The document discusses how the student's media product uses and develops conventions of real music magazines. Specifically, it discusses including page numbers, a masthead with the magazine title in bold colors, using different fonts for titles and articles, incorporating a colorful style scheme including purples, including studio and live photography, using an informal writing style aimed at students, and including essential features like a barcode and price. It also represents social groups like students through its style and content. The intended audience is identified as female students interested in alternative rock music.

1. Evaluation

2. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?
• Page numbers-I used page numbers in my magazine to help the reader navigate
through the magazine and find the specific articles they want.
• Masthead- The mastheads I looked at on music magazines were mainly big, bold in
and capitals to stand out to the audience on the shelf. The masthead font normally
reflected the genre of the music portrayed in the magazine. I used a font I thought
went well with the genre and title of my music magazine (alternative) I also used the
house style colours to make it match to the magazine. Also most music magazines
mastheads are covered by the main image, so I followed this convention placed my
image over part of the title.
• Fonts-Most music magazines use a couple of fonts for the main article writing, the
masthead and pull quotes/cover lines. I used 3 different fonts- Copperplate gothic
bold, Lucida bright and Bradley Hand ICT.
Copperplate gothic bold
(title) Lucida bright
(writing font)
Bradley Hand ICT
(editors message)

3. • Colour scheme-Most colours used for music magazines are reds,
blacks and yellows and very bright. I used bright colours to be eye
catching but I challenged the normal codes and conventions and
chose to use purple colours to appear to the female side of my
audience.
• Style of photography- The main article shots used were studio shots
which are typical for a music magazine, I also included a live shot
from a music gig that goes with the genre of music I covered.

4. • Writing style-My magazine is aimed at students so I used the usual
informal, chatty style of writing to appeal to my audience.
• Barcode- This is an essential feature for a magazine so I included it
along with the price and date next to it so readers know how much
it costs.

5. How does your media product represent particular
social groups?
Age: Most of the artists in my magazine are around or just above the age of my target
audience (students) so I used them to appeal and attract the audience and their age.
Students mostly like bright, funky colours with and informal style of writing that wont
take them ages to read so I applied this.
Class: The main audience my magazine is aimed at is students. So I used an informal,
chatty style of writing to engage them and get them interested and not bored of the
articles. The price is also affordable for students who are not working.
Social groups: My magazine is about alternative/punk rock music (hence the name
Alternative) so I represented these social groups through the clothes of my models in
the articles and the colours they wore to give off a specific image of the alternative rock
scene. The way they are photographed posed in a studio represents the alternative
genre too, they are not too scruffily dressed.
Hey readers!
So in this issue I got the amazing chance to spend a day with the
lovely Taylor Momsen herself (yes despite her moody image, she can
tell a good joke or two!) Don’t forget to read the interview with her to
find out all about her big comeback, latest album and tour. We’ve even
given one of you lucky lot a chance to spend a day with the queen of
pop punk herself, TayJardine! Enjoy the issue, will hopefully have lots
of new gossip for you in the next issue! Love Becki 

6. Gender: The house colours used throughout my magazine are more feminine colours
like purples and yellows so this appeals to my female target audience more but I have
also included greys and blacks which could also attract the male audience. I have used
mainly female models which could appeal to my female target audience because they
could aspire to be like the females in the magazine, this is also known as the male gaze,
girls could see themselves as the girl performers in my magazine and aspire to be like
them and what men want. The band I used were also quite good looking males which
also could appeal to my audience because they could be attracted to them. Also the girl
in the photos is represented as a very girly girl with long hair, short skirt, make up and
posing quite feminine which represents the genre of my audience.

7. What kind of media institution might distribute
your media product and why?
Bauer Media will publish my magazine because they already publish
Kerrang, so they would have experience and knowledge selling my
magazine because its of the same genre. It will gain them more
money.
They also publish in 15 different countries so my magazine could be
distributed widely for everyone, also they produce popular music TV
channels that play the genre of my music my magazine is about
(alternative rock/punk). This channel could advertise my magazine.

8. Who would be the audience for your media
product?
I think that my product would be suitable for the audience intended. In my final
product I aimed it more at the female audience who were students rather than
both genres. I still focused on the alternative genre as I thought that’s what most of
the students aged 17+ at the moment are into. So I used models dressed in
alternative rock style clothing so it was appropriate for my target audience. I used
both male and female artists so that my female audience could relate to the
females portrayed and the male singers would attract the females. I also used
more feminine based colours like purples and yellows. I tried to use the
information I gathered from the interviews and surveys I conducted and tried to
include features that appealed to the students I interviewed like interviews with a
certain artists and gig reviews. I didn’t use too complicated lexis as the readers of
my magazine are only students and just have a working class education and I didn’t
want to put them off the magazine by using complicated words that would make
them bored. The audience would be students who enjoy going to gigs and festivals
a lot in their spare time and reading about music and album reviews. They would
be interested in new up and coming alternative rock bands like We Are The In
Crowd and Paramore. The students would dress mainly in things like jeans and
converse with a band top of the alternative genre.

9. How did you attract/address your audience?
• Masthead: In the centre of my page to grab attention straight away, I used quite a
bold font that would stand out on the shelf in a bright purple colour that ties in
with my magazines house colours so it looks neat.
• Photographs: The location most of my photos were taken was a studio so my
photos were very clean cut. They were very bright, high key, posed and clear
which looks attractive and neat to the audience. They were also quite simplistic
with not much going on so the audience could see the image clearly and focus
more on it. In the main article images, the models were directly looking at the
camera making eye contact with the audience to engage and directly address
them.
The models were posed in a certain way that suits the alternative rock genre (like
holding their hands up, grabbing the camera) and would convey that to the
audience. I also used a live busy shot from a gig of the band featured as a contrast to
the studio ones so the audience could view a wide range of images. I used it to give
the audience a chance to feel what it would be like going to one of their gigs so they
can kind of experience it for themselves.

10. • Win a meet&greet: I put a ‘win a meet and greet with ‘ feature in to get the audience to
buy the magazine just so they could have a chance to spend time with their favourite
band member. Otherwise known as a puff.
• Tagline: I used a slogan with alliteration because it sounds good and also could
mean something to the audience.- ‘music matters’ they wouldn’t be reading a
music magazine if music didn’t matter to them.
• Cover lines: I used a famous alternative rock artists name to attract readers that
could be her fans.
• Font: I edited some of the fonts in Photoshop so it had a colour shadow of purple
and black to make it seem more bold and ‘in your face’.

11. • Layout: horizontal vertical columns main image over masthead
• Price: I made the price a reasonable one for what was included in
my magazine, and made it affordable so my audience of students
would be able to afford every new issue.

12. • Colours: The colours used were very bright and eye catching to grab
attention and stand out. I tried to use unusual colours for a music
magazine (purples) so it would attract readers because it is different
and would look intriguing.
• Pull quote: I used a pull quote on the bottom of the page to give the
reader an idea of what the interview was about before they read it
and entice them.
• Language: Very informal. I used specific field lexis to do with music that my audience
would understand. In my main double page spread article I also asked about the
album and portrayed it in a good way that would interest the audience. I also talked
about the rock and roll genre my magazine is about.

13. What have you learnt about technologies from
the process of constructing this product?
• Survey monkey- I used survey monkey to create a survey for my research and gather
answers from people about what my target audience like in a music magazine. I had
never used survey monkey before and I found it a very easy, hassle free and quick
way to gather a mass amount of information that was highly useful to apply to my
product. It wasn’t necessary to use this programme as I could have done a survey on
another site but I'm glad I chose to use survey monkey as it saved me a lot of time.
• Camera- I used a special Nikon camera to take professional looking photos in the
studio for my magazine production, I didn’t really have much experience using a
camera with a tripod, so I took most of my photos freehand, but I learned how to
zoom in and out and how to take photos from angles that looked best. I wouldn’t
have been able to have taken good enough quality photos if I didn’t use this camera.
• Photoshop- This is the programme I used to create my whole magazine during
production. It was the first time I had ever used Photoshop and I found it very
difficult and complicated but in the end I found that it produced a very good quality
and professional final piece. In design could have been another possible programme I
could have used to product a magazine but I didn’t understand that as well as
Photoshop.

14. • Slide share- Used to upload all my PowerPoints onto my blog, I had
also never used this before and it surprised me how useful it was.
This was a necessary programme.
• PowerPoint- I used Microsoft PowerPoint for my planning- style
sheet and photography plan. Also to type up all my evaluations and
analysis for my coursework.
• Blogger- This is where I uploaded everything from my coursework.
This was also the first blog I had ever created so I learned how to
upload different types of files like html codes and pictures, and how
to edit a post.
• Google – Without google I couldn’t have completed my research
and gathered inspiration for my magazines so I found this search
site very useful.
• Word – Used to type my interview up for my double page spread.

15. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do
you feel you have learnt in the progression from
it to the full product?
• When I created my college magazine for preliminary task I did no
research for it, unlike my main production task of the music magazine.
I did no audience or market research so it didn’t look as good because
I had no idea of what existing products looked like or how to set a
magazine out or what target audience I would be creating for or how
they wanted it to look. I also did no planning I just created one from
scratch, so my final pieces looked much better as I had time to look at
my research and plan a layout and draw up flat plans to follow. In my
preliminary task I didn’t use Photoshop so the quality wasn’t as good
as my music magazine.
• Developed skills- in my music magazine, unlike my college magazine, I
used both image and text manipulation so I got to develop and
practise my skills in this.