Here is the evaluation of my main task for media studies.

1. Media Evaluation

2. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions or real media products? When creating my music magazine I had to think about the conventions of real magazines. This helped when I was taking my photos for the media product, I thought about the clothing, positioning, and props that would be used. I had to create artists to feature in the magazine, I came up with a rocky type artist for this I clothed her in a leather jacket and biker boots, I thought this would make her seem less ‘girly’ I also used the prop of an electric guitar, I chose this so it would complete the image of a rock artist. The other artist I included in the magazine was more indie. I dressed her in a colourful flowery dress, with a leaf headband and bare feet, I thought this gave of a more relaxed image, I gave her the prop of an acoustic guitar, and this was because I wanted to show the difference between the types of music featured in the magazine. I also thought about the heading for my magazine, the name and font. To do this I looked at other music magazines such as Kerrang, I noticed how the heading was quite different it wasn’t plain, and this gave me an idea to make mine quite bold with some sort of pattern. I decided to call my magazine Volume as it relates to music, and the audience would know exactly what type of magazine it was just by looking at it. Also I had to think about what would be my main story, Savanna and Ellie are the main story, and the secondary story is the Carolina Liar interview, this makes my magazine more appealing as there is more than one feature story. On my contents page I thought about the layout, so I looked at previous magazines which gave me ideas of how to set mine out. I wanted mine to have a slight difference to it so I played around with the layout; I listened to the feedback where they said it was to plain and changed it by adding more images and different font sizes. Header Banner Main image Above is my two page spread, as you can see the layout is separated to show the different genres, also the way i have styled them like i mentioned above. Barcode and price

3. How does your media product represent particular social groups During my research I had to consider how I would represent particular social groups, for instance because my target audience is teenagers, I have to make sure what I include is the correct representation for them. As my magazine is aimed at both genders I had to think about colours, vocabulary, and artists I included in the magazine. I made sure that my colour scheme wasn’t gender specific so I used black, red, grey, white, and orange. I didn’t want to aim it at a specific gender, because this way it would sell better. The type of music I included in my magazine would be aimed at teenagers who are quite indie and enjoy going to random gigs to look at new and upcoming artists. I included artists that are in the latest charts for the teenagers who are into modern society following the trends. Although the images I used were of females, I think the male audience could see them as attractive and want to buy the magazine for this purpose, and females could see the images appealing because they like what they are wearing, idolise them.

4. What kind of media institution would might distribute your media product and why? Now my magazine is complete I have to think about what kind of media institution would distribute my magazine. I took a look at the website www.bauermedia.co.uk this company publishes both magazines and radio worldwide. Looking on their website they publish numerous amounts of music magazines, and where you can buy them. I think my magazine would be sold in big branded stores such as Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury’s and local corner shops. I think this places would want to sell my product because my chosen demographic audience would visit there stores more, it would sell well because they are well known places people of all ages go there. It is a good price to be sold at, affordable for middle class people. I would also create a website version of my magazine for people who can access the internet. This is a more modern way in today's society to view things, everyone is using facebook and twitter, I think as my audience is a young age rage they would prefer this way to going to the shop and buying the product.

5. Who would be the audience for your media product? The audience for my media product would fit a certain demographic profile: It is aimed at both males and females. The age would be around 14-18, the language is modern, with some colloquial so the audience would understand it. The audience would be middle class people as it is quite a reasonable price, the bands are indie and rocky something high class people would be less interested in. They would have to enjoy music, especially my chosen genre rock/indie with some chart artists.

6. How did you attract/address your audience? When I was researching for my magazine I had to think how this will attract my audience to want to buy it. To do this I thought about the colour themes, as my target audience is both male and female I couldn’t have specific colours like pink or blue. I also took into consideration the images I would put on the front. I chose to use one main picture, that I enlarged and placed in the centre of the page, I did this because I thought it would grab attention and let the reader have an insight on what was included in the magazine. I also included competitions and freebies on the front page and in the contents page such as free c.d’s and concert tickets, I thought this would bribe the audience into buying it. When choosing the fonts, I decided not to use just simple plain font, so I went onto this website called Dafont which has a wide range of different font types, I chose one that I thought had an edge to it, I used this on my front page and contents page. As part of the feedback i asked my target audience a few questions in relation to my front cover. Here is the link to the video :http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36d_5GIxCFg Main image- mid shot Freebies

7. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product? Constructing my product has made me aware of different techniques and skills that you have to know when creating a magazine. As I took a lot of photos for my magazine I had to learn how to edit them, as my images are a key element of the magazine, because it draws the audience in. The original images I took needed editing because the background wasn’t right; the lighting was to dull or to light. For example, my front cover image, I edited the brightness to give a better effect making it look more interesting, and rockier going with my chosen genre. During the making of the magazine I learnt how to use Microsoft office properly, using different tools to edit different things such as when I was doing the two page spread I used texts box’s I edited them by giving them no fill making them blend in with the background better. You can also edit photos on word the size, angle and colour which helped make it the whole magazine look more professional. Also for the first time doing coursework we were asked to use blogspot.com this website is were you post all your course work instead of handing it in paper form, which is then published onto the internet, I learnt a lot by using this, it was different but I preferred it, you can access your work easier, this way you wont loose it.

8. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product? The preliminary task was a chance for me to learn the new blogging techniques that I would be using in my main task, gave me an insight into different types of magazine publications. The research that I carried out into both of the tasks showed the good and the bad conventions of a magazine, which would help my final pages. I also knew what research I needed to defiantly do, to make sure my magazine had the best features, images, colours etc possible. Feedback from my preliminary also made me know what worked and what didn’t work, making sure I make the best I can. However I didn’t use trial and testing in my preliminary which I regret, so I made sure I used this on my main task. I found this helped very much, I showed my target audience the front cover, contents page, and two page spread. I asked their opinions on what could be improved and I also gave them a choice or two options to choose from for my final magazine, this helped me choose what pages I would use and why. It was vital that I did this as part of my evaluating process, as I had to make sure my publication was well suited for my target audience. Overall the preliminary and the main task showed me how much you should focus on the genre and target audience to make sure it is the right magazine for them. I did this through the choice of images, language, aesthetics of the product, and the way I represented certain social groups.