Media studies evaluation

presentation By Lilly Trkulja

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media projects?Contents page comparison:

As you can see here I have mostly used connotations from this top of the pops contents page here. I copied the title as the word ‘mag’ is abbreviated from magazine, this is showing I’m using slang, something the target audience would do too. I then noticed on the top of the pops magazine, they had kind of like little sub headings with the different topics that would be in the magazine. I used this to then apply to mine, using things like ‘fashion’ ‘music’ and then a ‘plus’ section. This is then gives the audience a clear idea of where things are to locate easier in the magazine. I thought it would be easier to keep my pictures all in one place as if they are spread out I would have to change the layout of everything. However the TOTP magazine has the pictures spread out, not really in an order, in my opinion making it look messy. Throughout my research I found that the magazines weren’t just about music, but there was a big section on other things, so I didn’t just keep my contents page music based. The colour scheme I stayed with pink throughout as this relates to the target audience and they would be attracted to it.

Double page spread comparison:

As you can see here is what I used to take ideas and inspiration from for my double page spread. I noticed on most of them they had a big quote at the beginning, which would have been said within the interview as a title, to make it stand out and to intrigue the audience as to who said it. I also took inspiration from the way in which the interview was set out, in the ones I looked at they had a main picture covering most of the page and then the interview around it, I did try this however it didn’t work out for me and I found it easier and more structured to have a picture in the corner, and text around it. Right at the beginning I used a larger letter that stood out more, this is something every magazine does I looked at. I also then used an embedded quote within the article which is standing out and this is talking about glamour girls fans. By talking about the fans in the interview is making it more

personal and not just about the group themselves. I changed the colour of the questions to answers as I thought it would then stand out the difference between the two, the questions asked aren’t asked in a formal way, they are more like a chat, conversation, I used slang words and nicknames for the band members, making it more relaxed and more about finding out gossip. I used the Instagram, twitter and Facebook icons in the top suggesting for the target audience to go and find out more on the social networking sites, things the target audience would recognize. I then also used a bright arrow leading to the next page advertising a puff, a free poster of the girls. This would then draw the audience in a lot as they are getting something for not paying a lot of money. I noticed they done this on the magazines I looked at, it would be things like tickets etc. the colour scheme I kept as black as it was readable yet looked formal.

Front cover comparison: As you can see I took inspiration from this top of the pops front cover. I used a title containing the word ‘pop’ to make it clearly obvious it is about pop music, the musical notes on either side connote this too. I used the main story line about glamour girls, similar to the other front cover with a girl group band. I also used what it said as I thought this would draw in the audience as it’s a ‘secret’ by them being able to know the secret gives a personal approach to inviting the readers in. I used tag lines like ‘festival looks inside’ which is still music related however cooperates fashion as well, which I found in research is what a lot of the magazines done. I also included a puff in which music awards tickets can be won, the target audience seeing the fact they can get something free will draw them in even more. I have a slogan which is a play on word, making it exciting, and also using slang ‘goss’ which is portrayed in more of a chatty tone. I have the date and a bar code making it look more professional. The main image being the main thing standing out I took inspiration from and done the same on mine, the girls look happy, pretty and girly. They are all dressed in pretty outfits, and they all look like role models for my target audience that they would be inspired by and be familiar with. It is still obvious it is a music magazine due to my heading of the magazine, this has the word ‘pop’ in and although my front cover has a lot of features which are connoting a lifestyle, fashion magazine, I found that in research, these are what draw the music audience in. I think the way I have engraved the taglines in a shape with a colour makes it look more professional than just writing it because it makes it stand out more and look like its been more professionally published.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My media product represents a particular social group of younger girls. I think I portrayed this through my mood board which I based my magazine all around girls, not really the boy side of things. I don’t think it represents the older social groups as they would look at it as childish and in a way immature. I don’t think they would be interested in it and they wouldn’t find the things inside interesting, things like which celebs are hooking up, they may be more interested in big mtv awards, or advice pages where people write in about more grown up things. I think my target audience would be interested as the tag lines and language I’ve used all appeal to them, this is why I think it would be very specific in age in which would be interested. I had to take every detail into considering even from things like font sizes to the pictures I uses. My media product is mostly presenting my social group by using pink and a picture of a girl group which states the obvious, younger girls love and aspire to look like other girls. I also then had to think carefully about the font, if I used a big black harsh plain font it wouldn’t suit the theme of girly so I went for a curly, exciting, cute font. I then used outlines on the font and on the different tag line boxes to give it a girly, cute effect again. I used these little techniques to make my magazine front cover appeal to my target audience. I don’t think my social group is of a high class, but normal middle class. Have disposable income when needed but then they would be of a young age so wont have jobs however may get money from Christmas or birthdays or grandparents. I think my social group as they are young would follow issues of the magazine and get them each week.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?Bauer – the better way to sell

I would distribute my media product to Bauer publishing group, I think I would choose this as it is the largest, privately owned publishing group which caters for all types of magazine, taking into consideration factors like gender, style etc. Bauer’s titles are sold at a wide variety of retail venues reaching active, engaged shoppers across a range of product categories, ensuring there products are in just about every shop. I also decided to choose Bauer as it has a specific teen section which is only set celebrity, entertainment magazines designed for the young teen market. We combine the best in celebrity, music, fashion, beauty and relationship edit to deliver the largest audience of young teen female readers in the country. I believe my magazine would fit perfectly in this group and distributing it would fit in well. In the teen group it has things to do with fashion, music not just all about music. On the Bauer there is a subscription page, where you can get a certain amount of subscriptions sent to you for a certain amount of money. This encourages readers to want to get every single issue. I would also choose this institution as from research about Bauer I have done, there products are sold in many places. Be it a supermarket, convenience store, bookstores and newsstands. They also deliver more shoppers efficiently than any other magazine publisher. I like this institution as I feel it isn’t limited in what genre products they are selling and therefore limited audience. They have a wide range of audiences which do buy the magazines and therefore make them the top selling institution. Bauer also have a specific section in which they just sell music magazines, I think this is a positive as my magazine would fit perfectly however then there is a debate of would my magazine fit better in the fashion women's lifestyle section. I think with either institution would promote it to its best, exaggerating and selling to the best of there abilities.

Who would be the audience for your media product?The audience for my media project is young girls around 8-11. It isn’t ruling out males completely however throughout the research I’ve done and the reviews ‘’I’ve looked at it is 99% of the time females. This however makes the audience more limited as it isn’t unisex, just one sex. I chose the ages from around 8-11 as I have a 4 year old sister and an 11 year old sister, and the 4 year old cant read yet, only limited and the 11 year old is just about growing out of “little girls” magazines as she called them. So I think the age range I have chose is sensible, and with the questionnaire I used as research, I asked this range and they all answered relatively similar, suggesting they would all be interested in picking this up in the shop and reading it and this is the aim of this product. The audience will be living with their parents still, they may have some disposable income such as pocket money, money from Christmas/birthdays which they may want to spend on magazines. The younger ones wouldn’t have a busy social life, however as they get older they may begin to start going out with friends on weekends as such. They would both attend school full time therefore will not have much to do on weekdays and may want to pick themselves up a magazine on the way home from school. I think my target audience would watch a lot of TV and therefore this could be a worry to magazine publishers, the audience may not be interested in taking the time to make an effort to read a magazine. This is why I think things like posters, free puffs, quizzes, winning days out are included to draw in the audience and make them feel involved and they will be more likely to if there is some sort of prize at the end.

How did you attract/address your audience?I attracted my audience in a variety of ways. The front cover is most important when attracting the audience as this is what they will see first. I didn’t use one font throughout, I mixed it around as I couldn’t decide and thought they all looked girly and pretty. I used the main image as a girl band called glamour girls which the TA would recognize and underneath that it says ‘one of these girls has a SECRET’, straight away when the TA see’s there is some sort of gossip that will be revealed inside it draws them in straight away, especially as glamour girls is a well known pop girls group. The title ‘popmania’ along with the slogan ‘the latest POPular goss’ I think fits really well, and automatically people would know it’s a pop music magazine. I then use the slogan which I think is cheesy and cringe but it works! The TA would read that and then be intrigued as they would see the word ‘goss’ and want to know latest celeb goss! The tag lines on the front cover played a big part in attracting the target audience, I used ones linked to pop music, so the main story is the interview with the girl band. Then I used tag lines like this years festival looks, so fashion and music linked, the TA would want to see what were the looks from this seasons festivals. In the corner there is a tag line box with ‘win a vocal sesh with avi’, avi being a big pop star they would know. The taglines are very important and I specifically chose them to attract the TA as I knew what they would be interested in. also then I didn’t just write them in a text box and leave them, I put a colour behind them and made it stand out. I also used mini musical notes at the heading to make sure it looked like a music magazine. Throughout I also used slang as that’s what is down with the kids nowadays and they would understand it, I done this to make it seem more like I am on the same level as them and make it personal to them.

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

Throughout making my product, I have learnt technologies aren’t the easiest things to use! This can vary from softwares to using a disposable camera. In my original plan when I was going to take pictures in my first location, I was going to use my iPhone 6 camera as it was of a high quality however I didn’t have anything to lean it on so I couldn’t guarantee the pictures were going to be of a high quality and look professional. In my final location I decided on a friend said I could borrow there camera which had things like self timer, effects, shutter speeds. I was grateful and therefore used that, I managed to hire out a tripod too in case I didn’t have enough people in the picture and I needed to pop in the picture myself. I then had the option to use it free hand too. I learnt that without the tripod it was going to be a lot more hard work. In the end the pictures turned out of a great quality however on the laptop at school they looked abit pixilated. I then started off using the simple software of picmonkey however then I realised I needed to crop out a specific background and that could be done on pixlr, this was the mostly tricky part of editing as it was so specific and took so much time however in the end it was worth it as I made the picture look natural however edited with things like bosaic hearts over the top to make it more girly and pretty. Both softwares worked for me for different reasons. I then had to use publisher to upload my magazines and it made the pictures look different when uploaded so I worked hard on making that look natural through editing and then everything come together finally! I learnt through this process, technologies can be deceiving and make the picture you think is perfect, look completely different when uploaded somewhere, therefore it takes a lot to edit and keep going but it all worked in the end.

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?Looking back at my original first ever task of the school magazine, I can see how far I have come and how much I have improved. I’ve learnt how you need to be very specific on the language you use and how it is presented, things like slang that the target audience you have will be interested in and understand. When including pictures, don’t just include them with a white background as that doesn’t look professional, get rid of the background and place it in a relevant place. The main image needs to link to what the magazine is about, I did do that in my school magazine however it was plain, boring and original therefore didn’t stand out. The fonts need to vary if it is a fun magazine like pop music, if you stick with one original boring font, nothing looks like its going to stand out therefore you wont get the attention from the TA you need. Even the slightest things like outlining the text to make it stand out that little bit more. Common sense is key in the colour scheming, on my school magazine I had a range of about 3 colours max, due to the genre my pop magazine was I made it as colourful and exciting as possible. Using bursts of bright colourful shapes on the front cover I found was really fun and took up spaces that needed to be filled, this could then have a tagline on. The main image I’ve learnt takes a lot of editing and deciding to the put it as the front cover, this is because it will be what attracts the target audience straight away, they need to idolise or even fancy whoever is on the front cover to want to buy it and be interested. I think I have improved massively from my school magazine to the pop music magazine front cover.

Continued…Also with my contents page originally if I’m honest it doesn’t even look like a contents page. It has 2 images on, a title that is in Arial’ plain black and a little bigger, and then a list of what is inside the magazine. If you compare that one to my contents page you can see how much I have learnt. I learnt with a contents page that it doesn’t need to be listed in a specific boring order, it needs to be clearly labelled what is where but it doesn’t need to be in a list. My contents page now is set out in little sections with the page numbers, but also columns with different topics, making it easy to navigate. I have bursts of mini shapes with prizes to be won and competitions and it also has a few images varying from a girl group band to a festival stage and then fashion section. I haven’t stuck to the plain obvious of just talk about music based things as with research I noticed this isn’t the case, and it is varied with different topics of things. Colour schemes and fonts are also based around pink, and I vary fonts to make it look pretty. I think my target audience would really like my contents page too and I have put a lot more thought and time into my new contents page.