This is my media coursework evaluation. It covers 7 questions about everything I have done about my media project.

1. My AS media coursework evaluation
Thomas Hessey

2. Q1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or
challenge forms and conventions of real products?
My music magazine ‘SoundZ’ follows the typical codes and conventions of a normal magazine in many ways.
Firstly, I have used a large masthead on the front cover to allow the magazine to stand out. I learnt this from
some of the secondary research I performed when I looked at other magazines and the style at which they
are presented. These are some of the examples I found:
Here, each magazine is unique and stands out. For example, ‘Q’ magazine has a unique masthead centred in
the top left corner and a main centre image that immediately catches the attention of the audience.
Moreover, there aren’t too many cover lines so the front cover isn’t too confusing to the reader. Finally, the
colours contrast against the background of the magazine such as white on black therefore, making it easier to
read and standout. This is similar to ‘Drummer’ magazine which also has a unique colour scheme and a
picture that features the main artist/band and is designed to grab the audience’s attention. Finally, ‘Top of
the Pops’ magazine was very useful because it is in the genre I was aiming to produce. I am aiming to produce
a pop magazine for mostly teenage girls and this magazine showed me that a pop magazine needs lots of
pictures, is colourful and manages to attract its potential target audience. I also analysed each magazine as
well as a ‘Bass’ magazine and this is what I found:
http://c09thessey.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/music-magazine-front-cover-research.html

3. Q1: Continued
I learnt from studying these magazines that my magazine would need to have a unique colour scheme, big
main image, interesting cover lines and a large masthead at the top of the magazine. In the end, for my
magazine I decided to place the main image above the masthead therefore showing that it is more important.
Another way each magazine spoke to the audience interested me in that the connotations and tone of each
magazine is different. For example, ‘Drummer magazine’ has its main cover line as ‘THE LONDON DRUM SHOW
SPECIAL!’ is written in large font and capital letters which is basically shouting to the audience and suggesting
that they can’t miss out and that the article is really important. ‘Top of the pops’ magazine is different in that
its main cover line is ‘OMG It’s 1D!’ which sounds more like a surprise if anything and also uses acronyms as a
connotation because they are popular among its teenage target audience. The background of ‘Q’ magazine and
‘Drummer magazine’ are different to ‘Top of the Pops’ because the connotations of both are darker and more
mature suggesting a slightly older, more sophisticated audience whereas ‘Top of the Pops’ is more lively and
doesn’t follow the same house style as they do. Another typical code and convention I used based on my
research, were my cover lines as those are what give the audience a hint of what the magazine is about and
allows them to make a quick decision on whether to purchase it. The cover lines from the magazines I studied
said things such as ‘OMG it’s 1D’ or ‘Kate Bush her remarkable triumph’. Both of these have language that suits
their particular target audiences and ‘Top of the pops’ is deliberately informal to cater to its younger/teenage
target audience. Either way, cover lines are there to make the magazine or article seem attractive to the target
audience and encourage them into a purchase. Due to my target audience being younger, I thought I would
make my font and overall house style simplistic and attractive.
Despite this, the ways I separate my magazine from existing conventions of magazines are the colours.
Compared to the other magazines I researched, I tried to make my magazine simplistic but vibrant and
attractive at the same. This was a difficult balance to achieve but I thought I managed it effectively.

4. Q2: How does your media product represent particular social
groups?
My music magazine represents the pop style of a younger, predominantly teenage girl audience. My age range for
the magazine is probably from about the age of 12-15 and after I decided this, I knew that I should do some
research into pop music and stereotypes for different music genres. Stereotyping is thinking one person represents
a whole genre or area and it is helped to spread by the media who present things in a certain way. For example,
Goths are always seen as dark and depressing and I did some research on the way many of the most popular music
types are represented especially in the media. This is my research: http://
c09thessey.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/music-genre-stereotypes.html
I also found it interesting how the media can change people’s perceptions based on their interpretation of a
particular genre. For example, if one person represents a genre in a bad light, the media can report this and then
the general public has a bad view of that whole genre and its fans even though it was just one person. An example
of this is Miley Cyrus has been painted by many in the media light as negative especially with her music video
‘wrecking ball’ which had over 700 million views with over 2 million ‘likes’ and over 1 million ‘dislikes’ and featured
her half naked swinging off a wrecking ball. This gave her a negative perception in the media and it shows how the
media can manipulate us and the way we think. One genre that is mostly presented in a positive light is pop music
whereas Goth music is generally portrayed in a negative light. I think the Uses and Gratifications theory proves this
completely and shows how minds can easily be changed or coerced into thinking a certain way. This was the
presentation I made about it: http://c09thessey.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/uses-and-gratifications-theory.html

5. Q2: Continued
After researching the pop music genre further, http://c09thessey.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/the-pop-genre.html
I realised that this would have an impact on my boy band and the pictures that I used. These are some of the
original pictures I used before manipulating them:
I tried to make my pictures look stylish and sophisticated to attract my target audience. Generally, my target
audience like having pictures of their favourite band members or bands on walls or on the front cover of a
magazine and I tried to change the way my band look to suit this stereotype. The band leader is clear as he is the
centre of the picture and I tried to make my band and band leader look similar to these modern day bands
http://c09thessey.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/planning-my-photoshoot.html . Overall, my stereotyping work
helped me an awful lot because it allowed me to clearly represent my genre which was pop and helped me to
know what to include in the magazine and what type of photos I should use.

6. Q3: What kind of media institution might distribute your
media product and why?
https://www.slideshare.net/secret/xEwpg7sQTA6UGH
This slideshow explains why I chose the Bauer media group as my institution instead of the other magazine
institutions.

7. Q4: Who would be the audience for your media product?
My target audience is aimed or teenagers and mostly girls. This is because I was aiming to design a very
informal and colourful pop magazine and I learnt from my research that girls are more into pop more than
boys. Here is the research: http://c09thessey.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/the-pop-genre.html and from a brief
look on the internet, I found that most pictures featuring pop fans are female as shown here:
I also produced a questionnaire about music and pop in general and helped to give me an idea about the sort
of things people are into. I put my questionnaire onto social media and asked people to complete it for me
and I got a decent amount of responses. Here is the questionnaire and how I analysed it:
Here are a couple of interesting questions from my questionnaire:
http://c09thessey.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/music-magazine-questionnaire-analysis.html

8. Q4: continued
The answers were particularly useful for me in deciding the layout and the content of the magazine. The
respondents who answered told me that they preferred the content and price of a magazine and more
images and text. I took this feedback on board and priced my magazine at a respectable £4.99 as well as
including many images to break up the text in my magazine. This suited my target audience of teenage girls
as it allows them to keep focus and not feel overwhelmed by the magazine.

9. Q4: Evaluation
It was useful to me because not only did it help to give me an idea about what artist’s people prefer but it
also helped me think about my magazine and the way I want to present it. I also know that my target
audience prefers boy bands and that there were some people that could help me with representing a boy
band for my magazine. Furthermore, I knew that my target audience is mostly in schools and other forms of
education so news of my magazine could spread quickly therefore, increasing sales and the success of it.

10. Q5: How did you attract/address your target audience?
One of the first ways I tried to attract my target audience was by thinking of a name. There were many
names I thought of but in the end I chose ‘SoundZ’. This is why:
http://c09thessey.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/pop-magazine-names-and-planning.html
I decided the best way to attract my audience was to use lots of bright, bold colours and to use lots of
colours. This is because my magazine is very informal and the overall house style is simplistic and clear. On
the front cover, I used a bright main cover line while deliberately using a big main image and contrasting
colours of light blue, red, pink, black and white to make sure that everything is clear to see and to hook the
reader. The connotation of this to the reader/ audience is that the magazine is happy and informal and
makes the edition seem special compared to any ordinary magazine. This differs to dark colours which would
give the impression of a slightly more sophisticated or serious magazine. Despite this, I made sure that the
colours weren’t too much for the reader and that is why I only used colours that contrasted against their
background such as white on purple and black on white. This was my front cover:

11. From this picture, you can see I have tried to include many magazine codes and conventions such as cover lines, a clear
masthead, images and cover lines. It has everything that should be on a magazine and the big splash and band picture
shows how I would address the audience.
Question 5: continued

12. Question 5: continued
It wasn’t just my front cover though and as you can see, I followed a similar house style through both my contents page
and my double page spread. With those, I used simplistic layouts but like my front cover, with varying colours and
pictures filling large portions of the page. In them, the type/font is large so the audience never feels overwhelmed
whilst reading the magazine. Due to it being informal, I used typography that is only suitable for those of a younger age
and probably wouldn’t suit any older or adult reader. On my double page spread, I deliberately made the questions in
the ‘Q and A’ quick and easy to read. This way, my target audience won’t get distracted and are able to learn
information quickly. I even included a small ‘quick facts about ‘Three Beat’ so the reader can turn their attention to
something else. These are the ways I developed my magazine in order to suit my intended target audience and attract
them to it.

13. Q6: What have you learned about technologies from the
process of constructing this product?
Here is the link to my PowerPoint which details how much I used technologies in my work and how they helped
me to progress my work
http://www.slideshare.net/C09THessey/media-technology-evaluation-question-6-44751003

14. Q7: Looking back at the preliminary task what do you feel you
have learnt in terms of progression from it to the full product?
Looking back on my very first preliminary task which was my College magazine, I feel I have come a long way since then
in improving my production skills. At first, I had very little knowledge on how to accurately produce a realistic looking
magazine and I knew after my original College magazine preliminary task that I had a lot to do in improving the look and
polish of my magazine once I did the music version. These are my College magazines -
Although these are presentable and follow a generic house style, I felt I could do more for my final music magazine
because I know had an idea on how to produce a more realistic looking magazine. I used the Microsoft Publisher
software to produce my original College magazine and as time went on, I realised that it wasn’t helping me to
produce a magazine to the highest possible standard. As a result, I tried out Photoshop and it is why my music
magazine looks far more polished and presentable. It actually looks more like a real magazine compared to Microsoft
Publisher and my College magazine.
I also did lots of research relating to the magazine and this further contributed in giving me more knowledge on how to
produce a magazine and the sort of things I’ll need in it. I looked at other magazines, stereotypes and media production in
order to improve my skills in making a magazine. For example, I have learnt how to create a unique house style within a
magazine and how to properly lay one out and increase the attractiveness of the magazine. After we learnt about
stereotypes, it gave me a clearer idea on who my target audience were and what I needed to include to attract them to my
magazine so that was another very useful thing I have learnt since the preliminary task. The final big step I have learnt was
using Photoshop. I have seen how much it improves the look and realism of the magazine compared to Microsoft Publisher
and if I had known how useful it was, I would probably have used it from the very start.
http://c09thessey.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/coll
ege-magazine-contents-page-analysis.html
Contents page
http://c09thessey.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/pre
milinary-task-college-magazine-front.html
Front cover

15. Q7: Continued
Overall, I feel I have improved in a number of ways since the Preliminary task and if you compare the two
magazine front covers you can clearly see the difference:
The second one looks far clearer and professional than the first magazine and this is testament to how much I have
learnt in the progression from the preliminary task to the full product.