This document evaluates a student's music magazine project. The student aimed to create a magazine that would appeal to a young audience interested in chart music. They used conventions from real music magazines, such as Q Magazine, to guide the layout and design. Key lessons from the project included learning photography and editing skills in Photoshop, as well as refining the overall presentation from their preliminary work. The student concluded the magazine successfully represented its target demographic and could be distributed by a major publisher like IPC.

1. Evaluation
of music magazine

2. 1. In what ways does you media product use,
develop or challenge forms and conventions of real
media products?
Uses: My media product uses conventions of real media products as this
helps it to look professional and have an order to prevent it from looking
messy. The masthead is at the top of the front page like a traditional
magazine and is also in a bold easy to read font. The picture that is on
the front is also traditional as it is a mid- shot.
Develop: When I was making my magazine, I followed traditional things
which are normally seen in a magazine as I knew that it clearly worked
best. The masthead name “Replay” suggest to the audience that the
contents is a replay of the hits of that month going back and looking
over them. The layout of my contents page was similar to the one of “Q”
magazine as it thought it was a simple and organised way to present it.
Challenge: I chose my magazine to appeal to anyone who is interested in
music which is in the charts which means it is typically a young
audience, this challenges magazines like billboard and “Q”.
The image above
shows the
contents page that
I used to base
mine on.

3. 2.How does your media product represent
particular social groups?
My magazine represents a particular
social group as it shows the music
which is in the charts and this is
normally liked by younger generations,
this is shown in the magazine as the
fonts and sizes are simple and easy to
read but also don’t look to childish,
The colour scheme is also 3 simple
colours which gives an overall “cool”
and “relaxed” feel to it which helps to
attract the audience.

4. 3.What kind of media institution might
distribute your media product and why?
Publishing : IPC is a well-known publisher for
magazines and around 26million adults are thought
to read there magazines in the UK alone. I would use
this publisher as it would have a range of
advertisement and do well at selling. This would also
help to get more people buying into it as well. The
fact that they publish big names like NME, Now,
country life, shows that they are a very successful
brand which means that my magazine would be likely
to become successful.

5. 4.Who would be the audience for your media
product? Enjoys music in the
charts
Audience Enjoys hearing about
new artists
Play and simple fonts
and easy to read articles
Giveaways, latest
fashion, quizzes
My audience was anyone interested in the charts. This shows what my audience enjoys and
what they wanted to see in the magazine, My magazine covers all of these factors which
means that it is suitable for them and meets the needs of the target market.

6. 5.How did you attract/ address your audience?
I attracted and address my
audience by using colours and
pictures that they would be
interested in, for example using
colour schemes which are plain
and simple which work together
well. The pictures were of young
people who hadn’t been seen
before which meant that they
were interested right from the
start.

7. 6.What have you learnt about technologies
from the process of constructing this product?
From this I have learnt how to
use a camera to get good shots
with angles that work best in
magazines. I have also learnt
how to use Photoshop to make
the pictures the best they can
be and more suitable for the
page it is going to be used for.

8. 7.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 there is a
difference in the skills that I have used
to create it, for example the picture
which was used in my preliminary task
wasn’t taken in a studio and the
lighting was not very good. The fonts
and colour schemes were also better
which meant that it looked well
presented, the layout was also more
thought through.