The document summarizes the key points from a media studies student's portfolio evaluation of their magazine product. It discusses how the magazine follows conventions of real magazines in its front cover, contents page, and double page spread layout. It also represents its target audience of teenage rock music fans and would likely be distributed by Bauer Media due to its similarities to Kerrang! magazine. The student learned about using Publisher and Paint.NET software to construct the magazine and improved their skills from the preliminary to final version.

1. AS MEDIA STUDIES G321 FOUNDATION PORTFOLIO EVALUATION By Hannah Maxwell

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

3. Front Cover My Front Cover subscribes to the conventions of a music magazine, because the main image covers the masthead. Also, Adam looks straight at the camera and creates direct address, which also subscribes to magazine conventions. However, I have challenged the conventions because Jake doesn’t look at the camera. My front cover was influenced by Kerrang! (target audience) and ID magazine (design). I have explored the Generic Conventions of magazine through this Forms and Conventions exercise; http://hannahmaxwell.blogspot.com/2010/10/forms-and-conventions-of-magazines.html

4. Kerrang! magazine influenced NOISE, because of the way the main cover line cuts across the main image. It also has the same target audience I also liked the posters puff on the front, and the use of the bottom cover line. I have used these ideas on my magazine, ‘Still Nameless’ cuts up the main image, and I have used the bottom cover line to give names of additional bands. I have also done a poster puff. ID magazine influenced NOISE because of the relationship between the masthead and the main image. Each cover person on ID pulls the same sort of winking face as the masthead. On my magazine, I made Jake put his hands in his ears to replicate the hazard symbol I had used instead of the ‘O’.

5. Contents My contents has been influenced mostly by Kerrang! magazine. In K! magazine, a different article to the main cover line is the main focus on the contents. Bands featured on the bottom cover line are also featured inside the contents in more detail, and the contents uses a different colour than the front cover, but remains within the house style. The captions of articles are linguistically appealing/persuasive to the potential audience. Simple vocabulary is also used, which relates to the audience, and there is also an advert for a subscription to the magazine. I also liked the use of the editors note, which most music magazines have done.

6. On my contents I have used another story as the main focus (No Direction), band that are featured on the bottom cover line of the front page are integrated on my contents and I have used orange instead of red in the colour scheme. I have used persuasive captions and I have also made a subscription advert in the bottom right hand corner. I have also used an editor’s note too, addressing the reader and making the magazine seem more appealing. Therefore I have subscribed and developed the generic conventions of a contents page in a music magazine.

7. Double Page Spread Kerrang! was the main influence for my DPS too. I’ve subscribed to the conventions of a double page spread through the use of a full page picture and the article on the next page. These are often used as artist features. I also used additional information boxes with Q&As. K! influenced my article through language, structure and content. e.g. conversational, introducing a scene (backstage), and telling readers what the band is all about. The pictures show the band offstage, which, paired with a casual interview makes the band more relatable to my target audience.

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

9. My magazine targets mainly teenage people, who listen to a variety of rock music, like Kerrang! and Rock Sound. I have represented rockers through the images I have used, such as Still Nameless and Jessie Mac. Still Nameless are meant to be down to earth, out for a laugh guys, who don’t take themselves too seriously. Jessie Mac is a confident, trend-setting, in-control female, who makes damn good tunes and does what she wants. I have gone with the stereotypes of 21 st century young people – live fast, not taking ‘crap’ from anyone. What Social Groups have I represented? Are they stereotypical representations?

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

11. Bauer Media http://www.bauermedia.co.uk/ NOISE magazine would be distributed by this company because NOISE would appeal to a demographic similar to that of Kerrang! and Bauer Media distributes Kerrang. It is a major distributor that distributes magazines like; Closer, Heat, FHM, Zoo, Kerrang and Q. It is also the distributor of many local radio shows etc. I think NOISE would be distributed through a major distributor because I think it would be a big seller.

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

13. Target Audience – My magazine is aimed at females and males aged 15+ who enjoy/listen to rock music. My magazine aims to give information on everything rock, whether it’s indie or heavy metal. It would therefore appeal to older people who listen to rock music. (the above link shows a questionnaire where I explored my target audience, by asking them what they liked and didn’t like about my magazine. Kerrang magazine is the most similar magazine to mine, as they have the same target audiences.

14. How did you attract/address you audience? 5.

15. Colours I chose Red, Black, White and Orange to be my colour scheme because they appeal to my target audience through the way they stand out against each other, and the fact red is such a statement colour. Red also has strong connotations of passion, anger and love, which is also what a lot of rock music is about. Masthead My masthead – NOISE – is appealing to my target audience because it has a tone of rebelliousness that is associated with rock. It is also a pun, because that is how some people would actually describe rock music in general. It could be argued that NOISE gives a bad name to rock music, however I think the irony would be amusing/intriguing to my target audience. Using the hazard symbol, which could symbolise earphones for music, also made my masthead more appealing. Language/Register The language I have used is rebellious, colloquial and simplistic. This is appealing to my target audience because it is easily read, easily understood and most of all they will enjoy reading it because it uses the same rebellion associated with the music they love. The register of my magazine is very informal and loud, representing the rock genre.

16. Pictures I have a variety of pictures, from gutsy blonde rockers to acoustic playing indie folk. This shows that my target audience is broad and diverse. There is also a certain rebellious attitude to my pictures, e.g. Jake on the front cover with his fingers in his ears. This is appealing to my target audience because it contradicts the conventional look of a magazine and would therefore stand out – which rock music does. Exclusives I have used posters as my puff, which appeal to my target audience because band posters are essential to any rock lover. I have also said that my artist interviews (Still Nameless) is exclusive, because that way my readers know they won’t find my article anywhere else.

17. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing the product? 6.

18. I used Publisher to construct my magazine, and I used Paint.NET to edit my photos. Strengths Publisher: Easy to use You can clearly see construction lines, unlike word, and you can construct outside the document It is simple to insert objects without everything else moving around Print Preview usefully shows exactly how my magazine would look at each stage Paint.NET Simple Files can be saved as PNGs so that they have no background There are many effects that are good to test out You can change the brightness and contrast of a picture very easily. Weaknesses Publisher: It’s hard to place things exactly where you want them, so it can get quite fiddly It’s unclear how to shrink the border of a text box, without moving the text. Paint.NET: It can be very time consuming to cut out a picture It easy to ‘over-edit’ a picture, so it looks awful

19. Photographic Choices I chose my front cover image because I wanted it to tie in with the hazard symbol on my masthead and the theme of my masthead. The image of Jake with his fingers in his ears fits the theme of NOISE so well because it’s like he’s hearing a noise and that’s his reaction. I think it captures he attitude of the magazine. I made the image better from my original photo, by changing the brightness and contrast, and cutting out the background.

20. Here are some other photos I chose, because I felt they captured the attitude or showed the diversity of NOISE magazine.

21. In creating the 3 elements, I found it easiest to roughly sketch a contents page before anything else. From my contents, I could then deduce what would feature on the front cover and then in my article. When I started to construct, I completed my contents page first, just in case I made any alterations which then meant it would not affect my front cover or article. I have learnt that doing the contents page first gave a really solid guide to the rest of my work, which ultimately speeded it up, and meant I had a vivid picture in my head of what I wanted to do. I found using Blogger really easy. It meant that I could do work whenever I wanted without having to print off and I could do it quicker than a folder, because all I had to do was upload it onto my blog.

22. LOOKING BACK TO YOUR PRELIMINARY TASK, WHAT DO YOU FEEL THAT YOU HAVE LEARNT IN THE PROGRESSION FROM IT TO THE FULL PRODUCT? 7.

23. On the front cover alone I can see that my preliminary looks very basic compared to my final magazine front cover, because it appears to just be word art over a main image. PRELIMINARY FINAL

24. I can see that changing the programme from word (preliminary) to publisher (final) has greatly improved the authenticity of my magazine. In addition to that, my image manipulation skills have improved a lot. PRELIMINARY FINAL

25. Overall, I think my end product is reasonably successful, and fits the brief well. I have thoroughly researched all aspects of magazines, and I believe that has been reflected in my construction. I think the strongest aspect is my contents page, and the weakest is my front cover. I am really pleased with my use of language and how I have captured the styling's of a rock-music magazine.

26. BY HANNAH MAXWELL