Evaluation Question 7

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

Looking back at my preliminary task of creating a college magazine cover and contents page, I feel like I have improved a lot and have learnt how to edit a lot better and how to get the right effect wanted. I learnt that you really need to focus on the target audience you’re aiming your magazine towards and focus on them and what they want and to constantly get feedback. I learnt about the usage of space on the cover page and how to fill empty space and when empty space can be effective. For example you can see from my college magazine that I had a lot of empty space and barely any headings so did not stand out and looks dull. I learnt that main images are important and they need to match the theme you are wanting to achieve and that the image always has to appeal towards the target audience because it is the first thing that they see when looking at the magazine, so it has to be relevant and eye-catching. The text has to be clear, large and readable but the font has to match the theme of the magazine.

My contents pages still follow a similar structure of text and images being completely split, as I still find it is most understandale. However I have learnt that at least 8 headins of articles are needed on the contents as it the main form of information for the reader of the magazine. I also learned that you should not have the word page to show a page number as I did for my college magazine. I also learnt to fill any dead space with ads or pictures in order to get the most out of the page and to keep the readers eye moving. Another thing that I learnt was to keep colours the same all the way through the magazine to keep the same theme. Also to keep the same theme I learnt you can put a image of the cover onto the contents page.

Evaluation Question 6

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

Blogger:

When starting my process of my media product, I had to learn how to use blogger in order to post all process I made on my magazine. I had to learn how to transfer images to a PDF, how to attach a Prezi to a blog, how to attach just normal files such as images and how to post a blog in general as I had no previous experience with blogger. However once using it a couple of times it was quite easy to get the hang of and I had no trouble uploading and adding to my blog.

Photoshop:

I was already quite familiar with Photoshop before starting my magazine however whilst using it I managed to pick up and figure put multiple new skills such as rotating and transferring images which allowed me to get a greater quality to my magazine in the end. I used Photoshop all the way through creating my magazine as I found it most helpful for the style I was aiming for.

Publisher:

Before starting my magazine I’d had some experience with it but a long time ago so it was reasonably new to me and had to pick up the skills to use it all over again. I made my college magazine with just publisher when I very first started working on magazines and picked it up fairly quickly. I found it was a good format to use to ad small amounts of text however I found it best to do most of the magazine in Photoshop as it allows a lot more options of editing.

Prezi:

I learnt how to use Prezi for the first time as a way to publish my evaluation and analysis of planning and research as it is clear and gives a variety of ways to lay out your work. I tended to use it when I would be analysing feedback as it was easier and clearer to go box to box which Prezi allows you to do very easily. I picked up laying out and adding text and images quickly and so used Prezi frequently through creating my final product.

Camera:

When taking my pictures I learnt how important the shutter speed is as I ended up with a lot of pictures have too high exposure and ruining the shot so I had to adapt to taking multiple of the same image on different shutter speeds in order to get a perfect image.

Evaluation Question 5

I made this prezi to show how I aimed towards a specific target audiences and why I did certain parts. I did this by doing the cover, contents and DPS all separately.

Evaluation Question 4

Who would be the audience for your media product?

This is the type of audience I am aiming towards with my magazine. a quite typical teen rock girl with a quite dark, rough style. My price of my magazine is quite low for a magazine in order for it to be affordable for my range of audiences social status.

Evaluation Question 3

What Kind of magazine institution would distribute your media product and why?

I would want Bauer Media Group to be the magazine institution to distribute my magazine as my magazine is aimed at a similar age audience as KERRANG! Magazine which is an alternative/indie rock music magazine. I mainly would choose this institution because they have previous experience with my type of target audience and my range of music type. Due to this I would feel more comfortable as KERRANG! is a well-known teen magazine and has a lot of success with Bauer Media Group as their distributer. I also considered IPC as my distribution institution as they have a lot of experience with music magazines such as NME which is also a really well known magazine, however is not aimed at the same target audience as my magazine which then made me worry about their knowledge and experience of my readers. Therefore that sealed my decision of Bauer Media Group as my magazine institution.

However my magazine would have it's own Facebook and Twitter page in order to advertise it to our audience outside of just our monthly publication of our magazine. So I would use this to advertise when a new magazine is coming out or to advertise new exciting competitions to appeal to our readers. This is key as my targeted age is 15-20, social medias are crucial as they are constantly being used by teens and up. We would also have our own website where we could digitally publish the magazine for readers online as majority of magazines and books are now being consumed over the internet.

Evaluation Question 2

This Prezi shows how a specific social group is portrayed within my magazine. I decided to show how age and gender within my magazine are represented in society and then how my magazine has supported or contradicted this expectation and then have a final paragraph on the overall social group that my magazine is focused on.

Evaluation Question 1

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

Cover Challenges:

Mine

·         My front cover challenges forms and conventions of real media products with the use of an advertisement on the front, which is typically found on pages within the magazine which have either a variety of short stories or brand themed pages.                  

·         The use of multiple images on my cover challenges regular magazines as they stick to keeping the attention on the main image however I wanted to give more of a vision of the content of my magazine on the front cover through the use of images that are related to articles or pages within the magazine.

Cover Developments:

                                                                                                                             Real

·         I stuck with the traditional large and bold mast head in order to grasp the target audiences attention which is what all magazines tend to stick to as when I did research on my target audience about 70% of them said that the first thing that catches their eye is the title (mast head). However I developed this by making my mast head in both full and abbreviated text in order to create interest and appeal to my specific target audience.

·         I have the typical barcode, price and date of magazine release which all magazines have as they are needed to both sell the product and give the reader knowledge of when and how often the magazine is released. I kept this simple and all to one corner in order to keep it tidy and very unnoticeable in order to not draw any attention away from the actual cover image and headings.

·         I used multiple headings and cover lines on my cover in order to intrigue the reader of what they will expect to see if they read my magazine which is a technique that all magazines use as it really draws the reader in and attracts them to what you have to offer.

Contents Page Challenges:

·         I have my images and text completely separated to assure clarity and appeal to the target audiences eye, regularly on contents pages for other magazines have them tidily placed beside and amongst each other to fill space and to draw the reader in. I decided that to keep the text and images separate was the best style for my magazine as it allowed me to explore positioning of text and pictures more to fit the theme or rock.

·         I have a wide range of pictures at different angles which overlap to give a slightly cluttered feel to fit my theme, I found even in other rock magazines they still kept their images straight and even or had only one main image which would be the entire page with text in the surrounding spaces. I wanted to go against this style and make my images appear more cluttered and unorganised to match the stereotypical attitude of my target audience of teen rockers.

Contents Page Developments:

                             Mine                                                                                                    Real

·         My contents page has at least 10 article headings and page numbers in order to follow the fact that contents pages are there to inform the reader of where they can find what in the magazine, which Is what all magazines do as I helps the reader understand the format of the magazine and also allows them to find their favourite parts of the magazine with more ease.

·         I have an image of the front cover on my contents page in order to keep the theme and to link the whole page together which is what a large amount of magazines do.

·         I have the word content across the top of the page in order to show the reader what page they are on and to allow them to find the guide of the magazine itself easier. All contents pages have this in order to let the reader know where to look for information of the entire magazine.

DPS Challenges:

·      My DPS doesn't particularly follow the rule of 3 through the use of text however the masthead of the page comes out further and so still gives the look and effect of the rule of 3.

DPS Developments:

Mine

·         On my DPS the model is giving direct address which is a very common convention of double page spreads. my model is wearing black and has dark makeup on which is seen in a lot of rock magazine, with both female and male models. She is also pulling a neutral expression and isnt expressing any particular emotion as it is rare to see models withing rock magazines to me smiling a lot or generally showing any emotion at all unless they are in a band.

·         My text is slightly the rule of 3 which is often used as a technique to attract the audience as it is appealing to the eye. My text is all either black, red or white to create synergy between the cover, contents page and DPS. The font is all the same other than the small text of the actual story as because it is so small it needs to be a simple text in order for people to be able to read it with ease, which is a common thing for all magazine genres.