1) EVALUATION2) There are many conventions and aspects of my music magazine that are similar to those of an existing magazine; however there are also some challenges to the typical conventions. On my front cover, I used the Guttenberg principle, which is very common in real media products, as this is very important when it comes to attracting an audience. People naturally look from the top left corner, down to the bottom right corner. I put a ‘WIN’ box in the weak fallow area to attract the readers. I chose the masthead ‘Amplified’ as it reflects the genre of rock, because it represents a guitar amp. This could be compared to ‘Kerrang!’ magazine as that is onomatopoeia (sounding like a guitar).On my contents page, the images take up most of the page, which I deliberately did to make the page look more attractive and appealing for the reader, and so they do not lose interest in the magazine. I also included a subscribe box in the lower right corner, which is a very popular convention of a music magazine. Again, I used the Guttenberg principle on my contents aswell to make sure that it attracts the reader, and makes them want to read on.3) On my double page spread, I decided to use an interesting quote as the heading to intrigue the reader and give them an idea on what the article is about. I feel that by doing this, it would make the page look alot more appealing, and as it is targeted at young adults, I wanted to make the page look fun and rebellious. The main image on my double page spread is taking up a large amount of the page, which is similar to that in ‘Kerrang’ and ‘NME’. This makes the page look more appealing, and it also ensures that readers will not lose interest in the magazine, as there is not much writing, so therefore this will not put the reader off. The article on my double page spread is an interview, which is usually used in

music magazines. The language is quite chatty and informal, which is common in magazines such as ‘Kerrang’, as it reflects a younger social group.4) The social group I aimed my magazine at was young adults, aged 16-26, interested in rock/alternative music. On my front cover and double page spread, the images are of the duo ‘One and the Same’, in which consists of two girls aged around the same age as my target audience of young adults. My models are dressed in similar clothing to how someone that is interested in rock music would dress themselves, so this represents the social group I wish to aim my media product at. I used the colours red, yellow, black and white because these colours represent the genre of rock, and the red also gives a sense of rebellion, which is a common theme with young adults and teenagers. The article on my double page spread is an interview. I did this so that I did not lose my target audience’s interest, as from my market research, I found out that younger people prefer the photos rather than the writing, so I attempted to make my article as fun and appealing as possible.5) I chose Bauer media to distribute my magazine because it distributes some of the most popular magazines across the globe. There are 38 million magazines distributed per week by Bauer media. It distributes Kerrang magazine, which I feel is similar to mine as they share the same musical genre. So, I think that with this media company distributing my magazine, a large audience would be gained. In 2008, Bauer media bought Emap consumer media, and went on to be the UK’s biggest publishing group.6) The target audience for my music magazine would be around 14 to 26, similar to that of Kerrang. I believe that as my magazine is based around the alternative/rock genre, it would target more of a male audience as these genres are stereotyped as a more masculine genre, however, it can also attract a female audience too. In my market research, the first

question I asked people was ‘what genre of music do you listen to?’ Eight out of the ten people that I asked said they liked to listen to rock music. So, this is why I decided to base my magazine around the rock genre, as I felt this would gain a larger audience. 7) The main image is taking up the majority of the page. I did this because in my market research, 3 out of the 10 people said that the photographs are the aspect that makes them buy the magazine. I used bright colours (red and yellow) because people said that the colours attract them to a magazine, and it draws the readers in and makes the magazine look a lot more appealing and attractive.8) During the process of constructing this media product, I have learnt a lot of new things from using a wide range of technology that I was unfamiliar with. I have used many different technologies such as: Digital cameras, Adobe Photoshop, Slideshare and Eblogger. I have took a wide range of images using a digital camera, and I tried to use many different techniques whilst doing this, like using the rule of thirds and changing the ISO and aperture on the camera, to produce the best photos that I could. I have also gained knowledge on how to use Eblogger, because this is where I have been uploading all of my coursework to. To upload word documents, I had to upload them to Slideshare first, and then copy the code onto Eblogger. Before I begun uploading my coursework, I had never used these technologies, but, now I’m confident in using these websites. 9) Whilst using Adobe Photoshop, I have learnt many new techniques and I now know how to use tools such as ‘magic wand’, ‘clone tool’ and editing the brightness and contrast of my images. I used a range of different fonts, images and shapes on my magazine layouts, which really developed my

knowledge when it comes to using Photoshop, as I now know how to insert and edit things easily. 10) I have learnt many things from starting out with my preliminary task until finishing my final products. I have learnt the different conventions of a music magazine, and what I needed to include on my final product in order to attract an audience, and make the magazine more appealing to the audience that I aimed my magazine at. I have gained better knowledge on Photoshop, as I now know how to edit images and text easily.