MEDIA STUDIES EVALUATION Megan Howarth

1. IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP, OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS

OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS?

For my music magazine I decided to stick to the normal conventions of a music magazine. The big picture of the artist as the background with the masthead/banner at the top and then the coverlines around the side.

For my final productions of my magazine I used colours of red, white and black. When I did my research for my magazine I found that these colours were used quite a lot because they stand out when the full production of the magazine is complete. It also catches the eye of the reader.

My double page spread in my magazine is normal with pictures on both pages and the interview being split up onto the two pages.

In my pictures I have used a natural setting such as; a house to give more of a feel of the environment of the star.

Most music magazines normally have either hot men, or hot women on the front cover depending on the genre of the magazine. I have challenged this by having a younger female on the front of my magazine which is covered up.

2. HOW DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT REPRESENT PARTICULAR SOCIAL

GROUPS? My music magazine represents teenage girls and the

younger generation. This is shown by the picture on the front cover being a younger

teenage girl, and also the theme with the hearts and the more girly and femine colours.

My magazine represents middle class teenage girls (BC1) this is also represented in the price of the magazine being £3.00, and also the contents of my magazine.

The three colours of my magazine; red, white, black are meaningful colours. Warmth, excitement, passion, power, mystery, purity, innocence,

youth. The title of my magazine “Blahhh!” is very quirky, young,

girly, and relates to music

3. WHAT KIND OF MEDIA INSTITUTION MIGHT DISTRIBUTE YOUR MEDIA

PRODUCT AND WHY? “Blahhh!” is a mainstream magazine and therefore

the publisher would be someone like BauerMedia, NatMags, IPC.

My magazine has been designed to appeal to middle class people and therefore would be sold in places like WHSmith/Tesco and places that sell good quality magazines.

I have also decided that my magazine would be priced around £3 because most good quality magazines are sold at this sort of price.

4. WHO WOULD BE THE AUDIENCE FOR YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT?

I planned at the start to aim my magazine at people aged 16-19 but then I realised that it was difficult to get things that they both like. So, I changed my plan and instead aimed my magazine at 13-15 year olds of which will be middle class. This means that they are still in education and are still

learning about everything, therefore I have added in lots about music and the lifestyle it would give them.

Also the gender of my magazine is females as the front cover and the design of my magazine is very girly. This is shown in the colour scheme of the magazine and also the pictures of the artists. The theme is all girly, colours of red and also the way I have

used hearts and a pretty font so it can be recognised more.

5. HOW DID YOU ATTRACT/ADDRESS YOUR AUDIENCE?

I attracted my audience by using conventions of music magazines that were the same as mine. Making it girly for the reader The colour scheme of red/white/black Photographs of the artist showing a pretty, young girl

The colours I used for the magazine I made sure were brighter colours to attract the eye of the audience and also the photograph of the audience was a medium close to show the artists look more.

I used a more “informal” language style because this would be understood by the audience more because of the age (13-15)

6. WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNT ABOUT TECHNOLOGIES FROM THE PROCESS OF

CONSTRUCTING THIS PRODUCT?

Throughout the process of making my magazine I have learnt more about photoshop and how to use it more advanced.

I also learnt how to look up many different fonts on the internet such as “dafont.com” and printing the screen and pasting onto my document.

I used a digital camera to capture my photographs and learnt more about the uses of the settings you can use on a camera.

Using photoshop to edit my

photograph to look

different.

7. LOOKING BACK AT YOUR PRELIMINARY TASK, WHAT DO FEEL YOU HAVE LEARNT IN THE PROGRESSION FROM

IT TO THE FULL PRODUCT?

In my preliminary task I used Microsoft word, and didn’t use any editing tools because I didn’t know how to use them. I used “word art” to produce all of the writing on my piece.

For my music magazine I used Microsoft word for the final product but also used photoshop in which I used the magic wand tool to change the background of the picture. This cuts around the edge of the picture, and makes it look a lot

neater. I also used “dafont.com” to produce lots of different types of

fonts and different wording to make it look different and more professional.