Rachel Hanson reflects on how her media product has progressed from her preliminary task. She notes several key improvements: her completed magazine uses more color, creative images, and follows magazine conventions better. Specifically, her front cover has clearer cover lines in distinct colors, her contents page is more organized and colorful, and her images show different locations and editing. Overall, her finished product looks more professional and follows magazine conventions for layout, fonts, and styles. She has learned skills like attracting audiences through design elements and showing creativity through adding more content.

1. Evaluation
Rachel Hanson

2. My Magazine

3. Question 1: In what ways does your media product use,
develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
My media product follows conventions as during the research of my magazines, I found out a lot on how magazines
are laid out and the colours and fonts they use, for example on a front cover of a magazine they always have a
headline, cover stories and a main image, on a contents page there is normally page numbers and images around the
page and also lots of small headings telling you what you are expected to read in the magazine and the features of
the magazine and on a double page spread, there is normally a main image somewhere, with lots of other images, a
main headline and then the article. And on the images text to describe the image, kickers and pull quotes around the
page. My magazine follows these conventions by on my front cover I have a big head line saying the name of my
magazine ‘Rhythm’ and then a main image behind this, then lots of cover lines around the front cover which are
there to try and draw the audience in with what you are expected in the inside of the magazine. My contents page
follows conventions by having a few images on it, and then the page numbers and features . This then informs
people on what is inside my magazine and what pages it is on, so is very important. My double page spread follows
the conventions of a magazine as it has a big headline saying ‘Yasmin’s big break!’ and then a main image on one side
covering near enough a page, then a small image on the other side and then has the article written over the two
pages. My double page spread also uses features like pull quotes and kickers to just add more of an effect on to my
magazine and draw the audience in more. My magazine also follows conventions of a magazine as the fonts I used all
match together and are not random, for example on the contents page, the colour scheme is pink, black and white.
This then follows the same colour scheme on to my double page spread to make it look more effective and more of a
professional magazine. All these conventions of magazine I got from other magazine that are similar to the magazine
I have produced, these were magazines such as Billboard, NME and Q. My magazine follows conventions of a music
magazine, as you have to get the point across that it is based on music. I did this by having cover lines saying ‘Win a
free IPod touch’ which is about music so would interest people that like music. Also in my images, I use props like a
micro phone to make it look like someone is singing, Just to represent what the genre is in the magazine. I also list a
name of lots of music artists, this would attract more people especially if they enjoy the singer or band.

4. Headline Page
Main image numbers
Features
Kicker
Pull Quote
Cover lines
Caption

5. Question 2: How does your media product represent particular
social groups?
My media product represents different kind of social groups such as for gender my magazine
would represent to both genders as it includes information about male and female music
artists which would interest both. It does this by on the front cover the main image is of a
female music artist, which would attract females as it would look like a feminism magazine,
but then if males like the singer they it would attract to them as well. Also on the front cover
there are cover lines saying ‘kanye West 50 greatest hits’, Cover lines like this would attract
males as it is a male singer, they might enjoy his music so it could interest them, also females
might like him for the same reason.
Another social group my magazine would represent, would be young adults, teenagers as the
genre of my magazine was R&B, this is quite a popular genre of music, that a lot of younger
audience listen to so they would more likely to buy this magazine that share there interests in
music. My magazine represents the genre by the title being ‘Rhythm’ which would represent
to being music and then my magazine includes artists like ‘Rihanna and kanye west’ which
are R&B artists so this would represent to the gender, and then attract the audience that are
interested. The mise – en – scene used in the images are what would attract to a younger
audience as the person in my pictures are in a bright pink short dress and heels which is
modern and aims to younger audience that go out clubbing and drinking as they like to dress
up in that way. Also my images represents the genre of my magazine, as in one of my pictures
the person is singing through a microphone, which shows that it is about music this
magazine.

6. Question 3: What kind of media institution
might distribute your media product and why?
A media institution that would be most likely to distribute my media
product would be Bauer magazine institute as it produces music
magazines like Q and Kerrang. It also produces fashion and sport
magazines like heat, closer and match. As it produces a lot of
different genre’s of magazines, this shows that it is a big company
and it is also one of Europe's largest privately owned publishing
groups. It also does TV shows and radio stations so uses lots of
different types of media which would be good to advertise
magazines and stuff, so If they produced my music magazine I could
advertise it on the radio or using an advert on the TV. Bauer
produces of 80 brand names today. Bauer would be good to produce
my magazine as the music magazines it produces are all indie and
rock so there is room on the market to produce a R&B magazine but
also it might not produce my magazine as because the genres of the
music magazines are so different to mine that is a reason why they
might not want to produce it because it’s so different.

7. Question 4: Who would be the audience for your
media product?
The target audience for my media product is young adults, teenagers as this is the age
that associates more with music and fun things like festivals etc. The reason I have chosen
this specific audience is because it relates more to me, as I am also the age of the
audience so I know more of an idea what kind of things young people like to look for in a
magazine and the genres. Also being the age of the audience means I can associate more
with people my age about magazines, music etc. Also during my research on music
magazines, a number of them were aimed at the same target audience as my own so
researching in to these gave me a lot more range of ideas on how to lay out the magazine
and the type of language to use to aim at the right audience and other things like the
articles in the magazines, so I gained a lot out these magazines for my own. My magazine
appealed to my target audience as in the images I took, the mise – en –scene on the
people in my photos relates to younger audience as the dress one of the girls has on, is
short and bright pink and appeals to people that dress up to go out clubbing. Also the
language and the way I speak in my double page spread would appeal to a younger
audience as it talks about going on holidays with you’re friends and talks about clubbing
and things like ‘Bet it was hard to dance with all them boys around you?’. The tone is a
comedy tone that would suit to an every day conversation with a young audience as it’s
describing holidays, partying and boys.

8. Question 5: How did you attract/address your
audience?
I attracted and addressed my audience with my magazine as on the front cover the title
‘Rhythm’ associates well with the genre of music so my audience people young adults that
enjoy music would be attracted to this kind of title. I also used bright colours on my front
cover like pink as it is eye catching and stands out from other colours, especially the pale
grey background. The clothing on the girl in the images attracts to my audience as it is
dressy and going out clothing, something you would wear on a night out or to a party so
this attract younger people.
Also on the contents page of my magazine I list a number or music artists like ‘Jay-Z, Chase
and Status, The Script and Nicki Minaj’. All these artists attract there music to a younger
audience just like my magazine does, so having these people in my magazine will attract
to people that enjoy their music and will want to read my magazine to find out more
about them. Also on my contents page, I talk about music festivals which is a fun thing for
teenagers/young adults to do, so this would interest them and make them want to read
the magazine if it shares there interest and news about the latest festivals.
During my double page spread, the way I speak to my audience is in a informal way, like
how I mention things about love life’s and boys and holidays which is fun subjects that can
keep the readers interested and they could also relate some of the articles to their daily
lives. Where as if I used formal language, this could take the fun out the articles and just
make the readers bored.

9. Question 6: What have you learnt about the
technologies from the process of constructing this product?
I have learnt a lot about the technologies during the process of my media product as I had never used
a Mac book before the making of my magazine, so this gave me the knowledge on how to use it, and to
create my magazine using one of these, instead of just a basic computer. I also had to use a camera for
the images on my magazine, which gave me the knowledge on how to make my images look like they
were suited for a music magazine and attract to the correct audience. Also during the construction of
my product I had to use a video camera to record my feed back from my focus group. Before this, I had
never used a video camera before so I learnt how to control one, and record a video and to certain
camera effects like tilting the camera. Once I had recorded my video, I had edit it using a software
called Imovie which was on the Mac books. This gave me the skills on how to cut parts out of my
movies, and edit in certain text and effect for certain parts of the filming. Using these technologies has
given me the confidence to use all this equipment for my next products or if used in my daily life. I also
got the skills by using just basic online social net working sites like survey monkey, twitter, face book
and YouTube. I used these to create questionnaires and then to send them out to my friends etc on the
social networking sites to get back feed back for my product, and I used YouTube for uploading my
focus group on to blogger. Before the making of this product, I had never used blogger before which
helped me upload all my work online easily, and edit my work and get back feed back and comments
from my teacher. I also learnt how to high light certain hyperlinks to make them stand out and show up
better on my blogger.

10. Question 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 preliminary task I used lack of colour and choice of images, as it is very plain and got not much
really going. The cover lines are not clear at all, and are all similar colours so not very creative. Also in my images,
there is not much creativity used in them, and there is just only one picture basically. The contents page has no
colour on it what so ever so looks nothing like a contents page. Where as my completed magazine uses a lot of
colour and stands out from each other. My contents page has a lot going on, and looks conventional to what a
contents page should look like in a magazine. The use of images on my finished magazine shows different places
and poses and the editing used on the pictures is a lot more than what the pictures show on my preliminary task.
My completed magazine looks a lot more professional than my preliminary task one as it follows the conventions
of a magazine and has eye catching bright coloured fonts and uses different styles of writing to add a mixture of
everything in to the magazine. On the contents page, Everything is labelled and well put together, where as on the
task contents page, it’s just placed randomly, and nothing really to it or going on. The skills I have developed are
how to follow the conventions of a magazine and how to attract to your audience by using certain fonts and
colours through out the magazine. I also learnt things by, if you add a lot on to you’re magazine it shows that there
is a lot going on and makes it look much better. My creativity skills have improved a lot from the process of these
two magazines.