evaluation of AS Media

1. In what way does your media
product use, develop or challenge
forms and conventions of real media
products?
EVALUATION

2. HOUSENATION v

3. MASTHEAD
Both of these mastheads are conventional as they both convey the theme of
the magazine which is music. When creating my masthead I researched a variety
of different House/EDM genre magazines and compared all of their mastheads
to come up with ‘HOUSENATION’, House is the genre of music the magazine is
based on, the word ‘House’ shows the genre of music and magazine within the
title, the word ‘Nation’ shows the togetherness of my magazine, showing that
the magazine is for all people. I chose the colour red as mixmag often use the
colours red or black for their mastheads depending on the colour of the
background of the magazine, I decided to use the colour red for my masthead
as it is a bold and dominant colour which allows my magazine to be noticed, the
red also stands out great on a white background, hence the choice.

5. Costume and Props
I made the model on my front cover wear a black t-shirt and black sunglasses
as the flash from the camera reflected off some parts of the t-shirt and the
sunglasses making a good effect what made my image better and my
magazine more unique. These costumes do not feature heavily in EDM
magazines as there is no stereotypical attire for a DJ other than sunglasses
and headphones which my model wore. In my costume I followed
conventions from mixmag as the front cover which I liked the most the model
had sunglasses on, so I decided to make my model wear sunglasses to make
my magazine more conventional and genre specific.

6. People
In my magazine, I used popular DJ’s and artists to attract a wider
audience and to improve the appeal of the magazine. I used
artists such as Steve Aoki, Hardwell and Axwell as these are well
known artists within the house music world. Axwell is always in
the house charts so this supports my house genre. I have also
included a range of female and male artists within my magazine
to attract both genders of my target audience. I also used young
artists aging from 20-30 years old as these people are in the age
range of my secondary audience.

7. Title, font & styles
I decided to use a range of different fonts for my magazine to make it look
professional and to follow the conventions of other successful magazines. I
downloaded fonts from dafont.co.uk and used the modern, techno and
electronic style fonts as these terms best suit my genre of magazine,
therefore having fonts which suit the genre gives my magazine a much more
professional look. One of the main fonts I used was goodtimes as it is a modern
font therefore fitting with my genre and making more magazine more genre
suited. I used this font for the most part of my magazine as it provided the
magazine with consistency which is what I believe my magazine needed to
give it the professional look in which I believe I have gained. I chose
goodtimes as the main font for most of my text in the double page spread and
some sub headings, then I used the font ‘ devilbreeze bold’ for my masthead
as it is a bold font, however still keeping the modern and electronic look
which fits in great with my magazine.

8. Throughout my magazine and mainly the contents page I tried to involve the audience
as much as I possibly could by using personal pronouns, I did this to make out as if I
am actually directly talking to the audience to make them become more attracted to
the magazine and make the magazine more appealing. Within my double page spread
interview I used slang and tried to make the interview as lifelike as possible, so I used
words such as “y’know” to suit the target audience of my magazine as those are words
teenagers use – again giving the magazine a more appealing feel.

9. How is the genre reflected
To reflect my chosen genre of edm/house music throughout my magazine I used a
variety of different things. The font was a main way in which I reflected my genre as all
of the fonts I used were modern and of the electronic style therefore making the
genre of my magazine easier to notice and attracting more people who are interested
in my genre as the genre is visible.
Another way I reflected my genre was by including artists and DJ’s from the EDM and
House music scene, I chose DJ’s such as Axwell, Steve Aoki and Hardwell to attract
people to my magazine via the genre.
Within my contents page I tried to feature as many cover lines as possible which
feature popular DJ’s such as Axwell, Sebastian Ingrosso etc. using DJ’s of this
popularity increases the appeal of my magazine and attracts more of my target
audience.

10. I have followed the typical layout of
an EDM/House music magazine front
cover. I followed the layout of
popular EDM magazine ‘Mixmag’ so
that my magazine would finish with a
high level of quality and the
professional look I was after.
Mixmag have lots of sub headings
across there front cover, I decided to
do the same with my front cover as
these sub heading will attract more
people to my audience and appeal
more to my target audience.

11. I believe I made my contents page
unique as I did not follow any specific
magazine and tried to use my own
imagination to give my contents its own
unique look to appeal more to my target
audience.
I added an editorial section within my
contents to make my magazine more
appealing to the audience. I also decided
to feature an image of tickets to
creamfields as these are the tickets
which can be won once purchasing my
magazine, this is unique as I don’t believe
there are any magazines which do this –
therefore making my magazine more
unique and more appealing to my target
audience.

12. Within my double page spread I used some aspects of mixmag’s DPS however
I decided to change the location of the image and decided to add a masthead
of my featured artist, I did this as this appeals more to my target audience as I
have one section of my magazine labeled with the artist name as this will
attract the artists fans to my magazine. I used conventions of mixmag’s DPS as
I believed that my magazine needed to follow the conventions of a
professional magazine to appeal more to my audience.