Evaluation

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

My music magazine uses all of the conventions that I initially found when observing existing magazines at the beginning of the task. The front cover has the masthead ‘Impact’ as the largest piece of text on the page. It uses a large image to attract audience attention, a medium shot in which the male model looks directly at the audience which is conventional of magazine covers. I also included the barcode, price, issue number and date as I found all of these on existing magazine covers. Another technique I used are buzz words ‘free’ and ‘exclusive’ as they are commonly used to attract audience attention. I also included a plug for a band featured in the magazine and company logo. As for the contents page, I used similar elements such as the buzz word ‘win’ in the competition plug, the two photos, which are both medium shots, positioned to the right of the text and the word ‘contents’ being the largest piece of text on the page. The title on my double page spread was also the largest text of the page. Other conventional elements included a main image on the left, which is a medium shot of the interviewee, and the interview is positioned on the right of the double page. I placed another image, a close up of the same person, above the interview as I thought it looked a bit bland with just the one picture. Also, I used a drop cap at the start of the interview which I had noticed in many existing magazines.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My magazine represents the cultures and styles of the target audience of teenagers. The main image on the front cover is an example of this representation. The male model is dressed casually in jeans and a t-shirt which reflects modern day style. He is represented as being cool and carefree. Through the double page spread, it also represents teenagers to be fun loving but also hard working and ambitious people. Although all the images I used feature males, the magazine would feature female bands and singers as well, for example, ‘Angels Of Divinity’, ‘Impulse’ and ‘Strut’ from the contents page. The magazine is aimed at teenagers of both genders and so must include a mixture of both sexes.

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

I think a suitable institution to distribute my magazine would be EMAP, because they do not currently have a magazine like mine, which is aimed at the target audience of teenagers who are fans of the rock music genre. By investing in my product, they would broaden their range of magazines and thus increase profits. EMAP are a very successful British company which has many successful magazines, including the official Nintendo magazine and Smash Hits. The company was founded in 1947 which shows the company have experience and would be trustworthy and reliable.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

My music magazine is aimed at the target audience of teenagers and focuses on the rock genre of music. I chose this because I wanted to target my own age group and produce a magazine of the genre of music that I like. After designing my magazine, I showed it to some people of this age group. One person said that they would have preferred a cover that was more colourful, however the others said that it was eye catching and would appeal to them if they saw the magazine in a shop. I decided against changing the colour scheme, as the majority of viewers liked it and so did I.

How did you attract/address your audience?

I hoped to attract the audience mainly by the use of the image on the front cover. The model looks directly at the audience, intriguing them to buy the magazine. I also used buzz words to interest them, for example the ‘free CD’. I think the colour scheme would also appeal to the audience because the red and black signifies the rock music genre and the plain background causes the cover to stand out instantly in a shop. The masthead should also attract attention due to the size of the text and the bright colour. Also, the plug for Struck By Lightning would intrigue fans of the band into buying the magazine.

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

Although I already knew how to use Microsoft Publisher, I feel that I have a better understanding of the program after completing the task as I was able to learn of more functions that can be performed. Likewise, I also learnt how to use Adobe Photoshop more effectively when manipulating images for the magazine. Initially, I learnt how to frame shots for my photographs. I also learnt how to use Blogger which I had never had experience with before. I found that it was quite a simple website to use and a good way to present information and work. I used the internet for research, including sites such as Wikipedia, Google and the official magazine websites. I also took examples of magazine covers from Google Images.

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

When I looked back at my college magazine front cover from the preliminary task after finishing my music magazine, I found that it looked incredibly poor compared to the front cover of Impact. This was mainly due to the image, the layout and also the colour scheme of the page. Through analysing more existing magazines, I learnt more about conventions of magazines and I developed my ideas for Impact. I also learnt how to use Microsoft Publisher much more effectively, which is why the outcome of Impact was extremely better than that of the college magazine. Due to this, I decided to re-design my college magazine after completing Impact and I think that it is now much improved and I think it looks much more attractive than the original design did.