My media evaluation.

1. 1.) In what ways does your media product, use, develop or
challenge forms and conventions of real media product?
My magazine is under the genre of pop, similar to
Billboard,VIBE and Blender. There are many
conventions used in my magazine that are used in
every kind of magazine for example I have used a
masthead at the top of the page to draw peoples
attention to it and making them aware of the
magazine name. As you can see I used layering also
within my magazine as the masthead is above the
covers star image. Also the writing and puff is
placed above the cover star this is to create a 3D
effect. Also along top there is a banner that has
free incentives to offer, this is also to draw peoples
attention in and make them more interested in
what they might buy, and according to my research
free incentives make people more open to buying
the magazine. I also have a barcode placed at the
right hand, at the bottom of the page, this is so it
doesn’t take up too much space within the
magazine cover.

2. 1.) In what ways does your media product, use, develop or
challenge forms and conventions of real media product?
For my contents page I wanted the reader to be able to
understand the page numbers and articles easily therefore I
separated each page number with a white line so the reader
would not be confused. The large image on the page indicates
to the audience that this person plays an important part
within the magazine also the image is very bright which also
makes my contents page look busy which is what I wanted.
Also I used made the two album covers because it would be a
good idea for advertising again trying to draw readers in. I still
tried to keep the colour scheme from the front cover the
same. Underneath the page numbers and the title of the page,
there is a brief summary of what is on that page, the language I
used was informal as though I was addressing the audience I
would in everyday life. This makes it look aesthetically pleasing
and also makes it easier for the audiences mind digest it. This
is similar to Blender and Vibe. Also the letters at the top
which read THIS WEEK, clearly indicating to the reader that
what is in this magazine is all new and the events that have
occurred throughout ‘this week’ Also there is a brief summary
in white writing inside a black box to make it stand out a little
bit more.

3. 1.) In what ways does your media product, use, develop or
challenge forms and conventions of real media product?
The main image on this page like most magazine take up all the left hand
side and slightly the right hand side too. It is a large image of the person the
article will be about ‘lily Paddington’ which was advertised on my front
cover page. I did not edit this image as I liked the steal barrier as a
background but the image wouldn’t fit the whole page so I had to put a dark
blue background onto the right hand side. The two images at the bottom I
cropped to fit the page. On both images I used the polygon lasso tool as
this tool gave me the best result I did this to the images to give them a 3D
as one is overlapping the other. The colours that I have used are slightly
different as there is no blue in the colour scheme on the first two pages, but
I still managed to stick to it as the pull quote title is in yellow with a black
stroke to make it stand out more. Also in the top left hand corner there is
a box with NEW! World exclusive This is in red and black to keep the
colour scheme. Also I did this to make the reader aware that the article has
never been seen before or used by another magazine. The main body text
has been spilt into three columns to make it easy for the readers mind to
digest the article, I had to shape a bit of the text, so none of the text
overlapped the image at the bottom. A drop cap is used at the beginning of
my article, to make the reader aware that, that place is where my article
starts. The kicker used is to give the reader a little preview as to what is in
the article making them a little bit more anxious.

4. 2.) How does your media product represent particular social
groups?
In my product different people are represented, doing this
because I wanted a wide range of audiences, hence the
reason I chose pop music as it is mainstream and it what
more people take most interest in, therefore it could
increase the profit. For example my cover star gives the
image of a pop star as, her stance and facial expression is
very diva and her clothes worn are the up to date fashion
and look expensive. In my article on my double page
spread I have in fact made this star out to be a diva as
she’s the reason the girl band have broken up, again
showing that this magazine is a pop magazine as nowadays
all the headlines are about pop stars and the pop stars are
the ones know for causing dramatic headlines. The age
range for my magazine may be 16+ as this is the age range
that seems to take interest into what is going on the pop
world.

5. 3.) What kind of media institution might distribute your media
product and why?
Supermarkets would be the best distributor for
my magazine as these are the most popular with
people
The media institution that may distribute my media product
would be profit based organisation that would be good for
advertising my product. Also they need to include information
services. I would like the main form of distribution to be
physical, this meaning I’d want it to sold on a shelf in high
street supermarkets such as ASDA or TESCO. Also local
shops for local areas as these are easy to access than the
supermarkets and also sometimes a lot cheaper. My magazine
will be sold at around £2.50 retail price an issue a figure that I
came up with, as in my research this was the most popular
price.

6. 4.) Who would the audience be for your media product?
With my magazine being all about females I would say it is
evident that my magazine is aimed more at females than
males but I wouldn’t like to put a label on it, as I feel it would
get more reception if it was aimed at either sex. Going back
to my research I asked as many females as I did males for
their opinion their music tastes and pretty much got the
same response. The genre of music was chosen from my
research as everybody I did ask seemed to prefer well known
mainstream pop acts such as Ed Sheeran, so this made it
easier for my to make my decision on what genre my
magazine was going to be. The colour scheme that I did
choose was chosen because all the colours are very neutral
colours they are associated with either genders, so my
magazine would be aimed at either, therefore making my
magazine that little bit more popular because it isn’t aimed at
particular sexes, it only seems to be aimed at people who like
the mainstream pop, which I believe is good for the sales of
my magazine as this is the genre which most people are
interested in nowadays.

7. 5.) How did you attract or address your audience?
Attracting my audience in many different ways, one being a
large masthead placed at the top of my front cover with the
title on would be a very good way of letting the readers
know what the magazine is called. Cover stars are also a very
good way of drawing readers in, as magazine’s such a billboard
have had Miley Cyrus on the front a well known star and
these images get people interested as to why Miley Cyrus
would be on the front of the cover. The free incentives inside
the banner on my front page is also a good way to attracting
audience as this is what some people looks for in a magazine
and according to my research free incentives make a lot of
people more open to buying a magazine. The bold colours of
my magazine are also outstanding like the red and the black
and also the yellow attracts peoples eyes. The pull quote from
the article inside also draws people in and gets the interested
in the article so therefore they might buy it. Offering
competitions also like I have done to win tickets to concerts
is another way I drew the audience in. I addressed my
audience in an informal manner as this makes it easier for the
mind to digest therefor the reader taking more of shine to it.

8. 6.) What have you learnt about technologies from the process
of constructing this product?
I have learnt a range of different things when it comes to
technologies whilst doing this product. I used a wide range of
hardware such as a computer, camera, transfer cable ect. I was
confident with using all these things before doing this
product, however whilst doing this product I have improved
my skills, as now I know how to zoom and film amongst
other skills.
However my knowledge on using software has improves
massively as before this product I had never used photoshop,
quark or blogger before and I would know say I’m
experienced and confident with using this kind of software. I
believe that I could use this software without any assistance
now and maybe even teach others how to use this software.
At first I didn’t quite understand how to use photoshop but
once I got the grasp of it, it was fairly easy and now would say
I’m very confident at understanding it. On the other hand
blogger and da font, online website where very easy to use
and I instantly understood how to use these websites as they
seem easy to use and I could teach others how to use these
kind of programmes.

9. 7.) Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel
you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
Looking back on my preliminarily task, I feel I have learnt a lot of different things
to do with my product. I feel as though my knowledge on software has defiantly
improved by far, for example I learnt how to use the software “quark” which I
used to import my article into Photoshop. This helped me put gutters into the
article and also shape the text around images so the writing didn’t overlap. I
became more comfortable with using the pologono lasso tool, as in my prelim
task I stuck to using the ‘magic wand tool’ which gives the image a much cleaner
cut. I also now know how to add strokes to texts and us blends on a rough edge
cut out image. I also feel I have learnt a lot about the planning process and the
researching side of making a magazine whereas before hand I just thought they
went into making it, with researching anything, and I think it is for the best that
the research is taken place as then you get an idea to what is the best way to
construct a magazine and who the best target audience would be. I can now take
a lot of cleaner images instead of blurry ones. In conclusion I feel now that I’d be
comfortable with using all the software and hardware myself and if I had to do
this task independently i feel that I could take part in that, therefore I think I’ve
improve massively from my prelim task.