Evaluation

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

There are many key ingredients of a music magazine. A catchy and memorable title for the magazine is important as it needs to be easily identified and used as the brand identity. Music magazines also need artist featured in the magazine that will draw in the viewer. It also needs to be attractive and look full so the reader thinks they are getting there moneys worth.

The front cover has to include cover lines to draw in the reader, the masthead barcodes and prices of the magazine. It also has to include the date and issue that magazine was published. It often uses one large image and smaller images to show of the contents of the magazine and attract the viewer. The majority of music magazines also include banners which add extra information and contribute to the layout. A typical contents page however tends to include a heading, the page numbers and an editorial although the majority of magazine choose to feature a variety of images with the contents to make the page more attractive and interesting.

Double page spreads are often features on one artist or band. They often include a summary of the artist and an interview carried out by the magazine. There are also often photo shoots taken after the interview which are then featured within the double page spread to add to the attraction.  

In my own magazine I have included all these convections and also added some extra features so that the layout and magazine looks professional and attractive. I have chosen to experiment with the typical layout of these magazine and tried to vary my designs form other magazines, editing pictures in different ways as well as setting pages out differently to traditional pages in some cases.

 How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My media magazine represents teenager social groups who are interested in new artists and alternative/ indie music styles. I have done my best to represent them as interesting and exciting social groups in order to promote the magazines look. When it came to layout I chose to use images more than text as the look of the magazine is more important to teenage audiences than allot of text as the images are what will attract them to the magazine. I chose to make the images large and bright with dynamic colours which brighten the magazine up and make it stand out more. As for text I have used language seen in any other magazine however when it comes to the interview it is quite laid back as the teenagers what to read the magazine to find out the latest on there favourite bands and I felt this could be best captured within an informal interview.


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

This product would be most successful being sold in news agents where it can be found easily. Although it also be sold in music shops and larger super markets. Music magazines that are likely to publish magazine are institutions that already publish magazines for magazines such as Kerrang.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

My magazine is aimed at ages 15 – 18  of both gender although the magazine may also appeal to younger and older readers that are interested in the genre of music. I am going to aim the magazine at Alternative/Rock so the general profile of the audience will be bright and contrasting colours that will stand out and appeal to the audience

How did you attract/address your audience?

To attract my audience I included a lot of bright colours and images within the pages.  I feel my front cover is attractive and can attract my target audience. 70% of people buy magazines on the spur of the moment so the design of the cover is important. I think my cover worked well as I used one main image that stands out and uses bright reds and colours that will attract my audience. I also used a simple but effective colours scheme of blues and yellows which are also very bright colours so do well in catching the viewer’s attention. The mast head is also large and stands out on the page. After interviewing my target audience I found that the colours were one of the most successful parts of the magazine as they really stood out and the selected audience all liked layout of the images and colours. I also tried to make my magazine look as professional as possible and I think this worked well as the majority of the audience agreed it had a professional look and would buy the magazine. The cover lines and images are also a big attraction to the magazine as it interviews reasons that the reader should buy the magazine and I am pleased I added more cover lines to the final designs as I think this will attract my audience more as they recommended I need more stories featured on the cover page. I also thinks the two banner across the bottom and top works well as it gives the audience an extra reason to buy the magazine after they have been attracted by the presentation.

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

During designing the magazine I used a variety of technologies such as:

• Publisher
• Word (Spell Check Writing)
• Paint
• Digital Camera
• Memory Stick
• Picnik (Editing Photographs)
• Blogs
• Polls
• Internet ( Da Font for Masthead)

I have learnt many things from these technologies and I feel without each of these processes have contributed to the overall designs and made it successful. I feel publisher was the most useful as I created all my designs using it and I was able to create the pages easily. I have learnt that there are a lot of processes included in creating a magazine.

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

I think since my preliminary task I have learnt how to develop my magazine to look more professional and target my audience better. During this task I have used more photo editing software such as picnik which I think has developed the overall look of the images and pages. I have also learnt more about key concepts in magazines and tried to incorporate as many of these as I can within this task. As well as this I have learnt more about the technologies which have developed my layout and designs further and have better knowledge of the blog and polls which has improved my media magazine task as I was able to post and update my development easier. I think the product progressed quickly once I had grasped ideas and had the equipment I needed and I feel the overall finish is at a much higher level than my preliminary task and I am happy with my final outcome.