The document is a student evaluation of a music magazine they created called "RIVAL" about an upcoming rap artist named FLEX. The student analyzed real music magazines like VIBE to help develop their magazine's format and style. They included information, images, and quotes like a professional magazine but used informal language and slang more suitable for their target audience of 16-30 year olds. Creating the magazine helped the student learn skills with InDesign and Photoshop for page layout and design. They found placing images and text challenging at first but got better through practice.

1. Evaluation
By. Madina Ahmadi
9.12.2011

2. In what ways does media product use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?
• The Masthead of my magazine cover is ‘RIVAL’, I chose this to be my masthead because I
believe it is something different compared to any other music magazines. Moreover my
magazine Is about an upcoming rap artist, ‘FLEX 'he believes he will be better than the
artists we have at the moment for e.g. Drake and Eminem. I really like the way ‘Vibe’
Magazine present their magazines with a clear Masthead, The skylines and the writings
surrounded by the main image, so I decided to do something similar. I believe Vibe
magazine was an inspiration.
• Furthermore to develop my magazine, I analysed two music magazines (Vibe and Kerrang)
even though they were from different genres of music, the analysis helped me understand
what I should include in my Rival magazine and how to make it looks more professional.
• The information that consists in my Music magazine is not very different to Vibe
magazine, I say this because all the information, quotes and images that are needed in
each page, I have added in my music magazine as well, for example ; On my contents page
I have ( Flex’s image, pages numbered and have written the titles for all the pages that are
going to be presented in my RIVAL magazine.
• One of the differences between my magazine and a professional magazine is the
background/fonts and the formal/informal language that I have used.
• My magazine hasn’t been written in any form of formal language, there is quite a lot of
slang used in the interview I had with FLEX.
• If I was to set myself a Challenge for another music magazine, I would change the person I
have interviewed and the type of music genre it is based on.

3. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
A representation is the description or portrayal of someone or something in a particular way or
as being of a certain nature. The representation is the main point of the music magazine, it
helps the person who makes the music magazine know who their target audience is, the
construction of the photographs, textual content and the layout and the design of the piece.
The social group I am targeting is between the ages 16-30. I know my magazine will attract my
target audience because of the Bold Title, the colours used and the type of text written.
The photographs I have taken and used in my magazine will give my target audience an idea
of what the magazine is about, for example The images I have used in my contents page, lets
the audience portray what the magazine consists of and what it may be about. The
representation builds my textual context by the way it has been phrased for example “ Lil
Wayne Teaches us „How to Love‟” as soon as someone reads this, they will know there will be
a whole page written about Lil Wayne and his new song.
As I have said in the first slide, the text hasn‟t been written in formal language throughout the
magazine. Starting from the interview with FLEX, I have used slang language, this is because
youngsters prefer to read how they would say something in their own way. An example will be
presented in the next slide.
I have laid out my pages in a magazine form. The colours I have used are bright and eye
catching, The purpose of bright colours is to attract the readers. The Bold writing is also
necessary for the youngsters and adults, they will have a clearer view to what they are reading.

4. The heading is BOLD, to
make it eye catching
and attract the
customers attention.
The colours used in the
background has not been used
to make the magazine look
colourful, It makes the piece
look different and shows the
target audience how hard the
magazine producer must have
worked.
- Too much text in a Pictures make the
magazine is not very Magazine more
interesting, there should interesting and attractive.
be plenty of visualised
pictures and symbols.
This tells the audience that
the magazine is not only
about FLEX, it talks about
other music artists as well.

5. This is the a slang
term.

6. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
The company that will be publishing my magazine will be the ‘International Publishing
Corporation’, here is some information about their company and their past history.
<< The British magazine publishing industry in the mid-1950s was dominated by a handful of
companies, principally the Associated Newspapers (founded by Lord Harmsworth in 1890).
King controlled publishing interests which included two national daily and two national Sunday
newspapers (the newspaper interests being informally tagged he Mirror Group), along with almost
one hundred consumer magazines, more than two hundred trade and technical periodicals, and
various book publishing interests. >>
Website Used - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPC_Media
• The content page is the main and important page within the whole magazine, I say this because
it’s the soul of a magazine. Content is the best tool for building relations with your potential
customers. The look and feel of the magazine is crucial but quality content may be more
important. A perfect content page is when all 3 of these are completed ;
• Quality Information: Authentic information
• Quality presentation: Unique and user-friendly presentation
• Quality Writing: Proper grammar, concise and comprehensive style
The main aim for this magazine is for it to get sold, the only way that will happen is by the magazine
looking representative and attract customers, moreover Profit is important because it is the
bottom line of a business. Profit helps grow a business and it makes it's owners become more
financially stable.

7. Who would be the audience for your media product?
• The audience for my RIVAL magazine will be youngsters and adults (starting from the age
16). I have specifically chosen this age group because, I believe youngsters would prefer to
read a ‘RAP’ magazine more than an adult would, on the other hand many adults like rap
, this is why I think some adults might be interested in reading a magazine as well.
• Not only are people who like rap magazines going to buy ‘Rival’, but Tupac and Lil Wayne
fans might also be interested .
• There isn’t a specific origin of people who will buy the magazine, however, I can find out by
doing a questionnaire or by checking what kind of people are interested in the RIVAL
Magazine.

8. How did you attract/ address your audience?
• To attract my target audience, I have used Bold texts and colours, such as ; The masthead
‘ Rival’ – The font I have used for this was BLACKOAK STD, reason being because it is clearly
visible, moreover, the colours I used for my masthead is Red and white, the colour red is
attractive and shocking, therefore , the customers won’t find it difficult to view it or miss it.
Moreover, I believe that my target audience will not only love the text within the magazine, but
they will love the colours that I have used on my pages. I manipulated my representation by
researching different magazine covers, for example I researched on the vibe magazine cover
and compared it to a Kerrang Music magazine cover. I got all my ideas from Google
images/Vibe magazine covers. Vibe magazine has a very big influence and impact on my
magazine because I used most of their cover ideas, to make my own one look appealing. I have
used many sites to help me develop and improve my piece, these are some of the websites I
have used ;
http://www.vibe.com
http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?q=vibe+magazine
http://journalism.winchester.ac.uk/?page=257
http://www.flamingtext.com/
As I have previously mentioned, I got the content ideas by ‘VIBE’ magazine images, this helped
me develop my work more, I added the extra icons that may be acceptable to be seen on a
music magazine cover/contents page and double page spread (including the columns).

9. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing
this product?
• This was the first time I used InDesign and Photoshop. At first it was extremely
difficult, but as I got more interested in my work, I learnt many different techniques and
found out how to place text and change the background colours.
• The most difficult part whilst doing my coursework was using Photoshop to crop the
pictures and also inserting pictures onto the page was very frustrating, because at times by
pasting another picture into 1 page the old one would disappear.
• InDesign is a useful program, I believe it is easier to use InDesign than Photoshop, it is more
straight forward and has similar icons as Paint!
Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from
it to the full product?
• One of the main skills I have developed during the process of making my magazine and
doing my preliminary exercise was the use of Text. This was my first time making a
magazine and I think it went quite well because of all the help I go through study space and
a few worksheets. My writing skills have definitely developed and also I have become more
confident with writing persuasive language.
• Planning out my magazine stressed me out a lot, however after actually making it, it wasn’t
as hard as I thought it would be, I believe I have done all the exercises I was meant to do
for this coursework.