Evaluation

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

Masthead
Introducing main
colours (black,
red, white)

Cover lines
Relating to
inner article

Main image
used in
background to
make cover
lines stand out
and to relate to
article inside

Barcode
Price and date
Footer to emphasize consumer
something important with a purposes Basic info for
flash box reader

Front cover similarities and differences

In my music magazine there are various similarities and differences.
Features that are a basis to all magazines and are similar to my
compared magazine are used, such as; A masthead, cover lines, a
barcode, the price and date and the use of a main image. Features
that differ include: A footer. There is also the use of the magic c
which is used in my magazine and the compared magazine XXL, It is
a common format to a front cover of a magazine. Underneath my
masthead I have used a sell line that says “Cats In The Hood
EXLCUSIVE” rather than including a sell line that reads like a slogan
representing the magazine, such as XXL‟s sell line “HIP HOP ON A
HIGHER LEVEL”. The colours used on my product (red, black and
white) are also used on XXL, as well as many other magazines under
the genre I have picked. The colour black has connotations of
authority and power, the white is neutral so it goes with everything
and the red immediately attracts the attention as it is bold and deep.

CONTENTS

Images that can
relate to inner
articles

Bold header to
stand out
Page
reference
easy for
reader to find
relevant
page

Similar page
listing set out with
different colour for
number

Page number
to easily flick to

Contents similarities and differences

When planning my contents I researched contents covers that I liked the look of
and that stood out to me, through this I found one that I wanted to base my
contents cover around. It uses a very similar layout and used conventions
such as; the use of images, a bold subheading and the page number. I
wanted to keep my colours continuous so I have used the same 3 colours; .
black, white and red. One of the differences that my magazine has to my
compared one is that it introduces the magazine feature in a rectangular
box with the use of capitals, i have used this to highlight the importance of
the feature. Another difference is that I have used a page number
reference to caption the photo, I decided to use this because it provides
more visual information for the reader and makes it easier for them.

Article Double page spread Article
heading summary
Naming the
article, big Quotes
and bold, Link to
with article
continuous content
colour
theme Grab
quote

Main Pull the
image reader
towards
Illustrating something
the article interesting/
important
in the
Photographer
article
by line
To credit the Separate
photographer images
Relating
to other
Page number bands or
Reference for relevant
contents page to the
DBS
Article subject

Information on a certain
subject, e.g. a band interview

COMPARISON Article heading
Flash Naming the article, big
To stand out and bold, with
continuous colour
theme

Separate
images
Relating to
other
bands or
relevant to
the DBS
subject

Main
image
Illustrating
the article

Drag quote
Page number Article
Pull the reader towards
Reference for Information on a certain something
contents page subject, e.g. a band interview interesting/important in
the article

Double page spread similarities and
differences
There are conventions on my double page spread that have been used in many
other magazines. In the magazine I have compared my product to, it has a
main heading that titles the article, I have used a main heading similar as it
is important to make the page stand out with something important. The font
is bold and in capitals, it again uses the continuous colours of black, red
and white. It is also similar as it has 3 images on the right hand side of the
page, however the images I have on my product are directly relevant to the
article, where as, the compared double page spread uses images that are
indirectly relevant. Both my product and the compared double page spread
has a drag quote, I used this as I‟d seen it before in magazines and it had
immediately stood out. There are also page numbers on both
magazines, this is a convention that is highly essential, and the use of
columns to set out my article, this makes it neat and easier for the reader
to read. There are differences such as the format of the image, the image
on my product is set out to mimic a Polaroid picture, where as the image on
the compared magazine is covering the whole A4 side, with no frames.

Questionnaire Results: “On a scale of 1-10 how
realistic does my music magazine look compared to
real products?”
I asked 20 participants to complete a questionnaire about my media product,
these are the collated results involving question 1.
Cover Contents

9 8
8 7
7 6
6

Response
Response

5
5
4
4
3
3
2 2
1 1
0 0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Scale of 1 - 10 Scale of 1 - 10

Article

9
8
7
6
Response

5
4
3
2
1
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Scale of 1 - 10

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

As my music magazine is targeted at 16-24 year olds interested in the genre of
hip hop, the social group i have chosen to represent is of the typical
ethnicity black and from the urban adolescent. The images are clearly
representative as they reveal the stereotypical „street‟ wear of hoodies and
baseball caps, which is highly relevant to the genre of hip hop. I believe my
product has represented the social group in a positive light as it highlights
the success and talent they have through the interview. Because hip-hop is
generally a black genre, I have used a white male on my contents page to
contrast. With my intentional target audience including both genders, one
thing I should have included is the representation of females, e.g. images or
cover lines.

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

As there are many different publishers in the UK, I would like the best and most
relevant for my particular magazine. There are two main publishers in the UK;
BAUER and IPC.

• Bauer have been the publishers for magazine such as Kerrang! And Q. As
Kerrang is a magazine dedicated to rock magazine, and Q is a magazine with a
range of genre’s including the genre of my magazine ‘hip-hop’ .
• Where as, IPC have been published magazines such as, NME and Uncut, both
of these magazine follow along the lines of the same genre ‘alternative’ ‘indie’.
• IPC are the top leading publishers in the UK and publish over 60 iconic media
brands.
• Bauer is the largest privately owned publishing group in Europe, they distribute
over 300 magazines to 15 countries.

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

“Bauer Media owns more than eighty influential media brands spanning a wide range of interests,
including heat, GRAZIA, Closer, MCN, FHM, Parkers, MATCH, Magic 105.4, Kiss 100, Kerrang
and Q”
• I believe Bauer Media would be the ideal publishers to publish my magazine as they already have
experience within music magazines such as Kerrang, Q, Mojo and Pop.
• It would be highly beneficial for Bauer to publish my magazine as it would fill a gap in their roster as
they don’t currently have a hip-hop magazine, however they do have Q magazine which covers a
variety of genre’s including hip-hop, proving to all that they would be a great representative for my
magazine. Not only is there the difference that my magazine only covers hip-hop and Q covers
other genre’s, but it is also targeted at a younger audience of 16-24 compared to the target
audience for Q being consumers over 25 years old.

http://www.bauermedia.co.uk/home

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

As my magazine genre is hip-hop, the audience would generally have the
interest of hip-hop music or the culture of hip-hop. The target
audience would also be in the age range of 16-24 year olds which can
be seen immediately as the people in the images range from 16-
18, male or female. However, in my product there are no images or
many mentions of females which can portray that the genre is highly
dominated by males. The social class I have aimed my magazine at
would range from C1/C2-B, the images used can present this due to
the clothing being worn. Also the use of san-serif text, providing the
sense of informality. As hip hop has become a mainstream genre I
have aimed it at the psychographic profile of mainstreamers/followers.

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

Before designing my magazine I used a questionnaire to ask people a variety of
questions ranging in my preferred target audience. I included questions giving the
choice of a variety of preferred features so I knew exactly what my audience
wanted to see in my magazine.
Content m y participants w ould m ost like

Interview s w ith artists/bands Here we can see the
Gig Review s
Competitions most important
Upcoming artists
Upcoming events features, so I used
Quiz's
this to incorporate
exactly what my
audience wanted
into my product.

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

•The use of font was also a great
attraction as it was stylized to create
reference to the genre, as it is bold and
striking. There was a high use of
capitals which can create the immediate
eye catching effect, and can highlight
the importance of certain things, such
as the masthead. Not only did I use
capitals for the masthead I used impact
as the font and also used „fx‟ bevel and
•One of the most important emboss to make it even bolder and eye
features to attract my audience catching.
was the colours used.
Throughout my product I have • Another thing I used to attract
used the same three colours; my audience was the use of
red, black and white, in all three images. As my audience were
of my pages I have kept these fans of hip-hop, I used „artists‟
colours consistent. I believe the that were from the genre of it,
importance of the colours were and that resembled the style of
significant as all the the genre (street).
text/headings were the things
that stood out immediately to the
reader.

6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of
constructing this product?
Photoshop
The first thing I needed to It then lead
do was place the main me to select
image in, so I selected file, the image I
and place wanted to
use, to which
I then
selected
place.

It then replaced a
white background
with the main image.

Photoshop
To insert my masthead, I clicked the ‘T’ on
the toolbar and it provided options of font,
size and colour, I chose all to match my
drafts. I intended for my masthead to be
bold and eye catching.

Because I wanted It
to stand out, I used
font size 166 and
used the font
‘impact’, I also used
black to make it
simple. But to make
it a bit different I
changed the ‘MA’ in
the middle of the text
to red to match my
colour scheme.

I was then happy with the outcome for
my masthead, this immediately can be
seen and would be very eye catching
for a shelf product.

Photoshop

To increase the eye
catching effect I
wanted to use ‘fx’
to make it even
bolder, I used
‘Bevel and
Emboss’

This then increased
the intensity of the
masthead,
guaranteeing the
attention of
consumers

Photoshop

To create my cover
lines I again used
the ‘T’ on the toolbar
and chose text to
write

The text didn’t
quite stand out
across the
background, so
I used ‘fx’ and
stroke to make
it more
I think the stroke noticeable.
outlining the text
made it more
immediate and
eye catching

Photoshop
After inserting all my
cover lines, I decided
to use a flash
rectangle box to
highlight an important
cover line I then filled it black to
make it bold

I used an important cover
line so that the consumer
would see this
immediately as it stands
out

With the flash including text
that has effects on it creates However I wanted to emphasise it more
a massive attraction for so I added the stroke affect to outline the
consumers writing and make it stand out even more.

In Design
The text setting was on
‘text around bounding
box’ so I changed this to
To create ‘wrap around object
text on in shape
design I
used the ‘T’
in the
toolbar

Because i wanted to create a
grab quote to stand out
between the columns of my This then created a
article, I moved it to the place I grab quote that
wanted stands out around
the article

In Design

I wanted to place a photo on the
side of my DBS so I selected I then went on
the rectangle frame tool and file and place to
created a box where I wanted select the image
my image to go. I wanted in the
rectangle frame

This inserted the picture but at
a large scale, so to make it fit
the frame I used right click to
then select fitting and ‘fit
content to frame’ my image
was now how I wanted it to
look.

In Design
When I created my text
box and typed my
article I needed to
make sure it looked
professional and in
columns

I changed the number
of columns from 1 to 2
and it then created the
two columns that
looked a lot more
professional than the
one column of text.
This made it look like a
proper magazine
article.

In Design

I typed in a quote As it didn’t quite stand out
and changed the font as much as I wanted, I
and font size to make created a frame around
I wanted to make a it stand out the rectangle box using
rectangle box to use stroke and increasing the
for quotes below each weight to 4pt
photo

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

Progressing from the preliminary task to the real
product, I have learnt a lot and it has helped me to
improve the realism of the magazine product. As the
products were different types of magazines, there were
things that had to be different due to the variety of
content. When comparing both products there is a
massive difference, including use of colours, images
and text. I have improved the image quality, as I
believed that the image I used for my college magazine
didn‟t quite make the impact it could have, so for my
full product, I made the image stand out properly and
also a lot more relevant.


Bold Masthead
with use of
different
colours- better
use of effects

Issue date
and price

Cover lines,
variety of
subject

Main
image

Flash box in
Barcode different
positions, good to
attract reader

Heading- with
the difference of
angle, font, size
and colour
Again in
both
Use of contents
images pages I
with have used
variation square
and
rectangle
frames to
frame the
content, thi
s creates a
Page
more eye
number for
catching
picture
effect for
reference
the reader
as it stand
out

Page number- with the difference of a
rectangle backing the number- this helps it
stand out a lot more, it also represents the
colour theme a lot more

Because I didn‟t create a double page spread for my
preliminary task I had to make sure I researched as many
double page spreads that would be relevant to my genre of
hip hop, I also used a questionnaire which I handed out to
peers of my target audience, this helped me decide what the
double page spread content would be on e.g. An
interview/article.
The main thing I have learnt from the
process of preliminary to main is the
variety of skills needed for the different
pages. Also I have learnt that the quality
and variety of images is very important to
keep it professional and realistic.

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