Evaluation

Magazine Evaluation

• In what ways does your media product use, develop or change form and conventions of real media product?• I have used a lot of the standard convention of a magazine, for example a barcode, title and masthead with eyebrows. These are all standard conventions but I have challenged them by using different colours for certain headlines on my front cover. Also my magazine has two large banners on the top and bottom, which are not conventional as they are larger than average.

Front cover is challenging standard conventions by having different colours which gives the front cover a unique vibe.

I used I barcode here, this is one of the standard conventions my magazine follows.

The banners at the top and bottom are not conventional as they are larger than a average magazine front cover.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?• My magazine is most defiantly aimed at a younger audience aged

between 16-25. The image around my magazine is “Rock” so under this the social groups will be Pop Rock, Emo, and other sub types, this is because I have created a Rock magazine.

• The photos I have used in my magazine, highlight the standard conventions of a Rock magazine, they try to convey what rock is. For example I have used close up images, the images I have used are Amps and Guitars. One image I have used shows that under the banner Rock there are sub genres, the images I took was a acoustic and electric guitar back to back, it symbolized that rock has different sounds to it.

• The text in my magazine is very open and not complicated very much magazine style. It is to inform people rather than bore them. My double page spread is about downloading, and it is not completely factually based as expected it is opinion based and of course there are facts involved too.

• The design of my magazine is sleek and simple, but it still does convey a Rock theme.

These are the images I have used in my magazine and they reflect the type of genre as well for example the images portray Rock to some extent.

•What kind of media institute might distribute your media product and why?

• Bauer media are the kind of institute that will distribute my magazine. My magazine fits into their global franchisee well, as it is a Rock magazine for many ages. My magazine is based on a Kerrang style theme, it is for different styles of Rock different and not just for one specific like other Rock magazines on the market.

• My magazine would be UK based therefore meaning that it just for a the UK market and not over-sea’s. It will be sold in supermarkets and off-licence's up and down the country.

•Who would be the audience for your media product?• The audience of my magazine would be mostly male based with smaller numbers of females. The target age of my magazine is 16-30, this is a wide age range because my covers a lot of Rock genres, meaning newer bands as well as older bands for more mature readers. This is what my magazine will try to cover from front to back.

• Also older readers are more financially secure and it would be easier for them to purchase my magazine on a monthly basis. These types of older readers would be more loyal to the magazine and most probably we buying other music merchandise, such as albums and going to gigs.

These bands would be appealing to these ages I have specified. If you are a rock fan these bands would catch your eye.

The banner is eye catching as it has a catchy title. Is draws in readers as they often are interested in gigs and concerts.

The cover lines are interesting and clash with different types of music genres, so people would be attracted to the magazine.

Evaluating 4

•How did you attract/ address your audience?

• The attraction to my magazine is that it is new and fresh. It has a new take on Rock for example is covers many genres and that mean it allows many people to buy it and look through it to find what they were originally looking for. The front cover has headlines that grab attention straight away, and any Rock fan would most defiantly be attracted to it.

• The techniques in the magazine are simple the articles are straight forward and great to read entertaining and yet still informative so that readers are satisfied. The images I have used are visually great and eye catching and by looking at them you would like to find out the reasons why they are there. They layout of my magazine is very clear and simple but yet has all the right things a conventional magazine would have.

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

• From creating the magazine I have learned a great deal which I was oblivious to before hand. During the construction of the magazine, I learned how to use Adobe Indesign effectively, which I previously didn't even know existed. Indesign was the main programme I learned to use, but during the process I enhanced my Photoshop skills to. Indesgin was difficult to use at first but then after time it became easier to work with,

• Blogging was something I never thought I would ever do, so that was another new thing I learned to use, it is a fantastic tool and way of communicating messages across to the world. It a brilliant way of sharing information an knowledge and I am happy to have learned to use it.

• While having the blog, posts had to be made so I learned how to create new posts and add different titles onto my blog.

• Some post were more complicated than others for example adding pictures and analyzing them was harder to do as you had to add galleries and edit the post. Also adding a PowerPoint to the blog via a post, it could not be done by creating a new post it had to be embedded into the blog and the only way of doing this was to created a slide share account and upload the PowerPoint onto there then past the URL back into the post.

I learned a lot on InDesign for example here I used the swatches pallet to control the colours in my magazine

Here is the Word Press dashboard, this is were I used blogging. Throughout the course I learned how to use it effectively, for example making new posts and adding media files onto my blog.

• Looking back on your preliminary task, what do u feel have you learnt in the progression from it to the full product?• When making the preliminary exercise I didn't know how to use the software at all, I guessed what to do. I didn't understand about how to arrange a magazine and all about the different pieces on a magazine front cover.

• From the preliminary exercise I have learned a lot, I now know what is necessary to have on a front cover and where everything goes.

• Using Indesign I have learned how to use it effectively and how to layout a magazine using multiple tools.

• The images I used, I had to arrange a time to take the images I needed for my magazine, so planning was a big part I have learned that planning ahead is much more effective and reliable.