Evaluation Part 7 - What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

For my magazine I was required to use a variety of different media technologies, such as a camera for my images, desktop publishing in the form of Microsoft Publisher to create my magazine and blogger as a form of communicating my magazine task and the processes I went through to complete the task. I used the internet to gather the information I needed for many of the tasks, such as the publishing house of the magazine Q I was using as a sort of template for my magazine. I cropped images to fit into the magazine better and to make it look more effective.
Blogger

helped me communicate my process with the task with a selection of people including tutors, peers and the exmaining board.
Camera

A camera similar to this one allowed me to take the photographs I needed to complete the task of creating a visually exciting magazine.
The internet and search engines

Google allowed me to search the relevant information for my task so that I could complete it more accurately.
Publisher

This let me complete the magazines, both the preliminary task and the final product.

Evaluation Part 6 - What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

My magazine, compared to the readership of Q magazine, with the style I am hoping to follow, has a mass audience but in much smaller numbers. This is because I hope to attract a predominantly female audience. Q magazine is published and distributed by Bauer Media Group, a German based publishing house. The company works in the UK and 14 other countries, due to this I feel that a company with such a stand in the media industry would be ideal for magazine publishing. However I feel that due to my magazine only being published and distributed in the UK and that it is mainly aimed at a fairly small mass audience such a company would be unsuitable for my magazine. I feel this because a smaller publishing company would ensure that my magazine did reach all of my target audience. A lot of smaller magazines don't get the attention or coverage they require to be successful because their distributors fail to distribute to the areas which may allow the magazine to sell more copies to their target audience. I feel that I would go to a small independent publisher and distributor as it will hopefully boost sales in the long run as many of the areas which would not receive the magazine initially therefore extending the readership further than it would have done at first. From research I have found a variety of small independent publishing houses such as Dowse Independent Press, 328 Media Ltd, National Magazines and Anthem Publishing Ltd. These smaller companies I feel would be better and more accepting of a new venture of a music magazine and allow the magazine to flourish.

Evaluation Part 5 - Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full end product?

Since starting my preliminary task to completing my finished piece I have learnt a lot about myself and the work that had to be done.
I was responsible for all the roles played by industry professionals in both processes; such as photographer, creative director, editor and talent. For both tasks I had to arrange to take photographs, decided on a suitable colour scheme and layout along with the task of writing and editing of the copy for the magazines.
I learnt from these sometimes momentous tasks the work that must be inputted by each professional to create a high standard magazine. The organisation and communication which is vital in the process were two major drawbacks throughout the time, with lack of organisation and loss of talent due to illness and a variety of different reasons, I soon realised how much effort each member of the industry must contribute even daily.

From the creation of my preliminary task to the final edition of my magazine however I feel that I coped well. My preliminary task had a plain colour scheme and a fairly simple layout. However I did use some of the ideas from my preliminary task and also feel could have used more aspects of my preliminary layout to make my final piece better. I used the "editors note" in both and had a similar front cover style. I do feel the preliminary contents page style would have worked more effectively however as it seemed to be more attractive and easier to read.

This is my preliminary task.

Evaluation 4 - How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My social group that I aim to attract is a more indie or alternative group, they would listen to a lot of the music associated with this and therefore would enjoy reading about up and coming bands and artists along with already famous and good artists and bands.

The male figure I represent in the interview and front cover of my magazine represents the social group that can be associated with indie or alternative music. This figure could also be interpreted by the female target audience as someone to aspire to be with, a role model of sorts. however to an unintentional male audience the interview may come across to be fairly arrogant and someone that the audience could either dislike or not look up to. I hoped to represent the images in my magazine positively to my target audience and feel that using the images I did throughout my magazine I managed to create tis positive image, making my magazine more sellable and ideal for the audience I aim to sell my magazine to.


Although my magazine is aimed at an older audience I do feel personally that magazines aimed at teenagers, especially younger teens, have a responsibility to represent the right type of person as the audiences of magazines such as Top of the Pops are very influential. The teenagers that read Top of the Pops may be young enough to see a badly portrayed image as one to follow and look up to. Presenting celebritites as incredibly underweight, heavily under the influence of alcohol or drugs or publicising distateful music, such as Rhianna at present.

Evaluation 3 - How did you attract/address your audience?

How did you attract/address your audience?

The language used in my interview was simplistic yet formal, due to that it was written in an interview style it also had a conversational tone to it. I thought this was effective in connecting the audience as it allows the reader to feel as if they are almost there talking to the star also. I used a lexical field of shocking words throughout my interview for example "success", "craziness", "burst" and "ecstatic". This I think also helped engage with the audience as it gives the piece more pace and makes it overall more interesting. Also to address the audience I used a second person pronoun both in the interview and the contents page "editors note".
The images I included in my final product are mostly images of interest by the target audience, the male stars especially, yet I also included images of female stars, such as Cheryl Cole on the front cover which would be aspirational figures to the target audience or figures of interest to the target audience.

Evaluation 2 - Who would be the audience for your media product?

Who would be the audience for your media product?

My target audience is a female group with an age range of 15 - 20, this makes it a mass market, being for many older teenagers. It is a fairly broad age range but hoping that the audience would be predominantly female makes it more specific. My target audience have a keen interest in music; artists, gigs and festivals; along with an interest in current affairs and recent events. The group would be mainly school or university students, and would spend a lot of time listening to music; live or via iPod etc, or working part time. The target audience for my magazine would also be part of the socio-economic group C2DE, although I feel that this classing system is outdated in todays society as many people from each group associate with each other and the things often related to the separate groups. My magazines target audience will also be part of the western culture as, for the release anyway, it will be published and sold solely in the United Kingdom. Due to the penumbra effect however my magazine will be consumed by people outside of my target audience, this may be because of second hand readings i.e. leaving a magazine and somebody else reading it, or it could be due to the reader looking for a different reading material to look at.

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

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




These images are examples of contents pages, the one nearer the top of the page is my contents page and the one below it is an example of a Q magazine contents page. From a quick glance at these magazines contents pages you can see that they follow a fairly similar template, with the contents list being clearly structured and easy to read.
On the other hand at a closer look it is easily noteable that they hold very different structure and style. The contents page that was created by myself is split almost into three columns, one being images, one being the contents list and one being the "editors note". This challenges the meme of a Q magazine contents which, although split into three columns also, focuses on placeing the contents list around the main images, these images are placed in the middle column, which is ultimately larger, and are used as a focus for the audiences attention to be captured. This is effective as these images can highlight articles of interest or high profile articles, however it can draw the attention away from the contents list, thus losing attention from other articles. With this in mind, I created a contents list which was placed centrally so as to attract the audiences attention to the whole contents and not just the main articles. This is challenging the conventions of most contents pages, as many use a lot of images fro the main articles so these have a wider reader base, however I feel by placing the contents list in the centre of the page it may attract a larger readership.
Q magazine also have their logo on their contents page, this advertises the magazine further. However I didn't feel this was necessary as the magzine I created would be unique in being for a female audience, and as the contents page is so near to the cover I did not feel it was necessary to broadcast the magazine name or logo continuously throughout.
The images used, as previously noted, are more centralised, but are also layered in a scrapbook style. I placed my images in a storyboard style, although now looking more closely at other contents pages I would agree that a scrapbook, layered style seems to be more effective.
I also did not include an issue number or date, on looking at my contents page again I feel this also would have been a good convention to follow, along with the headings and subheadings that are also used in Q magazine.






The front cover of a magazine it vital: it attracts readers, builds a reputation and is easily recognisable for it's current audience. Q magazine is easily recogniseable for having the large red Q as it's logo, always placed in the same top left hand position.
My front cover followed the convention of Q magazine by including one large image on the page. I followed each convention of Q magazine but changed each slightly to suit my magazine better. The taglines is a prime example of this: I ensured I included taglines on my front cover but due to space on the page because of the size of the image and that I did not want to disturb the image with irrelevant text (text that is not part of the picture or the article the picture belongs to). This is how I changed the convention of taglines to suit my peice better, Q magazine covers a lot of the image with taglines but this seems to work well. I also included a few smaller images on the right hand side of the page, this I thought was a good idea as it may attract a wider audience as it depicts further what the magazine will contain. This however breaks away from the convention of not including smaller images and just tag lines. However I think that my idea would also be successful.




My interview was structured conventionally inline with many music magazine interviews, however how I placed the images and text could be somewhat against the conventions of music magazines such as Q as these often place images from the article around the two pages. I, however, decided to, again, put the images in a storyboard style. I feel this style is effective because the images are together and are easier to look at and attract the audience.