2. 5. How did you attract/address your audience?
10
1
Heavily influenced by
photography
Heavily influenced by
information
Do you prefer magazines which
are heavily influenced by
photography or heavily
influenced by information?
My magazine is primarily aimed at teens and was originally supposed to be
unisex, therefore enjoyed by both genders but after my analysis, as well as
finishing my products, I have decided that my magazine is to be more successful
with the female population. I attracted my overall audience with the help of
photography and images, this is due to the 10 out of 11 of my survey participants
saying that they preferred magazines which were heavily influenced by
photography rather than by information. I therefore took this into consideration
and tried to balance out the amount of information in comparison to images, if
not use more images than text.
Also, due to the indie genre becoming more and more popular in the modern
world, I decided to use this genre as my magazine theme. I think this genre
would be of more success when compared to genres such as country and rap.
This is mainly because this genre is able to be enjoyed by both genders, instead
of stereotypically being enjoyed by one gender (males and rap music).
In addition to this, I aimed to create the most simplistic yet professional/realistic
looking layout as possible. This is because simplicity is more appropriate when
dealing with a younger audience, as too much clutter may make the audience
lose interest and decrease potential sales of the magazine.
When decided on my colour scheme, a monochrome scheme with an element of
colour seemed most appropriate due to the colour used contrasting with the
black, white and grey would make the magazine look potentially more appealing
and bright in certain areas. This technique/colour scheme is more appropriate
and more widely used throughout existing magazines than using a variety of
bright colours against each other, such as yellows, greens, blues and reds.
The inclusion of colloquial language is appropriate, as due to the target audience
being teenagers, using language which they are more comfortable with can help
encourage their engagement with the magazine. This is a more successful
approach rather than using technical lexis and jargon which is only to be
understood by a small sample of people (not necessarily any of the target
audience).
3. 6. What have you learnt about technologies from the
process of constructing this product?
Photoshop
Photoshop was a necessity when completing my magazine due to a large amount of editing being needed and due to a lack of
recent use, I found using this programme initially quite difficult. I had only previously used Photoshop for personal use and for
GCSE art work, where I edited a range of images and produced a handful my own album covers, influenced by existing covers.
Due to this lack of use, I had limited knowledge and therefore a limited use of tools, but after constant use (every day) I became
more comfortable with a range of tools.
Examples of these tools are things such as ‘magic wand tool’ which is used to removed unwanted areas of colour, such as the
background of images. This can help to make the background of an image transparent when saved as a PNG and therefore
makes it easier to use the image on work, as it can be easily adapted to any background.
Camera Skills
Using a DSLR camera involved developing knowledge about the type of cameras, the settings and composition of a photo. I
used a Canon 1100D that I borrowed from another student that had helped me to understand more about the camera and how
to take good photos. For example, I used the camera on manual settings as it helped me to capture the images I was
expecting. I did this by adjusting the settings (aperture, f-stop, ISO, shutter speed and white balance. The aperture was set at
the lowest which was f/3.5 which allowed the artist or subject to be in full focus to draw more attention to the important section
of the image. I used an ISO of 200 and 400 as the studio I used was bright and high key. In addition to this, I used a lightbox
that helped make the subject more visible and also vibrant. The shutter speed was taken at an average shutter speed of a
normal camera e.g. 1/150 as the subject was not moving fast, therefore, I did not need to use a high shutter speed. The DSLR
camera had allowed me to take high quality photos that enabled me to have a better outcome within my product. Also, I had
used a 320GB hard drive that allowed me to store and transfer photos from the camera, computer and hard drive.
4. Blogger
I have had to learn to use blogger in order to publish my completed coursework. Initially, due to
blogger being a newly used website (for me) I found it fairly difficult to come to terms with what was
needed to be completed in order to create an easy and appealing layout for my uploaded work. Due
to blogger being a vital part of my coursework, it was a necessary to quickly come to terms with what
each button and tool did in order to become quick and efficient when uploading work.
Slideshare
I used Slideshare a small number of times to upload word documents
/powerpoints and present them in an easy to read fashion.
Similar to blogger, this website was new to me and therefore initially
difficult to come to terms with but after a consistent effort with the site,
I became more comfortable with using it.
This website is useful when presenting work as it helps to create
an easy to read layout, as well as being a quick and efficient way of
showing what I have done in my work.
Survey Monkey
Survey Monkey is website which was introduced during
coursework time and is an aid for creating professional
questionnaires. The website involves creating a
questionnaire, in which you decide the questions and answer
formats, as well as allowing you to automatically send your
survey to a handful of friends via a variety of ways.
5. Hotmail (Outlook)
Hotmail is an email site which I use every day and am therefore used to using, so had no problems in which I
had to overcome.
Due to problems arising from Survey Monkey’s distribution of questionnaires, I found it easier to email a
handful of my classmates the survey link and then ask them to fill out my questionnaire. Distributing my
questionnaires to 10/11 people made my results more accurate in terms of, instead of having to only use a
small amount of results, the sample size made it easier to find differences and therefore compare results with
one another in future situations.
Technological Convergence
‘Technological convergence is the trend of technologies to merge into new technologies that bring together a
number of different media. While historically, technology handled one medium or accomplished one or two
tasks, through technological convergence, devices are now able to present and interact with a wide array of
media.’
Throughout my coursework, I have used one computer to research, produce and distribute all elements of my
coursework. This includes, editing images, transferring images from a digital camera to the computer
itself, importing recorded voice notes into specific areas of my evaluations and writing documents giving brief-
in depth descriptions of what I have done within my work.
