Media evaluation for my As coursework

1. Evaluation

2. Joshua Walker

3. Questions
1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?
2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
4. Who would be the audience for your media product?
5. How did you attract/address your audience?
6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing the
product?
7. Looking back to your preliminary task, what do you feel that you have learnt in the
progression from it to the full product?
8. How successful do you feel your end product is in fulfilling the task? How well does it
fit the brief?

4. 1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or
challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
• In my magazine I tried to use codes and conventions learned throughout the year to make my music magazine seem similar
to that of a real magazine. I learned these codes and conventions through a lot of research into front covers, contents pages
and double page spreads. I looked at magazines similar to the genre of the one I ultimately wanted to produce and this
helped me see which ones worked best in a real music magazine of the Indie/skater genre. Some codes and conventions I
used were generic like the use of mastheads on front cover and double page spread to the use of cover lines, anchorage
text, etc. I also used more sophisticated ones like symbiosis between photography and text to link them together and
portray certain messages in a direct mode of address.
• I learned to use these types of skills through certain tasks we did like research into similar products where we would analyse
the codes and conventions of other magazines front covers , double page spreads and contents pages. This helped me
because it gave me an idea of the codes and conventions for magazines in my genre and how I could conform or challenge
them in the making of my own magazine.
http://bcfcjoshua.blogspot.co.uk/2016_10_01_archive.html (please scroll down to bottom of the page).
I analysed this front cover in my research into similar products and it has influenced
me a lot in reference to my use of conventions in my final magazine. In my analysis I
mentioned his challenge to conventions by his lack of direct mode of address and
how it had a symbiotic link with the main cover line. This link between photography
and text was something I then went on to use in my own magazine in a similar indie
type of genre.

5. 1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or
challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
• So then after bringing this research together I gained some ideas about generic and sophisticated conventions in real media
products. I then began to use the same ideas in my own music magazine.
I used the idea of direct mode of address in my main image to show the direct message
presented in the main cover line. This symbiosis created was influenced by the front cover
of the clash magazine previously shown as it uses this same convention in a different way.
The mise-en-scene used with their caps and cigarettes does conform to the ideas of skater
magazines and what they display in their stereotypes. This is shown in my research into
the skater magazine “thrasher” : http://bcfcjoshua.blogspot.co.uk/2016/11/research-
into-potential-target-audiences.html
I also placed the masthead in the left third simply because it would be easier to see and
this convention is generally one indie magazines conform to as shown in my research.
In some ways my magazine also challenges conventions as the cover stars are smoking
and not conforming to societies messages of what is good and bad. This feature was
something I wanted to use as my magazine is named “rebel” and I wanted to challenge a
lot of conventions but in the right ways.
Another way my magazine challenges the conventions is by using mostly dark background
photography rather than throwing a lot of colours at the target audience which you would
see in magazines like “NME” nowadays with bright photography. This use of dark
backgrounds adds more personality to the cover stars and makes their casual display
seem more chaotic.

6. 2. How does your media product represent particular social
groups?
• My magazine is aimed at older teens possibly more of a male gender but welcome to anyone of any class,
status or race. It appeals to this culture of rebelling to what society tells us to do and this theme of lack of
social conformity runs throughout. The ideas of age are of older teens because this skater/indie culture
are mostly from 15-19 and just leaving school. It appeals to this social group through the youthful music
and edgy content. I did this through my use of language, mise en scene (photography) and typography.
• My magazine is more male dominated in its photography and artists as this rebellious/ skater style does
tend to appeal more to males. The Gender stereotypes in my magazine do conform to certain social norms
like cigarettes, violence and skateboards. The reason I tended to conform to male stereotypes is because
my target audience is mostly aimed at male teens and they would want to read about similar personalities
rather than more feminine subjects. There is one girl in my contents page who is presented in quite a
masculine way as she is holding a cigarette and standing in a similar way to the two boys. This challenge to
stereotypes shows that the social groups represented in my magazine can include the female gender
aswell. This was influenced in my research into similar products as magazines like NME use arctic monkeys
as a male band that represent the genre of the magazine and I tried to recreate this in certain ways with
my own cover band “The Butters Aliens”.
• http://bcfcjoshua.blogspot.co.uk/search?updated-max=2016-11-23T11:32:00Z&max-
results=7&start=21&by-date=false

7. 3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media
product and why?
• My music magazine could possibly be published by a big institution as it uncorporates a global audience as
it includes content for the indie genre on a large scale. A big company clothing company or music store
might distribute my magazine as you often see similar music magazines like nme and Q in stores like
Topman and HMV. Big companies like “Topman” or “hmv” might distribute the magazine because of the
crossover in target audiences (young people).
• Major distribution company IPC: http://www.timeincuk.com/
My magazine is more likely niche market though as It includes most content about smaller british bands which
have a following in Britain mostly. The magazine would likely be one that would stay away from mainstream
distribution like TV adverts. Big companies like IPC who distributed magazines like NME wouldn’t distribute my
magazine as its got more of a small market feel to it and it represents more of an indie culture in that it
wouldn’t be something you could find in every newsagents. My magazine includes photography including
brands like thrasher and supreme which are known for their niche distribution. Companies like these might
distribute my magazine as they don’t have many stores and rely on online sales and want their products to be
hard to get.

8. 4. Who would be the audience for your media product?
• The target audience for my magazine would generally be teenagers who listen to indie/skater music. This
is a big target audience as bands that represent this genre like “Ratboy” , “slaves” or even “arctic
monkeys” all have millions of followers. The gender of my target audience would mostly be male as the
artists mentioned in the contents page tend to be male and the genre that is running throughout my
magazine is about a rebellious culture which would probably be more aimed towards male teens.
• My magazine is very similar to NME and Q in that it includes indie music and has similar layouts in the
colour scheme and typography. These magazines appeal to maybe a more wide audience, going for
females aswell and maybe including a younger and older audience aswell. With my magazine I wanted to
take what NME did with indie music and incorporate a skater vibe like that of thrasher magazine (non
music magazine). This would mean my magazine appeals to many music fans which read NME and also
appeal a whole group of skaters who could enjoy the personalities of the cover artists who talk about their
life off the stage.

9. 5. How did you attract/address your audience?
• A task that helped me with creating a magazine fit for my target audience was the remake
remodel where we took an existing magazine and recreated it using similar codes and
conventions and styles in typography and photography. This task helped me figure out what
target audience I wanted to go for and what types of conventions I could use to appeal to this
specific audience.
http://bcfcjoshua.blogspot.co.uk/2016/11/remake-remodel_23.html - remake remodel
I attracted my audience in many different ways, one of them was through the colour scheme. I used
mainly black yellow and white in my magazine and this was mostly because the background
photography was dark so the yellow sat on top of it very well. I also liked using yellow as there was
props used in the double page spread which were yellow which helped me create symbiosis between
the masthead and imagery. This appealed to my audience because I wanted to create an individual
personality of the cover band whilst still keeping a structure to the magazine and representing this
indie culture by having bold colours that have a good balance between light and dark.
Another way I attracted my audience was through the masthead which is named “rebel” . This
attracts my audience as I was going for teenage males who tend to rebel, I wanted the masthead to
represent this very clearly and it keeps the theme and analogies of the word rebel all the way
through the magazine. I gave my masthead a yellow background so it stands out and still matches the
colour scheme. I also placed it in the left third as this means western audiences will see it straight
away and it keeps am important convention that a real music magazine would include.

10. 6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of
constructing the product?
During the process of building my magazine I used a variety of different software. Some of the programmes I
used were page plus, blogger, paint.net and publisher. Each program had different strengths and weaknesses
that determined what I used it for and whether I used all of its tools.
Page plus- I used this program to form the base layout for my magazine and put all of my magazine together.
For the structure of the magazine I used a template which is one of the strengths of this program because it has
a basic template suited for a magazine and it includes many ready made tools for creating the final product.
Some weaknesses of this program is that there were a few creative problems as the program didn’t have all the
tools I needed for my photography so to overcome it I had to use paint.net but this process would have been
made easier with Photoshop.
Paint.net- I used this program to manipulate photos and crop them to fit the template on page plus. One
strength of this program is that it was able to edit my photos in such a way that it fit the genre of my magazine
and there was enough tools available to crop photos onto different backgrounds and test out creative ideas
where I lifted my cover stars onto another background and help me choose what looked best on my final
magazine. One negative of this software was that when I uploaded my photos they ended up losing some
quality so to combat this i had to find the right size so they weren't too pixelated, this process would have been
easier with the availability of Photoshop.

11. 6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of
constructing the product?
• Blogger – I used this software to keep a blog on the creation of my magazine (creative progress) , research,
organisation , drafting and planning. This software was good because it was an easy access blog where I
could upload straight from many programmes and use it as a display for my target audience and genre. It
was easy to use in the context that research could be accessed easily after it had been posted and the
posting process itself was very clear and easy. This program didn’t have many weaknesses except for when
it posts didn’t appear how I wanted them too sometimes but I just edited them and the creative problem
was fixed
• These technologies helped me with the management elements of creating all 3 parts of the magazine. I
have learnt that the jobs individually take a lot of effort individually with the editing process and putting it
all together. I have learnt how to use all these different programmes in different ways and managing the
layout, typography and photography was a big part of the process.

12. 7. Looking back to your preliminary task, what do you feel that
you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
In my preliminary task my magazine lacked structure or real
magazine conventions. In my real magazine the masthead has
the right colour and typography scheme and fits nicely into the
left third on top of the photography creating symbiosis. In my
preliminary task the masthead is unartfully placed on top of an
artificial red block which makes it look less real and the
typography doesn’t fit the genre and professionalism of the
magazine. I also missed out a few key conventions like the
website link which shows my lack of knowledge into basic
codes and conventions and how I came a long way to
producing a product which actually reflects something that
could be real.
Contents
In my contents page on my preliminary task I think I did a decent job
considering the point of learning I was in as I used a features section and a
clear masthead and typography. The improvements are still very obvious
though as I have included a lot more content on my final product and
used more magazine conventions like anchorage text and cover lines.

13. 8. How successful do you feel your end product is in
fulfilling the task? How well does it fit the brief?
Overall I am very happy with how my magazine has turned out in that I have used codes and conventions
that would be used in a real music magazine and challenged some too (gender). I like the genre of my
magazine and feel how I fit my target audience and use the conventions fits the brief quite well. Through
researching magazines outside of music in the skater genre and also magazines that the indie scene
appeals too like NME and Q I have put together an appealing magazine for 14-21 year old indie, skaters.