MEDIA EVALUATION

KATE CARTER

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

• I have used similar conventions as to those on existing music magazines on my front cover. For example my masthead is big and bold at the top of the page like on every other music magazine, this makes the name of my magazine more memorable as it would be the first thing people notice about the magazine. I put the masthead behind the main image as this is a convention that a lot of music magazines have, it makes the image the main focus of the page but you can still read the masthead and it still stands out. I used five different fonts on my front cover to make the page look more interesting and have more variety, all music magazines have a range of fonts, usually of around five. I used the word ‘you’ to relate specifically to the reader in hope of drawing them in to buy the magazine. I included anchorage by having a quote from the interview inside the magazine with the cover star on the front cover of the magazine so the reader will have a look in at what the magazine is going to include. I have a barcode on my front cover and the price in small print. Another convention of magazine front covers I have used is a medium close up image of the person I am doing an interview with where she is looking into the camera, this is a convention that the majority of music magazines have. I kept to a colour scheme of 5 colours, red, black, white, blue and yellow, to keep it looking professional yet interesting at the same time, all music magazines stick to around 5 colours in their colour scheme.

• The background of my front cover is a Union Jack flag therefore this challenges conventions of music magazines as the majority of music magazines have a plain background. I made the Union Jack myself on Photoshop to keep my work original, however I changed the opacity of it so the writing on the front cover could still stand out and be seen.

• I used conventions of existing magazine contents pages for my magazine. The writing on my contents page is in columns which keeps it looking tidy and easy to read. I also continued with the colour scheme from the front page to make it look more professional. I also included an editors note on my contents page which not many music magazines have, this makes my magazine stand out more as it has something different to all other music magazines. I set the pictures out together and the text separately so the page doesn’t look too busy with pictures and text and so it looks clearer.

• For my double page spread I used conventions of existing magazines such as I have one large image on one side of the page and the writing on the other. I also put a quote in bigger writing than the article to make it stand out and draw people into reading the article, the majority of existing music magazines follow this convention. Another convention I followed was that I used a drop capital at the start of the article as many music magazines do this and I wrote the rest of the article in columns and in small writing. I continued the colour scheme from the front cover and contents page to brand the page as part of my magazine and to keep it looking professional.

MENTIONED KNOWN ALTERNATIVE ARTISTS SUCH AS FLORENCE WELCH AND DARWIN DEEZ TO LURE IN THE READER.

BOLD, PLAIN MASTHEAD TO STAND OUT AND DRAW ATTENTION. SIMPLE NAME SO EASY TO REMEMBER, REPRESENTS MUSIC. THE COLOUR BLACK FITS IN WITH THE COLOUR SCHEME.

TOP THING TO SUM UP WHAT THE MAGAZINE IS ABOUT, DIFFERENT COLOUR TO THE MASTHEAD SO IT STILL STANDS OUT EVEN THOUGH IT IS A LOT SMALLER THAN THE REST OF THE FONT ON THE PAGE.

COVERLINES IN BOLD, SIMPLE FONT SO EASY TO READ BUT STILL STAND OUT. GIVE THE READER AN INSIGHT TO WHAT THE MAGAZINE WILL INCLUDE BUT NOT ENOUGH INFORMATION SO THEY WONT NEED TO READ IT.

COVER IMAGE IS THE MAIN FOCUS OF THE PAGE, I TRIED TO MAKE IT THE MAIN FOCUS BY EDITING THE BRIGHTNESS AND CONTRAST SO IT WILL STAND OUT FROM THE REST OF THE PAGE EVEN THOUGH THE REST OF THE PAGE IS COLOURFUL AND EYE CATCHING. I HAD HER LOOKING STRAIGHT INTO THE CAMERA TO ESTABLISH A RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN HER AND THE READER AS IT IS AS IF SHE IS LOOKING RIGHT AT THEM.

USE OF THE WORD ‘YOU!’ TO DIRECTLY ADDRESS THE READER AND LURE THEM IN.

BARCODE AS ALL PROFESSIONAL MAGAZINES HAVE ONE OF THESE.

COLOUR SCHEME CONTINUED FROM THE FRONT COVER.

EDITORS NOTE TO INTRODUCE THE MAGAZINE, CONVENTION OF MAGAZINE CONTENTS PAGES.

SIGNATURE WRITTEN BY MEIN PAINT.

WRITING IN COLUMNS TO KEEP IT LOOKING PROFESSIONAL AND LIKE EXISTING MAGAZINES

COLOUR SCHEME AGAIN CONTINUED FROM THE FRONT COVER AND CONTENTS PAGE.

LARGE IMAGE ONONE SIDE OF THE PAGE, THIS IS A CONVENTIONOF EXISTING MUSIC MAGAZINEDOUBLE PAGE SPREADS.

QUOTE FROM REVIEW

DROP CAPITAL AT THE START OF THEREVIEW, CONVENTIONOF EXISTING MAGAZINES.

‘THE TONE’ IN ITALICS AND YELLOW TO STAND OUT.

WRITING IN COLUMNS LIKE EXISTING MAGAZINES, LOOKS PROFESSIONAL.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My media product represents anybody from teenage years to their twenties who have an interest in alternative music. I wanted to represent these people as quirky and different, therefore throughout my magazine there are various images of people these ages looking quirky and individual. On my front cover there is a picture of a 16 year old girl which fits into my target audience, therefore this helps appeal to the audience as they can relate to the person on the front cover. The cover girl represents teenage girls who have an interest in alternative music as the way her make up and hair is done is similar as to how these people would wear theirs, for example the red lipstick and wavy hair .

The acts mentioned on the front cover and contents page, Darwin Deez, Florence Welch, Bon Iver, The Drums etc, also represent the social group as they are alternative artists/bands and these are what this group of people tend to listen to. My magazine would represent different Ethnicities to appeal to a wider audience, for example have pictures of people from different ethnicities to show equality and that these people are part of British alternative music even though they may not be white .

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

• Three of the most popular media institutions are Immediate Media, Bauer and IPC media. Bauer publishes Q and Kerrang and IPC media publishes NME therefore I decided that neither of these would be appropriate to distribute my magazine as these are all popular music magazines which are similar to my magazine.

• I think Immediate Media could distribute my media product as the only music magazines it currently publishes are BBC music and Top of the Pops and these magazine only include little, if any, information about British alternative music and this is what my magazine focuses on therefore there is a gap in the market for my media product. Also, as my target audience varies from young to middle age this is different to what TOTP and BBC music aims for as TOTP is for younger people and BBC music is for older people. Immediate Media produces lots of popular magazines of different genres such as Gardeners World, Hair Ideas and Match of the Day. Immediate Media is a new media institution which has combined former media institutions as one therefore it is a big company which would make my media product well known.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

• The audience for my media product would be men and women aged 13 to 30 who are interested in alternative/indie music. I chose this audience as the information included would appeal to them as it focuses on alternative/indie music and the language used in the magazine may be slightly complex or unsuitable for people under the age of 13. Also, the cover image is more than likely to be in their late teen years or twenties therefore the target audience would relate to this.

• For my magazine front cover I dressed my model in a fringed top and a bright, long skirt, this is because it is quite a quirky, alternative outfit therefore it attracts my target audience as the girls are likely to dress in a similar way to this. However, to fit in with the convention of medium close up images on the front cover I had to crop out the outfit but the red lipstick I put on the model put across the alternative image I was looking for.

How did you attract/address your audience?

I attracted my target audience by having a member of my target audience as my cover star, in this case it was a ‘alternative’ teenage girl. Having her as my cover star would attract my target audience as they could relate to the person. Another way I attracted my target audience was to mention alternative acts on the front cover and in the contents page, this would attract my target audience as they would want to read about bands/artists that they are a fan of. I also used words such as ‘latest’ to attract my audience as readers will want to have up to date news.

• When interviewing people about my magazine they said they were attracted by the bright colour scheme on the front cover as it was eye catching. They also said the Union Jack flag in the background made it more interesting and unique therefore attracts them towards it. The males I interviewed said the picture also attracted them as they thought she was attractive therefore wanted to read about her, the females said the picture attracted them as they liked her style and could relate to her as she is similar to them. The audience said the acts mentioned on the front cover and contents page attracted them, as I intended to, as they are interested in the type of music the acts make.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product? • I used many new forms of technology when creating my magazine which I have

never used before such as Photoshop, Quark and Blogger. • I used Photoshop for my front cover and I found it slightly difficult to use at first

but eventually my skills developed and I could use it. It came in handy for editing my picture to make it better quality such as getting rid of the red eye and cropping the background from the image to make it more professional. Photoshop made my front cover look a lot more professional than if I was to use Microsoft Word or Publisher.

• I used Quark for my contents page and double page spread and I found this very difficult to use and I didn’t like it, however it did make the pages look professional.

• I used digital cameras to capture all of the images I used for my magazine and some of them are high quality however the main one I used for my double page spread turned out to be very blurry when I stretched it to full size, I think this is due to the conditions I took the photo in when I was at the gig as there were lots of flashing lights and a smoke machine which will have interfered with my picture quality.

Looking back on your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full

product?We were set a preliminary task which was to create a front cover and contents page for a college magazine. The task was set

to get us used to using Photoshop and Quark.My college magazine front cover is extremely simple compared to my music magazine, this is because I didn’t properly

understand how to use Photoshop and I hadn’t done much research into existing magazines. The colour scheme on my college front cover is dull and only consists of 3 colours therefore looks boring and doesn’t attract attention. The masthead is relatively small and isn’t much bigger than the cover lines therefore doesn’t stand out. The image looks messy and the edges haven’t been blurred therefore they look sharp and unprofessional, this is due to my lack of knowledge of Photoshop tools. There are only four cover lines on my front cover so it looks empty.

My contents page is a lot better than my front cover as it is laid out more professionally and the majority of the space is filled. However, it still is not up to the standard of my music magazine contents page. Compared to my college magazine my music magazine is a lot more professional and eye catching. I have learnt many skills using Photoshop and Quark in the making of my magazine.

Overall, I am happy with the outcome of my music magazine and it shows that I have improved a lot since making my college magazine.

College magazine Music magazine