Evaluation 2

Evaluation

Introduction•My product was a music magazine.

•I worked as an individual.

•I had to create a front cover, contents page and double page feature article.

•I had to take all the pictures going onto the pages and write my own article.

Audience Testing Results

1. What does the title suggest to you?

Most people said gossip/music magazine.

2. What genre/type of music does the magazine focus on and how do you know this?

PopRnB

I gathered the results from this question and put them into a pie chart to clearly show the results. As you can see most people thought it was pop music and only one person though it was an RnB magazine.

Looking at the comments on my questionnaires I can see that most people knew it was pop music because the magazine was a ‘girl band special’

One of the answers from the questionnaires

3.What makes the pages look professional and what stops them from looking

professional?

0 1 2 3 4

Layout

Fonts

Barcode

Pictures

Text

Colours

Answers Given

From this graph I can see which factors made my magazine look professional. It shows that the fonts I used and the colours, layouts, pictures and the barcode I used on the front page were all successful in making my magazine look successful.

4. How genuine does the front cover seem?

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

Genuine VeryGenuine

Not Genuine

I collected my answers for this question and them on a bar chart.

5.Does the contents page simply inform or does it also manage to interest you in

reading the magazine?

InformsInterests

This pie chart shows the contents did manage to interest the majority of my audience who took part in the questionnaire.

6.Does the article sound like a piece of journalism? If not which bits?

All the answers I received said the article did sound like a piece of journalism.

7.Does the article layout make you want to read it? If not why not?

All my answers said yes they would read it however one said that there was a bit too much writing however this was a male and they commented that they think women would read it.

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

products?I used a bold title at the top of the page which is a typical magazine convention. This was vital as it immediately gave hints as to what kind of magazine it was and attracted the reader.

The genre of my magazine is pop. I used bright colours such as pink and yellow to portray this. I think the bright colours are a typical convention of a magazine and I think it was important as it attracted my target audience of teenage girls.

I made my magazine a ‘Girl band special’- real magazines often do special magazines and I think it worked well with my feature artist.

I put a barcode on the front page to make it look authentic, something you would find on every front cover.

The image on my front cover is a typical big picture dominating the page with the models using

direct address. However it also challenges conventions of a real magazine as the artists are quite young whereas usually on a magazine aimed at young teens you would see an older artist for the reader to look up to aspire to be like them.

Another convention of a real magazine was the yellow strip at the bottom of the page.

Another thing typical of a real magazine is the people on the front cover are my feature and are also inside the magazine.

I think I challenged a magazine convention with the fonts I used. On my front cover I used a lot of different fonts. Magazines do use a number of fonts but not with the amount of contrast I had between my fonts. I think it was good to challenge this convention as I am happy with my front cover and I think the use of fonts make things stand out.

Although I had a big title at the top of my page it is quite unusual that its three words long as you would normally just see one word names for a magazine. I think it worked because it is still catchy but I think a one word name would have looked better.

On my contents page I put pictures with page numbers on them. This typical convention was effective as it made my contents page more visually interesting and made it look professional. I also think it would interest the reader and make them flick straight to that page.

I also used subheadings on my contents page. I chose to use this convention as it made my contents clearer and broke it up more making it easier to read and easier to find things you wanted to read straight away such as the things on the cover.

I used quite a big picture of my feature artists. I think this challenges conventions as it dominates the page which you wouldn’t normally find in a contents page as the pictures are normally equal or similar in size.

On my double page spread I used many typical conventions such as big quotes from the interview across the page.

I used this convention because it would make the reader want to read the full article.

I think my use of pictures is a typical convention and I chose to use this as it makes my page looks interesting and it thought it would be more affective than using one big picture.

The article has an introduction and then a series of questions. I thought it as essential convention to use as it is an easy layout for the reader to follow and the questions allow readers to come back to the article as magazines are normally read bits at a time.

I used columns and picked out words in colours to make the article more broken up and interesting-many magazines use these techniques and I think it was affective on my feature article.

I used a big font with the name of my artist at the top of the page which is a typical magazine convention however I haven’t written a big description of what the article is about which challenges conventions.

The colours I used on these pages are girly and reflect the pop-girl band genre of music and it also creates consistency as the pink is also on my front page and contents page.

How does your media product represent particular social groups? 

In my product I have represented female music artists by choosing to base my feature article on a girl band. I think I represented this group well by lots of things such as the colours I used (pink and yellow) which are girly colours often seen on girl band-related pages.

I also think the costumes I used for the pictures suited the social group. The first costume were dress- pink and purple which were quite trendy and girly which is typical of a girl band.

However in the feature article I don’t think the costume represented the social group well as they were wearing rock t-shirts which is unusual for a girl band but I think it worked and made my artists look unique. In the article I think I represented the typical female artist well. I made my artists polite and talk about things like beauty and their ambitions which is typical of a female artist.

In my pictures the makeup is simple and girly with long eyelashes and girly colours such as pink eye shadow and fresh-faced makeup which is typical of a female artist especially in a girl band.

In my pictures I think you can see a relationship between the girls which represents the social group well as you normally see natural or charismatic shots of girl bands, I also think it shows the typical fun, giggly nature of a girl band which is present in my article as I describe that the girls “come giggling through the door”.

The poses are simple but elegant I think represents the social group well as girl bands would normally have simple but beautiful pictures making them look good.

Whilst representing this social group I think my artists were very stereotypical. I chose to represent the social group in this way as I think it would sell more magazines if the girl band was a typical girl band, as people like familiarity and through my audience testing I found that most people knew what genre of music it was (pop) mostly because of the girl band theme.

Overall I think the representation of this social group was suitable for my target audience of female teenagers and I think how I represented them would attract and interest my audience as it is what you’d expect from a girl band.

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

I researched other magazines and I think Q magazine is similar to mine. It features new releases, music compilations, fashion,reviews and album ratings. However my magazine is aimed at a younger audience and combines music with gossip and that’s why I think Bauer Media Group, the publisher of Q magazine would also publish my magazine.

Bauer Media Group print music magazines clash and kerrang! And they also own a number of music channels. Although they already print two music magazines there is still a gap in the market which my magazine could fill. One reason would be that my magazine is aimed at 12-17 years olds and the second would be that it includes gossip and fashion.

I think they would publish my magazine as there are no pop/fashion.gossip magazines in the market and only one ore two music magazines such as smash hits that are aimed at such a young audience. My magazine would easily sell as it is unique and I believe it stands out from clash magazine and is of a better quality. My magazine not only offers music articles and reviews but it also offers the latest fashion and celebrity gossip attracting a much wider range than clash magazine or kerrang magazine.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

•The audience for my magazine would be 12-17 year old girls interested in pop music, celebrities and fashion.

•The ethnicity of my audience would be British as the artists and celebrities featured would be mostly British, however I think it would appeal to other ethnicities as pop girl bands appear all over the world and not just in Britain.

•As the target audience is teens, most of them would be students and therefore have a socio economic status of E.

I think this is a good target audience as teens tend to buy things like magazines and the age range is quite large. The fact that the music genre is pop (popular music) makes it appeal to a wider audience.

Although teens have a socio economic status of E, my magazine isn’t expensive(£1.40) and teens are more likely to be loyal and buy the magazine every month than an older audience as they have more free time and more interest in music and fashion/gossip and want to be up-to-date with the latest music and fashion./gossip. So overall I think my audience is a good for my magazine.

How did you attract/address your audience?

There are many factors that attracted and addressed my audience.

First of all, it the title I used which has hints of what the magazine has in it and suggests that this magazine has gossip and news you can’t find anywhere else. The word “record” also immediately suggests to the audience that it is a music magazine. I think this title worked, as feedback from my audience testing questionnaires showed that they all knew it was a music/gossip magazine.

I think my front cover image is a big part in attracting my audience. It is an interesting pose to look at and the colours match the picture so everything on the front page revolves around them making them the focus.

The girls are also using direct address which grabs the audience’s attention and the white background I used in the picture makes them stand out even more. The colours on the picture are bright and eye-catching and their facial expressions are quite plain so you can’t really tell what kind of people they are- this creates questions in the readers mind making them want to buy the magazine.

I also think the captions and storylines played a big part in attracting my audience for example the word Exclusive! Makes the feature article stand out and creates connotations that the interview will contain information you wont find anywhere else.

Here I have used a question, this would make the reader think about what the answer could be making them want to read the magazine and find out the answer.

Throughout my cover I picked bits out of the storylines and made them bigger or in a contrasting font such as the ’10’ and ‘twitter’. This allows the reader to quickly scan the page and also to highlight the range of things in the magazine.

I used a box to highlight that the magazine was a girl band special, this would attract my audience as they wouldn’t want to miss a special addition.

On my contents page I attracted my audience by putting little descriptions under each heading for example: page 45 Girl Power- New female artists for 2010 look out boys! I think these little captions under each heading would entice the reader to turn to that page.

I think the pictures on my contents page attracted the reader as they are simple but interesting to look at and I think this would motivate the reader to turn to that page and find out what the pictures are about.

The layout is very clear and simple with headings ‘on the cover’, ‘Gossip’ and ‘Music’. This would attract the reader as it would be easy for them to find which bits they wanted to look t first and also enable them to go to bits they are most interested in for example the music section.

On my double page spread I used big quotations from the interview that I thought were the most interesting and controversial, this would attract the reader to read through the article.

The title of my feature article is very simple and focuses on the word ‘rare’ which is the name of the artists and so this would attract readers interested in the girl band as they would see the word ‘rare’(which is red making it stand out) and would make them want to read the article.

This is the layout I used for the pictures on my double page spread. I think it is really interesting to look at and would make the reader stop turning the page and look at the pictures.

I chose these pictures for my double page spread because they look friendly and they are directly addressing the reader on most of them so the reader would feel more involved in the interview as it is as if you are sat in the interview itself.

The pictures are light and clear and easy on the eye and so there not difficult for the reader to stop and look at them. The colours of the girls’ tops stand out and have connotations of the music industry which ties in the pictures with the article. These simple links allow the reader to easily understand what the article and pictures are all about.

The whole layout of the double page spread attracts the reader simply because it is so easy on the eye and simple to follow- it doesn’t take much effort to read.

To achieve this I used columns and made the font of my questions red so the reader can scan to questions they want to read.

I think the whole simplistic works very well in attracting the reader as its not over-powering and wouldn’t put the reader off.

In my actual article I have used very colloquial language. I think this suits the age of my target audience as it is not hard to understand.

At the beginning, before the questions I made a description of the girls’ entrance to set the scene and also to add humour ‘look up to see the girls of Rare (10 minutes late)’.

I also think the description allows the reader to create an interesting picture in their mind of the interview making the whole thing more interesting.

•In my article I used stereotypical characters for my artists. I used the typical polite, ambitious musician. I think this was suitable for the age of my audience and I think it would attract them as I don’t think 12-17 year old girls would like rude rebellious characters who swore.

•I also think sticking to this stereotype created familiarity which people like and I don’t think my particular audience would have liked a controversial celebrity.

•12-17 year old girls are full of dreams and ambitions and I thought it was best to make my artists inspirational so my audience could associate with the artists.

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

First of all, I have learnt that so many techniques go into making a magazine product. I have used many different means of technology and without them I wouldn’t have been able to achieve the high quality of my product.

•Blog-First of all I created a blog to record all my planning, research, development and finally my product. I did this using www.blogger.com I made posts several times a week on my own individual blog so I could develop my ideas enabling me to make the best magazine possible. It was extremely useful as I could access it from any computer that had the internet and it also acted as a storage space where I could put my pictures then refer back to them if I needed them for anything else.

•Internet- I mainly used the internet for research. I was able to find out everything I needed about magazines and any other research I needed to do using the internet. I found many websites useful such as www.wikipedia.com www.dafont.com and www.google.com. The internet was very useful however it was hard at times to find exactly what I was looking for but I got some vital information from the website and it was essential in the process of making my magazine look professional and unique. If i had to make a magazine again I would defiantly use the internet to help me with the process.

•Digital Camera- To take the pictures for my magazine I used a digital camera. At first I was worried that the quality wouldn’t be good as I wasn’t using a professional camera but in the photo shoot I learnt how to overcome this factor. I found that by using good lighting and costume that stood out against the white background I was able to produce some good professional photos and I found that using a digital camera was very successful. It was easy to take pictures at many angles as it was small and light. Uploading my pictures onto the computer was easy and only took a couple of minutes. I was pleased with the outcome of my pictures and would consider using a digital camera again.

•Photoshop- Once I had taken my pictures I chose the ones that I would be using in my magazine pages and uploaded them onto photoshop, a programme for editing and enhancing pictures. I found the programme complicated to use, but after a bit of experience I was able to use it a bit better. Although I didn’t edit my pictures except cropping them I think the programme was good however I don’t think I used this programme to its full potential simply because I didn’t really know how to. Overall this programme was effective in what I needed for my pictures.

•InDesign- InDesign was the programme I used to put my magazine pages together. It was a very professional programme which I found difficult to use at first but after a while I think I started to use the programme well. I don’t think there would have been a programme better for me to create my pages as the end result was professional and of a high quality-something I could never achieve on a programme like Microsoft publisher. I could do everything I needed to on this programme from inserting text and pictures to putting effects and shadow on the page.

Overall the programmes and technologies I used in the process of creating my product were professional and I cannot find any downsides to them. Without these programmes and technologies I don’t think my magazine would have looked so professional. My only criticism is the fact that I wish I could have learnt how to use the programmes more effectively as it was clear they were capable of so much more than how I was using them.

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from

it to the full product?

From creating my preliminary task to finishing my final product I have learnt a massive amount- more than I expected.

When I created my preliminary task I wasn’t happy with the final result and could find nothing but faults. And although I used the same programmes and technologies in both the preliminary and final task there has been a significant

improvement in my work.

First of all I can say that I learnt a lot how the layout can make or break a front cover. The text and pictures have to be eye catching.

I have also learnt that the picture on the front cover doesn’t just have to be a profile shot it can be anything, and the more interesting the better.

Everything has improved from my prelim task. One massive change has to be the use of fonts. I learnt just how important fonts are and how it can make your front cover look professional and fonts can also highlight things and create different meanings.

I also learnt that picking a colour pallet and sticking to it is more successful in making your product look professional. It ties in the whole theme of the magazine and is simply easier on the eye.

I think I have used better language on my final product than on the preliminary task. The storyline captions are more catchy and shorter which allowed me to get more on the cover and makes it easier to read.

I think the final product is better edited that the preliminary task. Using InDesgin I learnt how to make things clearer and easier to see and also how to move things exactly where I wanted them to be which improved the overall quality of the front page.

Conclusion

Overall, I can say I am very happy with my final product.I think the colours and fonts work really well and reflect the girly pop scene and I am also extremely pleased with the pictures I took think they look professional and are perfect for my magazine.

I am pleased with the layout of my pages and think the simplicity of them added to the professional look of the pages. I am especially pleased with my final product as it is significantly better than my preliminary which shows I have come along way since then and have got to know how to use Photoshop and In Design of a high standard. I also feel I’ve learnt more about how to put a magazine together than I did whilst doing the preliminary task.

The only weaknesses of my product are that some tiny details don’t look completely professional such as some of the text on the front page isn’t one hundred percent clear. And I also think my contents page could have been more exciting as it isn’t as varied and packed as my front page.

Despite these points I am extremely happy with my final product and have enjoyed doing it and have learnt so much.