Year 12 AS Media- Coursework Evaluation

Jamie Sansom

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

To answer this question on the evaluation I will be comparing my music magazine front cover with 2 real music magazine front cover. My media product uses, develops and challenges other media products in many ways. I decided to aim my music magazine between the ages of 35-45. I did this because I wanted to do something different and unusual. A lot of my friends made magazines and aimed them at teenagers whereas I choose something different.

• Here I am comparing my music magazine Front cover with a real NME music magazine cover. Taking on general conventions, in many ways both covers are quite similar. Their Title’s are in the same position and both take up the same layout. By this I mean They both have a large picture and many subheadings down the left hand side of each cover. The professional magazine uses a larger variety of colours than I do and it has more text. This works well as it’s eye catching. I have opted not to use many different colours and as I didn’t want to produce a vibrant magazine. On the NME magazine there is a large close up picture of a music artist (Dave Grohl) I chose to adopt the same idea in my own music magazine however I took a close up picture of a women playing a saxophone. My title is Bold similar to the NMW magazine and my text stands out against it’s red background. My cover also has a barcode to make it more realistic however I did add a date and issue number which the NME magazine does not have.

• In the slide above i am once again comparing my music magazine to a real music magazine. These can relate a lot more as the styles of the magazines are very similar. They are also both of the jazz genre and would appeal to an older audience or anyone interested in jazz music. Similarly both of these magazine have adopted a similar layout. This consists of a large picture, a title and many subheadings. I have decided to use this in my magazine as in my research I found out that most of the real music magazine have this or have a layout like it. The real jazz magazine uses many different fonts and colours to stand out against the dark background. I have chosen a red background so it was hard for me to chooses colours which stood out but I settled for blue and black. The pictures used in both magazines are artists playing their instruments. This enthisises the genre of the magazines and are also the main focus inside each magazine. They both have barcodes. The real magazine obviously needs a barcode as it would be for sale so I added a bare code onto my own music magazine to make it more realistic and believable.

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

• When first making the magazine I wanted to aim it at both male and female’s. I did this because I wanted it to be a magazine that both genders would be interested in and would also purchase. However looking back at my magazine cover, contents and double page together I think it represents females more than males because of the colours I have used. Another reason I think this is because my front cover is a women so females can relate more with the magazine and would be more interested in purchasing it than a male. I think that my media product represents adults as calm and peaceful that listen to old, jazzy and a bit of classical music. This is done by the mature colours used for my front cover and also the genre of my music magazine. The genre is jazzy/classical and this is most commonly listened to by adults aged between 30-50.