1. Evaluation Guidance 2015-16
Presentation methods:
 Popplet
 E-Maze
 PowToon
 Prezi
 Padlet
 Glogster
 Pinterest
 Video/Vlog
 Screen recordings
 ThingLink
 Voice thread
 Weebly/Wix
1.In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?
- Discuss the ways in which your magazine incorporates generic
conventions expected in this type of product. Identify specific examples
from your work and compare with real media texts. Use key terminology
when describing the features of your magazine.
- Have you developed anyconventions of this genre magazine?
- Have you challenged any expectations/conventions of this kind of
product?
- Does your use of conventions indicate what genre of music your
magazine is about?
- Which media texts influenced your work?
When I finish the ‘Research and Planning’ session for my media product, I can
understand the magazine convention, publication and the wants of audience
clearly. My music magazine aims to appeal people from 14 to 22-year-old
who likes either or both pop and country music. I identify this aged group as
my target audience because that I am still a young audience, I know what the
audience needs and wants as my age, which is likely to attract them
effectively, or my magazine will be failed. I created a questionnaire on a
website called Survey Monkey, and there are 23 people answered the
questionnaire. Although the sample size was small, the feedback from my
target audience really helped me to plan and construct my magazine.
The masthead of my magazine is CMB, which represents Country Music Board.
Using abbreviation as the masthead can be one of my challenge. Audience
can remember it easily, which is likely to bring regular customers for the
business; secondly, every letter can stand out effectively because of the
length of the word. However, the drawback is the new audience might don’t
know what CMB represents for, which leads to they cannot identify the music
genre. To tackle this problem, I have been written down the complete name
of the magazine beside the page number. I placed my masthead at the 1/5 of
the whole page as Kerrang magazine did; Also, my cover image has been
cropped out by using photoshop, and covered the lowercase of the masthead
a little bit, which makes my magazine looks more professional.I used a
medium shot as the cover image, which follows the convention. Here are

2. some examples of Kerrang and Q magazine.The medium shot can show
more details of the costume compared to a close up, it makes my page well
planed that consider the short masthead; If I use a long shot, the main image
will be too small, which leads to a lack of attraction to the audience. In my
cover page, I tried to design different poses for different models as possible
as what a real music magazine did. I found that in pop magazines, other
feature images have been cropped out with stroke effect around it with
conversation bulb besides the image (use Top Of The Pops as the example ).
This makes the magazine more private and the audience will be felt that they
have an individual talking with their idol. The custom and make up of my
model can be another challenge for my magazine. These two models — my
cover star Sherry and the male model besides the barcode represent country
genre, so I have been chose some light colour clothes for them which aims to
be natural, by the way, using guitar as props can reflect the country genre
effectively, you can see how it works on contents page; the other two models
represent pop genre, I have been chosen bright colour clothes for them,
especially from the pop makeup of the female model with a feminine coat and
exaggerated expression to stand out the genre, and it works well. In Kerrang
magazine, skyline always gives audience promotion information or latest
news, which aims to catch the eyes of audience at the first time. Therefore, I
followed this convention in my media product by releasing the tour dates of
Justin Bieber. I listed and highlighted the feature artists on both side of the
cover page with a short introduction underneath. This is what most music
magazine did; therefore, the audience can pick out what they are interested in
easily. The Chart Heat at the bottom of the magazine gives information of
other artists within the magazine. This feature was inspired me by Kerrang
magazine. In order to make my own house style, I added a ripped paper
background and changed the colour into blue, which is as same as the colour
of skyline. The cover line is in a white bold font with black edges and in
different font size, which is attractive in the whole page. I used my cover
star’s name as the cover line in order to imply that this issue is mainly talked
about her, so I have been written a sub-title below the coverline, which aims
to draw the attention of the audience. The barcode is located in the lower
right corner with issue number, date line and price as other magazines did.
I also have been developed the images in my media product by using Photoshop.
Changing the lighting, adding shadow effect in order to make 3D images,
using clone tool to improve the edge of the image as well as creating stroke
effect around the image in order to stand out the pop elements.
From Kerrang’s colour scheme throughout the magazine is red, black, white and
yellow. These colours work well and stand against with each other, as well as
red represents blood and danger, whereas yellow warning or caution, which
relates to their target audience as their attitude, clothing and music they
enjoy. So when I decide the colour scheme, I considered carefully because
that I want to use colour to reflect my music genre as Kerrang did. Finally, I
decided to use red, orange, yellow and blue as the main colour scheme; Also,
I picked black and white, these two classic colours to create contrast,
because they are really effective. I improved my magazine also by adding
more quotes on the cover page, this opinion is what my classmate gave me
when we did peer feedback. I added a puff which has written that offer free
posters, by doing so, my front cover can be more catched eyes.
In my opinion, the use of conventions in my media product can reflect my pop
country music genre. From the layout of my cover, contents and double page
spread, the custom, makeup and poses of my models, the media texts and
the use of language can distinguish the music genre of my media product.

3. 2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
- Which social groups are represented in your magazine? Discuss in
terms of age, race, class, gender etc?
- Are these social groups represented in a stereotypical way? For
example men dominant and women passive?
- How does this link to your intended target audience? (Explore further
in Q.4)
My product represents people who interests in pop or country music between
14-22. I picked this age range, because that I’m still a young audience, I’m
not confidence to attract audience from 14-35 as Kerrang did; however, I
know the needs and wants of the audience as my age, which helps me
contrast and design my magazine effectively. Typically, people who like
country music are optimistic, traditional and wearing old fashion clothes;
however, people who like pop music are characteristic, fearless and always
follow the fashion trend. So considering that both of them are stereotype, I try
to show it from clothing style, makeup and the use of colour. Because that the
models of my magazine are all Chinese, so I think it more likely to attract
Asian audience at the beginning, while I have been used lots of British
magazine as examples, and the main language of my product is English,
which means I can sale my magazine to most of the European country.
These factors make my product face to the international marketing, which is
likely to benefit the annual revenue. To research the interest of my target
audience, I have been created an online survey and sent the questionnaire to
my classmate by e-mail, which means that my target audience is most
teenagers.From the result of my survey, my magazine will attract female
audience more than male audience, so I have been used feminine font
(Blackleaf) and colour scheme (orange + red) to attract them. I planned to
create my magazine as an unisex product, because I think attract both male
and female seems likely to increase the demand of my product, which links to
the sales and profits of the business. In order to achieve this, I have been
chose the colour scheme in a stereotyped way: Using red colour to
represents female and using blue to represents male. I also chose some
unisex colour such as yellow, black and white to stand out the music genre at
the same time, because they are quite popular when I look at other similar
products as well as it can work well with the light brown background. I also
ask both male and female to be my model, which in order to keep the balance
of gender. I do this in an effort and try to make my product better as possible
as I can. My cover star Sherry is in this age bracket, actually, most of my
model are in the age range, some of them wear fashion clothes with effect
make up that aims to stand out the pop genre, and some of them only wear a
white T-shirt or a jacket to present the country genre.
3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
- Which publishing house would publish your magazine and why?
Consider incentive for their brand, how it sits with their other products,
is this a global organization etc. Don’t forget to discuss the revenue per
year as well.
-How much will you charge per issue? What revenue would you expect
to make in the first year?
- Will your product be available on different platforms?
Link your conclusions to a discussion of features included and
audience appeal.

4. -Publishing house is a company that takes the written work for writer or a
musician and makes it available to the general public. I have been
researched 3 publishing houses: they are Bauer Media, IPC Media and
Immediate Media Company. I would like to chose Bauer Media to publishing
my media product because that Bauer Media is a worldwide business with
diverse interests of products, which appeals to my target audience as well as
this means that the company has large market share and being experimental.
Therefore, there will be small chance of failure for my product. The company
also uses multi-platform for publishing and advertising, which is likely to help
me attract my teenager target audience, because they are pay attention to
apps such as Facebook and Twitter and they are good at Internet, and this
advantage will bring profits to the business. From my research, I learnt that
Bauer Media has two well-known music magazines - Kerrang and Q
magazine. I searched that Kerrang, a rock magazine, during the year of 2013,
it has been sold out about 37,000 issues, each issue was £2.20, so the
revenue were over £81,000. Therefore, this business example makes me
confidence about Bauer Media are experienced in operating marketing.
I have been set up a price of £2.00 for a monthly CMB magazine.
Considering that my target audience are mainly teenagers and young adults,
some of them do not have a job, so they depend on their parents that buy a
magazine for them; other might already worked, so they can manage money
by themselves, which means they can buy whatever they want; as well as
depend on my survey and compare the price with other similar products, £2 is
a reasonable price. Also, publish the magazine once a month that gives the
editor enough time to provide good quality of articles and images for readers.
I expected to release at least 5,000 copies in the first year of my product
going on to the market, which gains minimum £10,000 revenue. Because
country genre magazine can attract small groups of audience, which has
been showed from my questionnaire survey, so I combine country with pop
music, in order to attract more audience, however, I’m not sure whether this
decision will work well in the real market. In order to draw more audience in, I
would like to use websites, posters, Facebook and Twitter as the way to
promotion and advertising my product. Besides, I found that some people
would like to subscribe magazine online, this can provide people who can not
buy the magazine in a shops or for there reasons, so I decide to offer this
service to readers, and you can subscribe CMB magazine on your laptops,
iPads and smartphones.
4. Who would be the audience for your media product?
- Consider the age and gender of your target audience. Link this to your
choice of features and presentational style of magazine.
- What other magazines are similar to yours and who do they appeal to?
- How do you plan to maintain audience interest in your product? Think
about features, free gift, incentives, exclusives etc.
After I finish the conduct of the primary research for my product (It involved
that create a questionnaire survey on a website which called Survey Monkey
and send it to people by e-mail, then I collect the results and have a
conversation with my classmate.) I decided that the target audience of my
magazine is people aged from 14-22. I considered carefully that which age
range that will be interested in my product best, so I researched the target
audience of Kerrang and Top Of The Pops magazines, which inspired me a
lot. Kerrang is a rock genre magazine, which has 29 years of heritage and it
is the biggest music weekly in the world. Kerrang appeal to audience who
aged from 14-35, which is a quite wide age range; however Kerrang is

5. actually really young with a mean age of 22 year-old. From the colour
scheme (Always uses red, black, white and yellow), font (eg. the masthead
used a kind of bold font which looks like shattering glass. This links to the
violence, which stand out the rock genre effectively) and the use of language
(There are a lot of slang terms and colloquial language used in their double
page spread, which appeals to the young aged target audience), I think
Kerrang is more likely to attract male audience than female audience. Back to
my magazine, my pop country genre is different from Kerrang, however, we
have similar aged target audience. I decide to choose this age range is
because that the way I construct my magazine is more possible to attract
people who is as younger as myself. Kerrang can attract people at 38 year-
old or above because that Kerrang introduces the old bands and artists on its
cover page frequently, but I would like to attract younger people and
introduce some new generation to my audience. And another example, Top
of the pops, which is a pop genre magazine that appeals to people from 11-
15. From the colour scheme and the artists have been included, I indicate
that the magazine is more likely to attract female audience than male
audience. Actually the magazine looks a little bit childish, but the language is
informal and colloquial, which is what I want to achieve in my magazine.
Another reason that I chose to appeal to audience from 14 to 22 because that
my magazine is a kind of music genre combination product, so I tried to avoid
the target audience of other similar pop and country music magazines. I aim
to appeal my magazine to both gender, so when I decided the colour scheme
of my magazine, I chose a stereotyped way to represent that male links to
blue and female links to red. I also used orange, yellow ,black and white to
create contract.I want to makes my audience feels that have an individual
talking with their idol, so in my double page spread, I have been created an
interview, which introduces a new album to the audience. To make sure that
my product can appeal my target audience as well as keep their interests, I
introduced ‘Exclusive’ artists in the front cover; concerts/show and album
review on concerts, which aims to catch young audience’s eyes. Because
these features are all about popular or new artists, there also some exclusive
posters and interviews within the magazine, which means that audience can
only access to read it by buying CMB magazine, this is the unique selling
point of my media product. Using free posters and Exclusive Article are not
enough to promote my product because that the marketing is competitive. I
decide to create a five-digit code with a coverage above it and placed on the
last page of the magazine. If the audience go to the website of CMB, then find
the column for this activity, typing in your code and check out, it will tell you
whether you win the prize.
 First Prize: - a ticket of a pop/country concert.
 Second Prize: - having a chance to become the VIP of Country Music Board
magazine.
 having a chance to talk with a popular pop/country star individually.
 Third Prize: - getting a present with a popular artist's signature on it.
I believe this will have a great influence among my target audience, which is likely to
increase the demand of my magazine. I will also make some advertising posters for
my magazine frequently, which offers superior service to the audience who would
like to subscribe a yearly CMB magazine for only £19. Also, they can get extra
presents such as
 Digital Download access of latest music
 Exclusive pop country CD
 £5 I-TUNES voucher
Maybe during special period such as Christmas and New Year, we can also offer
some small presents depends on the festival.

6. 5. How did you attract/address your audience?
- Link this to your audience profile (i.e what age, gender theyare)
- Are there particular features in your magazine that would appeal to
your audience?
-Discuss your choice of cover images and double page spread images.
How did these appeal to your chosen target audience?
- Consider the use of colour and font choice. How would this appeal to
the target audience? What impact does that have and how does it reflect
the genre of the magazine?
- Link examples back to generic conventions of real media texts.
- Include some audience feedback. Particularly focus on your intended
target audience. What have you learned from this feedback?
As I answered previously, my target audience is people who aged from 14 to
22-year-old, they are stereotyped as optimistic, traditional, fearless and
always follow the fashion trend. So I try to construct my magazine in certain
ways in order to attract my target audience. I aim to attract both gender, this
reflect in the colour scheme, which used colours that likely to attract both
male and female; I also try to appeal my audience from the language use. I
went for the words what young audience usually used in daily conversation
such as ‘awesome‘, ’wow‘, ’cool‘, as well as use colloquialism in the article,
which is an interview, I have been used conversation tone to make sure that
the interview flows well and easy for people to read, or my audience find the
magazine is not attractive, which leads to a fall in demand of my magazine.
Also, CMB magazine will introduce some new artists rather than reviews the
old generation, which is more likely to appeal to younger audience. Plus, we
also offer the latest news, interviews, new albums of the old artists in a
particular section, which can be found in contents page.
I have been used ‘Sherry’ as the main model of both cover page and double
page spread, and I try to link the image and my target audience from:
 My model is wearing a white T-shirt, which is simple but wears in formal
occasion. Although I decided to create an informal type of magazine, I want
my main model can stand out from other artists in the front cover, which is
able to attract the audience directly.
 To make sure that my media product that follows the media convention, I
found different models as different artists in order to make it looks more
professional. Because my music genre is pop country, I try to show different
genres from the clothing styles of my models. For example, the male model at
the bottom corner of the cover page represents country genre. I have been
chosen a blue jeans jacket for him, which links to the image of a cowboy; the
female model at the left hand side of the cover represents pop genre. I
decided to use a kind of makeup and a feminine bright pink coat to indicates
that people who loves pop that follows the fashion trend.
 In the double page spread, I have been took a photo when my model was
singing with her microphone in the rehearsing room in college. Because I do
not have live photos of neither singers or bands, this can be a lack of image
of my product, so I try to create photos to instead of the live images of real
artists.
 In the front cover, I have been created an album cover of the Lady
Antebellum. I have been chosen an image of my model’s feets - wears a long
socks in white and red with a pair of vans, which is what my target audience
wears in daily, so it is likely to appeal to them.

7.  I chose poses for my models in certain ways. For example, the male model
put one of his hand on the place of heart, which is what the younger audience
do between good friends or brothers, especially in male audience. So I also
used poses that try to attract the audience from both genders.
I considered carefully about the colour scheme. In my research and planning,
I was searched Kerrang’s colour scheme as always red, yellow, black and
white. Because Kerrang is a rock magazine, so red can represents the angry,
rebellious stereotyped people; Back to my magazine, I chose red, yellow,
orange and blue as the main colours, and used black and white to create
contrast. Furthermore, red implies passion and joy; yellow links to caution,
which aims to draw the attention of the audience; orange combines the
energy of red and the happiness of yellow, which represents enthusiasm and
encouragement; black and white are the most common colours in other
similar products, which can stand out information effectively. The meanings of
these colours related to the characteristics of people who loves pop and
country, which helps me stand out the genre of my magazine. In my research,
Kerrang’s masthead looks like a smashed glass, which links to the violence;
For my Masthead, skyline as well as the name of the artists in the front cover,
I went for ‘Blackleaf’ font, because it is bold with some patterns, which is
butterflies around each letter, gives a natural feelings, which links to the
country genre; it is also catch eyes in order to draw the attention of my target
audience. Actually, it is hard to find a pure country music genre in the
marketing, so I’m afraid that country music only can attract small grouped
people, which showed from my survey. Therefore, I decided to combine pop
and country, which is likely to appeal my product to more audience. I have
been used ‘Top Of The Pops’ as an example of pop genre, their masthead
used a bright girly font because their main readers are female; For me, I
chose bold font in black as masthead, it makes great contrast and can stand
out effectively, and black can both appeal to both gender as well. From the
feedback of my questionnaire survey, people aged from 14 to 22 have
interested in receiving free posters and free CDs, so I will put into free posters
for buyers, however, the offering of free CDs depends on the revenue of my
issue, so I might only offer it during special days such as Christmas or New
years.
6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing
the product?
- Strengths and weaknesses of the camera equipment. Canon DSLR.
- Talk about the photography process, were there any problems you
faced, how did you resolve these issues?
-Desk top publishing software – what have you learnt about editing
images and page design? Were there particular effects that you found
useful for creating your product? Use specific examples of tools used.
- InDesign – How useful was this programme when constructing your
media text? Was there anything you found difficult about this
programme? Any limitations?
- Photoshop – how did you find this programme? Which tools did you
use to help construct your magazine successfully?
At the beginning of the first term, I have never been used nearly all the
equipment or software before : Canon DSLR camera, Photoshop and
InDesign. During the construction of my magazine, we need to take our own
photos. We had a short tutorial that talked about the essential skills of using
the Canon DSLR camera in lesson, and I borrowed one from college. Before

8. photo shooting, I created ‘Risk Assessment’ and ‘Call Sheet’, which is listed
the risk might happen during shooting and the place, the clothing and props
you needed respectively. The only problem for me of using the Canon
camera is that changing the sensitometry depends on different lighting
occasion. I used the alternative settings on the camera, which means that it
will change the lightness of the image if the environment is bright or
dark. However, half of the images have the lack of lighting. To make sure
that the images that I have took can be used, I used my smart phones to take
it again as a copy.
To follow the real media convention, we need to edit the images in Photoshop
first. I only know the some of the essential tools in Photoshop, such as type
tool and shape tool, which is one of the weakest point in my personal review.
We have Apple Macs in the classroom and we can use it for constructing or
doing research in lesson time. Also, each student has a hand out of some
simple ways to improve our images from our teacher, and there are also
some useful tutorial videos on the tutor blog as well as online. These methods
are all teach you step by step, which is clear and effective. In order to
develope my Photoshop skills, I downloaded both Photoshop and InDesign
onto my MacBook, therefore, I can practise and try new skills on my own
time, which save my time a lot at the beginning stage of construction. I
opened my Pinterest account to help me collect ideas as well as sae the
useful or advantage skills in Photoshop. By using Pinterest, I found the way to
improve the lighting of my images, which is go to ‘Image’ - ‘Adjustment’ -
‘Curves’ by changing the shape of the curve to create high key lighting or
create shadowing. I also leant how to create effects on image, such as Drop
Shadow, Inner and Outer Shadow and Stroke. Another beneficial tools is the
clone tool. I used this tool to improve the edge of image after using the
‘Magnetic Lasso Tool’. I feel Photoshop works best on Mac computer, which
is smart and alternative with good results. It helps me create small details
such as the price on the barcode and page number, also, after editing, I feel
the quality of my images have been improved. Now, I’m quite confident with
both Photoshop and Macs, and I’m pleased with how much I know in
Photoshop as well as InDesign. I never used InDesign before, and this is a
professional software for publishing product such as magazines, newspapers
etc. This desk software is similar to Photoshop as creates layers to represent
stuffs, however, it can create columns which makes the texts in both contents
and double page easier to read. With InDesign, I learnt how to use ‘Text
Wrap’ which makes the texts goes around the image, following the creation
and convention of other similar products. When I construct my double page, I
met a problem that the texts will disappear when I placed the onto the main
image with ‘Text Wrap’ effect on it. I tackle this problem by watching an online
tutorial, I followed it step by step then find in ‘Object’ - ‘Text Frame Options’,
at the bottom there is a box, you need to tick it, which is for ignoring the text
wrap, then the texts will appear above my main image.
7. Looking back to your preliminary task, what do you feel that you have learnt
in the progression from it to the full product?
- Discuss the planning stage, the research into the genre, flat plans, call
sheets, etc and explain how this detailed planning helped you produce
your magazine.
- Discuss the skills shown in your prelim compared to your skills shown
in the full task. Use specific examples.
- How have you developed your usage of Photoshop and InDesign?
- Do you feel more confident with the equipment such as your use of
DSLR cameras and DTP?

9. - How successful do you feel your end product is at fulfilling the given
brief?
Comparing my final piece to my preliminary task, there is significant
development between this two product. During the creation of my magazine, I
felt that my skills of using Photoshop and InDesign have been challenged. I
have becomes more aware of the genetic convention of media products as
how to use variety of images, colour scheme, font styles and the use of
languages to attract your target audience. In my opinion, the planning stage is
one of the most important processes for my magazine, without this stage, I’m
afraid that I do not know what will be included in my magazine, what the
rough layout and when I can finish. During Research and Planning, I have
been looked at:
 Institutional research: This is a research of publishing houses, I have been
searched three different real existed business, which means that I considered
what might happen if I publish my magazine into the marketing that depends
on my choice of the media institution. I collected information about the most
popular publications (music magazines) of these three publishing houses,
from the results of circulations, readership and revenue stream can reflect
how experienced the company is.
 Primary Audience Research: This is the online questionnaire which I have
been created on Survey Monkey. In this survey, I asked people from 14 to 22
years old that which music genre do they like and what would they like to
read in a magazine etc. which helps me a lot when I construct my magazine.
 Similar Media Product (Kerrang + Q + Top Of The Pops): I have been chosen
three already exist music magazines to analysis the key terminology and how
they appeal to their target audience, which helps me remember what the key
elements in a real media convention. Therefore, I will know what need to be
included in my magazine clearly.
 Flat Plans: This is a task which creating the rough layout of your magazine in
a word document, and you need to annotate the key terminology as well as
explain what will be included. I also create a flat plan of the whole magazine
by hand drawing. This gives me a more complete idea about what my
magazine will look like, it helps me construct the contents page more easily.
The Call Sheet and Risk Assessment is crucial in the process of constructing my
magazine, because that these two task help me consider the details during shooting,
which links to the important element of my magazine - image. Call Sheet is about
what shoot types I need, where I am gonna shooting, what clothes my model wears
are able to stand out the music genre. And Risk Assessment is about what risk might
happen during shooting and if the risk happens how you gonna solve the problem. If
you looked back to what I have done in my preliminary task, you will see how poorly
of my skills in Photoshop and InDesign at that time. I only used type tool and shape
tool to create both front cover and contents page. I didn’t edit the image and placed it
as a whole as the background. But in my final piece, I have been used lots of tools
such as ‘Magnetic Lasso’ tool to cropped out the image; clone tool for improving the
edge as well as created effects such as Drop Shadow to give a 3D shape of the
image; stroke which can create a line around the image which can stand out things
effectively. I used different sizes font, variety of images, colloquial language as well
as effective colour scheme in order to attract my target audience as I considered
more compared to the preliminary task, and there is absolutely a dramatic
improvement in the use of softwares. Thanks to Sally and online tutorials that helps
me achieve what the excellent media product in my eyes step by step. Underneath
are the website that I feels quite useful:
 Slideshare

10.  Prezi
 Blogger
 Padlet
Overall, I believe that my front cover, contents and double page followed the media
convention which attract audience who love pop country music. The pop country
genre is throughout my product from the colour, images, clothing and language
aspects.
Further advice
- Reflect on the things you have learnt throughout the project process.
- Gather audience feedback with some constructive criticism to include in your
evaluation.
- You don’t have to present your evaluation however you must take care in your
presentation of the evaluation! Always proof read to check for spelling, punctuation
and grammar.