Evaluation

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


For my magazine I wanted to keep some of the basic elements of a conventional magazine to make my magazine easy on the reader’s eye and I also wanted to add some unconventional elements to separate my magazine from the others.


Masthead
For my magazine I decided to go with a more conventional masthead in the ways that it’s big and bold however it is not in the center of the front cover. I chose to use a conventional because a conventional masthead is clear, tells the genre of the magazine and gives the reader an idea of what to expect. The masthead is also the first thing the reader notices and draws their attention, so I played it safe by going with a conventional masthead as it’s the difference between gaining and losing a reader.





Design
For the design of my magazine I got a lot of inspirations from pop magazines such as Top of the Pops and We Love Pop.  Just like these magazines I used a Bright colour scheme for my pages, but unlike these magazines I kept to a colour scheme of pinks and purples for my text, whereas they would use brighter and more colourful text to catch the reader’s attention. I decided to use the pinks and purples for my text because they suited the genre of magazine well and also the more darker colours were very unclear.

Language

For my magazine i had to incorporate a range of different linguistic styles. The person who was actually interviewing the artist had to be formal as they normally would however there speech would have to incorporate some slang words and some short words to ensure the target audience could read it.

Image

For my magazine i also had to incorporate images as well, all of my images match a similar style with two people, smiling and having fun in their onesies as the main image, i chose onesies because it is a winter issue of the magazine and people associate winter with staying warm with onesies, this goes well with the white background which could connote snow

Layout

 I decided to follow a lot of the conventional aspects in my magazine. I used contents as the title of the page in bold writing to make it clear to the reader that this is the contents page and to catch their attention. I have divided the page with pictures and text. The unconventional aspects were that I centered the title to make the title clearer and keep it simple, and also most magazine’s contents pages seem to be more image based because the images generally take up most of the page.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?
The social group my magazine is focused on is women as it’s a pop magazine, which are generally more appealing to women, however it will appeal to some men too. The age range is 12-17 year old because I want a younger audience for my magazine and I think younger people are more likely to read my magazine and equally connect with the music.  Also my magazine isn’t focused on a particular social class or race because rock is a genre for everyone and it shouldn’t be limited to classes or race due to stereotyping. My audience would typically have a innocence fashionable  style, shorts, sunglasses and wear brighter colours.

 

What media institutions might distribute you media product and why?

I believe that Egmont UK would be a good media institution for my magazine to be distributed with. I think this because some of the other magazines that they currently publish are very popular and up to date. We <3 Pop is one of the magazines that they publish and is very popular around the country. Egmont don't publish many music magazines so adding another on to their collection.

Who is the audience of your media product?

My typical reader:

• Aged 12-17
• Female
• Listens to pop singers and bands
• Interested in Pop gigs, hanging out with friends
• They would have a bold personality, they would be fun
• Hobbies would be Cinema, Shopping, Spending time with friends
• Stylish and fashionable

Typical Reader images:

Typical Reader Style

• Naturally coloured hair

• Brightly / Bold coloured tops

• Skinny Jeans or shorts 

• Branded Shoes (e.g Nike, New Balance, Adidas or Puma)

• Generally bright colours

 How did you attract your target audience?
One of the ways I have attempted to attract my audience is through the use of my masthead. I used a curved for my masthead within a shape which looked similar to what happens when you pop bubblegum, to give my magazine an innocent pop theme and I made it big, bold and colourful so it stands out and catches the reader’s eye effectively.

Another way I attracted my audience is through the text on my front cover. I used the names of popular bands in a bold font to make the text stand out and to tempt my target audience into reading my magazine. 

How has technology developed your creativity?
My creativity has been allowed to develop through the use of different types of software. I had new software to come to grasps with. I had to use blogger which was software that is potentially simplistic but unusual.

I also had to deal with the more complex systems like Macromedia Fireworks 8 and Adobe Photoshop CS7 which both have difficult features available to users such as colour & contrast adjustment, exposure adjustment, curve adjustment etc. However, once I had got used to the programme I was able to create my entire front cover; Photoshop allowed me to manipulate my front cover image to give it more defined tone & colouring to go with the theme of my magazine. It also helped me overall to make my front cover suitable for my chosen genre and more appealing for the reader.

I used Microsoft Publisher to create my contents and feature pages because it allowed me to insert columns into my feature page, link the different columns together so that when I ran out of space in one column it would continue in the next column and it also allowed me to create a two page spread like a professional feature page would be. Publisher also helped me create a clear and effective layout for my pages, which is best shown in the layout of my contents page; there is a clear division between text and images.

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

 As I look back at my preliminary task i can see that my magazine has dramatically improved hugely. The masthead doesn't fit the genre of my preliminary magazine as much as i would've thought it to, there is no real colour scheme, everything just seems to be blue with no other colour. The overall look of the magazine look bland and boring where as my final magazine has a fixed colour scheme to which everything matches, there is a suitable level of pictures and text presented and in general it looks more professional.
 

  
When you compare the two content pages then you can clearly show an improvement in layout. my preliminary contents page is all one colour, with inappropriate font and inaccurate spacing. Where as my final product has a vast use of images, texts and different fonts to make it more suitable and interesting for the reader.