Evaluation

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

My second magazine follows the main conventions of a real magazine, I have the front cover with one main image in the centre of the page, with a cover line to go with the image, which will be involved with the double page spread in the magazine, also I have used side information to let the audience know what else is going to be in the magazine. I improved my first magazine adding more details about what’s it in the magazine and need to make my matserhead larger so it stands out more. On the front cover I also forgot to put the date and the price on for the first draft, so the second draft I made sure to put it all on and with a bar code.For the contents page in my first magazine I challenged conventions as not many magazines would have the images in the centre of the page on a contents page. I realised that this leaves big gaps which are difficult to fill. So in my second draft of the magazine I tried to fill the spaces up by putting all the text on one side and the images on the other.My double page spread has followed the conventions of a normal magazine as I have the main image on the left hand page with an introduction to the interview on the right hand page. The interview is common in magazines, as are images of the person or band. On my second draft I used a whit background for the article; this makes the text easier to read. Also on my first draft of my magazine I didn’t make the background of all my images blank so it didn’t looks professional and it made the quality of my magazine worse.

Magazine 1

Magazine 2

How does my media product represent particular social groups?

My magazine represents a young social group, it represents what they like and who they would aspire to within the music world. My magazine also represents a young music social group, as I talk about/ mention young artists and bands. The people I use for the images in my magazine wear typical teenage clothing and the audience will automatically be able to see the age group of them and see that they can relate to them as they are within an age group of the target audience.

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

I think that Prometheus Global Media would be an institution that might distribute my media product as it is like the billboards magazine, it involves new and young artists who would aim at teenagers and young adults, and my target market is teenagers. I would have a big magazine company to distribute my magazine, this would then be able to have lots of copies made available, and having a big well known company do it, and it might make the magazine more popular as people would know who the institute is. Also the Bauer Media Group could distribute my magazine; it’s a large German publishing company, which operates in 15 countries worldwide. The company was founded in 1875.Bauer media has music magazines such as Q and Kerrang, Q is magazine similar to the genre and target audience to my magazine, so it would be a good to have an

institute that is successful in that certain genre.

Who would be the audience for my media product?

My target market is aimed at teenagers and young adults, mainly teenager girls. From my questionnaire and focus group, it was mainly girls who took them. This shows that the people who are looking at my magazine are the target audience im aiming at. Im aiming it at teenage girls because the majority of people who read magazines of my genre (pop) are teenage girls. Pop magazine usually have articles about the newest bands and artists and young girls like to know what’s happening in the music industry.

What feedback did I get from my audience?

From my focus group on my first magazine, I found out that my front cover and double page spread are stereotypical and are quite good for text but the images needed to be on blank backgrounds and that the front cover needed a bigger masterhead. I also found out that my contents page is different compared to usual magazines. I have used a different layout to which magazines tend to use; I have put the text at the top and bottom page and put the images in the centre of the page. I used this layout as it shows where the double page splits the magazine and put the pages which are before the double page spread on the top half of the page and put the pages which are after the double page spread at the bottom of the page. I realised that using this layout was difficult to fill the space so there is a lot of blank space; the photos I used on the contents are some of the same I used on the double page so I need to take some more pictures so I don’t have to use the same images. On my second magazine I had better feedback from my audience; they said that the quality of the magazine was much better after I made the background of my images blank. Also they liked it better with a big bold masterhead as it made it look more like a proper magazine. From previous feedback I found that my audience didn’t like my contents page, so I changed the layout to make it more stereotypical, I put the text on one side and the images on the other. My audience preferred this layout and said it was more professional.

How did I attract/address my audience?

To attract my audience ive used my questionnaire results to see what they want and out it into my magazine. Ive chosen the colour scheme they want, ive chosen how much text to put in from the questionnaire and what type of images to use. Ive also used bold fonts and colours to highlight important information which will stand out for my audience.I used a big bold masterhead to catch their eye and used I big cover line at the end of the z route to also catch their eye.

I used a big image in the centre of the page to fill the optimum area, and put text in some of the side areas of the z route. The image is relevant to the double page spread so should attract the audience to read the article.

On my contents page I used a big title at the top to make it obvious that it’s the contents page, this is at the start of the z route so it’s the first thing that the reader sees.

I used small images at the side of the page to catch the readers eyes, the images are in the side area of the z route so only get glimpses. The text is all on the other side of the page and is all together, this means only parts of it will get read, so I highlighted the most important parts so they stand out to the reader.

On the double page spread on the left hand page I put the main image with an introduction to the article on the right hand page. The image is big and covers the whole optimum area so it’s the first thing the reader will see. I also put a big title at the top of the page to go with the article on the other page, this lets the audience know what the article is going to be about. The snippet has some bold, highlighted areas which stand out to the audience, this is the important information.

On the right

hand page I used another big title to remind the audience what the article will be about, it isn’t as big as the previous title as it isn’t as important.

I used lots of small images on this page, I put them at the start and end of the z route so the audience sees them, sometimes the audience will only look at pictures so i put a lot on so they had lots to look at.

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

For my magazine I used photo editing to change my pictures to how I wanted them. I used photo flex to edit my pictures; this allowed me to change the background colours and the effects of the contrast in the images. I wanted to change the pictures from the original ones because it makes the magazine more interesting and more makes the audience more attracted to the magazine.I also used paint to edit my images for the second draft as I needed my images on a blank background, to this I cut the parts if the image I needed to use and moved it onto a white background, I did this for all my images to make them better quality.I’ve learnt that photo editing isn’t too hard when doing it basically, as you only need to know how to use the site that you are on. You need to know how to change different parts of the image and know how to keep other parts the same.

Looking back at the preliminary task, what do I feel I have learnt about in the progression from it to my main product?

Looking back to my first magazine I have learnt that you have to think a lot more about where you place your images and where you take them, you have to look into

lighting and costume and positions. You also have to think about what background you use as if you don’t use a blank background the target audience would notice and they say that it doesn’t look as professional and as good quality as a normal music magazine. You also have to think about how you layout your magazine, If you have too much text in one area and all the images in another, it looks crowded and harder to read, also people wont want to read it as it doesn’t attract to them as I normal magazine would.In my preliminary task I didn’t think about colour scheme that much, I didn’t think about the images and that the colour in them would be different to the colour of my background on the front cover and the double page spread.For my contents page I didn’t think about where to put all the text so I put it all over the page and put all the images in the gaps, for my first magazine I decided to challenge the conventions and put the images in the centre of the page and the text above and below them. I realised that this leaves lots of gaps which need to be filled. In my second magazine I put the images to one side and the text on the other to make it look like a more stereotypical magazine. For the double page spread, which we didn’t have to for the preliminary task, I realised that you don’t have to write much to fill the page, so you need to get straight to the point in the article. For my preliminary I didn’t have to edit any of my images, so I had to try and find an appropriate site to do them, editing them wasn’t hard but I realised I need to change the background to a blank one to make the quality if my magazine better.