My media coursework evaluation

1. By Alis Rose

2. The titleblock follows the forms and
conventions of real media products because
the close up of the person on the front cover
has been edited to be infront of the title, much
like this NME front cover that was published.
It is also on the left because you read left to
right and that’s what the NME one does too.
In my research, I found that many music
magazines use primary colours such as red,
white and black as their house style, such as
this NME example, therefore I developed that
by also using similar colours in my design.

3. One convention I found from my research
was that pull quotes were used on the front
cover, I mimicked this by making this the
coverline for my main article. This was to
give the reader a hint of what the article was
about directly from who it was based on, in
order to draw their attention and make them
want to read on.
I also used a medium close up which is a
common convention of music
magazines, this is to show that the main
article is on that one artist, therefore
making fans of that artist more likely to
buy the magazine.
Coverlines are commonly used to show the reader what else is in the
magazine, I used these to advertise competitions and other articles. This
acts as a hook to get people to carry on reading.

4. One convention is to use 3 columns to organise the
contents page, like this NME cover. This makes the page
easy to read as there is a strong layout, so I mirrored this
in my contents to achieve the same effect.
My research showed
me that contents
pages usually used a
simple colour palette
because the contents
page’s purpose is to
give information
rather than
entertainment. This
means they don’t
need to make it as
attractive as the front
cover, for example. I
used this idea by
using black, red and
white to keep it
simple.
Another convention was to put the relevant photo to the text it relates to. This
is to show the reader who or what the text is talking about to engage them. I
also did this by planning where the photos were going to be placed in
correlation with where the article was in the magazine.

5. One convention of a double page
spread is that you use a pull quote for
the title to draw the reader in, like this
NME example, which I have also
used.
A common convention is to use a
studio for the photo of the artist the
article is about, I challenged this by
using brick wall to give the reader the
impression that the artist is more
urban and trendy.
Another convention I found was
that double page spreads follow a
three or four column structure,
depending on the size of the
article. I mimicked this but also
challenged it by making my
columns alternate colours to make
the overall look of the two pages
more appealing.

6. All the artists pictured on my
front cover are male, meaning my
magazine is predominantly male
based.
The setting of one of the
photos on the front cover is an
urban street with a brick wall,
this is a stereotype of hipsters
as they tend to live in urban
environments. We can tell he
represents that social group
because of his vintage fashion.
In one of the photos, an artist
is pictured smoking a
cigarette. This fits in with the
stereotype of young people
being rebellious as it is
common knowledge how bad
smoking is for you but he still
does it.

7. In my contents page all the
artists featured are male
which shows us that the
music industry is heavily
dominated by males.
I included information about
festivals as their target
audience is also young people,
this tells us that they are
interested in them.

8. The way this artist is represented
through his clothes is that he is very
fashionable which shows he is from the
hipster social group. This also reflects
the genre of music that he plays.
The pull quote in this article is
challenging the stereotype of young
people being represented as a problem to
society as this quote shows that the artist
is more streetwise and mature therefore
no longer a problem.
The setting of the photo is an
urban street with a brick wall,
this is a stereotype of hipsters
as they tend to live in urban
environments.

9. I researched the publisher of NME for one of my preliminary research
tasks, Time Inc. Apart from NME, there is no other music magazines
that it publishes. The advantages of publishing my magazine would
be that it helped broaden their market to the younger generation as
the rest of their brands aren’t targeted at young people. It would also
broaden the genres of music they cover, as NME is classed as
Indie/Alternative, whereas my magazine covers many more genres
than that. One disadvantage would be that there could be a chance
that both music magazines would clash and sometimes produce
similar content, leaving SOUND at a loss because NME will already
have loyal readers. Another would be that they look quite similar so
readers could get confused which is which.

10. This is my potential reader
profile that I wrote before
producing my final product.
Although I tried to stick to
this, some aspects have
changed such as;
After producing my final
product, I think a wider age
range is more suited for this
product as it could appeal to
any young person (16-30) as
there is no age-specific
material.
My research told me that the
music magazine industry was
dominated by males and the
black, white and red colour
scheme is seen as quite
masculine colours.

11. I attracted my audience by using models
that look like normal people, this makes
the audience feel like celebrities are just
like them and that even they can be
famous one day. I also used a photo of a
man smoking to show that even
celebrities do normal things like that.
I used a strong
black, white and
red colour scheme
to attract my
audience as they
are primary colours
which makes them
bold.
I used a photo of a DJ set to attract my
target audience because young people
enjoy going to clubs and seeing their
favourite DJ’s live.

12. I use the phrase “wild trip” in my
contents page to address my audience
because young people want to have crazy
adventures and things out of the norm,
and therefore like hearing about them.
I also use personal pronouns such as
“we” and “you” (synthetic
personalisation) to make the audience
feel like the magazine is talking to them
personally, bringing the magazine to
more of an informal and friendly level.
I included “R.I.P” as it is quite a
colloquial way of expressing the
cancellation of Beacons festival.
Personifying it addresses the reader in an
ironic way and makes a bit of a joke out
of it.

13. I used a swear word in the title to address
the audience as most young adults swear
as it is taboo language and often shocks
the recipient if they aren’t a peer.
To attract my audience to my
double page spread, I
photographed my model
stood infront of a brick wall to
show that he lives in an urban
environment. This attracts
young people because cities
are where the fun is for my
target audience.
I attracted my audience by
dressing my model in trendy
vintage clothes, therefore he
will appeal to the younger
generation where that style is
in fashion.

14. The analysis tasks helped with my progression (analysing different front covers,
contents pages and double page spreads) because it helped me recognise the codes
and conventions of a music magazine which I could then transfer into my own work.
I had no knowledge of Photoshop or InDesign so I progressed within that software
quickly in order to make my final product look the best it could be. One example of
my progression was learning how to import fonts that don’t already come with the
Adobe package, in order to be more creative and have a wider range of fonts to pick
from.
I also learned about the composition of a photo and that the light, costume and setting
are important in making your product look professional aswell as portraying the idea
behind it.
When looking at my preliminary task I had no idea about the layout of a magazine
front cover. For example where a masthead was or what a selling line was, but as I did
my research I equipped myself with all that knowledge in order to make my final
product as authentic and professional as possible.

15. Over the process of creating my final media product I have learnt a number of things about
technologies, not only about the software but the way in which certain rules and techniques
apply within the media industry. First I had to set up a blog which I had done in the past on
blogger so that was no challenge for me as I was already familiar with the website. This came
in handy because I found out that Google’s Blogger was a good way of storing and sharing
different ways of information such as audio recording, videos and photos. I have learnt how
to use an audio recorder and how to put it onto a blog, which proved difficult as the website
was cracking down on piracy and therefore would not let me put mp3s straight on, meaning
I had to put it on an external source and put a link to it on my blog. I then had to use survey
monkey to gather market research which something I had never done before, however it
wasn’t too challenging because the website had an easy layout and gave me lots of help. It
was the same with Slideshare as I had never done this before either but it was easily
accessible. Another really useful technology I used was social media: when creating my
survey to conduct market research, I put up a link to the survey on Facebook to get people to
fill it in and be able to draw some conclusions. I also learned how to shoot and edit a video
with Adobe Premiere Pro such as cutting out parts that went wrong in the filming and
putting text over a moving image. I had very little experience with photography so I had a
lot to learn when taking photos with a SLR camera, such as how to focus and getting the
light right aswell as the different angles of shots and what they convey to the audience. Then
when it came to putting my magazine together, I had barely ever used Adobe Photoshop, so
I had to learn to use tools like the lasso tool to cut out part of my background image to put it
over my titleblock. I also learned how to pick out colours from the images and use it for my
text and coverlines, all this was to make sure I was able to make my magazine look as good
and professional as possible. Then for my double page spread I used Adobe InDesign which
I had never came across before, learning how to make columns and add photos to the
background aswell as shapes for my text to go on. I then had to figure out how to save all my
coursework as a JPEG so I could put it on my blog. I have also learnt that backing up my
work onto more that one device is important as you never know when something could go
wrong.