Evaluation of media

Evaluation Dominic Jones

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have

learnt in the progression from it to the full product

Photography

In the process of making my school and music magazine my photography skills have improved.

Photography

In the process of making my school and music magazine my photography skills have improved.One way I have improved in photography is in my skills of cropping. By enlarging sections of the front page image you can see a clear difference from my first attempt of cropping to my cropping in my music magazine. In my first attempt, there are jagged lines around the image showing that my cropping was not precise enough however in my music magazine cropping I produced a smoother edge by taking more time and effort to pay attention to the smaller details. I also learned that by putting a lighter background under the cropped image, the jagged lines become less visible straight away.

Preliminary task cropping

Full product cropping

Jagged lines

Smoother cropping

Typography

In comparing between my preliminary task and full product, I can see that I have thought more carefully about the fonts that I choose to use and how it relates to the conventions of my magazine.

Typography

In comparing between my preliminary task and full product, I can see that I have thought more carefully about the fonts that I choose to use and how it relates to the conventions of my magazine.In retrospect I did not spend as much time and effort choosing a font for my masthead as I did in my music magazine. The typography for my school magazine does not really say anything about the type of magazine I was making however I think that this is different in my music magazine as I think it gives a retro feel and a unique look to the magazine which is what I was aiming for in making my indie/folk magazine.

Content of Magazine

By looking at my school magazine and then my music magazine, a difference I have found is that the content that I have put on the front page to entice the reader to read my magazine is much more appropriate in my music magazine.

Content of Magazine

By looking at my school magazine and then my music magazine, a difference I have found is that the content that I have put on the front page to entice the reader to read my magazine is much more appropriate in my music magazine.In my school magazine, one of the special offers was to win a trip to Alton towers however in retrospect, this is not the most suitable prize for the children in year 6 going into year 7 as they may not all get on the rides. To improve on this I should have chosen an offer more suitable for the age group.

Content of Magazine

By looking at my school magazine and then my music magazine, a difference I have found is that the content that I have put on the front page to entice the reader to read my magazine is much more appropriate in my music magazine.In my music magazine however I thought much more carefully about the special off that I wanted to include. I chose a free poster of the month offer which would give the reader a free poster of a band or artist. The band or artist would be in the genre indie/folk so as to be certain to appeal to my target audience.

How did you attract/address your audience?

Layout and Colour Scheme

The colours I chose for my magazine cover attract my audience due to the addition of the red and orange text as this stands out against the background and is a contrast against the light blue.

The layout of my magazine attracts my audience due to the amount of writing that is on the front cover, this makes the magazine look like it has variety and a lot to say.

Attraction to target audience

By researching magazines of my genre, I was able to see what conventions run through and how the target audience is attracted. One convention that I noticed was the size of the image on the front cover. It was always a medium close up and never went far below the shoulders. I decided to break this convention when I was photographing for my music magazine because I felt that I wanted more text around the image which would entice my audience rather than having a large image and loosing some space for anchorage text.

Special OffersThe special offers that I have included in my magazine help attract my target audience due to the type of special they are such as a free poster included of a band or artist specific to my genre of indie/folk. I chose Of Monsters and Men as this fits in with the genre of my magazine.

The competitions that I have included in my music magazine are also carefully picked to fit my genre and stereotypical target audience. I chose to include a competition advertisement on the front cover advertising the chance to win an acoustic guitar as I felt this would attract many of my target audience.

After interviewing 10 people who I felt fit into my genre, 7 out of 10 of them said that the instrument that they would want to play is the guitar. This gave me reason to include this competition in my magazine.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of

constructing this product?

Photography

I used cropping in the process of making my magazine. I used Adobe Photoshop to achieve this.

First, I selected the magnetic lasso tool which would allow me to crop around my image without chopping sections off by mistake

Then I traced around the outside of my image until all of it was outlined.

I then moved my cut out image onto a blank page and print screened this, pasting it on my magazine and removing the

white to finish with the image below

By learning to use Photoshop I was able to add professional-looking photography onto my blog and I am given more freedom in the backgrounds that I can put on a photo.

Typography

To get interesting and unique fonts, I used the website: dafont.com with gives a large range of fonts. To choose my font I knew that I needed something unique as this would appeal to my target audience.

I selected the category, Retro, as I thought this would contain the typography most suited to my target audience.

I then chose a font and print screened it onto my magazine.

By using this website, I have giving my magazine a more unique look which shows more identity as it has its individual font which would be instantly recognisable.

Publisher

I used publisher to present my magazine, I had not used publisher much before this project so I had to learn how to use certain aspects of it.I have shown improvements from my last project when the layering in particular was not a good feature of my magazine.

The guidelines were helpful when using Publisher as they helped me to know where the print margins were so nothing was cut off when I printed my work.

The ‘set transparent colour’ tool was useful too as it allowed me to choose a colour that I wanted to be transparent, this made certain aspects of my magazine look more like a unit and the layering was also more effective as the different layers seem to fit in with each other.

Another feature of publisher that I used was the text wrapping tool which allowed me to choose the way in which the text wrapped around an image. This gave my text a professional look to it and gave the story a clean, tidy layout.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

My Audience

By looking at the content of my magazine, my audience would be people aged 16-30 due to the type of stories that are written and the mode of address I have used when typing on the front page and the main story. Due to the fact that there are free posters included in my magazine, this gives the impression that this is aimed at a younger audience who would want to put posters up in their room.

By looking at my contents page this suggests that my magazine is aimed at music lovers who like to know the newest bands and artists. The fact that there is a feature of ‘The Radar’ that lets the readers know of the best upcoming new bands or artists, shows the type of people who would be interested in buying my magazine.

My Audience

My skyline on the top of my magazine also gives an insight into the type of audience that would be interested in my magazine.

The four selling points of my magazine also show why people would buy my magazine. Bands – because my readers want to be up to date on all the new comers into the genre that they are interested in (indie/folk)Interviews – because my readers are interested in the bands and artists that they listen to and want to know more about them. Free Tickets – This is a massive selling point of my magazine as people will keep buying my magazine due to the promise of free tickets to see a band from the specific genre.Download Codes – This shows that my magazine is up to date with technology. The convenience of typing in a code to download music would be very appealing to the music lovers that read my magazine.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My target audience that I am aiming to attractt is the Indie/Folk social group.I constructed my magazine by thinking about the stereotypes of the group and what the main features are that put someone in this social group.

When doing research into similar magazine genres as mine I found that a common convention in each of the magazines was the offer of a free CD or Tape, sometimes of an unknown artist or group. This shows that the social group are interested in new music and are open minded in listening to different music. I then implemented this convention into my own magazine offering a free CD containing the best song of 2012.

Fashion/’Look (Mise en scene)To appeal to my chosen social group I needed to photograph my model on the front page in this type of clothing that is typical of the indie/folk genre. To back up my clothing decisions I researched some indie/folk bands as they are sometimes seen as trendsetters and looking at bands or artists is a good way to find out the fashion of the social group.

Fashion/’Look (Mise en scene) continuedBy researching the fashion of the bands and artists from my chosen social group I can then pick out certain themes that run through all the photos. One theme that I picked up on was the fact that the clothing worn is very natural and no extra special effort is needed in contrast to artists such as Lady Gaga.Further more, shirts were often worn highlighting the image of ‘smart casual’.I was able to decide on an outfit to be w0rn on the front page as it would represent my audience in a positive light due to the use of smart but relaxed clothing.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media

product and why?

Media Institutions

There are a variety of institutions that I could choose for my magazine to be partnered with. My choice will show what I want for my magazine and I will explain why I have chosen the institution that I have.My main choices for institutions would be Bauer or a small, independent company. There are advantages for both.If I chose Bauer, I would have the advantage of massive publicity due to their connections with radio and TV to get my magazine airtime. This is also high profile and a trusted brand.If I were to go for a smaller, independent company this would highlight my magazines ethos for being different and going against the grain, showing its unique setup which will be attractive to my target audience of Indie/Folk music lovers.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge

forms and conventions of real media products?

Conventions that I have added to my magazine.

A convention that I have taken on board is the addition of a masthead that stands out at the top of my page. Indentifying and ionising my magazine clearly to my audiences through the typography and graphics representing my magazine to be niche and original.

I have however, broken some of the conventions found in music magazine. One being, the fact that many magazine feature the subject on the front of the magazine looking directly at the camera, addressing the audience through eye contact. I wanted to break this convention because I felt that this would reflect on my magazine in a way that shows its uniqueness and originality.

I think that this shows my model to be cool, different and an aloof persona. This will attract audiences to my magazine due to the iconic image and atmosphere that his body language creates.