16th December 2011

Evaluation

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
I analysed several existing magazines to make sure that my magazine followed similar codes and conventions, these magazines included Q, Rolling Stone, Billboard and We Love Pop. I made sure that my cover included a masthead, a slogan, relevant plugs, at least one high quality cover shot, a bar code, the magazine cost and the issue number. I ensured that my contents page was branded and included a list of the magazine's articles, a title, several photographs, page numbers and the issue number. These are features which I found are the conventions of real products. My double page spread showed a clear link over the two pages, a photo and an article written in a similar interview style to existing articles in magazines. I chose a price for my product which was close to or the same as existing products which I viewed.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?
I feel that my magazine represents people who are more interested in music than gossip on music stars. It represents people who are willing to listen to music which might not necessarily be of their favourite genre but simply music which they find appealing. For this reason my magazine covers over several genres which stem off the initial pop music genre. It represents people who would willingly buy a product which would also appeal to the opposite gender.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
Having looked at magazines with a similar price range, target audience and sophisticated appearance to my own, I feel that Heart Corporation would be a good distributor for my magazine. Hearst Corporation currently distributes 23 magazines in the United Kingdom, 20 in the USA and many others internationally. These range from fashion magazines such as 'Elle', 'Cosmopolitan' and 'Company' to 'Country Living Magazine' and men's magazines such as 'Men's Health' and 'Road & Track'. They do not currently distribute any music magazines which is why I feel that it would fit in well with them as they have no competing products. I feel that the appearance of my magazine is similar to that of the other magazines distributed by Hearst.

Who would be the audience for your media product?
I feel that the target audience for my product is fairly wide and covers both genders. I believe that a variety of age groups would be interested in my product as I have tried to keep the appearance appealing to a wide age group. I feel that it would be older teenagers to middle ages individuals who would buy the magazine. The target audience would be people who are fond of popular, current music, not solely of the pop genre but of a wide variety of genres which feature in the official music chart. I feel that the medium price range would be appealing to a wide variety of people as it is not too expensive.

How did you attract/address your audience?
I attracted my audience by trying to keep a unisex appearance throughout my magazine. Although the cover photo is more often then not the reason somebody buys a magazine I feel that this particular issue would appeal equally to both genders. Despite this future issues may appeal more so to a certain gender due to the cover photo of that issue. To try to avoid this being an issue I have tried to make the other features of the magazine appealing to men and women. I have used a bold blue as my main branding colour along with black and white, all colours which I feel both men and women would approve of. Other font colours are those selected from photos to match outfits etc. and so would compliment the photos. I feel that these would not be too distracting or distasteful to a gender as they would not occur as often so would be less noticeable. I have used a total of four fonts throughout my magazine. I have chosen fonts which are easy to read and not too extravagant and off-putting. I feel that the masthead font stands out but still looks professional. This I feel will enable me to appeal to a wider audience. I have kept the appearance of the magazine clear and sophisticated so that I can also appeal to a wider target audience older than teenagers and young adults. I have ensured that the contents includes something for everyone and each issue will feature articles from different genres of music. These include a variety of different types of articles, such as interviews and reviews, which are based on artists from a variety of ages and from both genders. The articles will mainly consist of information on the artist's music as the magazine is aimed at people who are more interested in music and not gossip.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
I feel I have improved my skills in using the software Serif DrawPlus x3 throughout this process. Although I was familiar with the software, which is why I used it initially, I have learnt how to do more with the it. I have enhanced my skills using the cut out studio as this is a difficult tool to use, however, I now feel more confident in using it. I have discovered effects which can make text, pictures and shapes look more interesting which I had previously not known of. I have also uncovered the colour picker which allows you to select colours from photos or text so that the colour can be used elsewhere. I found that this was a very useful tool for selecting colours to make them compliment throughout the pages. Despite the software having many tools which were excellent for making my product, the program made the computer crash on many occasions which made it reliable. This made saving work regularly an essential part of the process.

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 by doing more research for my main task, on a wider variety of existing products, I was able to pick out more key features and conventions of magazines and ensure that these were included in my own. I realise now that my masthead should have stood out more in preliminary task as it was not a large enough size for the thin font which I selected. I believe that my layout on my main task was much more appropriate and specific to the target audience than that of my school magazine. I feel that I had a much clearer view of who my target audience was on my main task and how to appeal to them. I made the plugs on my main task stand out more after feeling that those on my preliminary were a little drowned out by the photo.