Formal Evaluation.

By Emma Marsden.

Printed Portfolio.

Introduction.• My project is to make a magazine. Construct a cover, contents page

and double page article for it, and make it all individually. For this project, I worked with computers and cameras to make my finished project.

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

• The genre of my magazine is pop/ indie. I combined the two genres to make my magazine unique. I think it is important to add something to the genre so it is not like every other magazine made by a student, and to make it more interesting. My media product contains all the basic magazine conventions. My cover uses a medium shot photo which uses direct address, a technique mostly always used to include the reader. Also, it uses all the layout conventions of a typical magazine cover: heading, taglines, main picture, sub titles and other stories. I used all these conventions so that it looked like a magazine with a slightly professional look. To make my magazine different, I chose a more vibrant colour scheme. However 40% of my audience feedback came back negative for this move, but feedback also said my cover still looks professional and reflects the target audience & genre.

1: in what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?• For my contents, I made sure I made at least 100 pages to add realism, as

no magazines contain only 30 pages or so. Also for my contents, I followed the usual conventions; images, listing and titles. The red and blue colour scheme is continued from the front page, as is colourful enough to make the audience read on. However, only one of my images uses direct address.

• For my main article, I have used the typical conventions to explain the story and catch the audiences attention. These are; heading, subheading, images & quotes.

• Also, for realism, I made sure my article’s celebrity is there to sell/ advertise something. However my article only has one main image. Creating less interest than having numerous small images.

2: How does your media product represent particular social

groups?.• As I am making a magazine with the genre of pop/ indie. I had to make my act/ celebrity fit with the genre of my magazine. To do this, I gave my act a more celebrity name ‘Alexa Star’. I think this is suitable as stars are often associated with pop… I.e ‘Pop Star’. I represented this through costume, the bright bold sunglasses represt the fun & happiness of the genre. The bright make up also represents this well. Also, I chose an ‘act’ that matched my colour scheme to continue the theme of my genre, I think the long dark hair and white shirt contrasts well with the red of the glasses, all colours clear in my colour scheme. On my questionnaire, when I said what made my genre evident, a lot said the winking girl. This action also connotes fun which is evident in the pop genre. I use bright high key lighting to represent the innocence of the genre. The white shirt my act is wearing also connotes difference by dressing in a unique style. The font I chose for my title also connotes youth, as it is often associated with school/ college students, the age target for my magazine. The language I used is colloquial to make my interview seem realistic, I used non formal to represent my artist as a typical teenager and make them seem like a real person.

3: What kind of media institution might distribute your media

product and why?• IPC.IPC Media (formerly International Publishing Corporation), a wholly owned

subsidiary of Time Inc., is a consumer magazine and digital publisher in the United Kingdom, with a large portfolio selling over 350 million copies each year.It has 6 divisions.-IPC Newspapers (including The People and The Daily Herald from Odhams, as well as the Daily Mirror and Sunday Pictorial).-IPC Magazines, publishing the consumer magazines and comics.-IPC Trade and Technical, publishing the specialist magazines. -IPC Books, handling all book publishing.-IPC Printing, handling all non-newspaper printing operations. -IPC New Products, a launching pad for products which used new technology. As this institution produces magazines being consumer and comics, this will be ideal for distributing my magazine as music magazine often appeal to consumers, as they often advertise and sell things to do with music.Also, as it distributes many type of magazines and newspapers, i think my type of magazine will be along with them, as the company has a very high profit per year, this shows it must distribute many types of magazine.It also handles non-newspaper printing operations, meaning they can print magazines.

• IPC would be ideal to sell my magazine as it publishes consumer magazines. As mine is a music magazine, it is selling music to consumers, so would be ideal for the selling point this printing company is looking for.

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

• Using the media ''GRASS theory'' (gender, race, age, social status.) i would say that the target audience for my magazine would be:

• Gender: Both• Race: Both but mostly white British... As this is the most

popular genre in young white people, as genre tends to differ between race.

• Age: 16-25 years.• Social Status Subsidence; mostly students or unemployed

young adults, as well as teenagers.• In social economic status, my audience would be in group E.

• This is a good target audience as students have a lot of spare time, so learning and being interested in music would become a frequent part of their time. Therefore, more magazines like this would be sold, as students would be searching for something to do in their spare time.

• Secondary audience could be any age group that are interested in this genre of music or just interested in the celebrities that are included.

• As I tested my magazine on an audience which was my target, I think it fits their age group well as it got mostly positive feedback. As everyone I tested was in the 16-25 age group.

5: How did you attract/ address your audience?

• I attracted my target audience in several ways, for example my title. This addresses the target audience as it is aimed at the genre INDIfference. Also, it targets those who suggest that this is a ‘different/alternative’ music genre. Also, the font I used for my title connotes college, the age group it is aimed at.

• The key image on my cover also attracts the audience. The bright lighting suggests the fun of the magazine which makes it appealing. Also, this is helped by the bright white background, which also adds to the positive image. The colours: red, white, navy and black also help connote the genre, it also makes the page bright and colourful at the same time, also making it appealing to young people.

• The storylines I used on my cover may address the audience as they’re brief, and give enough information to know what it is, but not enough, meaning they will want to read on. I also used a variation of topics, like music and fashion.

5: How did you attract/ address your audience.

• My contents addresses the audience as it uses the intended colour scheme. Therefore they know it is aimed at their genre. Also, the images used attract when they use direct address. Images are used more as they attract readers more. As people are usually not interested in the contents page, usually just not reading it and working through the magazine front to back.

I chose a cut out image to add interest to the page and to give it a more interesting structure. The title font has been repeated from the cover as it’s connotations of youth make it appealing. I also used other names of artists to make it appealing to a wider audience. The language used is very informal, again targeting the audience by speaking in the same ‘language’ as them. The columns and quotes also make it simple to read and make it appealing to the eye. Also, the way my ‘celebrity’ uses down to earth language, it makes them more likeable as audiences are more likely to respond positively to this.

6: What have you learnt about technologies from the process of

constructing this product?• For my project I had to use Indesign and Photoshop. Before this task,

I hadn’t used any of the programmes. Now I know how to edit photos for future reference. Other things I have learned to use is blogger.com; and how to make blogs, without this, I wouldn’t be able to make my research and coursework etc. Other techonologies I learned to use was cameras and external hard drives. Although I found it hard to transport my pictures, I found learning how to use it useful, as I can use it in many other practical ways.

• Technologies like Photoshop helped me reach my target audience by making my pictures more bright and appealing. Before they looked like dark, typical photographs.

• Making graphs also was a useful technology. Makeagraph.com helped me get feedback as it presented my questionnaire findings in an organised, colourful, understandable way. It is affective as anybody can now see this information clearly.

QuickTime™ and a decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

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

in the progression from it to the final product?

• From making this preliminary task, I have learned how to edit photos to make them look more appealing. Also, since this, I learned more about the features of a magazine cover; for example tag lines. In my final, I also used better lighting on my image, and more professional looking layout and fonts. My final is more interesting as it has a more focused colour scheme, more interesting image and a better use of layout. I also used a better character so it connoted the genre of my magazine more clearly.

Conclusion• Personally, I think my product came out well. The strengths of it are; I

think the layout works well and connotes all the factors of a magazine clearly. I also think it looks professional compared to how little experience with Photoshop and Indesign I had before this project.

• The weaknesses of my product is the contents, I am disappointed in the dull layout and the lack of direct address in the images I have used. Other weaknesses is the layout of my article, I think I could have used more images on this double page, instead of just having one main image.

• Overall, I think my product worked well, as although it has weaknesses, I think it comes close to a real article.