This document summarizes the evaluation of a media magazine product. It discusses how the magazine uses conventions of real magazines, represents particular social groups of teenagers and young adults interested in rock music, and why the magazine publisher IPC would be a good fit for distribution. The document also discusses how audience research was conducted and what technologies were learned through creating the magazine, and improvements from the preliminary task in using Photoshop tools.

1. Evaluation

2. Part 1- In what ways does your media product use,
develop or challenge forms and conventions of real
media products?
• My media product uses the conventions of a real
media product as I have gave a website for the
magazine, a Twitter account, a Facebook page
and a YouTube channel. I have used Kerrang as
my style model so I have used the typical
conventions of a rock magazine such as the
colour scheme, certain fonts and the images I
have used represent rock music as I have an
action shot of Liam playing the guitar on my front
cover. I used Liam as my model due to the fact he
has dark hair and has the indie/rock style which is
ideal for my magazine genre.

3. Part 2- How does your media product represent
particular social groups?
• My media product represents particular social groups
as I used quite informal language and things such as
exclamation marks which will make it easier for certain
social groups to relate. Also by the clothes my model is
wearing and the style of hair etc represents what kind
of social group it is aimed at. The age of my model is a
teenager which would attract other teenagers and
young adults. The house style of my magazine is dark
which would attract certain people as it is clear what
genre it is. As my model is positioned in a certain way
holding the guitar this also implies what kind of
magazine it is.

4. Part 3- What kind of media institution might distribute
your media product and why?
• I think that IPC would be a good choice for an institution for
my magazine to be distributed. This is because other
magazines that they do are popular. NME is one of the
magazines they publish, this is a very popular magazine,
and it is very well-known. It is also quite similar to the
genre of magazine that I have produced so it would also
have a similar target audience. The institution also
distributes Look magazine, this is well-know too, however
this is a fashion magazine rather than a music one. I think
this would be a good media institution as there magazines
are popular so it would mean that mine would have a
better response as it would be coming from a trusted
institution.

5. Part 4- Who would be the audience for your media
product?
• The audience for my media product would be
teenagers and young adults who like indie and
rock music. It is aimed at young adults as the
article, front cover and contents page all have
models in that age group. It is all about music,
so people who are very interested in music
and not just the celebrity life.

6. Part 5- How did you attract/address your audience?
• I attracted my audience by things such as the
house style and the images used; it is made clear
what kind of magazine it is which will attract
certain people. The age of the models will also
attract people of the same age. I also filmed my
friend who would be someone from the target
audience to see what she liked and disliked about
the magazine, this meant that I had an opinion
from the type of person who would buy the
magazine and I was able to change what was not
appealing.

7. Part 6- What have you learnt about technologies from
the process of creating this product?
• Whilst doing my media magazine I have used a few different types of
technologies such as the computer, digital camera, Photoshop, internet,
blogspot, Microsoft word and Powerpoint. The camera was of great
importance as it had a large memory so I could take a lot of photos and
wait until I seen them full size on the computer before I could choose
which would look the best. Photoshop also played a major role in
producing my magazine as it meant I could edit the photos that I had
taken and crop them to the right size so I didn’t need to erase all the
backround. Also, the internet had a great impact to my work as I could
look at style models constantly whilst producing my magazine. I could also
see the typical conventions of the rock genre. The internet also allowed
me to make a blog, this is where I would show all my progress and what I
have changed, I posted things as the pictures I was planning to use etc.
Microsoft Word has allowed me to plan written work such as my feature
article before I transferred it to Photoshop. Finally, Powerpoint has been
very useful as I could evaluate different magazines and use tools to
annotate them, I could then put this on my blog.

8. Part 7-Looking back at your preliminary task, what do
you feel you have learnt in the progression in it from
the final product?
• Looking at my preliminary task I can see that my use of Photoshop has
improved, I use more of the tools available rather than just the ones that
are needed, this gives my magazine a more authentic look. I used blending
options a lot in my final piece whereas in my preliminary task I didn’t use
it at all. Also, in my final piece I had a clearer idea of the typical
conventions for the genre of my magazine as I done more research and
used style models use as Kerrang.