Evaluation

I chose to create a music magazine that included a front cover, contents and a double page spread. Before I began to create the music magazine, I had to think carefully of which genre of music I was going to choose for my magazine. I decided to choose the genre of a mix between base (including lots of DJ’s) and simply R&B. By choosing this genre I knew it would fit the category of teenagers and young adults with the age range between 16-24years for my target audience. This was also chosen from my research when I created a questionnaire and added my results using pie charts. From researching I believe it helped me when choosing colours and layouts etc. Choosing a title for my music magazine was particularly as you are very wary of targeting the correct audience, and you wish for it to stand out and be a main feature of the magazine. I chose to name my magazine 'Flash,' I am happy with my choice, and believe it will attract the correct target audience.

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

My music magazine that I have created uses, develops, challenges forms and conventions of real media products. The graphology throughout my front page, contents and double page spread of my music magazine is similar to real media products. I have chosen to use a contrast of a few colours, consisting throughout my pages, as do real magazines. The amount of photographs I used is roughly the same amount as other music magazines would use. Although the photograph I chose to use for my front cover isn’t featured within the magazine itself, whereas most front cover photos feature that person inside the magazine. I chose not to do this to challenge a different form from other magazines, and use the photograph as more of an attraction which is eye catching to the target audience rather than because they are more interested in the story. Conventionally all people read from left to right, therefore most magazines place the title top left hand corner. My title 'Flash' is placed in the right hand corner, just to be different and stand out. The font I have chosen is from, 'dafont.com' and it is a main focus of the front cover. The barcode on a magazine is often placed in the bottom right hand corner; therefore I have placed the bar code there as well. After researching the music magazines, I noticed that most magazines are very busy, and overwhelming. After noticing this, I chose to make my front cover less busy and more prominent with small details on the inside stories. This challenges the form of a typical music magazine, and could possibly be a risk to the target audience of whom we are aiming at. Moving on to the contents page I have created, you can notice that I have also placed the title on the contents page as well. This is due to create a brand identity, as this is a convention of most other magazines as well.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My media product is targeted to teenagers and young adults age ranged between 16-24years, therefore this are the particular social group my media product represents. The front cover photograph is of a DJ, featured with loads of strobe lights beaming around him; his arms are raised showing he is feeling the rhythm of the music, engaging the audience into the scene of the picture! This photograph conveys the action and scene that a stereotypical young adult ranged between 16-24 would like, i.e. nightclubs, therefore this shows representation to the correct social group, as it also reflects on how the society is today. The colours chosen for the media product are also very eccentric and stand out, which relates to the young social group and engages them towards the magazine.
Who would be the audience for your media product?

Choosing the audience for your media product is an essential part, and plays a vital role in making the music magazine. The audience I have chosen, as said above is males and females ranged between the ages of 16-24years. This can be a both easy and difficult target audience, this could be because the younger target audiences can be easily influenced, although plenty of magazines try to target this age range, therefore there is a wider range of music magazines to choose from. Choosing to focus on both males and females is probably easier as you can have a variety of music and different individuals focused throughout.
How did you attract/address your audience?

My target demographic were attracted by bold fonts, short concise sentences which are of what they are likely to be interested in, photo's, a selected colour theme targeting males and females, winning a free iPod- shown on the front cover and the low price of simply £2.

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

Whilst constructing this product I have successfully, just about, learnt how to manage Photoshop with a little bit of help from other members in my class, and feedback from others. I also have managed to learn to use blogger, with abit of difficulty as it seems to be very temperamental, and you have to save files in different formats to upload the. I also included a slide show of my photographs used for my magazine on www.slide.com.

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

My preliminary task is very simplistic; I used a wider range of colours and don’t stand out as much as my full product. I think my magazine looks more realistic and professional. I have learnt that you need to take more care in the smaller things, and it is all very time consuming, and you should allow it as much time as you have possible and show consistence throughout. My preliminary is not fully finished, this is because I could see it was not going as well as I hoped, whereas once I began my main task, I began to perfect it. I believe my progression went particularly well after alot of rehearsal when using Photoshop etc.