This document evaluates the student's media studies magazine project. It summarizes how the student used conventions from real magazines in their design, like placing the title at the top and using two dominant colors. It describes changes made from an initial to final front cover design based on conventions. The student learned skills in Photoshop and representing social groups. They want Bauer Media to distribute the magazine due to their success distributing similar magazines. The intended audience is teenage girls and the magazine aims to attract readers through visuals, layout, and gossip content. The student learned technologies like Photoshop and how audience research improved their work from a preliminary to final project.
2. In what ways does your media product use, develop or
challenge forms and conventions of real media
products?
I have used many conventions in my magazine that are similar to real media products. For example on my front cover I have put the
title of the magazine at the top of the magazine because most magazines put it at the top of the magazine. I have also put an image
of my model behind the title and I made the text around the image to come on top of the image, most magazines have similar
conventions. I have mainly used two colours, purple and black as most magazines use about two or three colours. I have also used the
usual conventions like the date, issue number and the barcode.I also used the usual conventions like the date, issue number and the
barcode.
Front cover before: Final front cover:
This is how my magazine looked before but as you can see I had to change it a lot. For example I had to change the image because most music magazines
either use a medium close up or a medium long shot. I used a medium shot so I had to change it, also the model I used didn’t have the look for the front
cover so I changed the model. I had to change the colours because most music magazines mainly use 2 or 3 colours and at first I had used 4 colours
which was too much then I reduced it to blue and black but then I had to change it again because the blue wouldn’t look nice with the new model, that is
why I changed it to purple and black. I also made the title bigger as most magazines make the title big so that it stands out. I also added more sell lines to
make it look realistic and so that there isn’t a lot of spaces left on the cover. So I had to improve it to make it conventional. I did this using photoshop.
3. I have mainly used this Blender magazine front cover as a guide to produce my own front cover, that is
why my magazine looks similar to this magazine. I have used a female model similarly to the Blender
magazine. The framing I used is similar to the framing used in the Blender magazine. Also you can see
from the Blender magazine that there is only two colours used, blue and black, that is why I made my
text two colours two, purple and black. So overall my magazine is very conventional and uses typical
conventions which are used in professional music magazines. I haven’t used anything unconventional that
challenge professional music magazines.
4. How does your media product represent particular
social groups?
First of all I have used an image of a girl who is dressed in purple and posing in a girly way. From this
image it represents girls in a stereotypical way. Also on the front cover I have used mostly purple and
black and purple is mainly a girly colour so again it is a stereotypical representation of girls as the
model is posing in a girly way, she is dressed in purple and also the text is in purple too.
5. What kind of media institution might distribute your
media product and why?
I would want Bauer Media to distribute my magazine because they
distribute a lot of popular magazines such as Kerrang!, Mojo and Q
magazine.They distribute lots of different types of magazines for
example women, mens lifestyle, Gardening , sport, pets magazine
and many more.They produce a lot of well known magazines that is
why I want Bauer media to distribute my magazine because f they
distribute it I will have more readers because they know that Bauer
distributes good magazines.
6. Who would be the audience for your media product?
From my audience research my audience is
teenagers around the age of 15-19 years
old. Also mostly teenagers buy magazines
thats is another reason I have aimed at
teenager. Also my magazine is mainly aimed
at teenage girls as mostly teenage girls are
interested in gossip and also I have a better
idea of what girls like than boys and I have
based my magazine and girls interests
rather than boys. But as I have used an
image of a girl, male will also be interested
as they might be attracted to the image.
But mainly it is aimed at teenage girls.
7. How did you attract/address your audience?
I have used many techniques to attract the readers attention. For example on the front cover I have
used an attractive image of my model that would attract any one passing by. Also the layout seems
to attract the audience too. I have used direct mode of address which again will attract the readers
attention. The sell lines will also attract the readers attention for example, “Glamorous stars on the
red carpet in the Brits Music award inside this issue” readers will want to know about the award
and what the artists wear so having this sell line on the cover would make the reader want to read
the magazine. On the contents page I have put many features that will attract the readers attention
for example I have information about competitions which would interest the reader because they
would want to know about competitions. Also I have got features such as “Amy jailed again” and
“recent relationship affairs” these features will interest the reader because it is gossip and people
mostly like gossip so they will interested in reading the magazine.
8. What have you learnt about technologies from the
process of constructing this product?
I have learnt how to use many technologies for example I have learnt how to use Photoshop
to edit my picture and making the layout of my contents, front cover and double page
spread. I learnt how to use layers so that images and text can overlap and create gradient
affects for the background which makes it look more realistic and professional.
I also learnt how to create and use a Blog to put my work on and show the steps and
research I did to produce my magazine.
I also learnt to use Slideshare which is an online storage site to put documents such as
presentations and word documents onto my blog.
9. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel
you have learnt in the progression from it to the full
product?
From the preliminary task I have learnt how to layout text and images around the age to make it look better.
I learnt how to improve my Photoshop skills to make everything realistic. Also for my preliminary task I didn’t
do any audience research so I didn’t know what to put on the cover or contents page but for my production
task I did research so I knew what people wanted and what type of things I should include in my magazine.
This made me realise how important audience research is when producing a magazine. Also we didn’t have
much time when producing the preliminary task compared to the production task so we had to rush the
preliminary task that is why it wasn’t as good as the music magazine. This shows that time management is
important when producing a music magazine. Also when we had to take an image we didn’t have time to edit
the image in the preliminary task while for the production task we did.
