AS media studies evaluation

2.  In what ways does your media product use, develop or
challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

3. The conventions I followed were
similar colours to portray a similar
genre of music, using the same
gender of front cover models. I
also had my model look straight
into the camera, this follows the
convention that most magazines
use t0 give a powerful effect.
The title of the magazine also follows a similar
convention, it uses a large sans serif bold font to
make it stick out on the front cover more, it also
appears on the top of the magazine, mostly in the
top left or across the top. Using the logo of the
magazine at the bottom may give the magazine an
‘unbalanced’ look on the front cover.
I used the strip at
the bottom as part
of my magazine
because it clearly
shows information
on the front cover, it
is found across
many magazines.
On my cover I
challenged
convention by having
the title a different
colour, usually this
would not be done on
covers but I did it due
to the contrasting
background colours.
I have put the barcode in the bottom left
corner of my magazine, although it is not the
same as the other one it is convention across
various magazines as it appears to have a
more natural look and fits with the
background colour.
The colour
scheme for the
magazine I
have kept to
conventions
using red
white and
black, so that
it keeps its
distinctive
look and make
it stand out on
a magazine
rack.

4. In my contents page I used the same red, white
and black colour way so it doesn’t deviate from
the front cover much. I have used a conventional 3 column lay out for
my contents page design, like in other
magazines it keeps the page tidy and readers
can easily find pages that they want to read
about.
I have also made the
focus point of the
magazine the main
article, this
convention is used
throughout many
magazines and it
gives the feel of
importance towards
that article also it
makes it stand out
on the page.
By having the page
numbers a
different colour to
the words makes
them stand out on
the contents page,
this is found across
many magazines
due to that reason.
By using pictures along side the different
articles headlines it helps it gives it a visual
aid to the contents page and adds colour
which can attract readers eyes.
Unlike conventions in magazines I have not used
sub categories for articles, I believe I did not need
this because the design looks neater in this style in
my opinion.

5. Pulling a quote from the main article is what I have
done for the title for my double page spread, along
side using this convention I have also change the
colour of some of the words due to the contrasting
background colours. I challenged convention by
having the quote go across both pages as I felt that it
gave the double page spread a more balanced feel to it.
I also kept to convention by keeping the main picture to the left of the
two pages rather than the right and keeping the colour scheme the
same as the front cover and contents page to give the pages identity to
the magazine. I have also challenged convention by putting the page
numbers in the top corners of each page rather than the bottom, this is
due to the back ground colour and ease of identifying what page when
flicking through.
How ever I did not use a close up of the person who the
article is about, I used a medium long shot as I felt that
the whole of them should be seen, this also balances the
colours out on the page as there may be too much red if
my model was closer to the camera.
I also did not use a sub heading as I thought that
it would not fit with the style of the page and may
distract from the quote I pulled out of my article.
I used a sub picture on the right page as it relates
to the article and gives the reader an different
aspect of the artist, this convention is found
across many double page spreads in magazines as
it also makes it seem like there is less text due to it
being more broken up.

6. Question 2
 How does your media product represent particular
social groups?

7. The model that I used for my
magazine is a male and the
sub photos on the front cover
are all male, meaning that
my magazine is
predominantly male based.
The clothing worn by my
model represents the genre
of the magazine, mainly
young people who like
alternative music would dress
in this way, it is seen as
fashionable clothing The social group that my
magazine represents best is
the middle-working class,
the style of his clothes
suggests that it has a laid
back feeling to it and ‘not
smart’ approach to the style
of it.
The dominant representation
of the middle/working class
group is the style of
clothes/how they dress, very
casually and the festivals that
were included at the bottom
of the magazine are ones that
people who like alternative
music go to.
The artists featured on
the front of the magazine
are ones who have come
from working/middle
class backgrounds, this
can be related to by
readers.

8. More males have been
used as models to
represent the masculinity
of the magazine and the
masculinity of the
audience. The same could
be said for the colour way
and design, it is a strong
slightly aggressive theme,
no soft edges on pictures.
Relevant information to
my target audience for my
magazine, the type of
people that go to these
festivals are of the middle
and working class.
This type of information that
young people would find
useful, with events that
generally younger people
would go to.
Instead of having a formal
introduction for the contents
page, I used the simplistic
phrase of “Whats inside this
month” representing the
more simplistic social group
of my target social groups,
this is because people are
looking straight for the
articles and not a long
winded intro on the contents
page.

9. The pulled quote gives a sense of modesty, that he
has come from nothing to everything. This can be
relatable by the readers in particular social groups. In
the end of the article it says how they started from
just a band that was messing around, this is relatable
to any young musicians who could be reading this
magazine looking for a future.
Tony slouching in the picture gives it a
sense of rebellious nature, by not
standing up straight and slouching tony
shows how he is disobedient and lack of
care for authority relatable by the target
social groups of my magazine.
The dress style of
tony in this picture is
represented by the
genre of music laid
back, punky style of
clothing. The colours
of his clothes also
match the colour
scheme of the
magazine.
Using swear words
and slang relates to
the social classes
represented by this
magazine, it also
falls under the
language that young
adults use, which is
the target audience
for my magazine.

10. Question 3
 What kind of media institution might distribute your
media product and why?

11. A TV based media distributor that may advertise my media
could be kerrang TV, kerrang offers a wide array of genres but
mostly for the alternative music genre, I also think that the
people who read my magazine will listen/watch kerrang TV,
could form some sort of convergence with my product.
A publishing group that I think would suit distributing
my media would be IPC media, they publish some
magazines with similar genres already such as NME, they
have a lot of previous success and experience publishing
alternative music magazines.
The radio channel BBC 1 radio is a media that may
advertise my product due to the similarity of genres that
are featured in my magazine and played on their radio
station, BBC radio 1 is a more alternative based music
station unlike capital or minster FM which are more
chart based radio stations. Radio 1 tailors for most
music types which is why I think my magazine would be
advertised across it.

12. Question 4
 Who would be the audience for your media product?

13.  “James is 19 and living in York, he currently is in higher education at a 6th
form college. He has a part time job on the weekend and is subscribed to
alt-rhythm. He uses the money he gets from his job on going out on
weekends and going to see his favourite bands live. His favourite gig he has
been to was The stone roses at Heaton park and is looking forward to
seeing the Courteeners there. He still believes that the 90’s era of Brit pop
will never be bettered. He looks forward to the summer as it festival
season, the annual trip to leeds festival will be certain for him along side
his first time at Glastonbury, James is a big collector of vinyls and has all of
Oasis’ albums on it.”
 The ideal reader age for my magazine would be young adults between the
age of 15-26 I found this out through doing a questionnaire and that most
were students or just moved out.
 The target gender for my magazine will be a mix of both male and female
as I got mixed results from my questionnaire, how ever my pictures and
articles all strongly represent masculine properties and features
 It will be publicised once a month at a price of £3.99, this is because in the
results for my questionnaire about how many times people read magazines
its is usually only once a month.

15. Question 5
 How did you attract/address your audience?

16. In my magazine I used various techniques and marketing schemes in order to address and
attract the audience, the people I wanted to read and potentially buy my magazine, by using
social norms and conventions amidst my magazine I believe it helped attract the right
audience for my magazine. For example for my models pictures I made most of them have a
laid back feel to the magazine and dressed him in clothes I thought fit the stereotypical
apparel and dress wear of that specific genre. These tie together and give the magazine a
more alternative, fashionable, rebellious and young feel to it. As well as the clothing of the
model, I used festivals that I know people who are of my target age and genre go to these
festivals, by including a guide to all festivals I think that young people will go to, this helped
attract and address an audience of festival goers by having a wide array of festival advice and
line ups.
Using the red, white and black colour scheme for my magazine helped address my audience
because it made them recognise that style and genre of magazine by comparing it to other
similar magazines on the market already. The artists that I use are all ones that fit into the
genre of alternative or bordering alternative/indie rock, such as Jamie T and The
Courteeners, these also tie in with the festival guide as they are each playing at least one of
the festivals listed, which addresses the audiences need for live shows and festivals.
In my magazine I have tried to make the audience feel like more of a part of the magazine,
for example on my front cover I have included an article “2014’s top 10 albums chosen by
you”, this makes the audience feel more included in the magazine and more reader friendly.
By doing this it will make the reader feel as if they actually have a say in something where as
usually they would not have a say. I believe this will attract more people to my magazine
because of the involvement of the audience.
Some of the features in my magazine will also attract an audience such as the interviews and
album ratings, I believe that if these are in the correct genre and that they are genre specific
then they should attract more readers within the target market group.

17. Question 6
 What have you learnt about technologies from the
process of constructing this product?

18. Over the course of making my product I have learned a large array of skills about the
technologies I used to create my final product. Not just with software such as photoshop
and in design, but with the hardware aspects of it such as cameras, lighting and audio
recording equipment. In pre production I learned how to use an audio recording device and
audacity to edit the audio to gather the interview about magazine research. Along side this, I
also learned to plan photography shoots and how to take the correct photo with the right
lighting. With the photography side of it I had very little experience with cameras and
studios, but after using it a few times and getting to grips with these features I feel I am
comfortable using a digital SLR and the basic features of it. I learnt how to use blogger.com
and create a blog to upload my media work to.
In the production stage of making my product I learned how to use several programs well
from starting off not knowing anything about them, a good example of this is photoshop.
When I first used photoshop this year I only had little experience with it, but after learning
how to correctly set colour levels and balance as the basics I felt I quickly picked it up as I
went along. An example of this would be the clone stamp tool, I correctly learned how to
make the background of my photo shoot completely white by using other areas of it to cover
it up. Another program I learned to use was Adobe InDesign, I had never used this program
before but quickly learned the basics while creating my double page spread on it. At first I
found putting photos in and resizing them difficult but slowly I learned how to put them in
properly and efficiently. Along side creating my double page spread in indesign I created a
contact sheet with all my photos on it that I took. The standard format of photos in either
PDF or JPEG allows you to work across these programs at once making it easier and a
universal format for photos.
I have also learned that it is important to back up and regularly save files or any work to
another media as your computer/program could crash and close down potentially losing all
unsaved work.

19. Question 7
 Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you
feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the
full product?

20. Looking back at my preliminary task I feel as my skills in using such programs as photoshop
have progressed largely, in my preliminary the photo I took wasn’t on a white background
and it was slightly blurry, compared to the actual task where I planned where to take the
photo and had it on a white back ground. My use of planning photos and pages for my
magazine made a major difference to the end product, it helped give me an idea of what I
was going for and gave me the right direction to go in. When I was working on the
preliminary task I only had a basic set of skills and that showed through with the quality of
work that came out in the end compared to my final product.
The magazine research part of my coursework was the biggest help in helping me design my
pages throughout my magazine, this helped me see what conventions and language was
used across various magazines. Alongside this it helped me realise that what ever I had done
would need to be edited slightly at least, you will never get exactly what you wanted. Before
I started this coursework I had no idea what a masthead was or to differentiate between the
different types of font sans serif and serif. I have also learnt how to make colours stand
outline a magazine and give it identity, this is key as it can make the audience quickly and
easily recognise your magazine from others around it.
One of the most important things I have learned from creating this product is to take time
and not rush it, for example I rushed some of my shots and had to re do them due to them
being of poor quality. Taking time to get the right photos and choosing the right fonts is all it
can take for an audience to be drawn in and attracted to my magazine (except the content of
it). My final product compared to my preliminary is very different as you can tell the skills
in photography and photoshop really excel to get the final product looking how it should do
in my eyes.