Media evaluation

Media Evaluation

By Thomas Padgett

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

Originally I intended to develop my magazine around the existing magazine ‘Q’. When I was conducting my research into this magazine I particularly liked the front cover. But when I started to plan my layouts, I decided that I would take my inspiration from another source. Whilst conducting further research I came across ‘RWD’ magazine, in which I particularly like its double page spreads. So therefore I decided I would plan my magazine around these two magazines. When I had created my draft plans, I asked my teachers and class mates to provide me feedback on what they thought about it. They said that I should change them slightly and gave me advice how to improve it, so that I could engage my target audience more, helping me with completing my final copies.

The mast head I created was very similar to Q’s mast head. I decided to stick closely to the conventions used by Q because it also has the same audience which I am targeting, meaning that if I used a similar style, I would be able to also attract the same audience, allowing my product to develop in the marketplace.

Due to the demographics I was aiming at, I also decided to use images of my artist that would attract the audience, such as my rapper who has topped the charts posing for the camera in a recording studio. During my research I had looked at a picture of Eminem which I liked, so I decided to try and recreate the picture with my artist, allowing me to attract the same audience that likes Eminem.

Front Cover

Contents PageMy contents page is based around a contents page that I came across during my research, it is not from a music magazine but I knew that this doesn’t matter because I could slightly adapt it to incorporate codes and conventions of a music magazine.

I made sure that I stuck to the same colour scheme that I used for my front cover, to keep the magazine having continuity, allowing for readers to flick through easily. I also made sure that the fonts used on both pages were consistent.

The pictures which I took for my contents page also were linked to the writing through arrows, showing clearly that a certain story was linked to a certain picture.

Double Page SpreadThe contents page that I have created is based around a contents page from ‘RWD’ magazine, which I came across during my research.

The styling of the double page spread immediately attracted me into reading the spread, and I am in the target group which I am aiming my product at, meaning that I knew styling my spread like this would work well.

I again stuck with the continuity colours from the front cover and from the contents page, and also the same font.

The imaging I used on this page was also a similar style to that of the double page spread, portraying the artist doing his job, which makes the reader feel he is doing it for them.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

I decided to aim my product at a select group of people who were interested in chart music. I decided on this particular group of twelve to twenty year olds because it is an area that I am also interested in so therefore I would like to see a magazine for this area.

I decided to carry out my research on this area and found that there were not many magazines that just specified on chart music, leaving me a small niche in the market for my product to hit. I also did research into what type of people would use a chart magazine by creating a questionnaire and handing it to a wide range of people.

The general consensus that I received back was that my main target audience would be as I wanted, twelve to twenty year olds. This meant that the social groups I would be aiming at would mainly be students, but giving me a variety in this group because they would be students of different institutions, from comprehensive school to university.

The images which are used in my magazine through out, are also there to attract the attention of the particular target audience I am aiming my product at. I know this because during my research, I looked at different magazines who also had the same audiences and they had images similar to mine in them, meaning I knew that taking these images would make my magazine very successful in attracting my target audience.

The magazine itself hits a niche in the market meaning that any people from any social group who are interested in chart music can actually buy the product and enjoy reading it, because it is not solely intended for a certain type of people.

Colour schemes through out the magazine are also colour schemes which attract my target audience. I know this because the results of my questionnaires said that my target audience wanted to see these colours in a magazine.

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

One company that could distribute my product would be Bauer. They publish successful magazines such as ‘Take A Break’ and ‘Bella’. This means that the company knows how to publish successful products. The company currently doesn’t have any mainstream music magazines being produced, therefore it would allow for my magazine to be a unique opportunity for the company to take on and produce, hitting a niche that they can’t currently hit.

Bauer

Dennis

Dennis produces lots of different genre magazine including Current Affairs, Cars and also Technology. In these genres they produce lots of successful magazines including ‘The First Post’, ‘Auto Express’ and ‘Maxim’. Although all these successful magazines, Dennis is not currently producing any magazines aimed at music, meaning that if they distributed my magazine they would be able to reach a wider audience, helping them maximise income, meaning that if the product was of a high enough quality, they would use there expertise to publish the magazine

Who would be the audience for your media product?

The audience for my product is twelve to twenty year olds who are interested in chart music, and want a magazine that will give them all different types of music, not just one area such as grime, r&b or dubstep.

These are my particular audience because it is an area which I personally felt wasn’t targeted enough by a product which I would be offering, meaning that there is a gap in the market which my product would exploit.

The target audience who I am reaching are also mainly students, who like interesting stories, meaning that I have to revolve my magazine around interesting stories.

How did you attract/address your audience?

To attract my target audience I decided that I would create a questionnaire to give to the demographic group that I was targeting, which happened to be twelve to twenty year olds. The results of this questionnaire suggested different things that they would like to see in a magazine.

Firstly they suggested that using big images on the front cover and double page spread would help attract their attention and engage them into buying and reading the magazine.

They then went on to suggest different colours that I could use on the page which would attract their attention. The three main colours that were suggested were yellow, black and red.

I also decided that I would use techniques such as plugs and puffs which would attract the audience into looking at the magazine and wanting to know more about what was going to be going on inside the magazine. An example that I used would be on the front cover where I have used a puff to say ‘inside this magazine you can win an ‘i-pod nano.’ This helps to attract peoples attention because they want to see how to win this prize.

I also used plugs of artists names that would feature in the magazine, meaning that my audience would know who they would read about if they bought the magazine. This would work well if somebody who the person likes was inside the magazine because they would want to buy it so that they could read about that person.

I placed a large masthead in top left hand corner of the page to catch the eye of the customer. This would help because when the magazine is positioned on the rack in a shop, this is the part of the magazine that you would see. So therefore if the mast head stands out and attracts the attention of people, it is more likely to get bought because it’s above the other magazines in the rack therefore making it easy to see and find.

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

I have learnt how to manipulate depth of field whilst taking photos. This allows me to take photos creating effects of distances within the photo. In these photos I also learnt how to create shadows, through using different lighting affects.

I have learnt to set out a publication on serif page plus. I learnt this by producing my plans for my magazine on serif, allowing for me to have a hand written copy and a copy on the computer, for me to compare how my ideas can be produced.

I also learnt how to make a depth of field and other editing effects suck as gradients and radial blurs using photoshop. I used photoshop to produce my final magazine, using effects on it to produce a high level of final product.

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

I feel that the preliminary task allowed for me to look at particular designs that I could use and transfer to my final task, allowing for me to enhance my skills in creating and completing the particular designs I would eventually use for my final product. The feedback which I received helped me to see what areas of my coursework which I could change due to them being of a poor quality and not up to scratch, and which areas of the task which were good and which I should use again on my main task.

While producing my preliminary task I learnt the skills I needed to learn how to use Photoshop. This was a new experience for me because I had never used this tool before. Whilst using photoshop I had to learn how to use all the tools and buttons to go along with it which would allow me to produce a magazine.