Evaluation

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

My media product uses conventions of a real media product as it is based on the same thing. I analysed three magazines in my free time and noticed the similarities, when making my magazine I incorporated these similarities. Some of these are barcodes at the bottom right hand corner of the page, and above it I placed the price, also the issue date was placed in the top right hand corner just above the title. I noticed that the title always had the biggest and boldest font, second was the buzz words then the anchorage text. In each of these magazines a main image was used and occasionally a few smaller images were placed on the front cover; I however only incorporated one image in my magazine to make it the main focus. My media product challenges other magazines as most magazines are very full mine however is very simple and plain I did this as I find that the magazine suites a plain layout. A real magazine would have more going on, more buzz words, a better anchorage text etc as this is not a real magazine I planned it out to suite myself and my style which is why it has obvious similarities and obvious differences to real magazines.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Due to the fact that it is an urban magazine the product does generally represent an urban social group. The urban group does not have limitations to colour or gender, it is generally just for people who are into the urban lifestyle. This is stereotypically teenagers/ young adults. This is because they have the time to read magazines such as this one and explore the vibrant urban scene. The central image is of a young male who is standing in quite a firm position, one of his hands is in his pocket which shows his body language, this means he has quite a bit of attitude, his facial expression indicates attitude also. The artist on the cover is a young male who is dressed in urban clothing (baggy), the particular social group is most likely to be young teenagers who are interested in this lifestyle. The image is taken in a direct mode of address which shows the artists trying to build a relationship with the reader. This is straight forward which is what teenagers want. As the magazine is only £1:50 it's affordable for young adults/teenagers as it's not to expensive yet not extremely cheap. The colour scheme is quite odd as red symbolises passion anger or love whereas green usually symbolises envy, this allows the target audience to be larger as people may percieve the magazine in different ways.

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

Bauer might distribute my media work as it is a very large company. Bauer is one of the largest institutions around that till this day is very successful, also they distribute both niche and mainstream magazine which is useful to know in case I plan to expand my magazine. Similar to FHM i plan to distribute my magazine once a month and as Bauer have experience in this it seems appropriate to work with them. Also Bauer have a variety of magazines which show their versitility. The Bauer media institution has a wide variety of magazines and it also taps into other aspects of media such as television adverts as well as channels, successful radio stations and promotion online. I would like Bauer to distribute my product as they will promote it well and so far all their products have been successful. They vary in their magazines which is good as they aren’t biased in that case. They are very well known and have regular readers, listeners and viewers which Is a good indication that they will sell my product well. They use the internet to promote their products; certain ways of doing so is pop ups and adverts on websites. Also by using Bauer they can tap into their radio fan base and existing magazines to promote mine which evidently will help make it successful.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

The target audience for my magazine would generally be teens/young adults who are interested in this lifestyle, the urban lifestyle. As the music genre is mostly Rap and R’n’B it would appeal to a younger market as they have time to listen to this music whereas the working class and an older person wouldn’t have time in their daily routine to regularly listen to this music and understand what is going on. I have chosen this target group as they take an interest in r'n'g music aswell as gossip which is exactly what my magazine offers. It is very unusual to find a magazine that is a reasonable price for young adults which is why i have chosen a cheap-ish price along with this specific audience as there is a large gap in the market for this. Paying for the magazine surely wont be a problem for the audience as they have EMA, pocket money, part time job etc which allows a small amount of money to come through. The audience is not limited to male or female but explores both genders making the target audience bigger which hopefully will boost sales. The target audience will not have a specific age as this will limit a lot about the magazine instead we are aiming to attract as many people interested in urban music, not allowing anyone to feel secluded. However it is very clear that a young adult is the main audience for this product as young teens won’t have enough money to constantly buy the magazine whereas most young adults have some form of money coming.

How did you attract/address your audience?

By placing a British emcee on the cover the readers immediately relate. The image was taken in a direct mode of address which allows the readers to builds up a friendship with the artist. The image taken was full of attitude due to the artists’ body language and facial expressions. I gained knowledge from the questionaire i had carried out before making the magazine ensuring i knew exactly what the public wanted for example i learned that more than 50% of the public prefered music magazines and listened to r'n'b. This allowed me to start a base for my magazine and work around that.This is how i created my theme. The stories inside the magazine are very contemporary not only does it talk about the music charts but it also explores the controversy in the business. Celebrity scandals help with this. The colours are quite bright and vibrant which evidently will attract a younger market as they like things that burst with colour, whereas the older market are more drawn to simple and bland things which seem to be un complicated. The audience is addressed in a very common way, when writing articles and exposés the readers are spoken to and not simply written to, they are addressed as if the writer is talking to them one on one unlike other magazines where the audience is spoken to as a whole. The buzz word helps with this as it attracts the audience by the 'free xl poster'. Immediately the reader is drawn to this especially as it stands out on the cover and is free, which makes them feel as though they have got their money's worth.

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

I have learnt that it takes a lot of effort and skill to produce a magazine of a good standard. The main two technologies i have learnt about were Photoshop and Blogging. Technologies such as ‘Adobe Photoshop’ and ‘Illustrator’ are very hard to use the drawing too, airbrush and colour changer takes time to adapt to. When using this application one has to play about with it before applying anything to the document as mistakes are easily made and rectified. Layering is very important when using these applications so that the original document stays the same but you can make changes to an identical document. I gained more experience when using a digital camera, although this was not the first time i had taken images i immediately started to think about how it would effect my magazine. I began focusing on the lighting, the angles and weather or not it should be a direct mode of address on a non direct mode. Mainly i focused on the shots and weather or not it should be mid-shot, close uo, exreme close up etc. Also the internet was used a lot for my research I learnt that Google is the best search engine and that the internet is very useful when you look in the right places for information. I used blogsopt in this unit which allowed me to display all my work online without complications, i learned how to upload my work, to add images and create polls allowing people to vote on my work which evidentlly would help with my evaluation. Using UBS’s is an easy way to save and transfer work which helped me a lot throughout the duration of this product. Other underrated applications are things such as paint which help to transfer images from one application to another when copy and paste is not in use, knowing when to save images as JPEG and the size to make it is a lot.

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

At the beginning of this task everything seemed hard to use all the programmes and so on, as the progression of the task went on I learnt how to use this application and gain some skill. Things that seemed hard before became very easy and interesting to use as I learnt many new things. This is clear by the draft and the final they look completely different although it may not be the best it takes time to learn how to use these programmes. I worked with a camera in many different locations trying to get the best backdrop to suite my theme and while editing my magazine I learnt how to blur tools, resizing, placing images in front and behind of each other, adding shadow, changing colour, sharpening text etc. Also i had made a college magazine without any research, once i had done my research i was able to improve my designs and make my music magazine resonably good. The college magazine was very boring, not alot of colour and lacked any attraction, it was also done in publisher. Whereas my final magazine is bright and attractive to some people, and was done on photoshop and illustrator.

Audience Feedback

The audience feedback is very important and plays a big part in my coursework. I received honest opinions from my peers which has helped me to recognize where i could have improved my work. The polls on my blog enabled the public to give me their opinion. My first poll gave people the option of four title blocks, i was unable to choose one due to the fact that all the title blocks got the same amount of votes showing they are all reasonably good or reasonably bad depending on which way you look at it. It allowed people to pick the most eye catching title block. My second and final poll was about my magazine and what they thought about it weather they enjoyed it 'yes' 'no' or it 'nneds improvemement'. This made me realise that as a whole the project could have been alot better as the magazine was not the best part of my coursework. My fellow peers recognised this and voted without being biased, giving me criticism for next time i use these publications. The questionnaire allowed the audience to chose the features in which they wanted in the music magazine such as the genre, distribution, well known artist interviews etc. This helped me to create and build my own music magazine.