Main Task EvaluationHeidi Stevenson

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

‘Simply pop’ uses the forms and conventions of real music magazines as it as it informs its readers of celebrity gossip, the latest news about the music industry and interviews with musicians. My magazine uses the forms and conventions of a typical music magazine because of the carefully selected model I used on the front cover of ‘Simply Pop’. The teenage model is posing with her hand on her hip and is holding the prop of a guitar above her head. The pink guitar is used as a prop to symbolise the ‘pop music’ genre. The models dress code of a pink and black dress is also suitable for the dress of musicians typically seen within the pop genre. The pose the model is pulling is also typical of magazine photo shoots as seen in a magazine I researched ‘We Love Pop’.

My magazine challenges the forms and conventions of lots of popular music magazines on the market today. ‘Pop’ magazines such as ‘We Love Pop’ and ‘Top of the pops’ mostly use the colours pink, orange and light blue which symbolise innocence and femininity and are suitable for the target audience. I used the colours pink, orange and black on my magazine and followed this through to the contents page to create an established house style, which the target market of my magazine will recognise.

I used the colours bright pink, purple and black for my font style to attract the readers eye. I used a ‘bubble gum pink’ and black colours on the masthead which stand out against the rest of the page, they also match the costume of the model, making the mise-en-scene look more effective. I decided to name my music magazine ‘simply pop’ as I thought it was important to have the word ‘pop’ in the title to clearly associate with the pop genre.

How does your magazine represent particular social groups?

‘Simply Pop’ is a pop magazine and is therefore aimed at 10-16 year olds interested in pop music. I have represented the ‘Pop genre’ through the use of mise-en-scene. On my front cover the model is holding the prop of a pink guitar and is wearing a pink and black stripy dress, which is a typical costume of musicians in the pop genre. The model on the front cover of ‘simply pop’ is a teenage girl, as I thought it was important for the model on the front cover to relate too and represent the target audience, which will make the magazine more popular with the target market.Simply Pops target audience

is 10-16 year olds. Research from other pop magazines suggested that 85% of readers are girls and just 15% were boys. Therefore I tried to aim my magazine more at girls this is shown through my language, mode of address and colour schemes. I used feminine colours such as pink and yellow to appeal to girls, these colours also promoted innocence and had an essence of fun.

I tried to represent my target markets specific age group through the use of language to create a chatty and friendly mode of address. I used the word ‘you’ to address the target audience so that the audience would personally connect with the magazine, and feel like it was aimed at them, making them more likely to buy the magazine.

I believe my magazine would have to be published with a popular media institution such as the BBC( British Broadcast corporation) . If my magazine was distributed by the BBC it would be seen as having a high standard as BBC has a good reputation as an media institution. The BBC have published ‘top of the pops magazine’, ‘girl talk’ and ‘the radio times’. The BBC have more that one million subscribers of their magazines, and have expertise in digital platforms. The BBC uses cross media convergence to maximise the impact of its media products and owns many radio stations.

BBC might publish my magazine as it publishes similar products such as ‘top of the pops’ and ‘girl talk’ which are both aimed at a younger teenage audience and have a similar target market to my magazine.

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

The target audience for my media product are 10-16 year olds, I think my magazine will appeal mainly to girls. The age range I am aiming at is similar to the BBC’s ‘ top of the pops’ magazine. My research into institutions showed that 85% of the magazines readership are girls and just 15% were boys. Based on this research I decided to target my magazine at girls aged 10-16. I made sure that my magazine would appeal to girls of this age group by researching popular magazines already on the market, aimed at a similar target audience to my own. I found that the pop music magazines already on the market all had typical media conventions, which I tried to follow to make my magazine more successful in appealing to my target audience. I used bright vibrant colours to attract the readers eye, and prop and magazine to make my magazine fit with the typical conventions of a pop magazine.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

I think I attracted the target audience to my magazine using some media techniques such as Mise-en-scene, language, colour schemes and font styles. I think 10-16 year olds will be attracted to my pop music magazine because of the front cover. The model on the front cover is a teenage girl and is therefore a similar age to my target audience, I think this will help my target audience connect with and relate to the magazine making them more likely to buy it. The costume and prop on the front cover will also help attract my target audience as they associate with the pop genre. The language I have used in my magazine will also help address the target audience. I have used the tag line ‘the pictures they didn't want you to see’ by using the word ‘you’, my magazine addresses the target audience personally and creates a friendly, chatty mode of address which will appeal to teenagers. I have also used some ‘slang’ words such as ‘eek!’ which mimics the way teenagers speak, enhancing the informal mode of address. In addition to this I have included typical content of pop music magazines into my magazine, such as interviews with popular ‘pop stars’ and celebrity gossip. I think that interviews with musicians are one on the most important aspects of attracting the 10-16 year old age group because this specific age group are highly influenced by celebrities and see them as ‘role models’ therefore if their favourite musician is in the magazine they will be more likely to buy it.

How did you attract/address your audience

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

The skills I have learnt during the process of making my music magazine has improved my finished product dramatically. As you can see from the below pictures my original image had a brick wall in the background, I then made this background white using Photoshop. Using Photoshop has improved the quality of my product dramatically as it makes the finished magazine look more professional and similar to many magazines on the market today. I have also learnt to use a Mac to work on my product, using a Mac made my finish product look more professional rather than using a simple word document to create my magazine.

Looking back at your preliminary task ,what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product? I think my skills in making a magazine have improved a lot since completing the school magazine preliminary task. The school magazine looks very bare and dull compared to the music magazine, this is because I have gained a greater understanding of the conventions of a magazine, such as font styles, layout, and mise en scene. I improved my main task music magazine by adding more interesting font styles to catch the readers eye. I also used a wide range of different images across the front cover, contents page and double page spread which makes the magazine look more appealing to the target audience. The colours used on my music magazine are more appropriate for the pop genre and are bright and vibrant which will catch the readers eye.

Focus Group questionnaire feedback

Question 1- All 10 people answering my questionnaire thought my magazine belonged to the pop genre.

Question 2- 9 out of the 10 people surveyed thought that my magazine was targeted at 10-16 year olds.

Question 3- All 10 people answering the questionnaire thought that the photos used on my magazine were suitable for the pop genre.

Question 4- 8 of the 10 people surveyed thought that the font styles used were appropriate for the pop genre.

Question 5- 3 people of the 10 answered that the model stood out the most on the front page. 5 people thought that the bright colour scheme stood out the most. 2 people thought that the masthead and logo of magazine stood out the most.

Question 6- 5 out of 10 people thought that the colour scheme was most prominent on the contents page, 3 said font and masthead, 2 said the scattered images.

Question 7- 7 out of the 10 people thought that the main image was the most prominent on the double page spread. 2 said that the masthead stood out the most, 1 said the font style.

Question 10- 7 females and 3 males answered my questionnaire.

Question 8- 7 out of the 10 surveyed said that they would pay £2 for my magazine.

Question 9- 5 out of the 10 people surveyed said that I should change the font styles to improve my magazine. 2 said I could add more images and 3 said to improve I should make font bigger.