Evaluation

In what ways does your Media product use,develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
The music magazine I produced, followed the main conventions that any other product that has the same aims would. I learnt the main conventions of magazine whilst reasearching other music magazines and anaylising them, to see what they all included to make the magazine sucessful. All the magazine i looked at during this task were music magazine, because this a music magazine was what i aimed to produce.My front cover was made up of conventional features that would be found on any other music magazine, these are features such as, a masthead, a photograph, main headlines, sub-headlings, plugs, barcodes, price, issue number. My double page spread and contents pages also consist of all these conventions that would be found in a music magazine. The contents pages included conventions such as photography, a list of features that were included in the magazine, page numbers so the reader can find them easily and article titles. These features were also found on my double page spread, conventional aspects such as how a layout is presented in other magazines, edited photography and a headline.

How does your Media product representparticular social groups?
The social group i chose to represent in my magazine, is mainly young females that are solo artists or members of bands. Young female solo aritst have been represented through my orginal images that i have taken, i chose to do this so that it would appeal to my audience. Through my orignal photographs, i portrayed young females as happy and modern by giving a relax atomosphere, so the model could put the mood i wanted across the audience. Which could reflect on the audiences mood, i also wanted to represent the model in photographs as being fashionable and strong, i did this by styling the model to the mood of the magazine, so that it would give the audience someone as a role model to look up to. Props were used such as the guituar the model was playing during photography, i did this so that the audience what portray the featured artist to be talented and give off a good impression to the audience, and gives a positve representation of the music industry.


What kind of Media institution might distribute your media product and why?
A media distrutor which may publish my music magzine, may be an insitute such as EMAP, they have published magazine such as smash hits, which i think could be compared to my magazine, because they have chosen the same genre music but for an older age group, however smash hits, is more for a younger age group. But still they both 'smash hits' and 'flawless' focus on the same music genre, as they would still feature the same bands and artists. Therefore this publisher may be interested in distributing my product.

Who would be the audience for your Media product?
The audience i aimed by music magazine at would be both male and females, however in this particular issue that i produced, a female is featured in the cover therefore it might appeal to female audience, that would like to know more about the featured artist. The audiences age my magazine is aimed at are between the ages of 16-24 years old, which allows me to explore matters in much detail that i would be able to for a childrens magazine. However i would like people of any age group to enjoy my magazine, if they are interested in the particular genre of music that i have represented and promoted.

How did you attract/address your audience?
To make my magazine appeal to my target audience, i used different techinques to attract them. For example, i wanted my magazine to seem mature but fun at the same time, i represented this mood by the use of layouts and colour schemes for example, i used a range of different colours throughout my front cover, double page spread, and contents. On my front cover i used red, black and white, this gave it a relax mood and the colour red stood out from the main image background, which i think worked well. The double page spread colour scheme i used, was pink and white, which again stood out from the black background. Then on the contents page i used pink and yellow, which was a contrast in colour but still worked well. By doing this i created a happy and good mood that my music magazine gave off, this would appeal to my audience age and gender. The language i used, was stereotypically the language that a magazine would use, such as informal and chatty, so that it wouldnt seem like an upper class magazine for an upper class audience. The language used would also make the audience alot more comfortable with reading the magazine, and the langage is something that ages 16 - 24 would understand.
I also think that a styled the model well in the photograph, and also edited the image well to create the effect that i wanted to achieve. The way the model is styled is appealing to girls of her age and it is something that they would style them selves on, eg hair, make up and clothing. The way the photograph is edited sets to mood and expressions of the model, with i think looks very professional. On my contents page and double page spread i also used the same styled photographs which were black and white which created a rustic but classy effect, which i think would appeal to a young audience, therefore helps the magazine succeed.


What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product? Whilst carrying out this task, i feel that i have learnt a number of new skills from using the technologies that were provided for me for example using photoshop, editing photographs and using publisher. I have also learnt alot about the technologies of making a magazine through conventions that would be within a magazine, but i have learnt More about music magazines in particular, and the techniques they use to appeal to there target audience. I have developed my skills is editing photographs i used on my magazine, how to create the effect that i wanted without being to drastic. The programs i used to create magazine, also give me the opportunity to explore the features that are included in it.


Looking back at the preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
Producing the college magazine which was a task that was giving to us as part of the preliminary task, by creating this college magazine, it gave me some further knowledge and skills i needed to create the main music magazine task. The skills i learnt through the preliminary task made me more confident about creating my music magazine, such as exploring to take more extragvangant, individual photographs, exploring with different colour schemes, and choosing texts and languages that would suit my music magazine genre. I have also developed alot more understanding of the main magazine conventions, and how they are used to make the magazine much more sucessful to the targetted audience.