EvaluationIsaac Halle 6917

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

My media product uses the convention of a masthead. Similarly to real media products my masthead is large, clear and bold located at the top left of my front cover in order to be eye catching to an audience. My magazine repeats this convention as it is large, bold and clear and at the top left of my front cover, my product also repeats the convention of a short worded/lettered masthead-’XTRA’ similarly to many magazines of the same genre eg. NME,Q,DIY. In addition many of these use these magazines use the colour red in their mastheads in order to make their product stand out and be easily recognised, my media product replicates this for the same reasons and to make my magazine stand out. My media product repeats this in order to replicate the other successful magazines of the indie/alternative genre as the masthead design is eye catching and makes a magazine easily identifiable for consumers.

My media product challenges the convention of social media convergence such as Twitter ,Facebook or Instagram. My media product challenges this convention because the largest magazines of the genre (NME, Q, DIY) I am replicating do not use social media convergence in terms of a twitter, Facebook or Instagram page like my magazine front cover has used, and most do not even have a website address on the cover. My magazine is challenging this convention as few or no magazines of the indie/alternative genre that I am replicating use social media convergence and by doing this it allows my audience to become more engaged and as my target audience is 15-19 year olds, this will allow them to ‘personally identify’ because the young age group in my target audience have the greatest interest in social media of all ages. Additionally the social media I used n my front cover was the ones most popular with those in my target audience. By using social media convergence my magazine has a unique selling point and can have a greater appeal to my target audience than similar magazines of the same genre.

My media product repeats the convention of a large main image of ‘star’ (Dyer)on the front cover, that is manipulated to go in front of the masthead. This is a convention I am repeating from the most popular magazines of the indie/alternative genre (NME, Q, DIY) because the main image of a star attracts consumers to buy the magazine due to the ‘star appeal’ (Richard Dyer) of the featured celebrity. As they recognise the star they will be attracted to look at the magazine and read the featured article inside. I am replicating this for the same effect as it makes my magazine more eye-catching and professional by including this feature. My media product also repeats the convention used by many of the major magazines, where the image is manipulated (via eg. Photoshop) to partially go over the masthead. This is in order to make the main image and ‘star’ more visible and central to a consumer and direct their focus.

Magazines of inspiration My media product

Evidence of image manipulation Evidence of image manipulation

Evidence of image manipulation

My magazine front cover repeats the convention of ‘puff promotion’ which is used by the top magazines of the indie/alternative genre which I am replicating (NME,Q). Use of Puff promotion entices the consumer to purchase the magazine because of use of exclusive language such as; ‘special’, ‘Exclusive’, ‘Free’, ‘win’ as well as the punctuation of exclamation marks. In addition, puff promotion entices an audience to buy a magazine because of the attractive ‘feature’ within. A consumer will be attracted to the exclusivity and positive connotations of words such as ‘exclusive and ‘win’ and buy the magazine in order to be in with a chance in the belief they will gain from it or otherwise miss out. The featured promotion will also relate to the target audience’s tastes and often relate to the genre through advertising a poster for a band of the magazine’s genre for example. This will attract the target audience t the magazine more and give them a greater appeal to purchase the magazine as it would personally relate to their tastes in music. My magazine cover has also repeated the shape and colour of the puss promotion of the major magazines of the indie/alternative genre such as Q and NME as their promotion is a circle shape and yellow. This is in order to make the puff promotion more eye-catching to a consumer and by seeing the promotion they can b attracted to buy the magazine in order to gain the benefits of said promotion, additionally it makes the magazine all together more eye catching and visible and therefore can be more clearly seen and attract the consumer. In my media product I have repeated the conventions of real media products by sing a yellow circle for my puff promotion, and I have advertised that the consumer can ‘WIN! Free bloc party tickets’. I have repeated the convention of exclusive language through the words ‘WIN!’ and ‘free’ in order to attract the audience to buy the magazine, and I have advertised tickets for bloc party, an alternative/indie band in order to be have continuity with the genre of my magazine which is an indie/alternative genre magazine. This will therefore make my magazine ore appealing to my target audience because it will promote something they are interested in as they will be a fan of the genre and therefore will give greater appeal to them to purchase my magazine.Magazines of inspiration

My media product

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My target audience is 15-19 year old males. My magazine represents this group because my magazine will mainly feature male artists because my target audience can ‘personally identify’ (Katz) and relate with the ‘star/stars’ this is also based on readership figures for the established magazine of the alternative genre- ‘Q’ magazine that show that it is the majority of men that read their magazine. Furthermore my coloursheme of mainly reds, black colours throughout are stereotypical masculine colours and the colour and boldness will attract my young and male target audience.The low price of my magazine (£2.99) additionally represents the social groups in my target audience because it’s a very fair price for a monthly magazine, and will be very affordable for my target audience in section E and B of the socio economic chart who will likely have enough disposable income as well as free time. These groups are also most likely to have an interest in the indie/alternative genre and thus read my magazine.

What kind of media institution (Publisher) might distribute your media product and

why?

From the research that was conducted pre production, I would envisage that the production house Bauer Media would publish my magazine, XTRA, firstly because they are Europe’s largest publishing company and therefore could give my product strong financial support as well as give my product stronger marketing and guidance which is why I believe Bauer would be more suitable to other production houses such as timeinc. who aren't as large. In addition I believe Bauer would be suitable to publish XTRA because they sell a similar magazine, one that my product is inspired by which sis Q, However this would not mean they would compete as Q is a more alternative and popular culture magazine whereas XTRA is indie/alternative and would therefore be a more niche product and fill a gap in the market and fulfil a consumer need. Additionally Bauer media’s experience with a similar style magazine would mean XTRA magazine would be supported and guided better due to the previous experience of the publishing company

Who would be the audience for your media product and why?

Hartley’s seven subjectivities

The ‘age’ (Hartley) of my target audience is 15-19 years old because this age group are most likely to have enough interest in the indie/alternative genre to buy my magazine and will have more time and disposable income than other age groups.

The ‘gender’ (Hartley) of my target audience would be male because that is the gender my magazines of inspiration target, which implies that the majority of readers are male too. In addition, the indie/alternative genre is stereotypically liked by males and features many more male stars than women.

Katz’ Uses & Gratifications theory

According to Katz’ Uses & Gratifications theory, ,

Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs

According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, ,

Category E would be likely to include my target audience because my target audience is young people aged 15-19 years old. The majority of unemployed people or students are young and in this age category but also have disposable income and more free time than other groups and therefore more time to grow a strong interest in music and read about it

Category B would be included within my target audience because they are creative and therefore would be likely to have a taste in indie/alternative music and have a disposable income so would be the sort of people to buy my magazine.

How did you attract/address your audience?

In order to attract the intended target audience of.. I decided to….

The inclusion of codes & conventions such as… helped to appeal to the target audience becasuse…

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

The denotation of the software used to construct the media product entitled ‘name of magazine’ was…

In order for this product to look fit for purpose and appeal to the target audience, I decided to create… using the… tool because.

Refer 2-3 examples at least and conclude

During the process of constructing this product I have learnt more abut the technologies of Photoshop. I have learnt how to manipulate images in a greater variety of ways and to a more professional standard, for example, I have learnt how to manipulate an image behind text and have overall become more proficient and confident with Photoshop.

During the process of constructing my media product, I have learnt about how to use the DSLR camera. I learnt how to use focus and zoom effectively to shoot a proffesiona and clear images

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

I feel that, having completed the preliminary task and learning about the demands of this production process, I have learnt…

There is evidence of progression that I feel particularly demonstrates how I met the demands of the production process, for example…

Audience Feedback - I asked my target audience what they liked about my magazine. The different responses were..

“I liked the bold colourscheme”

“I liked the mise-en-scene of the main image”

“I liked the format of the contents page”

“I liked the interview on the double page spread”

Analysing my Front CoverCover LinesFeature ‘stars’ of the genre attracting audience to purchase

Large bold and clear masthead

Puff promotion uses exclusive language to attract audience, related to genre

strapline

Edition, date and website

Main HeadlineMentions featured ‘star’

Barcode, Social media convergence and QR code

price

Main image of featured ‘star’

Analysing my Contents Page

Features of genre ‘stars’ with page numbers and short description of feature

Editorial with picture

Magazine logo

Date

Image of features ‘stars’

Enticing description of main feature

Advertisement to subscribe

Analysing my Double Page spread Interview

InterviewSynonymous to conventions of magazines of inspiration from the same genre ie: columned text, Q and A format, initials for different answerers, bold/italic/different coloured writing for question.

Image of stars

Photography Planning – Front Cover

Photography Planning - Contents

Photography Planning –Double Page Spread