Evaluation

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

I think that my music magazine follows the basic conventions, I found these conventions by looking at a selection of music magazines (for different genres and age ranges) and non music magazines (to get conventions of magazines in general). My magazine cover contains characteristics such as a masthead, an issue number, article subheadings, an edited self taken photograph and a headline. However, the only convention I have challenged and not used on my front cover is a bar code and price, which I have decided I would like to be on the back page of my magazine (like a book). I feel these small changes to my magazine make it stand out, also like my use of non digital and only film camera images. The contents page however, is slightly more conventional in layout and basic colour. This page includes self explanatory article titles, page numbers, captioned photographs and some brief paragraphs about the issue and article content

How does your Media product represent particular social groups?

Alike my influence magazines, Vice I-D and NME; my magazine represents students and young adults who are involved in subculture music scenes but also in a mix of art and fashion. In my magazine; high saturated, distorted pictures. These photographs mainly portray young adults (17-24) looking happy, relaxed, crude (for example; contents photograph of a tattooed boy making a 'rude' gesture) or even excited and 'wild' (i.e. contents picture of a drunk boy pulling a face). The magazine portrays the care free attitude and side to students, young adults and bands/artists alike, showing a window into their lives which involves music, parties, subcultures, alcohol, fashion and art. The models in my photographs are shown to have fashionable yet casual clothing, interesting haircuts, piercings, tattoos and pose pulling faces and gestures. this is a magazine for the 'skins' generation. By using gritty and raw images taken on Polaroid and Disposable photographs (which were scanned onto the computer) I feel these make my magazine more realistic and appeal more to the represented audience.

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

Alike my influence magazines and also from inspiration from Independent Music ‘Zines’ (which are on music events/bands, usually hand made and ran by one or two people, for example DEAD AND GONE: http://www.deadandgonerecords.com who are an independent record label). I feel as this is not a mainstream genre or style of magazine I don’t think it would be in confectionary shops or supermarkets like NME. As this magazine reflects on subcultures, I think that alike Vice, I would distribute from Skateboarding/Extreme Sports shops, Independent Boutiques/Clothing Companies advertised within the magazine and on the Internet. If the magazine became popular, eventually I would decide, like most other magazines, to look into being sold in chain stores such as ASDA and WHSMITH. To make buying the magazine online appeal, I would offer 6 or 12 month subscriptions with a ‘free offer’ alike most mainstream magazines. For example “subscribe for 6 months and get two issues FREE”.Who would be the audience for your Media product?I think my audience would be people aged 17-24. The magazine looks at well-liked and underground music, but also mixes these things with art and fashion which are things of common interest with most people into the genres of music portrayed in the issue (electro) and age (students). The language used in my magazine uses a lot of contemporary words and slang, which can easily be associated to and understood by young adults who have grown up with NME and VICE, which uses similar content to my magazine. By using the language of the audience, they will feel in turn understood and involved within the magazine.

How did you attract/address your audience?
In terms of the front cover, which is the first thing the audience notices; I feel I attracted my audience with mainly the interesting photographs and headings. I used contrasting colours and interesting fresh styled fonts, which I edited in size order to what I felt were more important (i.e. heading, sub headings, article references, date, price etc). I used catchy phrases which arises questions in the audiences head. when asking a friend what they first thought at the story title 'bigger than hip-hop', friends automatically asked 'what’s bigger than hip hop?'. This is the reaction hoped for; I feel makes the reader want to read on and find out. I used a photograph of a fashionable, yet offhandedly dressed boy drinking beer and pulling faces/shouting as the main picture. I believe this picture relates to the fun attitude of most young adults.When asking friends what is the first thing they noticed, 3/5 said the picture and 2/5 said the title. When asked why, comments included "I noticed the picture first because it's the biggest thing on the page, it stands out. The boy looks to be having fun and it made want to look at the rest of the page" and “I just really like the font, looks really futuristic. Like it’s supposed to be because it’s an electro magazine”.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
I have learnt a wide range of new skills whilst constructing this form of media. I have mainly acquired these by using programmes I was not very familiar with, such as Microsoft Publisher and Adobe Photoshop. I have learnt to layout using Publisher and taught myself how to increase the margins to make all of my pages the same size. Asides from this I have learnt how to edit photographs to make them suit the context of the magazine, and how colour schemes, fonts and layout can change the attitude and representation completely. For instance, my magazine before using Adobe Photoshop were standard colours, until I used photograph tints to give everything a turquoise tint to make the colours flow and suit better through the magazine. I feel these skills will help me greatly within my media course, first and second year.

Looking back at the preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
I feel that by creating a college magazine as the preliminary task, it has evolved my understanding of magazine conventions and made it easier to build my music magazine successfully. By creating a college magazine, I now understand and am more confident with experimenting with layouts, colour schemes, photographs and writing in itself; which I found as a struggle when I first began the preliminary task (College Magazine).