This document summarizes Jessica Blumsom's evaluation of her media product, a magazine called "Spike". Some key points: 1) She made design choices like the catchy title, slogan, and color scheme to attract her target audience of 15-18 year old rock music fans. 2) The layout challenged some conventions like putting the barcode on the side instead of bottom corner for better design. 3) Images, language, and artists represented in the magazine were chosen to relate to the target audience and rock music genre. 4) Technologies like Microsoft Publisher, Blogspot, and Picnik were used to construct and refine the magazine product. 5) Learning included how to properly represent audiences

1. Evaluation By Jessica Blumsom

2. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? RELATING TO AUDIENCE I made the magazine relate to the audience so that they would feel obliged to purchase it, having the artist of around the same age of my target audience. CATCHY TITLE AND SLOGAN I made my title short and catchy so that my audience could easily remember the title. It signifies being the peak. The slogan also links in with this idea. Spike also signifies piercings, and the punk studded belts that people who support the Rock genre wear. COLOUR SCHEME I made sure that my colour scheme of red white and black was appropriate for my rock genre, yet I made sure it stood out and was appealing, therefore I decided to use red to catch the readers attention. I made sure that all objects used in my magazine fitted to the colour scheme for instance the guitar was red and black, and I made the outfit colour coordinate. CHALLENGING THE CONVENTIONS I did challenge the conventions so that my magazine looked more professional in terms of layout. The barcode is typically supposed to be in the right bottom corner of the front cover, however it interfered with my ‘teasing contents’ at the bottom, and it looked better on the side of the magazine. FREEBIE I felt it was important to offer my target audience a competition, as it entices the reader and if they buy it they get more things out of the magazine rather than just reading it.

3. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? LANGUAGE The language suits my target audience as it is quite simplistic and therefore easy to understand, if I used complicated vocabulary it would be difficult for 15-18 year old teenagers to comprehend, and they would lose interest in my magazine. The language also suits my genre of my magazine as the vocabulary I used such as ‘death’ and ‘crazy’ as the genre Rock music has a lexis of having daring language and having an attitude. Most of the bands who are categorized in the Rock genre sing about death, and dark things, such as death. TYPE OF SHOT The use of the mid shot that I used in my front cover conforms to the conventions of a magazine. When looking at music magazines I found a pattern in almost all music magazines where mid shots were used as it makes the magazine personal to the reader as the reader is closer to the individual. It creates a connection between the artist and the reader. THE ARTIST I felt it was necessary to make sure that every part of my magazine linked together. I chose an outfit that was quite plain but met the criteria of conforming to the Rock genre. The studs on the leather jacket provide punk-edge attitude and the facial expression also conveys that the artist doesn’t care as the mouth is open and the eye is squinted. LAYOUT The layout of my magazine is framed around my unique selling point, the image of my magazine. My USP attracts the audience to my magazine and it relates to my genre and audience as it’s easy to relate to as the artist is young, and the artist reinforces the colour scheme On the left hand side of my front cover the text is slanted so that it does not interfere with my image or detract the attention off of it. I put the slogan below the title so that the audience are aware that it links together, this is also reinforced by the ellipsis. I have a ‘teasing content’s at the bottom of my front cover as it is the last thing the readers read and it draws them into the magazine. UNIQUE SELLING POINT I ensured that I had a unique selling point which is my image so that it attracted my audience.

4. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? IMAGES It is essential to entice the audience reading my music magazine by including pictures of what’s in my articles, while also page referencing where they are shown. This has been seen when I looked at current music magazines, and I believe it is effective as it focuses on the pictures, and means that the reader isn’t overcrowded with writing to look at. It generally makes the contents page more appealing. CONTINUTY I followed the magazine conventions by demonstrating continuity throughout the music magazine with the colour scheme. I made sure that I kept everything familiar for the audience so they could easily recognize and associate this colour scheme with my music magazine. I also had continuity by having the name of the music magazine throughout to reinforce promoting the magazine. LAYOUT I have followed the conventions with the layout of my contents page as the text is on the right hand side in a column, there is a letter to the editor as well. SPONSOR I chose a sponsor that targets my audience as it offers advice and support to teenagers battling drink and drug problems.

5. CONTENT I wanted the reader to be entertained by my double page spread interview. I wanted the interview to be realistic though, so I asked questions such as ‘What was your childhood like’ so that the audience could relate to the artist. I believe it means that if a normal person reads the double page spread it means that it gives them hope to achieve their dreams, knowing that a normal person can become famous. I included captions in the double page spread to entice the reader to read the content such as ‘I was a nightmare at school’ and ‘the good and the bad’ so that they can learn about what their idol/role model was like as a child. The good and the bad also entices the reader to read the magazine. LAYOUT I have stuck to the conventional way to layout a double page spread in a magazine by organising by text Into columns. I have also included captions for my pictures and quotes from what the artist has said. I have also stuck to the conventions of a double page spread by setting out the text as a question and answer interview.

6. How does your media product represent particular social groups? My artists that I have used in my music magazine go against the conventional stereotypes of how females are presented. In Rock and indie bands it tends to be males who are the lead singers, however by having a female lead singer it conveys them as powerful and can symbolize women as now starting to take control and have more authority in this genre of music. Therefore this magazine will provide ambition and hope to young females who want to work in the music industry, making successors and aspirers likely to read it. Having a female also shows the change of how music culture has developed as not only was Rock not popular until the 60’s and it was never socially acceptable for women to headline the genre. However, as my target audience is applicable to both genders, I did include some male artists for my music magazine, and I did want to stick to some traditional views of the Rock genre.

7. Although the Rock genre presents the image of not caring and being rebellious, and although my music magazine conforms to this theory by the facial expressions on the images, it still slightly goes against it by having powerful women in it as it conveys a hard work ethic. This can make my magazine controversial, much like the Rock genre is labelled as. My magazine also represents teenagers to conform and go against the stereotypical views that society hold upon them. Although the Rock genre implies that they are aggressive and violent, it also illustrates them as hard-working and able to achieve goals.

8. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? My media product will be appropriate to be sold in most stores for example Tesco, Sainsbury’s, WHSmith and newsagents, as many other magazines are sold in supermarkets and small village shops. My magazine follows the uses and gratifications theory as it is entertaining to the reader, but it can also inform readers on information on gigs and other music related things. As for what company would publish my music magazine, I believe it to be the same genre as NME which is what a company called IPC Media produce. Their magazine company is aimed at both genders and they have a number of magazines which are aimed at different audiences. The IPC media company have around 60 iconic brands, and 26 million adults read their magazines, and 14 million people use their online site. I think they will be incredibly appropriate as the NME magazine has a similar target audience to my magazine, and as they are already popular and appeal to a mass audience it would make my magazine very successful, as if people like NME then hopefully it means they would like my magazine. Another publishing company would be Bauer media. They also have a very popular magazine that is in my genre label and appeals to my target audience; Kerrang! Bauer media work with over 300 magazines, in 15 different countries and works with T.V, magazines and radio stations. For the same reasons as IPC media, I think it would be suitable to have them as publishing my magazine.

9. Who would be the audience for your media product? In my initial planning stages for my music magazine I conducted questionnaires on the type and age of people who read music magazines. The results showed that it was mainly teenagers or older men that red my Rock genre music magazines. I felt that targeting my audience at older men would be inappropriate as it was something that I couldn’t relate to, and it would be a lot harder to find feedback on it. I also thought that teenagers would be appropriate as of the need for the latest gadgets such as Iphones, Ipods and Ipads amongst others. With the availability to download music and stream it almost anywhere music is very popular. Therefore, the intended audience for my music magazine is teenagers aged 15-18. I believe that the language I have used throughout my magazine indicates this, as the vocabulary I have used isn’t incredibly formal, but isn’t childish words that anyone could understand. For instance, I have used language such as: ‘anticipated’‘sunk’‘opportunity’. I also abbreviated a band to ‘MCR’ which applies to teenagers as they would understand. The language is suitable for teenagers and isn’t incredibly educated. The age of the people I have used and the clothes the artists are wearing also indicate my audience of teenagers. The ‘Talk to Frank’ logo also reinforces my target audience as it can appeal to young, possibly naive teenagers and offers support. The obvious is also that my music magazine is aimed at people who enjoy music, and possibly play musical instruments. I tried to keep my magazine as music based as possible by including images of drums and guitars. The type of bands I have used on my front cover and the type of articles in my contents page also link to my target audience of 15-18 year olds, as the bands are current and popular with the age group I have targeted, as well as this I have included reviews on gigs and concerts, and this is definitely more directed at younger people who have the stamina to spend 3 hours at a gig. I also wanted ‘Spike’ to appeal to both genders, and I believe I have achieved this by having masculine instruments to contrast with the females in most of the images I have used. I also believe my colour scheme has reinforced that this magazine is applicable to both males and females as the colours can be liked by both genders, especially white and black, and then the red is the main colour which attracts the audience to the magazine. Make-up, shows need to look beautiful.  older people tend not to wear as much make-up/ or such vibrant make-up such as bright red lipstick. Prerogative pose indicates the artists youth. Owl animal on t-shirt, young clothes.

11. I believe that a freebie was a good feature to use in my music magazine as it offers more than just a magazine, and as it is a popular and well known band it would be widely enjoyed and would make the magazine sell more as they want the opportunity to go and see the band.

13. I used males and females in images as it attracts both genders as males find females attractive, and females find males attractive or idolize the females in the images and want to be like them.WIN A CHANCE TO SEE BLINK 182 NEXT WEEK in The Tourists, Shapes and Number plus Jared Leto AND MORE!

14. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product? MICROSOFT PUBLISHER I used Microsoft Publisher a lot in this media coursework to create my music magazine. I found it incredibly useful, it allowed me to position certain pieces of text exactly where I wanted them to go, for example framing the text around my image so that it didn’t interrupt it. I was also able to send certain things like my heading to the back of the page so that my main image overlapped the title making it look more professional. I also used a technique where I made all of the text boxes line up together, and I made all the font either aligned to the left, middle or right of the text box, so that everything looked good together on the page, and all my text started at the same point on the left hand side of the page and finished on the same point of the right hand side of the page. Publisher also allowed me to edit and crop my images so they looked appropriate in my magazine. BLOGSPOT.COM The website I used for the blog was blogspot.com. I found that this had advantages as well as disadvantages. Some of the benefits of using this method to record the progress of my preliminary and main tasks meant that I could access the site at home and at school. It also meant I could easily split up the blog into sections where I talked about my preliminary, main and evaluation tasks. As I had never used this website before it gave me knowledge on how to create a blog, and how to add pictures, tables and links where necessary which I thought was incredibly useful as for my questionnaire it meant I didn’t have to scan a number of surveys onto my blog, I was able to post a link which took it too the site. However, there were some negatives of using the blog, sometimes it was quite hard to handle in the fact that the font would sometimes go larger than you wanted it to which made the appearance of the blog not look as high quality. PICNIK.COM The website Picnik.com allowed me to edit and add effects to my pictures which made my artists I used look more professional, and it generally made my music magazine look more suitable to be sold in stores and/or online. Picnik.com allowed me to manipulate my audience. I manipulated my pictures using Picnik.com as I cropped one of my images making a picture that looked similar to another one look completely different. I also edited the individual to suit my genre of my music magazine. I made the skin lighter and darker in areas and made the hair more vibrant to reinforce the rock genre.

16. For instance in my preliminary task I used the software Microsoft Word and it wasn’t as effective as Microsoft Publisher as you cannot make the textboxes transparent, and the pictures look more stretched and less professional than they do on Publisher.

17. I conducted a lot of research into what makes a music magazine, about how all the colours must be linked together, and how everything must be related back to the audience and the genre.

18. I have also learnt about representation.

19. I learnt to think about what people and language represents and how it reflects on your audience. For instance the language must be appropriate for your audience, yet professional, and the people should attract the audience to read your magazine. I realised that the people symbolise your audience, in the fact that relating to my music magazine the female on my front cover is of the same age group as my target audience and she represents that women can be famous in the rock music genre, and hopefully it inspires the audience and readers that they can achieve the same goals. In terms of genre, my music magazine represents the rock attitude and this is reinforced by the bold colours I have used.

20. The colours must stay the same and I learnt about the conventions of what to include in a music magazine.

21. For example, the contents must be appealing to the audience- so well known bands, and a competition prize. The article included in my magazine must be laid out appropriately and include pictures and text so that the reader isn’t overwhelmed with text.How I would improve my music magazine? If I had to make improvements I would improve the double page spread. Although I believe I followed the conventions in terms of layout and structure, I would have added more images to it to make it more interesting. Even though I think there is a sufficient amount of text, in the fact that the reader is not overloaded with information, I would fill up some of the empty space to make the reader more fulfilled with the quality of the magazine, and have more to look at, and see the artist in different lights.