Media evaluation

byAnnie Kristina

McIntyre

Q1. IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS?

I tried to make my media product look as much as a music magazine as I could by using coordinated (red, white and black). This mirrors the magazine I have used as an example bellow. You can see the magazine title is in red matching the colour of the celebrity's hair. On my magazine I used red for the main title and also added red into the sub titles. I put a twist on my magazine and used two people for the cover unlike most magazines that only use one main person. I thought this would make my magazine a bit individual and stand out. The main image on my magazine I told the people to give eye contact with the camera therefore creating a bold image and hard to miss. They also are both pulling a mutual face with no facial expressions as if they are hiding something to attract the audience into reading the magazine. The male gaze applies here for females and males because there is two people of both genders on the cover representing it is a unisex magazine. To make this seem more of a real magazine I added the price and a barcode to the cover to show this.I think I was successful in creating my

magazine to look real because of what I added to it the only fault I would say is that the font is quite boring I could of used more creative font to make it more interesting and bold.

I don’t think I did very well on my content make realistic wise because of the use of colours and pictures unlike this content page from Billboard magazine which is full with information, the pictures are in good quality and it is a very clean crisp look. The problem with my content page is I tried to cram in too much information making the page look messy. I added a song chart of the “top ten tunes” of the week to add more interest to the contents page just like Billboard magazine did. I added a lot of colour to the page picture wise creating a bold image but also unrealistic and quite childish. For the contents header I used the font “urban jungle” symbolising the music genre is an urban style for teenagers who enjoy that type of music. I used teenage language on this page to keep more up to style with kids between the ages of 15-18 such as “ditches” I also used many describing words to draw the audience in such as “explosive tour” creating an exciting story inside.

My double page spread is my favrioute page in my magazine mostly because it is very bold and interesting it catches the audiences attention straight away because of the use of colour. I used the main image to cover both pages creating it to stand out and bold colours. This also fills the page up so there are no gaps. All the focus is on these two individuals so using it as the background makes it obvious and you know its about them. The title “shavannah” is a mix of Shaun and savannah I used this technique because it is very modern and shows that they are a couple. I reused the urban jungle font and the colour is the same as Shaun's hat he is wearing in the picture creating connections. Instead of just adding information about the celebrity's that everybody knows already I added an interview to get into their personal lives that people will want to read and want to know. The language in the interview is very modern so you can tell a young person is asking all the questions this will appeal to the young audience. I used different coloured text for the interviewer than shavannah to make it more clear who is talking and not.

Q2. HOW DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT REPRESENT PARTICULAR SOCIAL GROUPS?

There are three different social groups I am going to aim on that is age, gender and class:

Age- Mostly teenagers will appeal to this particular magazine because of the pictures and language I have used in the text. As you can see from the cover photo the two people modelling are dressed in trendy clothing such as the denim jacket also the makeup on the girl is bold this mostly appeals to teenage girls because they will idolise the girl in the main image this is also good for the clothing company because it is advertising there items to young females and males. The language used in the magazine is very modern and easy for teenagers to understand instead of using complicated words. The language is also similar to text language which teenagers with be familiar with.

Gender- The music within the magazine is for both male and females it includes rap/hiphop attracting the male gaze but also pop music for females. The fact that this magazine is unisex is a good idea because it appeals to more people therefore more buyers. The images I have used in the magazine include both sexes representing it is a unisex magazine which is quite popular in magazine unlike one with only female models which is more like a fashion magazine.

Class- my magazine represents the working class because the type of music in my magazine is very popular. This classes language involves slang such as swearing and modern words which is included in my magazine and the music involved. The music mirrors the working class as in the lyrics of them starting at the bottom working there way up this is a very popular type of story line to a rap song. The clothing involved is very high street nothing designer again mirroring the working class as in they don’t regularly buy expensive clothing but high street stores such as topshop.

Q3. WHAT KIND OF MEDIA INSTITUTION MIGHT DISTRIBUTE YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT AND WHY?

I think the media institute that would distribute my media product would be Bauer media because it sells music similar to what is included within my magazine which suits it well and it is a large media company selling worldwide which would be good for my magazine and create a successful buy.

Q4. WHO WOULD BE THE AUDIENCE FOR YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT?

The audience for my media product would be mostly teens from the ages of 16-20 this is mostly down to the type of music that is presented with in the magazine that teens would enjoy unlike younger or older people. As you can see from the magazine cover there is older people modelling the front cover representing it is a magazine for older people. In my double page spread the language I use is as if a teenager has written it because it isn’t in that good English writing but also not in child like writing. I think the cost of my magazine is very important I chose an affordable and fair price at £2.99 so it isn’t too expensive and all classes can afford it.

Q5. HOW DID YOU ATTRACT/ ADDRESS YOUR AUDIENCE?

I attracted my audience mostly from the front cover. I chose to put the main picture in black and white so the main header and sub headings would stand out so I chose to write it in a red, bold colour and also use capitals so it will catch buyers attention. By using these colours I think I made the magazine more classy and not using bright multi colours which shows a childish side. The models I used would attract males and also females because of how I used two models on the front cover representing it is a unisex magazine and will stand out to both

Audiences therefore more buyers and making more profit. To improve my magazine cover to draw in more buyers I would of added a free gift/ token on the front cover because public love free gifts and if a magazine has an extra it stands out drawing in more people.

Q6. WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNT ABOUT TECHNOLOGIES FROM THE PROCESS OF CONSTRUCTING THIS PRODUCT?

The technology I used to create my blog and magazine are a camera, voice recorder, tumblr, Photoshop and survey monkey.

Camera- I used the camera to take the pictures for my front cover, content page and double page spread. I used a good camera for this (canon 550D) to make the pictures stand out and vibrant unlike a bad camera that would create the pictures dull and fuzzy.Voice recorder- I used the voice recorder to interview a person and find out there views on magazine for example what type of magazine do they like, what stands out to them when buying a magazine etc.Tumblr- I used this blogging site to present all my work because it presents it in a nice and organised way so it is easy to find everything and see what is what. And it also gives you different options to present your work it to make it look neat.Photoshop- Photoshop is the most important technology I used for my magazine. I used it to create every page of my magazine to present the pages in an interesting and factual way. Photoshop has many ways in which it let me create my magazine for example when I created the models to be on top of the main header I used layering for this.Survey monkey- Survey monkey was a great help to develop my magazine it allowed me to see the opinions of the public on magazines so I knew how to create mine there where question such as what is your favrioute genre of music?, how old are you?.

Q7. LOOKING BACK AT YOUR PRELIMINARY TASK WHAT DO YOU FEEL YOU HAVE LEARNT IN THE PROGRESSION FROM IT TO THE FULL PRODUCT?

By creating this magazine it has let me see what makes a good magazine. The fact I did some research and looked at different magazines helped a lot I could see what fonts and images they used that matched the genre of music. I noticed from all different magazines all the models are dressed in modern high street clothing to attract the audience so I took this in mind and choice my models to be attractive and wear nice clothing I also found out from my interview that people get attention from magazine covers from the models. Which helped me a lot to develop my magazine.

I learnt a lot about layout while developing my magazine. Using an image for the overall background of a page is a lot more successful then just a plain boring background. It adds more interest for the readers. For my double page spread I used transparent boxes for the text so it was easy to read for the buyers but also have an attractive page. The font is

A very important factor of a magazine because it creates the headings to stand out if a naff font was used not many readers would see the main title of the page but using a bright bold one creates it more interesting. I used the font “urban jungle” because it suited my genre of song choice and the models on the background. You can see that I used the same colour for the font as the male models hat is. This adds the colour theme to the page. A lot of research helped me massively for developing the layout by looking at different magazine double page spreads.