This document summarizes the ways in which the student's media magazine product uses and develops conventions from real magazines. Some key points: 1) The magazine uses conventions like logos, page numbers, and realistic features like prices and dates seen in other magazines. 2) Formatting and stylistic choices aim to attract a young, music-interested audience in line with magazines like NME and Kerrang. 3) Through the production process, the student learned skills in extracting and editing images in Photoshop, and constructing a magazine using layers. 4) The final product showed improvements over the preliminary magazine through more professional fonts, enhanced cover image, and varied stylistic choices.

1. SOSMagazineEvaluationJordan Reid

2. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?The tag line at the top of my magazine is used often on other magazine covers.I used a picture that I had taken previously at a gig as I thought that it would make it more eye catching. Using more than one image is a technique used by many other magazines. I decided to create a Logo for my magazine as it isa method used typically byother music magazines such as NME magazine.I decided to adopt the method of adding page numbers to my cover stories as it is a convention used by most.My media product uses the forms and conventions of other magazines such as NME, especially with the mainImage I have decided to use. IAdjusted the contrast and vibrancy as I noticed from other magazines that unrealistic effects were present.I have included a price, date of issue and barcode in order to maintain a genuine and realistic looking magazine.

3. I put the date of issue at the top of the page as this is a feature commonly used in magazines. The title ‘This Week’ is often used in magazines as a reference to being a contents page. I felt this was also essential.The band present on the front cover of the magazine is usually a main feature on the contents page so I included a large heading and image to show the main story. Contents headings areAlways present in magazines in order to make it easier for the reader to navigate themselves around the magazine. I decided to have a section on my contents page where the editor would talk about the magazine. I have noticed that this is a common feature used in Kerrang magazine, but not NME therefore my magazine is a combination of the two. Particularly in NME magazine, short, brief headings and small amounts of information are given on the contents page with page numbers beside them in order to inform the reader accurately. Page number and website are essential conventions when creating a magazine. The image I used contains the correct body language and clothing to make a convincing magazine.

4. The title of my double page spread takes up a lot of the page, this is because I noticed that this technique was used in many other magazines. I have used an alliteration in order to make it more interesting. The heading ‘Feature’ is used weekly in the NME magazine to indicate that this is the feature of the issue. The main text is in columns which is typical of a magazine. There are also quotes enlarged and extracted from the text which is a technique used in order to attract the reader’s attention. The image is largeand takes up a lot of the double page spread. This is a popular technique in magazines as it attracts the readers eye. The larger the image, generally, the More important/ the story will be. There is a short caption which informs the reader of what that page will be about.

5. How does your media product represent particular social groups? The targeted audience is teens and young adults and this is made obvious by the colours used, the logo is a metallic, shiny grey colour which represents modernism and youth which would perhaps steer older readers away.

6. The images used are very arrogant and in your face which usually only attract younger readers as they perhaps aspireto look like them. Having new gossip sections in the magazine usually appear Exciting which would appeal to younger readers more than older ones as older readers seek a relaxing read, which would alter the colours of the magazine, the stories and the fonts. The music genres electro and indie aren’t really familiar to older readers which is another reason why my magazine would appeal more to the younger readers. How did you attract/address your audience?• I feel that the colours used throughout my magazine played a significant role in helping me attract my targeted audience. For example, the ‘chrome’ effect used on the letters of my logo allowed it to look modern and youthful.• The fonts appear geometric and modern which I feel gives away the intentional audience of my magazine as they are crowded and busy.• The fact that my magazine is based upon informing people of the ‘latest news and gossip’ on already existing and new bands would suggest that it is aimed at a young audience who always need to know the latest news.• I also made a point of putting bands/artists on myfront cover in order to target specific people whomay be interested in those particular bands.

7. Who would be the audience for your media product?• The audience of my magazine would be teens and young adults, similar readers of the NME as that is the magazine which I have based my magazine on.• My magazine focuses specifically on the music genres Electro and Indie so I would also say that my magazine would appeal to people who enjoy the bands which are featured throughout my magazine.• I decided to add as a feature in my magazine, a dedicated page to GlastonburyFestival which would contain the latestnews on line-up’s and reviews. This wouldenable my magazine to be suitable forfestival goers. People who want to hear who is playing the festival, and see reviewsand images from last years festival if it istheir first time.

8. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? Music institutions such as ‘HMV’ and ‘Virgin’ would perhaps distribute my magazine as people entering those stores would be interested in the music genres represented.

9. WHSmiths and other similar outlets may also stock my magazine as it is a store which is used by people of all ages which would increase the sales in the magazine.

10. Perhaps even websites which sell magazines, maybe specific indie/electro pop websites which distribute magazines of that music genre only.OWNED BYTIME WARNER(MULTIMEDIA CONGLOMERATE)As Time Warner are a Multi-media conglomerate, my product would receive vast amounts of publicity and due to the money raised by other aspects of the company, such as films and radio stations, there is great reliability in my product as it could be sustained for a long period of time as the money is completely behind it. The magazine NME has been around since 1952 which backs up my theory that my magazine would be reliable.FILMINTERNETRADIO

11. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product? I developed my skills on Photoshop, particularly with these two toolbars on the screen. I learnt how to extracts parts of an image perfectly or perhaps just erasing the background form an image which helped me a lot. I also learnt how to adjust the effects of images and texts such as ‘stroke’ and ‘drop shadow’ which features massively in my product.

12. I also found that I was using Photoshop a lot quicker than before which was because I discovered how to use the layer bar on the right. This saved me a lot of time when constructing my magazine. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?Firstly, I feel as though the contrast between the preliminary magazine and my coursework is great. The fonts used in the preliminary make the magazine look unofficial.

13. The fonts which I decided to use on my magazine for coursework differ greatly as they are sporadic and differ in every piece of text.

14. The image used on the front cover of my magazine has a far better angle and a better appliance of effects which make it look realistic.