Evaluation

EvaluationRachel Hanson

My Magazine

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

My media product follows conventions as during the research of my magazines, I found out a lot on how magazines are laid out and the colours and fonts they use, for example on a front cover of a magazine they always have a headline, cover stories and a main image, on a contents page there is normally page numbers and images around the page and also lots of small headings telling you what you are expected to read in the magazine and the features of the magazine and on a double page spread, there is normally a main image somewhere, with lots of other images, a main headline and then the article. And on the images text to describe the image, kickers and pull quotes around the page. My magazine follows these conventions by on my front cover I have a big head line saying the name of my magazine ‘Rhythm’ and then a main image behind this, then lots of cover lines around the front cover which are there to try and draw the audience in with what you are expected in the inside of the magazine. My contents page follows conventions by having a few images on it, and then the page numbers and features . This then informs people on what is inside my magazine and what pages it is on, so is very important. My double page spread follows the conventions of a magazine as it has a big headline saying ‘Yasmin’s big break!’ and then a main image on one side covering near enough a page, then a small image on the other side and then has the article written over the two pages. My double page spread also uses features like pull quotes and kickers to just add more of an effect on to my magazine and draw the audience in more. My magazine also follows conventions of a magazine as the fonts I used all match together and are not random, for example on the contents page, the colour scheme is pink, black and white. This then follows the same colour scheme on to my double page spread to make it look more effective and more of a professional magazine. All these conventions of magazine I got from other magazine that are similar to the magazine I have produced, these were magazines such as Billboard, NME and Q. My magazine follows conventions of a music magazine, as you have to get the point across that it is based on music. I did this by having cover lines saying ‘Win a free IPod touch’ which is about music so would interest people that like music. Also in my images, I use props like a micro phone to make it look like someone is singing, Just to represent what the genre is in the magazine. I also list a name of lots of music artists, this would attract more people especially if they enjoy the singer or band.

Main headline for main article, Much bigger text and stands out

Main image, using celebrity endorsement to attract more people.

Cover stories

Pull quote

Similar colour format, Black and white.

Headline

Page numbers, names of artists and albums.

Features inside the magazine

Different images

Main image covering whole page of the artist to show who it is about and how important they are.

Main title

Mast Head

Caption

Headline

Cover lines

Main image

Page numbers

Features

Caption

Pull QuoteKicker

Magazine name

Page numbers

Question 2: How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My media product represents different kind of social groups such as for gender my magazine would represent to both genders as it includes information about male and female music artists which would interest both. It does this by on the front cover the main image is of a female music artist, which would attract females as it would look like a feminism magazine, but then if males like the singer they it would attract to them as well. Also on the front cover there are cover lines saying ‘kanye West 50 greatest hits’, Cover lines like this would attract males as it is a male singer, they might enjoy his music so it could interest them, also females might like him for the same reason.Another social group my magazine would represent, would be young adults, teenagers as the genre of my magazine was R&B, this is quite a popular genre of music, that a lot of younger audience listen to so they would more likely to buy this magazine that share there interests in music. My magazine represents the genre by the title being ‘Rhythm’ which would represent to being music and then my magazine includes artists like ‘Rihanna and kanye west’ which are R&B artists so this would represent to the gender, and then attract the audience that are interested. The mise – en – scene used in the images are what would attract to a younger audience as the person in my pictures are in a bright pink short dress and heels which is modern and aims to younger audience that go out clubbing and drinking as they like to dress up in that way. Also my images represents the genre of my magazine, as in one of my pictures the person is singing through a microphone, which shows that it is about music this magazine.

Skins would be a perfect example of a media product with the same audience as my magazine as they have a popular young audience which have the same interests as my audience for example ‘fashion, music, partying and middle class’/

Magazines like billboard represent to the same social group as me as they use the same music ‘pop music’ and the same sort of artists. They all represent to middle class people which is the same as my social group.

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

A media institution that would be most likely to distribute my media product would be Bauer magazine institute as it produces music magazines like Q and Kerrang.

It also produces fashion and sport magazines like heat, closer and match. As it produces a lot of different genre’s of magazines, this shows that it is a big company and it is also one of Europe's largest privately owned publishing groups. It also does TV shows and radio stations so uses lots of different types of media which would be good to advertise magazines and stuff, so If they produced my music magazine I could advertise it on the radio or using an advert on the TV. Bauer produces of 80 brand names today. Bauer would be good to produce my magazine as the music magazines it produces are all indie and rock so there is room on the market to produce a R&B magazine but also it might not produce my magazine as because the genres of the music magazines are so different to mine that is a reason why they might not want to produce it because it’s so different.

Question 4: Who would be the audience for your media product?

The target audience for my media product is young adults, teenagers as this is the age that associates more with music and fun things like festivals etc. The reason I have chosen this specific audience is because it relates more to me, as I am also the age of the audience so I know more of an idea what kind of things young people like to look for in a magazine and the genres. Also being the age of the audience means I can associate more with people my age about magazines, music etc. Also during my research on music magazines, a number of them were aimed at the same target audience as my own so researching in to these gave me a lot more range of ideas on how to lay out the magazine and the type of language to use to aim at the right audience and other things like the articles in the magazines, so I gained a lot out these magazines for my own. My magazine appealed to my target audience as in the images I took, the mise – en –scene on the people in my photos relates to younger audience as the dress one of the girls has on, is short and bright pink and appeals to people that dress up to go out clubbing. Also the language and the way I speak in my double page spread would appeal to a younger audience as it talks about going on holidays with you’re friends and talks about clubbing and things like ‘Bet it was hard to dance with all them boys around you?’. The tone is a comedy tone that would suit to an every day conversation with a young audience as it’s describing holidays, partying and boys.

Here are a view images of the sort of audience for my media product. They are all young adults, well fashioned and look youthful just like the girl in my magazine front cover. Also in one of the pictures is at a festival, which shows the relation to music.

Question 5: How did you attract/address your audience?I attracted and addressed my audience with my magazine as on the front cover the title ‘Rhythm’ associates well with the genre of music so my audience people young adults that enjoy music would be attracted to this kind of title. I also used bright colours on my front cover like pink as it is eye catching and stands out from other colours, especially the pale grey background. The clothing on the girl in the images attracts to my audience as it is dressy and going out clothing, something you would wear on a night out or to a party so this attract younger people.

Also on the contents page of my magazine I list a number or music artists like ‘Jay-Z, Chase and Status, The Script and Nicki Minaj’. All these artists attract there music to a younger audience just like my magazine does, so having these people in my magazine will attract to people that enjoy their music and will want to read my magazine to find out more about them.

Also on my contents page, I talk about music festivals which is a fun thing for teenagers/young adults to do, so this would interest them and make them want to read the magazine if it shares there interest and news about the latest festivals. During my double page spread, the way I speak to my audience is in a informal way, like how I mention things about love life’s and boys and holidays which is fun subjects that can keep the readers interested and they could also relate some of the articles to their daily lives. Where as if I used formal language, this could take the fun out the articles and just make the readers bored.

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

I have learnt a lot about the technologies during the process of my media product as I had never used a Mac book before the making of my magazine, so this gave me the knowledge on how to use it, and to create my magazine using one of these, instead of just a basic computer. I also had to use a camera for the images on my magazine, which gave me the knowledge on how to make my images look like they were suited for a music magazine and attract to the correct audience. Also during the construction of my product I had to use a video camera to record my feed back from my focus group. Before this, I had never used a video camera before so I learnt how to control one, and record a video and to certain camera effects like tilting the camera. Once I had recorded my video, I had edit it using a software called Imovie which was on the Mac books. This gave me the skills on how to cut parts out of my movies, and edit in certain text and effect for certain parts of the filming. Using these technologies has given me the confidence to use all this equipment for my next products or if used in my daily life.

I also got the skills by using just basic online social net working sites like survey monkey, twitter, face book and YouTube. I used these to create questionnaires and then to send them out to my friends etc on the social networking sites to get back feed back for my product, and I used YouTube for uploading my focus group on to blogger. Before the making of this product, I had never used blogger before which helped me upload all my work online easily, and edit my work and get back feed back and comments from my teacher. I also learnt how to high light certain hyperlinks to make them stand out and show up better on my blogger.

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

Looking back on my preliminary task I used lack of colour and choice of images, as it is very plain and got not much really going. The cover lines are not clear at all, and are all similar colours so not very creative. Also in my images, there is not much creativity used in them, and there is just only one picture basically. The contents page has no colour on it what so ever so looks nothing like a contents page. Where as my completed magazine uses a lot of colour and stands out from each other. My contents page has a lot going on, and looks conventional to what a contents page should look like in a magazine. The use of images on my finished magazine shows different places and poses and the editing used on the pictures is a lot more than what the pictures show on my preliminary task. My completed magazine looks a lot more professional than my preliminary task one as it follows the conventions of a magazine and has eye catching bright coloured fonts and uses different styles of writing to add a mixture of everything in to the magazine. On the contents page, Everything is labelled and well put together, where as on the task contents page, it’s just placed randomly, and nothing really to it or going on. The skills I have developed are how to follow the conventions of a magazine and how to attract to your audience by using certain fonts and colours through out the magazine. I also learnt things by, if you add a lot on to you’re magazine it shows that there is a lot going on and makes it look much better. My creativity skills have improved a lot from the process of these two magazines.

The mast head is plain, and not standing out much.

Hardly any cover lines or images, shows that there is not much going on.

Using the same boring colours.

Not much editing on the main image so just looks plain.

Date and cost, more of a magazine.

Much better mast head, with more colour and stands out.

The main images is more edited, and stands out better.

A lot more cover stories around the page, showing their is a lot going on and not much empty space.

A bar code to make it more efficient.