- The document discusses a music magazine product the author created, evaluating how it uses and develops conventions from real music magazines. - The author researched magazines like NME, Q, VIBE and Rolling Stone to inspire design elements like the masthead, layout, and photo styles. - Feedback from a focus group of the target audience, ages 15-25, was positive and provided suggestions for improvement. - The author learned skills with technologies like Photoshop, Microsoft Word, and Blogger through the process of researching, designing, and presenting their magazine product.

1. AS Media studies
Evaluation
Question 1– In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge
forms of conventions of real media products?
The music magazine I have produced has been inspired by a range of different
music magazines which has helped when designing my product. The title of my
magazine is Rock’n’Roll. This masthead was designed on Photoshop which has
enabled me to give it a professional look. It is displayed in red font which
represents the genre that my magazine is targeted towards; this being both
men and women aging from 15-25. The representation of the colour portrayed
in the masthead is youth rebellion which is common in magazines such as NME
and VIBE. My masthead was inspired from magazines such as Rolling Stone for
the colour and NME for the block capital letters. My masthead is developed
from both of these magazine mastheads in the way they the shape of the text
and the shade of the red is different in the way I liked it to look.
Before making my product I researched different magazines to identify the
house style used and to see how well other magazines had used the
Guttenberg design principle. This then inspired me to make my magazines
house style consistent as does ‘Q’ magazine and the NME. I thought this
consistency of the pages made my magazine look professional and made the
pages flow nicely. Whilst researching magazine pages I discovered that all
magazines varied when using the Guttenberg design principle depending on
what the design of the page was. When designing my magazine I followed the
Guttenberg design principle that was used on a VIBE magazine I liked. My
cover didn’t entirely reflect the VIBE magazine as I designed it how I thought
looked best. The house style and colour scheme of my magazine was
determined by a survey I undertook which gave me the results of my target
audience and what colour scheme they would like to see in a new music
magazine. This colour scheme is consistent throughout the page which I have
produced which keeps the professionalism of the magazine. The font styles
and sizes I have used were similar to ones used on ‘Q’ and ‘VIBE’ magazines as I
they reflected the target audience well in the way they were designed and I
thought they were suitable for my magazine.
All the images displayed in my magazine have been photographed by myself
with the help of some friends who modelled for me. The front cover
photograph was inspired by many different magazines including ‘Q’ ‘NME’
‘VIBE’ and ‘Rolling Stone’ as they all at some point have used a full length shot

2. of a model for a magazine cover. I thought a photograph taken in this way
would work well on one of the first issues of a new music magazine as the
audience are familiar to covers with models looking this way which would
make them more likely to buy the product. The photograph used for the front
cover of my magazine is slightly off centre into the primary optical zone. This
applies with the Guttenberg design principle and keeps the professional look of
the magazine. The model is looking at the camera which gives direct address to
the audience which could in turn make them want to purchase the product.
Likewise the photograph used on my double page spread has been positioned
mainly on the right hand side of the pages and goes onto the left page slightly.
I thought this looked like professional music magazine such as a ‘VIBE’ double
page spread.
All images used in my magazine have been edited to enhance and manipulate
the colour and skin tone of the models to make them look more vibrant and
bring out the colours in their clothes and props used. All edges of images used
have been smoothed and taken away form the original background to make
them look the best they could on my magazine.
The article displayed in my double page spread has been constructed in a
traditional way of being split into three equal sized columns across the left
page. This has been done to fit around the image and is a traditional way
magazines display text. This can be seen throughout all magazines including
‘VIBE’ and ‘NME’.
Question 2– How does your media product represent particular social groups?
Social class is represented in my magazine through the use of the language in
my article. The language used represents working and middle class as it is
portrayed as quite formal with some informalities. This has been done to make
the article familiar with text that the targeted audience are familiar with
reading and that the text flows well.
The target audience for my magazine is both men and women from the age of
15-25. My magazine has been made suitable for the target audience. This age
and gender range has been portrayed though the colour scheme used in the
way that it uses a set colour scheme; explained in the previous question.
These colours entice the youthful audience, whereas if I was made for a target
audience of people 40+ then it may be back and white because they do not
need colours to necessarily be entertained.

3. Question 3 – What kind of media institution might distribute your media
product and why?
I think my magazine logo would be well suited being published by
www.ipcmedia.com as they publish a wide range of different styles of
magazine mastheads and logos. The mastheads displayed on this website show
a wide range of fonts, sizes and colours. I think my masthead would work well
by being published by this publishing house because the ones displayed are the
same kind of style to mine in the way that the colour has been used and the
size of the text. The target audience of the existing magazines that have been
published by this publishing house is similar to mine in being of the ages from
15- 25. Magazines published by this publishing house include NME, Soap Life
and The Shooing times. These magazine have a similar style to my mast head
therefore I would go with this publishing house to publish my product.
Whereas the types of logos that www.auermedia.co.k produce doesn’t really
suit my magazines style and house style. This is because they don’t suit what
my target audience were looking for in the colour and size of the font. This is
because they were all very big and too bold to suit my magazines design.
Question 4 – Who would be the audience for your media product?
The audience for my media product would be both me and women aging from
15- 25. The research I conducted helped me to come to this age range as many
similar magazines had a youthful feel to them, for example the colour scheme
was similar and the common informalities in the articles were similar to mine
which made the audience familiar with the magazine.
I made a focus group on Facebook which allowed me to get feedback from 5
friends who fit within the target audience of my magazine. I asked them to
comment on the content, genre, photographs, colours, fronts and overall
success of the magazine I have produced. Some of the comments I received
include:
“The contents in the double page spread are good. The article sounds realistic
and I think the interview style article works well for a music magazine.”
“I like the main image on the front cover of the magazine. It works well on the
white background and with the text surrounding it. If you were to do it again
you could maybe make the model look more like an artist, for example have
him holding an instrument, or maybe even photo-shoot multiple people so it
looks like they’re in a band together. That’d look cool.”

4. “I like the way the contents page looks. The contents on the right of the page
look professional. Although the images on the right of the age are good maybe
they’re could have been some larger text here. “
These comments from the focus group helped to understand how I could have
improved upon my magazine if I was to do it all again. The positive and
constructive feedback
Question 5 – How did you attract /address your audience?
The target audience for my new music magazine is both men and women aging
from 15- 25. This age range was a result of my market research as I found out
what young people want in a music magazine and what appeals to them.
I managed to do this by the use of colour and current content on the latest
artists and bands including a range of images and text. For example my
contents page includes many new and current artists so that the audience will
be interested in it because they’ll like to read about something current and
now. Therefore my magazine should successfully attract the positive attention
of my target audience. M magazine has been inspired b current music
magazines such as VIBE ad NME.
The model used on the front cove of my magazine directly addresses the
audience which may make them want to read the articles inside as they may
felt they are being draw into the magazine as the model is looking out at them.
The text and language used is suitable for my target audience because it talks
to tem in a way that they are use to be talked to and how they would talk. This
is done by the text in the main article including common informalities that are
used by the youthful audience on a daily basis.
Question 6 – What have you learn about technologies from the process of
constructing this product?
Microsoft word and PowerPoint allow documents to be written and presented
to be made in an easy way but at the same time look professional. This has
been a good tool for presenting my work because it keeps the professionalism
but at the same time doesn’t take too long to construct. I haven’t come across
any limitations with Microsoft word and PowerPoint as they are just so simple
to use and everything you need is clearly displayed.

5. Blogger is a great way of presenting all of my work electronically; which bodes
well with the media course as it is another form of media. Despite this great
way of laying out information and documents, blogger at first took some time
to get use to. This was frustrating when I needed to upload posts because I had
to find help either on the internet or from a tutor. This was soon resolved as I
became use to the application and was successfully uploading posts by myself
in no time.
Photoshop has also been a necessity throughout the course, enabling me to
create my magazine, edit it and enhancive photographs I have taken. It took
some getting use to begin with but now I feel confident with the software and
can use it well.
Technological convergence from the computers in class allowed me to
research magazines on the internet, make my product on Photoshop and
distribute the finished product on blogger and Facebook.
This shows that anyone can easily research, create and distribute projects all
on one device. It is now very easy to do things like this at home. It’s also a
much cheaper process then getting someone to design the product for you and
paying to have it published by a publishing house.
Question 7 –Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have
learnt from the progression from it to the full product?
I’ve learned many new camera techniques when taking photographs
throughout the course. I have learnt how to take more professional images
and now know how to use the camera in more depth and detail. For example
instead of just using auto mode I now use manual mode and change the
settings to take a higher quality image.
Even the computer filing system and sorting my work into files and folders has
improved over the course. The way I do this now is more structured ad
organised.
I am now confident with Photoshop and can manipulate images to make them
look of a better and higher quality standard. Also I now know how to use many
tools on Photoshop which have helped to construct my magazine.
Before I started the course I was a complete beginner and now a few months
later I feel confident with all aspects of the course and the technologies we
have used.