Evaluation - Final Task
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Front Cover
I followed one of the conventions by remaining with the same layout throughout, by placing the title at the top and the headlines at the bottom and on the sides, therefore the public know where to look at what type of music magazine they will be looking at. I also followed one of the other conventions by remaining with only one main focus image, central to the page, which most indie pop music genre magazines look at. I did challenge one of the conventions by not adding any quotes from e.g. interviews on the front page, I left them for the double page spread, so that hopefully it will attract people to read the interview as they will have no clues to what it is all about from the beginning, no spoilers, to ruin the interview, and lose the audiences interest.
Contents
With my contents page, I followed one of the conventions by keeping the list type of format, for my pages on my contents. I also followed another convention by using more than one image on the contents page, which the majority of indie pop magazines tend to do, so that it adds a more interesting look and feel to it to help to attract the readers. Also through having the title part, in bold lettering, very similar or the same to the front covers font, style and size, is another convention that I chose to follow. However I did challenge one of the normal conventions by not adding any fashion pages or images with no text about what that particular page will be about, they just used the simplicity of the image to capture peoples attention, almost like they knew what people would think and can simply be engaged by a simple image.
Double Page Spread
I attempted to meet one of the conventions of indie pop magazines, by arranging the text boxes, including the interview, around the outside of the main feature artist, however this didn't work as I hoped it too, and therefore it was not continued with as my final piece, although I did decide to place them around the main image just not as close and tight together as other magazines do. Although I did follow one of the conventions through using the idea behind the text boxes, to separate the chunks of information, to avoid the readers being put off by viewing too much text. I did challenge one of the conventions by using a wavy and fish eye effect font style, to add a more creative and unique look to the overall double page. Also, I decided to add a title to my double page spread, whereas some other music magazines, use the quotes to draw the readers in instantly.
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
My product represents a particular social group through the use of simplistic and easy to understand language throughout my double page spread interview, therefore not losing the attention of an audience through complex wording. Also through using a fun colour font and style, to add a more fun and exciting tone to the magazine, avoiding the seriousness of it all, to attract my specific target audience of people aged between 15-17 years old, therefore early teens opposed to late teens. I also targeted a particular group of people (early teens), through my questionnaires, through finding out their specific interests, to see and understand what exactly would attract them to purchasing my music magazine, so I will therefore include this in advance, to attract them. Once I analysed my questionnaire results, I discovered that my target age group would happily pay between £2.00/2.50 - £3.00 and I therefore chose to select £2.70 as my price for my magazine, which shows that it is a good quality magazine and not gossipy.
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
Personally I would prefer for my magazine to be distributed in all supermarkets including Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury’s etc., because I feel that it would attract a wide audience of people during their shopping and they are big shops that have a variety of people to take an interest in my magazine. I also think buy distributing it in a shop such as WHSmiths would be beneficial because its known already to have a section for magazines which are successful, whereas if I distributed it somewhere unusual the public may not be familiar with associating magazines to that particular shop.
I would also prefer to have both a hard copy as well as giving people the option to read my music magazine online, like the newspapers, because then it will target a wider range of people and benefit them more as well, as for example people who travel a lot during the day will be able to sit down and read it through an online source, instead of trying to go out of their way to purchase one as well, which may be found difficult and therefore put them off all together.
Who would be the audience for your media product?
My target audience is generally early teens, mostly aged 15-17, because I am situated in this target group so I would therefore find it easier to know what to put in my magazine, as I would know myself what they would look for and to know their full interests. From completing my questionnaire I found out that my particular target audience, are interesting in viewing the up and coming concerts for the year, interviews and overall the magazine including free gifts, such as posters and CD's, which is why these were featured in my magazine, as I knew it would instantly attract the readers. Once completing my research before planing my magazine, I viewed and analysed many magazines that this age group tend to buy and see what attracts them to the magazine, including the colours, price, offers and titles, these included magazines such as Shout, Pop and Q, as this was just a generally overview of music magazines, to see what attracts other people.
How did you attract /address your audience?
I addressed and attracted my specific target audience through the colours that I used, as I found out from my questionnaire which colours my target audience would look for and take interest too. I also addressed them through the promotional offers, which is my unique selling point, such as the ‘Free poster + CD from the latest artists’ and the exclusive interview with Eleanor Gold, as they will understand and recognise that if the magazine isn’t purchased this week, then they won’t be able to either read the article or gain the free poster and CD, which is what they would look for instantly. I chose that particular image, because it will help the audience to connect and relate to it, as that will be the place they want to be, live at a concert, it's something that my target audience group take as an interest.
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
I have learnt how to use Photoshop correctly and where all the tools etc., are to help me with the design and development of my magazine, however I already knew how an Apple Mac computer operated, so therefore this wasn’t a struggle for myself. With Photoshop I learnt how to lock certain layers and therefore merge them together I necessary, along with how to re-size an image but not to alter them completely by stretching them out to destroy the image altogether. I also learnt how to create boxes and lines and which tools to use for this, along with how to adjust the positioning of texts for example, making them slanted, and changing the colours of fonts along with their style or size. Along the way I became more comfortable with Photoshop and overall the format on the Apple Macs.
Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
I have gained more knowledge of all the tools on Photoshop, through using it more independently, such as editing text, editing photos, shaping texts in different ways e.g. wave format. I feel that I have gained more of an understanding of the idea that the magazine needs to have a more professional look and feel to it, without a simplistic look, which is just basic and lacks a fun side. I feel that compared to my preliminary task, my music magazine cover and contents page has a less simplistic layout and look to it, as it is more crowded and follows more of the conventions to add the more professional look to it. One of my targets after my preliminary task was to decrease the amount of exclamation marks used throughout the front cover, which I have taken on board which creates a more professional look.
Front Cover
I followed one of the conventions by remaining with the same layout throughout, by placing the title at the top and the headlines at the bottom and on the sides, therefore the public know where to look at what type of music magazine they will be looking at. I also followed one of the other conventions by remaining with only one main focus image, central to the page, which most indie pop music genre magazines look at. I did challenge one of the conventions by not adding any quotes from e.g. interviews on the front page, I left them for the double page spread, so that hopefully it will attract people to read the interview as they will have no clues to what it is all about from the beginning, no spoilers, to ruin the interview, and lose the audiences interest.
Contents
With my contents page, I followed one of the conventions by keeping the list type of format, for my pages on my contents. I also followed another convention by using more than one image on the contents page, which the majority of indie pop magazines tend to do, so that it adds a more interesting look and feel to it to help to attract the readers. Also through having the title part, in bold lettering, very similar or the same to the front covers font, style and size, is another convention that I chose to follow. However I did challenge one of the normal conventions by not adding any fashion pages or images with no text about what that particular page will be about, they just used the simplicity of the image to capture peoples attention, almost like they knew what people would think and can simply be engaged by a simple image.
Double Page Spread
I attempted to meet one of the conventions of indie pop magazines, by arranging the text boxes, including the interview, around the outside of the main feature artist, however this didn't work as I hoped it too, and therefore it was not continued with as my final piece, although I did decide to place them around the main image just not as close and tight together as other magazines do. Although I did follow one of the conventions through using the idea behind the text boxes, to separate the chunks of information, to avoid the readers being put off by viewing too much text. I did challenge one of the conventions by using a wavy and fish eye effect font style, to add a more creative and unique look to the overall double page. Also, I decided to add a title to my double page spread, whereas some other music magazines, use the quotes to draw the readers in instantly.
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
My product represents a particular social group through the use of simplistic and easy to understand language throughout my double page spread interview, therefore not losing the attention of an audience through complex wording. Also through using a fun colour font and style, to add a more fun and exciting tone to the magazine, avoiding the seriousness of it all, to attract my specific target audience of people aged between 15-17 years old, therefore early teens opposed to late teens. I also targeted a particular group of people (early teens), through my questionnaires, through finding out their specific interests, to see and understand what exactly would attract them to purchasing my music magazine, so I will therefore include this in advance, to attract them. Once I analysed my questionnaire results, I discovered that my target age group would happily pay between £2.00/2.50 - £3.00 and I therefore chose to select £2.70 as my price for my magazine, which shows that it is a good quality magazine and not gossipy.
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
Personally I would prefer for my magazine to be distributed in all supermarkets including Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury’s etc., because I feel that it would attract a wide audience of people during their shopping and they are big shops that have a variety of people to take an interest in my magazine. I also think buy distributing it in a shop such as WHSmiths would be beneficial because its known already to have a section for magazines which are successful, whereas if I distributed it somewhere unusual the public may not be familiar with associating magazines to that particular shop.
I would also prefer to have both a hard copy as well as giving people the option to read my music magazine online, like the newspapers, because then it will target a wider range of people and benefit them more as well, as for example people who travel a lot during the day will be able to sit down and read it through an online source, instead of trying to go out of their way to purchase one as well, which may be found difficult and therefore put them off all together.
Who would be the audience for your media product?
My target audience is generally early teens, mostly aged 15-17, because I am situated in this target group so I would therefore find it easier to know what to put in my magazine, as I would know myself what they would look for and to know their full interests. From completing my questionnaire I found out that my particular target audience, are interesting in viewing the up and coming concerts for the year, interviews and overall the magazine including free gifts, such as posters and CD's, which is why these were featured in my magazine, as I knew it would instantly attract the readers. Once completing my research before planing my magazine, I viewed and analysed many magazines that this age group tend to buy and see what attracts them to the magazine, including the colours, price, offers and titles, these included magazines such as Shout, Pop and Q, as this was just a generally overview of music magazines, to see what attracts other people.
How did you attract /address your audience?
I addressed and attracted my specific target audience through the colours that I used, as I found out from my questionnaire which colours my target audience would look for and take interest too. I also addressed them through the promotional offers, which is my unique selling point, such as the ‘Free poster + CD from the latest artists’ and the exclusive interview with Eleanor Gold, as they will understand and recognise that if the magazine isn’t purchased this week, then they won’t be able to either read the article or gain the free poster and CD, which is what they would look for instantly. I chose that particular image, because it will help the audience to connect and relate to it, as that will be the place they want to be, live at a concert, it's something that my target audience group take as an interest.
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
I have learnt how to use Photoshop correctly and where all the tools etc., are to help me with the design and development of my magazine, however I already knew how an Apple Mac computer operated, so therefore this wasn’t a struggle for myself. With Photoshop I learnt how to lock certain layers and therefore merge them together I necessary, along with how to re-size an image but not to alter them completely by stretching them out to destroy the image altogether. I also learnt how to create boxes and lines and which tools to use for this, along with how to adjust the positioning of texts for example, making them slanted, and changing the colours of fonts along with their style or size. Along the way I became more comfortable with Photoshop and overall the format on the Apple Macs.
Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
I have gained more knowledge of all the tools on Photoshop, through using it more independently, such as editing text, editing photos, shaping texts in different ways e.g. wave format. I feel that I have gained more of an understanding of the idea that the magazine needs to have a more professional look and feel to it, without a simplistic look, which is just basic and lacks a fun side. I feel that compared to my preliminary task, my music magazine cover and contents page has a less simplistic layout and look to it, as it is more crowded and follows more of the conventions to add the more professional look to it. One of my targets after my preliminary task was to decrease the amount of exclamation marks used throughout the front cover, which I have taken on board which creates a more professional look.
media_presentation.pptx | |
File Size: | 6256 kb |
File Type: | pptx |