Karisma Patel's AS Media Evaluation

Karisma Patel’sAS Media Evaluation

Question 1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge the conventions of real media product?

The ‘Vibe’ conventions is that the masthead is behind central image, this is conventional in most music magazines. The reason for why the ‘Vibe’ is large is that the masthead stands out, because it’s a short word, which means that for it to stand out it will need to be the biggest text size on the front cover.

It’s also conventional to have the barcode on the front of the cover, in most music magazines, especially in ‘Vibe’ magazines

Central image is a direct address to the audience, its also a sexual image, to get the attention of the male audience.

Eyebrows are conventional in mostly all music magazine especially ‘Vibe’.

It’s also conventional to have the barcode and BBM Barcode on the front of the ‘vibe’ magazines, not many music magazines have the barcode in the front.

It is also conventional to have ears, on either sides of the central image. The ears, is the little cover lines and quotes on the front cover. To get the audiences attention. This is also conventional on all magazine.


The masthead for my magazine ‘Beats’ is conventional to most magazines especially ‘Vibe’ because the it is placed behind the central image.

I have also stuck to the conventional feature of the eyebrow because in most of the ‘Vibe’ magazine the eyebrow is used which makes me magazine have a similar layout to ’Vibe’.

This was also conventional, to my magazine, because the ‘Vibe’ magazine and many others, usually place the barcode on the front of the magazine.

I also added a BBM barcode, which is not conventional on all magazines, but because of my target audience, I decided that it would be a good idea, for my magazine to have this feature.

The central image is in front of the masthead, which is conventional in most magazines, also the central image is giving direct eye contact with the audience.

This is un-conventional in the ‘Vibe’ magazine, because the ‘vibe’ magazine doesn’t usually give free items.

This front cover, follows the rule of thirds, just like most of the other ‘Vibe’ magazines.

Its conventional in most magazines to have ears, this is where there is information on one or both sides of the central image.


The way the ‘CONTENTS’ has been broken up into three parts, this is un-conventional, this could be used as part of their house style of the ‘Vibe’ magazine, they use this thorough out all their magazine contents pages. They also stick to the same type of fonts. Its also on the top right hand corner.

Features and fashion is written in a bold font, which makes it stand out to the audience. It also tells the reads about what is going to be in the magazine.

The V in the background, stands for the cover title ‘Vibe’

The colour scheme of this contents page is grey, black, white, the photograph is also in black and white which shows a contents page house style. The only colour that stands out to the readers is the red heart.

The colours used show a more masculine look and feel

There is also only one image on this contents page, and it’s a picture of Kanye West, who is a famous rapper. It is also a direct address, shows his serious facial expressions, which tells the readers how important his career life.

The little writing in the bottom right hand corner is the credit of the photographers and the date and where the photo was taken etc.

1/3 is there to tell the readers that this is just 1 out of 3 pages of the contents page, and that there's still more contents pages.


The way ‘Contents’ is broke up into 3 parts, is conventional in all the ‘Vibe’ magazine and because I have the same target audience as ‘Vibe’ I decided to use a similar layout, so that the readers of ‘Vibe’ maybe interested in my music magazine.

On my music magazine I have also done the features and sub heading, but I thought it was conventional to the ‘Vibe’ magazine therefore I thought, if I had added it to my contents page again to target the same audience.

The contents page image, I have used is also direct address to the audience, because its conventional in most music magazine to make eye contact with the audience.

The background is gradient, but is blue, so that it has a house style and links to my front cover, and ‘Vibe’ magazine tends to also have a house style, which is conventional in most of the music magazine, which are being produced.


This double page spread from the ‘Vibe Magazine’ has a full bleed image. Which is conventional in most of the double page spread article in ‘Vibe’.

Also has a Big Bold title, so that the readers know what the article is about, again most the article all have a big heading to show the readers what the article about, or to draw the readers attention to the article.

The text is split up into 3 columns, same as the music magazine I have produced. It is also conventional to have 3 columns of texts in ‘Vibe’ double page spread articles.

This article also as a little feature in the top right hand side of the page, this is also conventional in the ‘Vibe’ magazine not many magazine tend to have this feature.

My magazine, has the same layout as this double page spread, as I was basing my media product on an RnB music magazine too. Therefore I used this as a template, to help structure my double page spread layout.


Typography, the title and the quote on the top left hand side is bigger than the actually article text, so that it stands out. It is also in capitals to emphasise the quote.

This a little feature that I have added, as most of the other ‘Vibe’ double page spreads had a little feature like this on the top right hand corner of the page. This shows a conventional link between my double page spread and ‘Vibe’s.

The font size is 9.5 because this is the size of the font in the actual ‘Vibe’ double page spreads.

The page number is at the bottom of the page because its conventional in the ‘Vibe’ magazine that the page numbers are always at the bottom.

This image is a representative of Kelly Rowland. This image shows the type of person Kelly Rowland is from the way the model is posing and is dressed using props.

The font I have used for title, I have also used on the front cover and contents page, to show that I have followed the convention of keeping a house style.

I have advertised the website at the bottom of the page which was conventional in the ‘Vibe’ magazine I analysed.

Question 2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Images and Representation

PoseThe pose that I have made the model do, is the type of poses Kelly Rowland does, because before I had taken the photographs, I did research to see they type of clothing she wears, the pose and facial expressions. The pose for my front cover is the model smiling, showing happiness. The target audience for the music magazine I have produced is 16-25 year olds, as majority of people between that age range listen to RnB music.

DressingThe dress and props that I have used for my model to wear was a vest top, grey tight skinny jeans and black pair of heels, which make the model very feminine with the heels, just like Kelly Rowland. This will immediately get the attention of female, if they think of Kelly Rowland as they role model etc.

LocationThe photographs that I had taken of the model was take at the Stanmore College studio, as I can get a plain white back drop, which makes it easier for me to edit onto a background I like for the front cover of my music magazine.

Social groups

The target audience for my media music magazine are black females aged between 16-25 year olds, who listen to RnB music. The music magazine I have produced represents this particular age group because of the type of model I have used, and also the information I have put onto the front cover and the type of colour schemes I have used for my music magazine. Not only the visuals, also the textual language I have used is formal, which means the age range will understand it easily and wont have difficulty reading words. Also due to the formal language, will be mean that the music magazine wont be cheap or look unattractive, therefore, I can have the price of the magazine at a reasonable price between 1-3 pounds.

Question 2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The ways in which my media product is represented for particular social groups, is because of the colour scheme and the music genre in which I have chosen to do my magazine on.

The colours I have used for the contents page is white and blue. In the past ‘Vibe’ magazine I saw quiet a few magazines which used this colour scheme and thought it would be good if I had used it for my contents page. Also I have broken up the word contents, in the same style that ‘Vibe’ has used to make it look creative. This also follows the conventions of ‘Vibe’ magazine. Also for the text on the contents page I have alternatively used two different fonts. To follow the type of design construction, ‘Vibe’ have used.

The colours I have used on the double page spread are more darker colours and used colours that fit the colour scheme of the photograph image to show that I have thought about the colour schemes, in which I was going to use. The fonts I have used show that I have kept to the house style and also looks bold and attractive and stands out to the audience.

Question 3. What kind of media institution might distribute your product and why?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIeY_ivgTWs&feature=youtu.be









Question 3. What kind of media institution might distribute your product and why?

Distributing the media product I have produced is one of the main key factors for the media institution. Therefore, my music magazine would only sell well, if I had joined a publishing company or a distributing company. If I wanted to sell my media product, I would join ‘Future Media With Passion’ as this company as been in the media industry since 1985.

Also by joining this major media institution, the genre of the magazine would have to be the same, as what the company are distributing as the target audience they have is already be set. Also the conventions would have to be the same. I think that with my media product, if there are conventions which are challenging the media convention, is a good idea as there isn’t any competing between my music magazine and ‘Vibe’. This also show that whilst I was producing the media product, I was challenging the conventions.

Question 4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

The music magazine I have produced is aimed at people aged 16-25 years old. For classes C2, D etc. It’s primary audience would be males as the front cover of my magazine is a female, which would immediately get their attention. The secondary audience would be females, who see her as a role model, and are a fan of Kelly Rowland. The reason for why I have aimed my magazine to be for that target audience is because using my information the research I gathered, I found that the majority of the people today between 16-25 listen to the Rnb music genre. Therefore, I decided to target a group of people that were aged between that age group.

Question 5. How did you attract/address your audience?

The colours on my front cover and the contents page I have used the similar colour scheme, the reason for why I have used these colours was because I found that blue and white stood out, and went well with the ‘Rnb’ genre of music. Also I used black for the font so that it is easier for the audience to read, and because its bold its stands out. On the double page spread for the title I used the same fonts I used on the front cover, so it fits the house style. This would attract my target audience because it looks attractive, with the bold font and the white outline on the titles.

The front cover is the most important, as your getting the audiences attention using the front cover. Therefore I had to think carefully about how I was going to get the target audiences attention. Firstly I made sure that the masthead was visible but the central image was even more visible as that’s what the audience would look. I then had to thing about the layout and the colour scheme and the types of fonts etc. that I would be appropriate for the magazine. I also took this picture of the model as it was the similar type of poses that Kelly Rowland does, which represents who she is, therefore I thought it was good to have the model pose in the same way as her. I kept the photograph very simple and attractive, also chose to do that shot type as most of the ‘Vibe’ magazine covers have the same shot type, therefore I thought to keep my magazine following the conventions I should do the same with my model.

Question 6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

In order to produce this music magazine, I had used a range of different types of software's/programmes and technology. The main part of the process of the construction was using Adobe In-Design and Photoshop for my media product. Since I started this music magazine, I have definitely learnt new skills on this programme, how to edit photographs, how to put the whole music magazine together using different effects etc. Also by using Photoshop and In-Design it as taught me a lot of skills I didn't’t have before I was producing the magazine. Whilst I was using these programmes, it was also a bit difficult in the beginning, but once I started to try out the new tools, I eventually got the hang of it and produced my final piece, the ‘Beats’ music magazine.

Also for the research, I needed to get a few image and extra information for my article and my research and planning, which I got from the internet by using Google, to go on different websites. I found that by using Google I had found a lot of useful information. This was useful as it was quick and easy to access information.

Using the camera, to take my photographs for the music magazine, I had used the Stanmore college studio. For the image to have a clear background to make it easy to crop the image and place it on a new background on Photoshop. Also to get good quality lighting, I used the studio to get professional picture of the model I was using for my magazine. The camera that I used was a Nikon D300 digital camera, to get good quality photographs, whilst taking my pictures, I had to think about the poses, the lighting and the focus whilst taking the photographs. Using the camera was very straight forward, as I do AS photography, therefore I know how cameras work.

Question 7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

This is the preliminary task, where I produced a college magazine front cover and contents page.

Looking at the preliminary task, even though I have used a good colour scheme, you can tell on how much improvement there has been between both pieces of work, which shows that over time my skills have been improving and my understanding of the media conventions has also improved. Also looking at my preliminary contents page and my music magazine, you can see the improvement of the layout has improved. Also looking at the quality of the pictures I have taken, and improved, by understanding the shot type and the angle and direct address to the audience etc. Also I have learnt that the masthead is very important when attracting people to buy your music magazine.

I have learnt that keeping the rule of thirds on the front cover, makes the magazine look better as it has a better layout and the information on the magazine would be easier to read.

Another thing I have learnt is that representation, is important in media. And that targeting a certain type of audience is important before producing a magazine, so that you know what type/age group will be willing to buy your magazine. However, overall I think that I have created a well media product, reflecting the RnB genre, and have made my music magazine look professional and sell able. This magazine has been produced to target a specific target audience of 16-25 year olds.

Karisma Patel's AS Media Evaluation

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