EVALUATION

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions

of real media products?

My magazine follows the typical conventions of a magazine which includes one central focus image, a masthead, cover lines, headers, barcode and cost. I decided this was key to include in my magazine so it

was clearly recognised as conventional and professional, also following terms of practicality with the masthead being at the top, as the audience typically reads the page top to bottom and having a barcode

for scanning purposes and so on.

I like to think my model isn’t an image of perfection as I didn’t airbrush her too much of an extent so it’s all quite natural still, I only did things to enhance or define parts of her rather than change or create

parts. I’m happy I slightly challenged the idea of a perfect image as I feel it’s important for my audience to let themselves be confident and accepted in the way they look and that’s the underlying message in my

central image. Her acceptance is reflected in her body stance, having her head slightly titled up suggesting she feels slightly superior, in the way she doesn't care of other people’s perceptions or

judgement of her. Could also be seen as slightly challenging, which implies the ‘I don’t care’ attitude, daring someone to point out her flaws and showing shes confident in herself. The females in my magazine

haven’t followed the sexual representation that we often see in magazines of half-naked, ‘sexualised’ females. This is something I was keen not to have in my magazine as I feel it stereotypes a negative, un-realistic portrayal of women, which discourages respect for all women. I feel by not including it I have

helped the idea of not objectifying women sexually or based on their looks. I have however conformed to the stereotype of average-good looking female attractiveness that the media expects, however I've shown it

in a way that they’re doing it for their own, not to please nor impress others.

Also I used convergence by advertising obscurity’s website underneath the masthead on the cover, which I did to help attract and appeal to different audiences and also develop as a brand by having different

methods of distribution. On my double page spread I had logo's of social networking sites to show where else we are available, this should help the magazine brand gain more publicity and notice. My cover lines

are quite short compared to some of the magazines I had researched which I found more effective as it became quick and snappy to read making it more appealing to the younger audience. I used buzzwords such as ‘free’ and ‘plus’ to add puff to the magazine and act like the audience are getting something

exclusive or of extra value. The vocabulary I have used throughout is colloquial, casual speech, as I wanted all audiences to feel at ease to read the magazine. Plus, I feel the casual vocab creates a more personal

atmosphere and chatty vibes. 

What are you learning about technologies from the process of constructing this product?https://soundcloud.com/user695666251/tues_2

Beginning the Media Studies course, I have had to learn how to use two new programmes of which I’ve never used before; InDesign to create my magazine and adobe Photoshop to

edit my photos. After playing around a lot with Photoshop it allowed me to experiment with my photo-shoot images, some of which I have put on my blogs and some of my first attempts which I haven’t!! A lot of the tools I used included; the crop tool, to resize my

images: the spot healing brush, to get rid of any obvious spots or blemishes, later attempting to use the clone stamp tool: the Dodge/burn tool, to highlight or darken

certain parts of my image to create for example cheekbones: eyedropper tool, to select and use a certain colour as I did on the chair: brush tool and eraser. By using these new techniques I creating different, eye-catching images. I found InDesign difficult to work with at first as its different to PowerPoint or publisher however once I got used to the

key parts of the programme I began to found it easier and found out it allowed you a lot more options to experiment easily with a wide variety of choices, for example, even the

font, you can change so many aspects of it to make it your own.

Why would be the audience for your media product and how are you attracting and addressing your audience?

The age group range I am predominantly aiming are mixed genders aged 16- 26. Other sub audiences will tend to be random ages because after researching online I found most indie rock listeners tended to fit with in my target demographic age group.

Personally I think the reason being the music taste is quite original and new, something this generation was born into and enjoy more freely and accept it as good music.

Rather than the older generation,  listening more to what they know, the classic idea of music- vocalist, drummer and guitarist for instance, not so much new electronic sounds with some might say little talent or effort, although that's not to say they all wont be

keen on it. Gender representation in my magazine is mixed, I have used images of males and females to increase the range of audience we would attract being mixed genders.

By using professional, attractive images it has helped attract the male/female gaze for the opposite sex’s- a theory by Laura Mulvey. I also purposely had them similar ages to that of my audience so the models in the picture where more relatable and

similar to the age group Im targeting. I represented social groups by my coverlines including subjects appealing to them such as fashion and festivals, music reviews, must-go to events and news about there favourites singers. If I was to place my magazine on

the JICNARS scale, I would say C2 (skilled manual workers), D (semi and unskilled manual workers), and E (lowest grade workers). This is based on account of the age of my audience, as they will be coming out of education, maybe un-employed or only

just at the beginning of there career path there not going to have lots of disposable income to spend on luxuries like that of a higher class. Therefore my magazine will be reasonably priced to be affordable to most people, increasing the chance of sales.

This also suits my music genre as its not considered a classy genre such as ‘jazz’ or ‘classical’ with the upper class audience. I will also make sure my content, such as the vocabulary will be casual and light hearted making it easy reading as they’re not looking

for anything sophisticated.

I would like to talk about the colour scheme of my magazine, as you can see I have followed the 3 colour principle, as from my research it is found to be most effective on magazine fronts as it creates the perfect balance of not simplistic, but neither over powering and crowded. My base colour was grey, as after some research, I found it’s a very in-colour, which will associate my

magazine as being up to date and fashionable. As the colour grey hasn’t got any set characteristics such as the colour red symbolising love, it leaves me a plain slate to fill my genre with.  I feel this colour should appeal to my indie rock audience as its seen as trendy and they’re often into art and design as well as fashion and music so would appreciate it. I used the colour white for my main bits of typography, due to the fact I love how it contrasts against the darker grey. Moreover creating it to stand out

and look clean, professional and sharp as well as keeping it ‘fashionable’. After using two plain colours, I decided I needed a bit of a statement colour, after experimenting widely with electric blues, lilacs and khaki greens, I settled with a bright, captivating

orange. I’m pleased with the orange as I feel its quite bold which makes it quite exciting and eye catching. It gave me the opportunity to later adjust my photo-shoot to this colour, by getting my model to wear autumnal colours to go with my colour

scheme whilst being in line with the indie dress code. I thought these 3 colours working together was aesthetically pleasing to the eye, which was backed up by verbal feedback from students in my class, who are a similar age to that of my target audience. After adding other components to my magazine, there was a chance to bring a colour splash in when advertising the puff ‘Free CD’, so I chose a bright yellow, as I knew I needed something to have a high contrast against the background to stand out. This worked well

as it really did draw your attention before looking at the rest of the cover.

The masthead of my magazine is ‘Obscurity’, I’ve purposely chose the font Harlow sorrow italic, because it creates the atmosphere of artistic handwriting which will appeal to my artsy indie target demographic. It’s quite elegant which makes it look quite professional at the same time as appearing casual to appeal to all audience class. The size was 156pt, so it was practical to read from a far enough away point and was clear branding of the magazine but didn’t look to over-powering nor un-noticeable. The definition of Obscurity

was something I thought was key to my audience and a good representation of my genre, it’s ‘the condition of being unknown’; which I find really mysterious and enticing, or another meaning of it ‘the state of quality of being obscure’; which I also like because it implies a touch of un-certainty, or being hard to

perceive and work out, more generally, straying from the crowd which indie rock connotates.

My central image has been aligned slightly to the right so I didn’t have to have my cover lines imposing over her which would take the focus away from my model. I took a medium shot, taken face on so we could

see her full facial expression which would enhance her direct mode of address. This is effective as it creates a one on one interaction with the reader as they feel it’s personal to them therefore becomes more likely

for them to buy he magazine. As the model is a pretty, young female, it could enhance the male gaze, especially as she is around there age group. It could also lead female viewers to aspire to be like her or

better, build there own self-esteem as the model is presented as confident and independent. 

The models facial expression gives off a rebellious, 'bad girl' vibe, as if she doesnt care however this is in the sense she doesnt care what people think of her.

 I used a chair because I thought it could help make the central image appear striking and add dimension to the image, as I was using orange anyway as my third colour, I thought It would be a good idea to tie it in with the colour of the chair. I knew I could use the eyedropper tool to make all the oranges the same and tie the image and typography together making the front have a more complete, finished feel to it. I found

using the chair as a prop made the image more interesting but also enhanced the fact the photo was staged which is what I wanted as in the magazine theirs a article about her and it helps make my magazine look

professional. The artificial lighting also enhanced the feeling of professionalism and formality.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?https://soundcloud.com/user695666251/wed

 

The dominant presentation of the teenage/young adult age group I'm targeting has some negative stigmas. It’s a typical stereotype for teenagers to be troubled, chain smoking, alcoholic, drug taking, lazy disappointments, however I have presented none of these

negative stereotypes In my images or content. Instead focusing on there love for music, and focussing on there talent, style and stories. The colours of my magazine are stylish and in-trend, they’re bold and enticing which could be seen to represent independence

and power, this idea will appeal to the characteristics of my audience. 

My content page is a good area to look at for my representation of social groups, one of my main features is an album dropping and another is the Coachella valley of music and

arts festival, which will appeal to the interest of my creative audience.