An evaluation of my music magazine product

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge
forms and conventions of real media products?
I realised that the media products I had created needed to use regular media
conventions such as the "Left Third" rule because otherwise the magazine would
alienate the target audience and as a consequence would deter the target audience
from reading the magazine.
The left third convention was used on the front cover as the headline stories were
placed on the left third so that the target audience would not be alienated.
I developed the convention of having a unique magazine name which draws
attention to the magazine and this convention used by other real media products is
very popular which is how I avoided alienating my target audience.
The Images I took compared to other magazines were not edited as much and in
a more natural surrounding rather than a studio with artificial light. The Images I took
challenged the forms of real media products as there is less editing and more natural
lighting and environment rather than a set up studio so the convention of a edited and
staged image was challenge here. The images below show how far I challenged this
regular convention.

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
My media product presents certain social groups in a variety of ways such as the main
image on the front cover, it is very unusual which is obvious and compared to the "Q"
magazine, it is very quirky.
This quirkiness represents the fans of alternative/indie rock, not pop or rap fans
because it is not their style so through the style the media product I created represent
my target audience.
The front cover has a "20 new band" sticker like feature on which represents the social
group of youth as any OAP for example wouldn't want to know about a list of new bands
because they already have their music tastes and artists.
Furthermore, the social group of aspiring artists is also represented in the magazine
because in the double page spread the featured artist is questioned on his experiences
and how he got into the business.
This is made clear through the title "Bran Rock Revealed".

3. What kind of media in institution might distribute your media
product and why?
IPC (International Publishing Company) is one of the UKs biggest distributors both
online and paper copy of magazine's who sell more than over 350 million copies a
year across both spectrum's.
They split magazine titles into five groups: Connect (Women's Weeklies such as
Look), Inspire (Leisure and Specialist), Ignite (Men's Lifestyle and
Entertainment), Southbank (Women's Lifestyle and Home Interest) and
TX (TV Titles).
They would distribute my media product both online and on paper in stores
because my magazine would fit into the Inspire group as the magazine is a specialist
in a music genre.
By distributing my magazine, IPC could attract more of an audience who would not
usually attract such an audience and my media product could open up more doors
for IPC.
My magazine could expand their market and audience by selling my magazine so it
would be very beneficial to them.

4. Who would be the audience for your media product?
My target audience and general audience would be a social group built up of many
difernet factors such as age and interest in the music genre, not the general
population or appeal to a certain gender more than the other.
The age of the audience would mostly be youth (16-40). 40 may not be classed as
youth but the age does allow a certain number of people of that age to be interested
in the media product.
So the age would be youth and the rest of the audience would most probably be
again interested in alternative/indie rock. In addition, the media product would get
aspiring artists as well as such details are in the product.
The overall audience would be a young person interested in the music genre
and/or an aspiring audience.
This however cannot account for random audiences viewing the media product as
the magazine will not purely attract only the youthful and interested in
alternative/indie rock as of course any magazine can attract anybody.

5. How did you attract/address your audience?
My target audience are the fans of alternative/indie rock, further research showed that
this genre of music has very few new artists becoming bigger in the industry as they are
not as publicised as pop stars for example.
Knowing this, with the sticker feature I claimed the magazine had found "20 new bands"
who the reader might enjoy as they will all be alternative/indie rock who can provide new
albums to the reader.
It's not guaranteed that all 20 bands will be okay for them but at least a few of them will
be good for each reader.
This is how I attracted my target audience, through the use of knowing what they could
want from the music industry, new and more artists, so the target audience was attracted
through this.

6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of
constructing this product?
I already knew about much of the technologies in the process of producing media
texts due to my expertise in ICT which I have learnt through the year because of my
ICT AS Level course.
However, I have learnt some extra skills concerning Adobe Photoshop CC as when
I created the double page spread, I created these grey boxes to hold the text but it
didn't look professional.
I remembered when I completed my research that other magazines such as "Q"
faded their boxes which held their texts and I wondered how they did it. With
research I figured out there is a opacity tool which creates this transparency.
This is insight into how magazines produce their products with technology is
insightful as I learnt skills like the opacity tool which shows me how magazines
exactly create their products with such a professional appearance.

7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have
learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
I feel I have learnt so much since the preliminary task as for one I feel have created
more of a professional looking magazine through the use of the preliminary task
because my front cover for that was a single image of a student with the background
changed to plain black.
I learnt that an image should have natural background when taken rather than editing
one in or majorly changing it. I applied this in the music magazine front cover which I
found very useful and it helped create a better looking magazine.
In addition, I learnt from my preliminary task when I used a silver bar with an
orange/gold outline to hold my masthead but his only made the school magazine
look unprofessional. From this I changed that ineffective style to the more traditional
style of the masthead on the background image but edited to be around and behind
the character on the front cover. I am thankful I learnt this as my final music
magazine front cover looked more professional than my preliminary task did.
When I took the image for my preliminary task I did not care much for how my model
was positioned but I later learnt it was more important than I thought when I had
trouble positioning text and formatting the front cover because of how bad my model
was positioned. I learnt from my mistake by caring more for how my model was
positioned in the photo which helped create a more aesthetic and professional front
cover.
As well I found on the front cover that the masthead should not overlap the main
image as it ruins the professional look of the magazine. Knowing this I changed that
so the masthead was edited by using masking in Adobe Photoshop CC which again
helped create an even more professional look that could attract my target audience.