The document discusses the student's music magazine evaluation. They used techniques from other magazines like a key picture on the double page spread. They developed their own color scheme and ideas for the contents page to make it stand out. The magazine represents young, indie/urban audiences through the urban pictures, fonts, and informal language. It would initially be distributed through a small institution to gain recognition before moving to larger companies. The student learned to use Photoshop for better editing over Pages and downloaded new fonts to make the magazine more professional.

1. My whole magazine evaluation

2. In what ways does your media product use , develop or
challenge forms and conventions of real media
products?
My magazine uses a variety of different techniques that are/aren’t used by other
professional magazines. Whilst I was researching other music magazines, I noticed
that a lot of them had a key picture and then little one’s coming off of it on their
double page spread. I liked the look of this, as it immediately tells the audience what
the main idea of the page is about and grabs and sustains their attention. I used this
on my double page spread. I developed the idea of colours used throughout the
magazine. Most music magazines have a rough colour scheme which is used on the
odd page to remind the audience that the pages are all related due to the same
magazine. They can do this as they already have a loyal customers who will buy the
magazine even if there is no colour scheme. As I have no loyal customers yet, I
decided to attract my audience by using a colour scheme throughout the magazine to
give them a bright and urban first impression. I used my own idea for the contents
page. I made the background picture take up the whole page and drained a little bit of
the colour out of it. I did this because it compliments the text on the page and makes
it stand out a lot more. Most music magazines have a picture filling up the whole front
page and little pictures on the contents. I wanted to keep the picture as a whole page
as it gives the article on the double page spread a lot more relevance and importance.

3. How does your media product represent
particular social groups?
My magazine is strongly intended for the young, indie/urban audience. It
is appealing to them thanks to the pictures, the fonts and the text I’ve
used. The pictures I’ve used are all very urban. The front cover picture is
urban/indie due to its location and the clothes the boys are wearing. The
picture is taken in front of an old cracked wall which gives the impression
that the band is based in the city and are urban themselves so the
audience can relate to them. All the band members are wearing
bright, different colour hoodies which is the latest fashion at the moment
so the young indie group will be able to relate with them as well. The font
‘Plane Crash’ is used to attract the urban/indie audience as well. It attracts
them as it has the same sort of style and casualness about it as the wall.
The text is targeted for this group due to the language used in it. All the
writing is quite informal and it looks more like an update on the band
instead of an article. Young people will find this a lot less boring to
read, whereas the older generation will find this harder to read.

4. what kind of media institution might distribute
your media product and why?
As my magazine is brand new, I would prefer to start with a small
institution just so I can get some of the public familiar with my music
magazine and so it doesn’t cost as much money as a huge institution
would. Then, when my magazine starts to sell and make a profit, I might
also get an online institution as my target audience are keen users of the
internet. Then when I feel my magazine is in a stable condition, I might
advertise to bigger institutions such as a company called ‘Seymour’. When
you have a big brand distributing your magazine, sells will increase and so
will your magazine’s reputation. This way, my magazine will then attract a
lot of customers which will increase profits. I will then use this money to
keep making magazines and brining in loyal customers.

5. looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel
you have learnt in the progression from it to the full
product?
I have learnt a lot of things from my preliminary task. The main change I
have made was the programme I used to make them both. I used ‘pages’ to
make my preliminary task and ‘Photoshop’ for my music magazine. I
changed the programme as I believe that the tools on ‘pages’ are very basic
and limiting. I struggled to add fonts, edit pictures, Re-arrange the page and
to add effects to my work. This ended up making my preliminary task look
quite basic and lacking an editing touch. I tried out ‘Photoshop’ and I felt a
lot happier. I could edit pictures, add effects, freely move picture around
the page, use downloaded fonts and had a wider range of colours. Without
‘Photoshop’, my magazine would look similar to my preliminary task.
Another thing I learnt from my preliminary task is the fonts I used. The
fonts on my preliminary task makes the whole page look basic. I was not
happy with the range of fonts on ‘Pages’, so I downloaded more themed
and stylish fonts from ‘DaFont’. This made my whole magazine look a lot
more professional.

6. what have you learnt about technologies from the
process of constructing this product?
I have learnt about lots of new technologies whilst making my music
magazine. The main one is ‘Photoshop’. I have learnt to edit pictures and
text until they look professional. To do this, I had to learn about all the
tools, how to contrast colours and enhance lighting on certain pictures. I
had never done this before in my life, but after doing this magazine, I’m
now comfortable to use any tool for any picture on the format. I have also
learnt about different websites such as ‘DaFont’ and ‘Slideshare.net’. I’d
never heard of these before either, but without them, I’d struggle to do my
magazine and evaluation. I have placed all my evaluations on slideshare as
it’s easy, quick and handy to use. I used DaFont to download new fonts
which I ended up using in my final magazine.

7. Who would be the audience for your media product
and why?
The audience for my magazine is young people aged around 13-19. It’s aimed at
this age group due to some of the language and sentences I’ve used in it. I use
sentences like “don’t know about you” and other rhetorical questions to make
the readers feel like the magazine is almost chatting to them about the article in
the magazine. I think that the teenage age group will like this style of writing as
it’s almost like having an extra friend, but the older you get, the more you just
want to read the facts and not all the other bits of text and articles. I know this
as older people tend to read newspapers that just have facts and opinions and
not music magazines that have things like inside gossip on bands etc. My
magazine is aimed at the social group indie/urban. I aimed it at this social group
as the articles, the bands, the colours and the fonts used in my magazine are all
quite urban/ indie related so I think they will enjoy reading it more than others.
I also aimed it at the urban/ indie group and teenagers as they are the most
likely to buy a music magazine to find out about the latest tracks and bands so
they can chat to all their friends about it and find out what music is in fashion
and what isn’t.