.

Alternative Changes.

Here is my magazine when sticking to the black and red colour theme. After seeing this I felt a change was necessary as I thought the colour theme was not effective enough for my end product.

Red is a colour linked with danger and violence which was something I did not want my magazine to be linked with.

I felt that keeping a blue theme throughout the main image used and text was a vital part of the production of the product in order to keep it looking professional and well presented. Because of this I decided to try a blue colour theme out and after seeing the results decided on this for my magazine.

After trying out the blue colour theme I also felt it was a lot more eye catching and would attract more potential buyers to it therefore hopefully increasing sales which is in the end the main aim for a magazine.