1. AS Media Studies
Pre-Public Exam
Evaluation
Tuesday 14th January 2014
C101
The aim of this controlled assessment was to design a magazine consisting of a front cover, contents page and a double page spread. My target
audience was female aspirers aged 15+. My consumers look for an insight to the life of their favourite artists and information on their personal lives,
many consumers enjoy this as it boosts their self-esteem and allows them to feel close to the artists. The genre of my magazine is going to be indie
rock and I have named it ‘Siren’ as it creates an edgy image that most indie rock magazines have. To prepare for this exam I have looked at many
examples of rock magazines, such as, Kerrang and Classic Rock. My magazine uses the conventions of these products as it consists of a masthead,
splash line, a main image, bright, bold colours and extra offers. These all help to attract the consumer’s attention and purchase my product. My
double page spread consists of an interview of the artist which is common and follows the conventions for a magazine. As well as that it has images
of my artist and a specific quote from their interview. This helps to entice the consumers to read the interview and therefore become essentially
become interested in the artist’s music career.
My magazine represents a particular social group because, ‘Siren’ represents consumers who enjoy being different from society and stick out from
the crowd. Firstly, the name ‘Siren’ is commonly associated with the police as they use their sirens as a warning, therefore a siren is something
noticeable and loud. My idea is that the consumers that buy my magazine will be loud and noticeable much like the real thing and therefore
replicate the idea that it is okay to be different. A way of being different could be to have brightly coloured hair, bold piercings and risky tattoos. It
could also be to share your political views that are less mainstream, or to do activities that are commonly cowered from. The way I have
represented these ideas in my magazine is by posing my model in a dream-like state on the front cover, which portrays that she is not afraid to have
dreams or to share them with others. To further justify this reason, my main image also has a saint-like glow, emphasising that my model stands out
and that her ‘way of life’ is deemed as acceptable. Therefore, my audience would most likely be teenagers that are looking for a way to be different
and may come to my magazine as comfort because it allows them to be spontaneous and comfortable with themselves. My audience will be
females as they are stereotyped to have insecurities, allowing me to directly appeal to them through the idea that being different is acceptable.
Following from this point, I believe that MTV would distribute my magazine. This is due to the TV programmes and advertisements that MTV are
currently distributing. MTV has the image of ‘different’ – which was made from shows like Jersey Shore and documentaries of famous celebrities.
This would work coherently with the message of my magazine. I also believe it is the best place to find my audience because MTV airs a lot of reality
TV shows, which allows audiences to boost their self-esteem through the lives of the people on the show.
From this production I have learnt how to use a majority of technologies and how to use them to help my production. First, I was able to expand my
knowledge on how to use Adobe Photoshop CS6 by swapping the rubber tool for the brush tool on ‘clear’ - this makes the area seem smoother
when you clear away unwanted image. I have also used Blogger and Slideshare to exhibit my productions and have kept an updated blog to allow
my teachers to mark my work.