A2 Media Studies EvaluationCHARLIE BARKER

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

• How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

• What have you learned from your audience feedback?

• How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Throughout the production of my work this year, Ihave complied with, challenged, and adapted tomany pre-existing codes and conventions regardingregional magazines and representation.Conventions regarding colour, style and contenthave been employed in order to make my designsas realistic and appealing as possible. For example,my masthead displayed on the front cover asshown below, boasts a bold and snappy one wordtitle. ‘Coast’, is easy to say and easy to remembermuch like many of the titles I had researched priorto production. This drafting of a convention hasenabled me to start off with accurate stylisticfeatures. Furthermore, its positioning at the top ofthe page is commanding and brand assertive andaids in the standing out process when placed on adisplay with its competitors

Exclusive offers and freegifts are seemingly incrediblyimportant in the marketingof many existing media texts.The concept of somethingbeing exclusive to the readeror free of charge is naturallyappealing hence its inclusionin my product. In addition tothis, I have made certain topersist with my coastalcolour scheme.

Imagery is a key feature in theattracting of customers. By havingthe boat, a main item within thephotograph, located in open space,the potential buyer is able toappreciate the photography andgather a sense for the styleemployed for this magazine. It isafter all perhaps the most importantcharacteristic of successful pre-existing magazines such as Kent Life.More often than not, regionalmagazines use landscapes or ruralshots for the front cover, this helpsto establish the region which is beingrepresented. This is clear in myproduct.

A listing of locations covered by the magazine is present tohelp people locate their own home town andinstantaneously acknowledge the magazines relevance tothem. This helps build a relationship with the potentialbuyer as they may discover, appreciate and relate to thearticles and events covered inside the magazine. Thisfeature is situated at the top of the page as it is most likelyto catch the eye of browsers and draw them in for apossible purchase. Barcodes, as discovered throughout

both years of production, are anecessary component on a magazinewhether it be regional or on specifictheme. MY research and observationsof existing magazines providesufficient evidence to suggest thatthe more discreet the barcode thebetter as it offers no attractive values.Not only is mine positioned in thebottom corner, but it also containsthe price maintaining tidiness.

Uses and gratificationstheory has been referencedto greatly in the productionprocess when using text todraw in my target market.By teasing the viewer withsmall snaps of what’s insidesuch as, ‘From Bars tovenues find out who’splaying what near you!’, Iam encouraging thecustomer to seek out moreinformation resulting in apractical purchase of theregional magazines I haveproduced.

The font that I have selected for bothmy masthead and subheadings abovethe feature description has beenselected for the following reasons; Itmaintains a sense of tradition andformality whilst boasting a pastel colourrelevant to the ocean/coastal theme.Furthermore, much like the many of theexisting regional magazines that I havestudied closely, Kent Life, TimeOut andCornwall life, it stands out clearlywithout being garish or offensive instyle.

When looking at my contents and feature/advertisement pages as a collective, it is clear to see that I have bothcomplied and developed upon existing codes and conventions. This is clearly the case for features such as the generallayout and positioning of text. When looking at my contents page, it follows the common rule regarding the use ofcolumns for the listings in and orderly fashion whilst leaving enough room for a substantial amount of images. Theseguidelines have been drafter heavily form the existing magazines that drew most of my structural inspiration from.Cornwall Life and Devon life also make good use of photography's customer drawing capabilities and have inspiredme to dedicate approximately fifty percent of the pages area to pictures.

Secondly, one research discovered feature that stood out and appealed to me was the ‘One The Cover’ section. Thiscan be found in the majority of existing ‘Life’ regional magazines and quite simply explores the items that are brieflymentioned on the front cover and brings light to the locations of in depth articles. The informative qualities of thischaracteristic used in my work aid in sculpting my product into a successful and useful piece of text. Contrary to myresearched magazines, I have defied codes and conventions with regards to the page title.. I have used a font notdissimilar in size to that found on the front cover as I believe it helps further establish the brand and helps continueto advertise the product. My focus group also found that a continuation of title establishment worked well.

The compliance with existing formatting in my opinion assisted ingiving my media product a sense of realism and professionalismwhich only adds to its accuracy when replicating an ordinaryregional magazine. With the added opinion of my focus group, Idecided to follow many conventions used by my model examples.

The marginalisation of the text enables the reader to identify which sections the want to reference and look at in greater detail, thesimplification of chapter finding help generate a more approachable and less strictly formal aura to the magazine. Much like the section titles inKent Life magazine, my headers are formatted in a bold black front that is significantly larger than the information below. This is employed tohelp differentiate each section from the one beneath and above it.

The pale blue background not only helps the coastal colour scheme flow, but also forms a clean canvas for surface text to stand out upon. Theuse of a coloured background greatly defies many existing concepts of design. However, when referencing my focus group and other researchsources, I found that by using a mild tone, I could promote the magazines theme without taking away from the simplicity and pleasantness of awell formatted page. My demographic of young families and adults generally under fifty helped shape the stylisation and employment of a pastelcolour scheme and simplistic layout. Unnecessary formalities and limited styling would fail to shift the common regional magazine market andtherefore fail to defy the ongoing specification hence why a different approach has been taken.

Despite having the opportunity to produce a simple advertisement page, I chose to create a feature article for the private hire and contactinformation for a series of local landmarks relevant to my represented region. Once again my blue colour scheme is continued to aid brandestablishment throughout. The positive feedback quotation encourages a preferred reading as it compliments the region in which the most likelymarket members will come from. Furthermore, the use of elegant photography helps support the products that are being advertised below. Anessential tourist guide article was positively received by my focus group who suggested that formulating what is in essence a bragging page forresidents and business owners, would help establish a good public bond as it both informs locals of what they’re potentially missing out on, andhelps draw in tourists and locals alike into many businesses and attractions within the region I am representing with my product.

When researching existing billboard advertisements, I found thatit was extremely rare for a regional magazine to have its ownboard. As a result of this insufficient research, I opted to look atnational magazine billboards instead in order to gain a betterunderstanding of the effectiveness of combining both a productwith such advertisement methods. From studying TimeOutmagazines London billboards, it was brought to my attention thatbrand establishment was once again key. Although an entirelynew set of fonts have been employed for this task, the title of mymagazine is large, bold, and cover roughly 25% of the page. Thesophisticated style allows for the use of minimal text in turnhelping me to correspond with the conventions of existingexamples.

When considering my target market, both me and my focusgroup agreed on the addition of social media icons in the bottomright corner. High levels of young people have accounts on atleast one of the three social media sites I have featured hencethe reference to their preferred reading. Not only does this makethe product more accessible to a broader variety of potentialcustomers, but it also shows a modern approach that is sharedamongst the majority of regional and national magazines on saletoday. The icons alone act as pull factors and contact points andpair up well with those situated within the magazine.

In addition to the media icons, the web addresses for themagazines Facebook, twitter and official website pages arelocated in the bottom left corner for ease of access andclarification purposes. Many of the billboards I had looked at,including product based companies such as Landrover, had listedthe addresses for these pages. Conclusively speaking it seemedto be the normal convention to include access points. Thepositioning of this element, much like the barcode on the frontcover is incredibly important. The item has no attractive valueand therefore could not obstruct the attractive imagery and title.However, being a billboard and knowing that they are situatedalongside fast moving traffic an areas of the high population, ithad to be large and clear enough to catch the attention ofpassers by.

For this particular ancillary task, I opted to defy many of theexisting examples conventions in order to help the productmatch the style of my magazine and help drive a consistent style.In my opinion, by having an additional picture of the region I amrepresenting, I believe that I have helped establish a healthyrelationship between producers and customer as it enlightensthe latter of the two as to what their region has to offer, whichfrom my research is essentially the whole point of a regionalmagazine.

With regards to colour, the clear fading sky andheavily textured ocean compliment oneanother along with the striking blues foundthroughout every page of my regional magazineto create a strong and consistent scheme. Thephotography in both my ancillary task and mainproduct rely heavily on the natural elementswithout encroaching on urbanisation. This in myopinion complies with my overall theme of anunspoilt coastal environment. Clarity of readingis certified by the use of a darker shade of blueon top of the paler section of the sky, aconvenient yet entirely coincidental structure.Although the text beneath the masthead isapparently small in size, when considering theactual scale of a billboard, it too will beaccessible to fast moving eyes.

When observing my second ancillary task, a fully functional webpage for theregional magazine, one can see the use of a formal structure. This particularlayout is heavily influenced by the tidy and clear website for Kent Life magazine.The pressionalisal and realistic hyperlinked pages allow the user to view a smallgallery of pictures theoretically taken by existing readers and editors alike, anarchive of existing edition which can be purchased or subscribed to online, andfinally a page for contact information.

The photograph slideshow featured on the home page of the website showspictures relevant to the most recent edition of the magazine. This helps establish astrong relationship and up to date connection between my ancillary task and mainproduct. The majority of images are actually of the region being represented thusforth strengthening the realistic ties often found in current media texts. Onceagain a blue and white colour scheme prevails. This consistency groups theseparate products together to help generate brand identity and style recognition.

In a similar fashion to my contents page, the design of my website follows asimple few rules. Simplicity and ease of reading, this is key to addressing thetarget market and avoiding off-putting complexity, easy navigability and clearsection headings, these help the user to find what they are looking forinstantaneously.

Audience feedback has proven to be incredibly useful throughout the production process. Despite making the majority of stylistic and content based decisionsbased on my own knowledge, I did take great note on my focus groups views regarding individual aspects such as the colour scheme, font choices and even whatto cover on my feature page. In order to access the views of my carefully selected focus group, I created a social media chat room which enabled my volunteers tocomplete various surveys, questionnaires and voting polls. When constructing my focus group I ensured that it included people that met the codes of my targetdemographic, as their views would be most important in shaping the magazine and making sure that it appealed to their taste. As well as commenting on my ownideas and styles, I asked the group a series of questions regarding existing media texts. This allowed me to gauge what features they liked to see in regionalmagazines early on in the research and production stage, form this I could begin to sculpt a target. When analysing the attitudes my volunteers had, I could beginto gather and idea of what needs to be incorporated in order to make my product as successful as pre-existing competitors. In addition to the relevant agecharacteristics, my focus group consisted entirely of people that actively read local and regional magazines, therefore making them experts on their own interestsand desires, this proved extremely useful when referencing their views throughout the production process.

As oppose to asking my focus group how they felt about my final pages, I asked them to view my work throughout the production in person in order to make thenecessary changes at the time. This saved time in the long wrong and enabled my helpers to focus solely on each stage of the production task and scrutinise themin more detail. An example of a feature hindering my products success that was sought out by the focus group was the amount of text columns features on thecontents page. When analysing my work they realised that the typical convention of most magazine types was to have three columns of text, whereas I had onlytwo irregular block of text. This small change helped contribute to making my product more successful and realistic. The professionalism and accuracy was one ofthe main points I wanted to follow closely from the very start of production therefore proving the significant usefulness of my focus group and to other assistinghelpers.

One area in which the feedback from my selected audience was valued most highly was the photography element of my product. More often than not, it is thepictures and use of imagery that attract in the potential market, seeing as my focus group were active readers, I believe that their opinion on what sort of imagesshould be used was incredibly valuable. The general consensus from a survey put forward to my group was that rural was best and the use of busy modern cityenvironments should be avoided as they detract greatly from the values of regional pride. The constructive information was then followed closely when it came totaking all of the pictures for my magazine and also for the billboard photograph. The reflection of the focus group input can be seen in my product in the form ofrural imagery. Furthermore, the first few drafts of my varying pages lacked a consistent striking colour scheme issue at hand was not that I hadn’t any ideas, butthat I required the assistance of my focus group when choosing which of the many ideas I had generated to pursue. In the end a voting poll concluded that bluewas the most appropriate colour to be used thought the magazine. In ado this, those selected to observe my work first hand influenced my use of varying shadesand to essentially make up the brand establishment. This is further evidence s towards the great importance of focus groups and audience creating a mediaproduct such as a regional magazine. This highlighted to me the areas requiring consideration regarding UGT. From these suggestions and I created a set criteriafor g creative tasks. O the implied colours, using relevant attractive imagery, and pursuing stylistic approaches that met the needs of the target audience and thoseused by successful existing products of a similar.

AUDIENCE FEEDBACK

Facebook proved an incredibly useful technologicaltool throughout the production of my magazine. Notonly did it enable me to communicate clearly with myfocus group whenever necessary, but it also allowedme to observe existing Facebook pages for my modelmagazines. The allowed me to gain an understandingof the modern technology being employed to helpadvertise and promote regional magazines. The focusgroup itself was based within a chat room created onFacebook that allowed me to produce electronicquestionnaires and surveys for my audience to fill out.

YouTube gave me the opportunity to seek outtutorials for almost every possible action onPhotoshop. This accessibility allowed me to developmy technical skills on the software used forproduction which made for an overall better finalproduct. Furthermore, tutorials on photography andthe Cannon EOS 550 D displayed many ways in which Icould improve my photography skills and get the shotsthat most intensely met my chosen conventions. Anexample of this being practically used would belandscape picture employed to be the face of myregional magazines billboard, both the angle andexposure levels were determined by my new foundknowledge.

Adobe Photoshop provided me with the necessary software tocreate a magazine that was visually stimulating for the targetmarket. The various editing tools helped me develop a productthat shares many qualities and characteristics withprofessionally made magazines. Photoshop was also used toproduce the primary drafts and mock ups for each of my threemagazines pages. From these roughly created outlines, myfocus group could help me gauge what styles worked best.From there onwards all changes were simple and manageable.

Weebly was also used as a primary sitefor my ancillary production task. Thesimple settings enable me to create myown unique webpage with varyingfeatures in an incredibly simple format.With the use of several YouTubetutorials, I successfully created my ownregional magazine in a sophisticatestyle that shares qualities with existingsites for my studied example i.e. KentLife.

Slideshare, although not atechnical piece of editingsoftware, enabled me tocompile and post both my pre-production research, mockupsand plans, and my evaluation.By converting the Micro-softpowerpoint slideshows into aBlogger compatable format,the site has made presentingmy work and incredibly easytask. As well as being aninvaluable asset to mypresentation, Slideshare alsogave me a simple format inwhich to present my researchto the focus group I hadalready constructed. Theslideshow is easily navigableand allows those analysing mywork to simply click back ontocertain areas and point outimprovements that need to bemade.

MEDIA

TECHNOLOGIES