Alice McIntoshAS Media Studies

Evaluation

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

real media products?

In my magazine there is examples of generic conventions such as a barcode, mast head, dateline price etc. Also to ensure my knowledge of the basic codes and conventions of a magazine I completed analysis's of music magazines. In all the magazines I researched for this particular genre of pop the barcode, dateline and price were relatively small and steered away from the centre of the page as you can see in my magazine this is what I have done to follow the conventional layout. http://alicemcintosh96.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/magazine-analysis.html My magazine follows the codes and conventions as there is no challenges visible on my front page as you can see the use of direct mode of address has been used showing again the conventions being followed. I was mainly influences by ‘We Love Pop Magazine‘ due to the roughly the same target audience. The age range for my magazine is aged 13 – 18 years which is similar to ‘We Love Pop Magazine‘ which is 13-16 year olds. Another magazine which I was influenced by was ID magazine. http://alicemcintosh96.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/possible-front-cover.html

My contents page has mainly be influenced by ‘We Love Pop Magazine’ as on the contents page the cover star is the main focus who was on the front cover which is shown in my magazine. This is an example I found in ‘ we love pop magazine’ of The Saturdays who were the main cover stars on the front cover and continued to stay the main image on the contents page. There are also other exampleshttp://alicemcintosh96.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/analysis-for-front-coverof-status.html http://alicemcintosh96.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/analysis-of-contents-page.html I have also added an editors not to my contents page as when I was researching into similar magazines I realised that this was constantly occurring, especially in ‘We Love Pop Magazine’. Another magazine in which I was influenced by the layout was ‘Mizz’ magazine as they advertised there front cover in the contents page which I thought was useful and effective.

My double page spread was mainly influenced by ‘We Love Pop’ Magazine, both the layout and the language. I particularly like the layout with the article on the left hand side and the cover star posing on the right which I think suits my demographic as there is not awful lot of writing which could be off putting towards the target audience which is relatively young. I have also highlighted her name at the top of the page and used a quote from the article as the heading which as you cans see has been used in ‘We Love Pop Magazine’ There many magazines that I researched into to write my article mainly ‘Top of The Pops’ Magazine, I realised that the language had to be simple and chatty as complex words would be off putting to read. I also found that in many there were interviews with the cover star not just a load of information written up as I felt this would hold a stronger connection between the cover star and audience if it was the cover star actually answering the questions. I found when reading magazines especially ‘Mizz’ magazine hat during the interview when the cover star laughed or used their body language it would be written in brackets to help the audience visualise actually being there.

Have you ever been in love?[laughs] ‘I have never been in love with someone but I can say I have had relationships where I have loved and cared for that person but its everything has just became so hectic and crazy there is literally no time and it would be silly to consider a relationship now.’

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

The image used on the front cover is a young female who is not viewed in a stereotypical way as she is shown to be dominant and in charge, ‘We Love Pop’ magazine usually portrays women on the front cover as very girly however I have choose to challenge this as the cover star on the front of my magazine is shown to have an attitude as all of the pictures used in my magazine are not the typical images you would see. Her facial expressions in each image represents her character as being feisty and in control however the costume, hair and make-up reflects he feminine side of being classy and sophisticated . ‘Top of the Pops’ magazine as you can see represents women stereotypically viewed as they are smiling and shown to be having as the demographic is slightly older for my magazine I thought it would be useful to challenges these stereotypical views and represent women as strong and independent almost like a role model for young female teenagers who are the main target audience. The fact that there is no use of direct mode of address signifies her rebellious strike as she is purposely not looking at the camera there no hint of shyness simply by her facial expressions this is visible emphasising most teenagers personality.

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

Major distributorsIPC Media - is one of the biggest magazine distributors, they only do two music magazines, NME and Uncut, however NME is possibly one of the best selling music magazines in the UK. Uncut on the other hand appeals to a niche market but still is extremely popular.http://www.ipcmedia.com/ Bauer - they have a bigger magazine portfolio then IPC, but they both offer the same type of category's.Bauer has music magazines such as Kerrang and Q. These are some of the biggest music magazines around. http://www.bauermedia.com/no_cache/willkommen/ http://alicemcintosh96.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/music-magazine-distribution-analysis.html Top of the Pops magazine is a monthly publication produced by BBC Magazines. It was originally based as a supplementary magazine for the BBC television programme Top of the Pops, however when the show was taken off air, the magazine still continued to be produced. As my magazine is similar to ‘Top of the Pops’ and has a similar target audience magazine I feels this would be the appropriate distributor for my magazine.http://alicemcintosh96.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/publication-plan.html

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

My magazine has a target audience of mostly females aged 13-18, its for those who are interested in the music industry and the latest gossip on artists who are topping the charts. We Love Pop is targeted at 13-16 year old girls which is very similar to my magazine. The target audience for my magazine are obsessed with music, pop stars and gossip I wanted my magazine to come across as chatty and funny but never patronising or preachy. There’s exclusive backstage access, photos & interviews. To design my specific target audience I created a questionnaire and handed it out to those in my year and below and gathered evidence to distinguish my target audience before hand I have tried to follow there answers given in the questionnaire for example the magazine is a monthly magazine and I have also made it at the price of £3.50 which was the most popular in the questionnaire. I also created a target audience profile to what my audience might be this helped me to get started on my magazine and give me a rough idea of what I am catering for. http://alicemcintosh96.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/blog-post_8739.html

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

ColoursThe main colour that I have chosen through out my magazine is pink as the target audience is mainly females I felt this was an appropriate colour and suitable as it displays a girl feminine side to the magazine. However there is other uses of colours such as yellow and black, I used these combination of colours to highlight and exclusive in the magazine to indicate an importance.CoverLines Cover lines are one of the main aspects in the magazine as they offer information of what is going to be included in the magazine therefore I had to think carefully and choose the most suitable for my target audience, as the magazine is mainly aimed at women I choose the specific cover line ‘Women can rap’ as I felt this really stands up for women rappers who are stereotypically viewed as not very good and males outnumbering them. I felt by displaying this gives young female rappers who are interested in the music industry a female rapper to look up to. Pictures My first attempt of original photography showed to lack of good quality due to the camera that the images were taken on did not have a flash, therefore I had to repeat this task with a camera that did have a flash. http://alicemcintosh96.blogspot.co.uk/2012_12_01_archive.html I wanted to convey a strong, independent look as I wanted the readers to look up to the cover star as a role model who they can take inspiration from. The images that are shown in the magazine are not very girly like showing a rebellious attitude as I felt that teenagers were more able to connect with this type of attitude however still showing her sophisticated look through here clothing.http://alicemcintosh96.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/images.html

Language/ToneThe language that I decided to use was a chatty, formal attitude as I didn’t want the magazine to come across to serious as the target audience is aged 13-18 year olds, there is moderate use f slang as through research I found that magazines such as ‘We Love Pop’ magazine had uses of slang on their front pages and abbreviated words. I wanted the language to be fun, energetic and easy to read.http://alicemcintosh96.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/language.html MastheadAt first I wanted to name my magazine WHAM as I did a mock up of a music magazine but then after thinking about the target audience I realised that the name related to much to the 80’ band. http://alicemcintosh96.blogspot.co.uk/2012_12_01_archive.html I decided that the mast head had to have a clear indication that it was a music magazine therefore I chose the word ‘LIPS’ as I feel this shows a clear link between the music industry. Also from researching into magazines I specifically chose this name as I was able to rein act this through my original photography. As the pouting of the lips links to he masthead ‘LIPS’ This idea was found through researching into ID magazine which also has a similar link between their mast head and cover star. http://alicemcintosh96.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/possible-front-cover.html

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

The main programme that I used was paint.net this was specifically used to edit my images, and neaten them up more to make them look more proficient. Strengths• It is very easy to discard the background by using the magic wand, this

was also relatively easy to get to grips with considering I had never used the software before

http://alicemcintosh96.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/draft_8.html • Another strength was the amount of effects that was included on the

software as you were able to highlight the image using a variety of colours even though I didn’t use this n my magazine I found it useful to experiment with.

Weaknesses • If you have never used the software before in which case I was in that

position it is hard to learn how to work the soft ware for it to benefit your work

• On lots of occasions I had to restart my computer as errors kept occurring of not enough memory available.

• It is also easy to use to much editing and cut of half of the image which does not look very good as it is very visible.

PublisherAnother software that I used to make my magazine, mainly my double page spread was publisher. This was much easier to use as I was able to work on two pages instead of two single pages on paint.net. The main advantage that think publisher has is it is very easy to use and work with, its very easy to edit your text and images with out the hassle of inserting a new layer. Also by using the preview button you are able to look at you work and see how well it looks and any improvement needed to be done.However there is also a disadvantage using publisher which is mainly that it does not have the amount of editing effects that are included on paint.net. BloggerThe other main programme that we had to use was blogger to upload our research it was very easy again to use as you were able to change your posts if you changed your mind or delete previous ones. Never the less time management was a big issue for me as you could not insert a blog between dates therefore time management had to be accurate.

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

Preliminary Task

Final Proof

Front Cover

Contents Page

Front Cover

Contents Page

At the start of the course we were all given our preliminary task in which we had to create a front cover and contents page for a school magazine. I have compared the two together and it is clear that there has been drastic improvement. Especially the use of editing as in the ‘STACS’ magazine the image used has not been edited very well as he looks like its just been cut off and also the arm of one of the females has been cut off showing that in my recent front cover the images are all edited to good quality. The contents page for ‘STACS’ magazine has also shown improvement a there is no title to say that it is the contents page where as if we look at the recent contents page it is very clear that this is the contents page. I think that my recent magazine shows more experience of research as there are more things relevant that have a meaning for example the link between the mast head and cover star. I also think I have improved on the house colours used, they are show a link together and reflect the target audience.

How successful do you feel your end product is in fulfilling the task? How well does it fit the

brief?

Positives• I really like the fact that I was able to come up with the mast head a show a clear

indication that there is a link between the cover star and the mast head through her facial expressions.

• I think that my front cover has had a lot of improvement from my first proof , as the colours are consistent through out and the final image I used shows hat it is a music magazine.

• The cover lines included are appropriate and show how dedicated the magazine is to music.

Negatives • My weakness for me would be my contents page as I feel the main image has been

enlarged to much however this shows the main cover star is the centre of the magazine.

• Another weakness would be my double page spread as I would of liked to of added more colours on to the double page spread as mot magazines I have researched have used vibrant colours throughout.

• Also I would of like to include more images through out the magazine as I thing the target audience will more enticed to looking at pictures rather than reading lots of text.

Over all I think have followed the codes and conventions of a music magazine sufficiently well as it is clear and obvious on the particular genre of a music magazine of pop. There is consistency through out on the house colours and fonts used. I have researched into similar magazines and reinforced this into my own magazine. I think that the original photography that I have used works well with the magazine challenging the typical views on women being advertised in magazines.