1. Evaluation
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of
real media products?
• My music magazine uses several conventions from real music magazines, especially from ones that
revolve around rock music. The barcode is obviously a staple of all magazines and as such was included.
The cover lines depicting several different artists are designed to look like sell lines and to appeal to a
customer. The fictitious artists are hinted at being quite famous and that harkens back to how most music
magazines are presented.
• To promote the kind of artists being presented on the front cover, he wore light, calm colours such as
blue, and the acoustic guitar displays his genre of music being quite soft and calm, and the background of
the cover was given a light red gradient. This reflects what some magazines do, in terms of how they
present the cover, if there was a more hardcore or aggressive artist the focus of the issue than the cover is
more likely to be messy and provocative while a more mellow artist would cause a cover to be quite calm
and reflective looking.
• The double page spread took inspiration from some magazines that I had seen, in particular Kerrang, and
how they give a sneak peek, review of sorts of some new songs from an artist in a small section of the
double page. Also the tour box information drew inspiration from many magazines, again, Kerrang in
particular. The pull quote was used in accordance to how it usually is in a music magazine, to draw in a
reader. I did not, however, see many magazines promote a website on their pages, and so used the double
page spread to do so, knowing that for many magazines, the spread on the famous artist is the only thing
that many people read in a magazine, so placing it there is sure to increase traffic for the website.

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
• The magazine is aimed at young adults aged 16-24. While the magazine is meant to be a major rock
magazine publication, this particular issue is designed to appeal to those interested in acoustic and
soft rock, a somewhat smaller sub-genre, and as such can be argued that it is aimed towards a
niche audience.
• The only models that appear in the magazine are of minority ethnic groups, and while this was
done completely unintentionally it would potentially draw in some of these groups, who may be
surprised to see a major publication focus on minorities so such an extent.
• The copy in the double page spread depicts the cover artist (Urahara) as a young male living in
suburban London, again this would appeal to the youth living in an inner city such as London.

3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
• A website or company dedicated to several types of media publications could distribute my product
as it both appeal to the mainstream and the niche audiences in equal amounts, as well as
promoting both fairly and to equal degrees.
• A company such as Conde Nast which has many publications and websites ranging from massive
fashion magazines such as Vogue, and technological magazines such as Wired to small, social news
and networking sites such as Reddit could easily see potential in my magazine due to its reach and
audience. Additionally, any institution interested in distributing an all-encompassing and
comprehensive rock magazine that focuses on as much of the genre as possible, instead of a
magazine such as Kerrang that typically (but not always) focus on heavier music.

4. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
• First and foremost my basic understanding of how cameras function was increased as I was able to
understand how to use the more high-end, higher quality ones to create better shots and angles
etc.
• I managed to gain easy knowledge of how to use websites such as Blogger and Slideshare that I
previously did not know existed, and how useful they really are, as well as how they interact with
each other in respect to how one embeds Slideshare Powerpoints onto Blogger. The usefulness of
Blogger was also quite striking, and the ease at which it can be used struck me.
• But in particular the most that I learnt about a technology came from Photoshop, which, as
evidenced by my preliminary work, I had very little ability with, and by the time I had finished my
coursework I had a relatively comprehensive grasp of the programme, able to easily incorporate
cropped photos into work and control the hue and saturation of the picture. I also learnt how to
airbrush photos and to warp text, which aided me massively in creating a product that looked
professional and realistic.

5. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt?
• Clearly my skills with Photoshop had increased dramatically, knowing now how to
create a background that doesn’t contrast horribly with the picture and text by the use
of a gradient. I have learnt how to create an effective and realistic looking magazine
piece through the additional use of contents and the double page spread.
• I have learned how to make a front cover more appealing by strategically placing the
cover lines and by warping the text to make it stand out more to a customer.
Additionally, I know to make some of the cover lines a completely different typography
and colour to make all of the sell lines stand out more to an extent, and my overall
skills with navigating and using the Photoshop programme has increased
substantially, able to easily and quickly find what I need to do a particular thing whilst
using the programme.
• The market research also gave me new ways to procure information whilst researching
products.