This document is Hannah Maxwell's media studies foundation portfolio evaluation. It summarizes her process in constructing a mock music magazine called NOISE. She evaluated how her product used, developed or challenged conventions of real magazines. Key influences were Kerrang! and ID magazine. She represented her target audience of teenage rock fans and discussed how Bauer Media might distribute NOISE. Hannah reflected on what she learned about magazine design and technologies like Publisher and Paint.NET. Overall, she felt her portfolio showed progression from her preliminary task and successfully fit the brief of constructing an authentic mock magazine.

1. AS MEDIA STUDIES
G321
FOUNDATION PORTFOLIO
EVALUATION
By Hannah Maxwell

2. 1.
In what ways does your media
product use, develop or challenge
the forms and conventions of real
media products?

3. I have explored the Generic Conventions of magazine through
this Forms and Conventions exercise;
http://hannahmaxwell.blogspot.com/2010/10/forms-and-
conventions-of-magazines.html
Front Cover
My Front Cover subscribes to the
conventions of a music
magazine, because the main
image covers the masthead.
Also, Adam looks straight at the
camera and creates direct
address, which also subscribes to
magazine conventions.
However, I have challenged the
conventions because Jake
doesn’t look at the camera.
My front cover was influenced by
Kerrang! (target audience) and ID
magazine (design).

4. Kerrang! magazine influenced NOISE, because
of the way the main cover line cuts across the
main image. It also has the same target
audience I also liked the posters puff on the
front, and the use of the bottom cover line. I
have used these ideas on my magazine, ‘Still
Nameless’ cuts up the main image, and I have
used the bottom cover line to give names of
additional bands. I have also done a poster puff.
ID magazine influenced NOISE because of
the relationship between the masthead and
the main image. Each cover person on ID
pulls the same sort of winking face as the
masthead. On my magazine, I made Jake
put his hands in his ears to replicate the
hazard symbol I had used instead of the ‘O’.

5. Contents
My contents has been influenced mostly
by Kerrang! magazine. In K! magazine, a
different article to the main cover line is
the main focus on the contents. Bands
featured on the bottom cover line are
also featured inside the contents in more
detail, and the contents uses a different
colour than the front cover, but remains
within the house style. The captions of
articles are linguistically
appealing/persuasive to the potential
audience. Simple vocabulary is also
used, which relates to the audience, and
there is also an advert for a subscription
to the magazine. I also liked the use of
the editors note, which most music
magazines have done.

6. On my contents I have used another
story as the main focus (No
Direction), band that are featured on
the bottom cover line of the front
page are integrated on my contents
and I have used orange instead of red
in the colour scheme. I have used
persuasive captions and I have also
made a subscription advert in the
bottom right hand corner. I have also
used an editor’s note too, addressing
the reader and making the magazine
seem more appealing. Therefore I
have subscribed and developed the
generic conventions of a contents
page in a music magazine.

7. Double Page Spread
Kerrang! was the main influence for my DPS too.
I’ve subscribed to the conventions of a double page spread through the use of a
full page picture and the article on the next page. These are often used as artist
features. I also used additional information boxes with Q&As. K! influenced my
article through language, structure and content. e.g. conversational, introducing
a scene (backstage), and telling readers what the band is all about. The pictures
show the band offstage, which, paired with a casual interview makes the band
more relatable to my target audience.

8. 2.
How does your media product
represent particular social groups?

9. What Social Groups have I represented?
Are they stereotypical representations?
My magazine targets mainly teenage
people, who listen to a variety of
rock music, like Kerrang! and Rock
Sound.
I have represented rockers through
the images I have used, such as Still
Nameless and Jessie Mac. Still
Nameless are meant to be down to
earth, out for a laugh guys, who
don’t take themselves too seriously.
Jessie Mac is a confident, trend-
setting, in-control female, who
makes damn good tunes and does
what she wants.
I have gone with the stereotypes of
21st century young people – live fast,
not taking ‘crap’ from anyone.

10. 3.
What kind of institution might
distribute your media product and
why?

11. Bauer Media
 http://www.bauermedia.co.uk/
NOISE magazine would be
distributed by this company
because NOISE would appeal to a
demographic similar to that of
Kerrang! and Bauer Media
distributes Kerrang.
It is a major distributor that
distributes magazines like; Closer,
Heat, FHM, Zoo, Kerrang and Q. It is
also the distributor of many local
radio shows etc. I think NOISE
would be distributed through a
major distributor because I think it
would be a big seller.

12. 4.
Who would be the audience for your
media product?

13. Target Audience –
My magazine is aimed at females
and males aged 15+ who
enjoy/listen to rock music. My
magazine aims to give information
on everything rock, whether it’s
indie or heavy metal. It would
therefore appeal to older people
who listen to rock music. (the
above link shows a questionnaire
where I explored my target
audience, by asking them what
they liked and didn’t like about my
magazine. Kerrang magazine is the most
similar magazine to mine, as they
have the same target audiences.

14. 5.
How did you attract/address you
audience?

15. Colours
I chose Red, Black, White and Orange to
be my colour scheme because they appeal
to my target audience through the way
they stand out against each other, and the
fact red is such a statement colour. Red
also has strong connotations of passion,
anger and love, which is also what a lot of
rock music is about.
Masthead
Language/Register
My masthead – NOISE – is appealing to
The language I have used is
my target audience because it has a tone
rebellious, colloquial and simplistic.
of rebelliousness that is associated with
This is appealing to my target
rock. It is also a pun, because that is how
audience because it is easily read,
some people would actually describe rock
easily understood and most of all
music in general. It could be argued that
they will enjoy reading it because it
NOISE gives a bad name to rock music,
uses the same rebellion associated
however I think the irony would be
with the music they love. The
amusing/intriguing to my target audience.
register of my magazine is very
Using the hazard symbol, which could
informal and loud, representing the
symbolise earphones for music, also made
rock genre.
my masthead more appealing.

16. Pictures
I have a variety of pictures, from gutsy
blonde rockers to acoustic playing indie
folk. This shows that my target
audience is broad and diverse. There is
also a certain rebellious attitude to my
pictures, e.g. Jake on the front cover
with his fingers in his ears. This is
appealing to my target audience
because it contradicts the conventional
look of a magazine and would therefore
stand out – which rock music does.
Exclusives
I have used posters as my puff, which
appeal to my target audience because
band posters are essential to any rock
lover. I have also said that my artist
interviews (Still Nameless) is exclusive,
because that way my readers know they
won’t find my article anywhere else.

17. 6.
What have you learnt about
technologies from the process of
constructing the product?

18. I used Publisher to construct my
magazine, and I used Paint.NET to edit Weaknesses
my photos. Publisher:
It’s hard to place things exactly
Strengths 
where you want them, so it can get
Publisher: quite fiddly
 Easy to use  It’s unclear how to shrink the border
 You can clearly see construction lines, of a text box, without moving the
unlike word, and you can construct outside text.
the document Paint.NET:
 It is simple to insert objects without  It can be very time consuming to cut
everything else moving around out a picture
 Print Preview usefully shows exactly how  It easy to ‘over-edit’ a picture, so it
my magazine would look at each stage looks awful
Paint.NET
 Simple
 Files can be saved as PNGs so that they
have no background
 There are many effects that are good to
test out
 You can change the brightness and
contrast of a picture very easily.

19. Photographic Choices
I chose my front cover image because
I wanted it to tie in with the hazard
symbol on my masthead and the
theme of my masthead. The image of
Jake with his fingers in his ears fits
the theme of NOISE so well because
it’s like he’s hearing a noise and that’s
his reaction. I think it captures he
attitude of the magazine. I made the
image better from my original photo,
by changing the brightness and
contrast, and cutting out the
background.

20. Here are some other photos I
chose, because I felt they
captured the attitude or
showed the diversity of NOISE
magazine.

21. In creating the 3 elements, I found it
easiest to roughly sketch a contents page
before anything else. From my contents, I
could then deduce what would feature on the
front cover and then in my article.
When I started to construct, I completed my
contents page first, just in case I made any
alterations which then meant it would not
affect my front cover or article.
I have learnt that doing the contents page first
gave a really solid guide to the rest of my work,
which ultimately speeded it up, and meant I had a
vivid picture in my head of what I wanted to do.
I found using Blogger really easy. It meant that I
could do work whenever I wanted without having
to print off and I could do it quicker than a folder,
because all I had to do was upload it onto my
blog.

22. 7.
LOOKING BACK TO YOUR PRELIMINARY
TASK, WHAT DO YOU FEEL THAT YOU HAVE
LEARNT IN THE PROGRESSION FROM IT TO
THE FULL PRODUCT?

23. On the front cover alone I can see that my preliminary looks very basic
compared to my final magazine front cover, because it appears to just be
word art over a main image.
PRELIMINARY FINAL

24. PRELIMINARY FINAL
I can see that changing the programme from word (preliminary) to
publisher (final) has greatly improved the authenticity of my magazine. In
addition to that, my image manipulation skills have improved a lot.

25. Overall, I think my end product is reasonably successful, and fits the brief well. I have
thoroughly researched all aspects of magazines, and I believe that has been reflected in
my construction. I think the strongest aspect is my contents page, and the weakest is my
front cover. I am really pleased with my use of language and how I have captured the
styling's of a rock-music magazine.

26. BY
HANNAH MAXWELL