Media evaluation1

Media Evaluation

Q1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of

real media products?

My cover page also has a conventional masthead. ‘Fusion’ is situated at the top of my page, and stands out using a light purple colour. This also is normal for magazines due to it standing out. The only element of my cover page that challenges the conventions of a real media product, is the cover image being in greyscale. I did this to create colour comparison to the masthead and cover line, and for it to stand out from other magazines

My magazine uses conventional techniques, for example, the model on my camera page, is looking at the camera. This portrays the idea that she is confident and happy, and also carries the stereotypical conventions, found on numerous magazines.

Q1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Masthead is obvious and it located at the top of the page.

Black and white image is not conventional, and is off centre, to the left, which again, goes against the stereotype.

The coverline goes across the bottom of the page, and is relating to the main picture, which is conventional.

Incentives located in an obvious place, on a different colour background to stand out.

The stories are all in order and are located on the front page to show what kind of articles are within the magazine.

The extra information and incentives identified at the top of the page.

The price, issue number, website and tag line all located on the cover page.


My contents page is both conventional, yet unconventional. I have based it on the Clash contents page, which is conventional – as it is a professional magazine and uses columns, pictures etc. However this is unconventional because the majority of magazines have 3 columns, all of which are used individually and represent numerous aspects of the magazine to look forward to. I challenged this, and merged two of my columns, allowing the list of my pages on the left hand side, then the special features to be emphasised on the right side, as shown below. Below is also the contents page which I based mine on.

Clash mag

Example of 1 column, then 2 columns.



The list of the weeks articles in one column. They are also separated into sub categories such as interviews, reviews and gig guide. Each page has the number that they appear on.

The magazines logo featured on the contents page as a reminder.

Title of the page, and the consistency of the magazine, e.g. every week.

The pictures of what posters are featured in the magazine.

The editors note which is a small message from the maker of the magazine, to the reader. It gives an overview of what is in ‘Fusion’ that week and personalizes the mag.

The bigger articles have a bigger space on the page, and have page numbers in large next to them.


My pictures for my DPS are all live shots of Dave Giles and his support acts. As well as pictures of me with the singers, they are not particularly staged. However all are took within the concert, matching the interview on the opposite page, which was recorded at the same time. The pictures of me with the band member, shows the intimacy and therefore shows the friendliness that would be expected within the interview. My interview and text for my DPS is very informal, to appeal to a wider audience.

This is evidence of the informality of my interview, as it says ‘(for all our girl fans out there!)



A page full of pictures is slightly unconventional as they are usually spread evenly however there is one main picture, and the rest are smaller versions which is conventional.

The captions of who is who in the pictures, is conventional.

My work is in columns, which is often used by magazines on double page spreads. As it is an interview, the questions are in bold, to emphasise and represent where the next question begins.

Quotes from the interview to stand out and make the interview interesting and persuade people to read it.


All of my pages – Cover page, contents page, and DPS have specific colour schemes to ensure that they are not tacky and unprofessional. On my Cover page and Contents page I tried to keep the consistency up and used a light lilac colour as my main colour, and based the rest of my colours around this. I used black and white too, as they are neural and go well with the black and white picture on my front page. On my double page spread I used light red and light green as a blend, and used them alternatively on my frames on my pictures. I chose these colours from the pictures. The green is from the light on my main photo, and then the red was taken from the top right picture. I did this to ensure the text and frames related to the pictures and kept a scheme.

Q2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My media product represents teenage girls aged 12 – 18 who are interested in pop and indie rock music. My magazine is aimed at the younger generation as I have used bright colours to make it exciting. I made my magazine quite cheap, as to aim for the working class – with the beginning price being £1. I will aim my magazine at people all around the country, predominantly in the south – with London being a major district that is well known for music. My front page has Rhiannon on the cover. This is an accurate representation of teenage music lovers, as she is wearing make up and has her hair done - implying the majority of girls make an effort for their appearance. It is also relating to the article – which is about popular music and what artists the readers could be interested in listening to. This also relates back to the social group who I am representing, as many girls who like music, make an effort to look good.

Q3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

I think that Bauer Media could distribute my magazine because Fusion is an indie-pop magazine – that still includes light rock music. I think that my magazine would fit into their market as there is nothing like that, which they are distributing currently, however they do sell magazines which fit the heavier rock genre, such as Kerrang! and Q. Even though their recent circulation has decreased, they still are able to sell many copies, for example, Kerrang! had decreased by 2.2% yet still sold 43, 003 copies – on average.I think that a lot of newsagents could sell my magazine, as well as big retailers who are primarily known to sell magazines, books etc, such as WHSmith.

Q4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

I think the main target audience for my magazine would be young teenagers, to older teenagers who enjoy pop and indie music. I have also extended this to light rock music which could broaden my audience. For the younger audience, they would be more likely to be interested in the pop music such as One Direction and JLS. This would be welcome to the older ages too, however it is unlikely that they would be interested in it. The acoustic genre would appeal to the slightly older teenagers, such as 14-18 year olds, and would like the bands such as The Kooks, and The Icarus Account. Finally, the light rock music and ‘alternative’ genre would appeal to the older teens again, with them liking bands such as You Me At Six, Mayday Parade and All Time Low. This stereotype is known as ‘emo’ and would probably appeal to the latter half of the audience. The other stereotype which could appeal to the younger girls, who like pop music could be categorized as ‘chavs’. These stereotypes are conventionally opposite, therefore my magazine aims to bring genres together and ‘fuse’ to create the newest genre which would thus therefore appeal to a wider audience.

Q5. How did you attract/address your audience?

I used different devices to attract and address my audience. I used lilac as my main focus colour, which is quite neutral. However, it is slightly more feminine, which proves that girls are my main target audience. On my contents page, the readers are spoken to directly through my Editors note. This shows that it is more personal, and therefore could attract them to buy the magazine. In my editors note I describe what’s on in the week, and I address the reader each time. I also kept the price of my magazine low – with the starting price being only £1. This creates a fan base at first, because it is affordable for the majority of people. The price is then increased for the later issues, once people have bought – and believed in – the product. I referred back to my questionnaire results, and the majority of people said that they would pay £2 - £3 for a magazine, therefore I priced it at £2.50.I used different fonts to portray different ideas. Initially, and predominantly, I used simple fonts which made it easier to read however for the incentive of the ‘starting price’ I used fancy font, which makes it more girly – which are my target audience. This idea is reinforced by the fact that my model on my front page is girl. This could mean that teenagers could relate to her, therefore be more attracted to Fusion. On my cover page, I used the website address for the magazine, which could mean that they would want to be more involved.

Q6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

I learnt numerous things during this topic about technologies. Internet told me a lot about publishers, and music magazines, and how popular different magazines are – due to their media institution that distribute them. I found out that IPC media sold NME sold approximately 29,020 copies a day, and that Bauer media distributed Q, which sold 80,418 a day. I also found that you have to be careful and don’t believe everything that you read on the internet, and to check carefully the information you’re reading. Music genres were defined for me on the internet, when I wanted to find out what bands were under the category of Pop and indie and light rock. I discovered bands such as The Icarus Account, One Direction, Mayday Parade and Boyce Avenue. This helped when finding out who to put in my magazine, and who would be appropriate to be listed within Fusion.

Internet.


Blogger.Blogger played a major part within planning, and taking out actions for my magazine. It allowed me to organise all my pictures that I took, and explain why I didn’t choose them, and why I did choose the ones I did. It allowed me to upload my designs, so when I was making my magazine, I could turn back to look at it and carry out my plans. Furthermore, I uploaded my questionnaire results on to my blog, so when I making my mag, I could refer back to the post and try and make it to appeal to as many people as possible. The drawings of my plan helped me significantly because I was able to keep referring back to them so I could make my magazine what I wanted it to look like originally.

This shows that my plan was referred to a lot for my cover page, so it looks like what I wanted it to.


Digital Cameras.Digital cameras played an important part for my magazine. I had to ensure that my pictures were good quality, so they didn’t blur or pixelate when enlarged. I took many pictures, of the same thing, to make sure that I had at least one picture I’d want to use, even if I didn’t use the others. I put the camera on the highest setting I could, to make sure that it was the best quality that they could be. I also tested out the lighting, by putting my model in different places, and took pictures with and without flash. I didn’t want shadows around Rhiannon, as it was harder to cut and edit, therefore took more to make sure I got the one I wanted.

These are a few examples of the many pictures I took for my cover page.


Photoshop.Photoshop was useful for editing and manipulating images, as well as creating my cover page. I used Photoshop to edit from colour to black and white. I did this because I wanted to be different and make the title of my magazine stand out. I also cut around Rhiannon’s figure to make sure that I could put my own plain background on it. An example of me changing my picture is my cover image. I could use the scissor to cut around her head and shoulders to make sure that the excess background disappeared.

This shows the transformation between the original and edited version. The original is in colour and centre, whereas edited is black and white and on the left hand side.


Photoshop was also useful when creating my front page. I was able to add layer by layer, and lay them over each other if needed to create my magazine. Below is the step by step of my magazine being created, showing the stages I went through to create it. It allows you to move things to where you want them to, as well as add effects and crop, cut paste etc.

Photoshop.

This was used to cut around the shapes, as accurately as possible.


Quark.

I used Quark to make my Contents Page and Double Page Spread. On this I could use the guidelines and columns to structure my pages well, so they were even and were in straight lines. Columns were most evident on my contents page and the text part of my interview on my double page spread. Quark was particularly helpful when making the DPS. This is because I was able to put the two pages together to see what they’d look like together, and worked on them facing each other.


This is my step by step showing of how I created my Contents Page on Quark.

Q7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

I believe that I have progressed a lot since my preliminary task of making a college magazine. I did a significant amount of research for this task, which included finding the conventions of a Double Page Spread, and then deciding whether to go with the conventions, or break the stereotype. I also did a lot more research in finding out distributors and what articles are normally in a music magazine – something I did not find out for my preliminary task.Furthermore, I think that I planned more for my main task. I added detail into my sketches and attempted to carry them out as well as I could. I also planned days of when to get pictures etc.My photography skills improved as I took more pictures, to ensure a variety to choose from and took numerous pictures based on lighting, depth of field and background.For my double page spread I had to write out my interview, after interviewing Dave Giles. This was then shown through my journalism skills and proved that I could plan an interview, carry it out then write it up afterwards.Lastly, my Photoshop skills changed dramatically from my preliminary task to my main task. Before my preliminary task, I had little knowledge of Photoshop, however by the end of the unit I was able to transform my picture to black and white, and add drop shadows etc.

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Media evaluation1