Evaluation

Evaluation…By Sophie Davies

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

• I think my project does look like a magazine, it has character and all the terminology in it. I have used a few magazine conventions which include; a barcode and price on the front, logos at the top of the page, name of the magazine at the top of the page in big bold writing. My magazine is conforming to magazine conventions, the layout of the images on the contents page is similar to that of Karrang. I analysed three front covers, three contents pages and three double page spreads from three different music magazines; NME, Kerrang and The Guitar Magazine. My magazine clearly fits into the music genre, my model on the front cover is holding a ukulele and the masthead is of a music genre. I have kept the mise en scene empty in the large photos to make it look like they were taken in a studio and professional, there was one prop on each photo and the necessary clothes and make-up and lighting. I have edited the some of the photos by adding tints to reduce the whiteness; the lighting was very bright in some of them and made things too white so all you could see was white. I also cropped the photos, I didn't have to do much editing as I took the photos on the background that I wanted.

Large masthead

Looking into the camera

Large name of main article

Barcode and price

I have put in a menu bar like the kerrang magazine, following music magazine conventions.

2) How does your media product represent particular social groups?

• My magazine mainly represents teens-late teens, it shows them as high achieving and fun people. It mostly represents males, I conducted a class survey and the majority of people that said they would buy my genre of magazine were male.

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

• I think the Bauer Media Group would own my magazine.

It would be sold and distributed in supermarkets and/or a traditional newsagents. It will be circulated fortnightly or monthly and will be available through subscription. The magazines website would have a similar colour scheme and image layout; they would be spread out over the site well. Not all the material in the magazine would be exclusive to the printed version, some of the smaller stories would be on the website.

4) Who would be the audience for your media product?

• My target audience for my magazine are teens-young adults that are into pop, punk and rock music. The consumer profile that I have created includes the consumer listening to Kerrang, the charts and maybe watching a bit of Scuzz.

5) How did you attract/address your audience?

• My magazine uses conventions from other professional magazines E.G. big bold titles, big images and a barcode on the front that I think would help attract an audience. I chose the word 'Muse' for my magazines name it means "In mythology, the Muses were nine goddesses who symbolized the arts and sciences. Today, a muse is a person who serves as an artist's inspiration". I used the page design to draw the readers eyes over the whole page so they see more of what is on the page and so they absorb more of what is on the page. I also used costume to show the audience that the magazine isn't just for pop enthusiasts and is also for punk and rock fans.

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

• I started creating my magazine on Microsoft publisher and then continued to and finished it on there, I also did a bit of editing on the photos on Photoshop, I made one darker because the lighting was very bright and there was a lot of white in the image. I used an apple IPod touch for some of the photos and a Nikon DSLR camera for others. I learnt that being in a well lit area and turning the flash off is a good idea. I also have used slideshare and PowerPoint for presenting some of my work.

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

•  I have learnt how to use Photoshop effectively and a lot of its tools, I have learnt how to make magazine layouts and how to make them on Microsoft Publisher. I have learnt lots of magazine terminology and how to draw an audience in by using colours and fonts.