media evaluation

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

 

My media product uses forms and conventions of real media products from other magazines, for example in my front cover of my magazine. My front cover style is lightly similar to pop music genre, the layout is busy with bright colours; using bright colours is often typical in pop magazine to engage in a younger audience, specifically female. The model in my magazine goes against the norm for my music genre; I think the model pose is more towards R’n’B rather than pop. Her pose seems louder and very outlandish. However, the layout development is the same as pop music magazines; I have looked at other pop magazines such as billboard magazine and Marie Claire. I have compared my masthead with the magazines in my press pack, I have chosen to make mine bold and have the same font as ‘vogue’ magazine because it goes with my female audience. However I haven’t made my magazine masthead go behind the model, I have chosen to make the masthead more prominent and stand out much more. The text on the front cover is similar to the magazines I have looked at in my press pack; however the contents page is very simple and does not fit in the generic way for my magazine. The text on my DPS is put in an interview style so the readers can read it properly; the font is larger because my audience is targeted at a young age. I have decided to include an interview from the artist so the readers would get an insight to the model/artist. I haven’t included any adverts on my front cover, contents page and DPS which isn’t normal because in pop magazines there are normally adverts of makeup or perfume. However I have included a link for my magazine website which gives them further details on many things inside the magazine. I have targeted my audience by having a young model, having very female colours on my magazine and the topics on my contents page is mainly for females.

2.       How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My magazine represents my chosen social group, according to my feedback, my target audience ranges from 15-26, 16-25 & 16-24. I have also been told that ‘your audience is mainly females due to the fact you have a female on your front page and because of my colour scheme. I haven’t however created a sub-culture for my magazine; I believe it can be for anyone but most preferably by females ranging in that age category. My magazine features a special offer designed for females which is about fashion, it is relevant because my magazine cover seems to personify fashion as a big statement. As well as age and ethnicity, class is very significant because people from a low class background will be able to understand my magazine because I have used simpler and structured my text more readable for people who have low educational attainment. Looking at my audience feedback, the appropriate class background for my magazine is working class because of my journalistic style writing I have implemented in my magazine.

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

In my Press pack I have researched about ‘Prometheus global media’ which is an institution that develops magazines like billboard magazine; I believe my magazine is similar in style and genre so I have chosen this media institution. It is an American based publishing company which publishes magazines which covers mainly news and media. The most popular magazine they produce is ‘Billboard magazine’, this magazine is very formal and discusses music styles so it doesn’t have one gender targeted audience, however some magazines they have produced in the past can be specifically aimed at females alone such as the ‘Lana Del Rey’ cover. I have based my analysis on this magazine issue because it is female orientated. The cross media interests that ‘Billboard’ magazine has is twitter, Facebook, Instagram, as well as having their own website. I have decided as my cross media interest I should include a website for people to view more information and further look in to previous issues. In my magazine newsstand task I have seen that most magazines are distribution methods is that when the company, example ‘Tesco’s’ doesn’t sell all the magazines of that issue then they will be sent back to the company which I think is the best distribution method in terms of recycling or saving money.

4.       Who would be the audience for your media product?

Looking back at my audience feedback on my blogger I have found that my magazine is more suited to an age ranging from 16-24. “It seems inevitable that readers will become increasingly aware of the vast amount of free content available online, particularly since the most prolific magazine readers are young (16-24) and also regular internet users.” “530 million copies of women's magazines will be sold in 2010, creating revenues of around £691 million”. I attract my audience with the front cover, which shows deals, also mentioning female artists and fashion, as well as my colour scheme being very feminine.

5.       How did you attract/address your audience?

I have addressed my audience through blogger, through blogger I have been able to share my magazine with students and get audience feedback. I have attracted my audience through the use and choice of my model on the front cover; she represents my main target population. To be able to attract my target audience the model has to appeal to them. 

For my front cover I have used a large masthead, sticking with my bright colour scheme I think that was a main source to bring in my target audience. The masthead will be able to attract people from afar when they see it on the magazine newsstand because the colour black contrasts well with the background; I have also used capital letters for it to stand out more. The model is posing in a unique and fun way, the audience will think the magazine will most likely be about fashion and will recognise it’s a female dominated magazine. On my front cover I have used a variation of different style fonts to be able to make it look enjoyable and exciting. I used large sub headings which read ‘NEW MUSIC’ so then the audience will be able to see the model is related with music. For my contents page I used a variation of pictures of the model as well as different pictures of female celebrities which are known too, I have chosen my outside images of female celebrities because the theme of my magazine is feminine which will attract my target audience. For my double page spread (DPS) I used a range of bright colours like, baby blue, fuchsia and yellow which I intended to because the model is wearing colours that can be linked to this, which is for the target audience.

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

The technologies that I have used during the process of constructing my magazine were the college camera, blogger, InDesign and Photoshop.  I have used InDesign & Photoshop technologies as it was easier to create my DPS and contents page on InDesign and create my front cover on Photoshop. I have learnt various things from both technologies; with InDesign I know how to set up rulers, chose a4 paper, save to JPEG, type, place an image, enlarge and crop images, create to pages. I found this easier to create my DPS and contents page because I know how to create a double page spread set rulers, create text with colours and construct my text much better as well as placing images in my magazine. Photoshop was useful with my front cover because I was able to edit my image, place my masthead properly on the magazine, and layer my magazine better with text and images.  For our college assignment we were told to create our magazines and put them on blogger, blogger was used because it was more clearer, it kept records of when you posted information on to the website, you can look at your peers work, you can give each other feedback on your magazines much easier, it reaches the audience quicker and it was an effective software for our project. We had the opportunity to use the college studio with the digital camera, I have learnt how to focus the camera, which buttons to press when controlling the pictures, and I have learnt how to position the model in the studio. We used a high-res camera, with this high resolution we were able to capture intricate details and it was better to focus with. I had much different equipment to help me with my photo shoot, such as the diffuser; which diffused the lighting when taking pictures. I had a white backdrop because I wanted the pictures to be light and emphasise on the model and her clothing. The location shooting was used to have another type of setting in the magazine.

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

I feel I have achieved a lot since my preliminary task because with my prelim task I haven’t used Photoshop and I didn’t use much tools on InDesign to create it. When producing my music magazine I have been taught how to manage layers which made it much easier for me to organise my front cover, contents page and my DPS. I have used a very high-res camera for my professional photo-shoot, however at first we was given a hand-held digital camera which was much easier to control and use instead of the SLR. I have been taught how to have various fonts on Photoshop, I am aware of the different types of text fonts that I can apply on to my magazine. I also learnt about psychological pricing, which means when a magazine uses a number ending with “0.99” to give an illusion that its more cheaper. I also understand the conventions of reaching out to my audience, by having a specific target audience; it is easier for me to attract that type of audience by showing it through my magazine. My target audience would be attracted to certain subjects, colours, images on the magazine.