This document contains Sidonie Bruin's evaluation of their media product, a music magazine. Some key points: - The color scheme, language, layout, images, and inclusion of things like a barcode and competition are meant to emulate real music magazines like Kerrang and develop conventions of the genre. - The magazine represents social groups by featuring a female lead singer in a rock band, challenging stereotypes about gender roles in music. - The intended publisher is IPC, known for magazines like NME, because of their experience in this genre. Distribution would be in stores nationwide. - The target audience is teenagers and young adults interested in alternative music, seen through writing style and bands featured.

1. My EvaluationSidonie Bruin

2. 1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? ColourMy colour scheme consists of red, white and black. However, this page also has features of yellow. I chose to use these colours as they are the most common, traditional colours in the music magazines I studied. The use of red is overpowering and gives a dangerous yet passionate tone to the product. The black shows importance and class as it is used in newspapers to highlight important information, whilst the white gives off a calm and innocent feel, resulting in balance between the other two powerful colours.LanguageThe language featured in my product is one with an informal, chatty, friendly tone as this is one my primary audience is familiar with. I included some slang and colloquial language which my audience will be able to relate to and understand. LayoutMy contents page uses the same conventions of a real media product. I organised my pages under sub-headings, making it not only easier for the reader to find the page they want but to make it look structured and neat, Kerrang does this in a similar way. I have included an advert that is featured at the bottom of the page, this will make readers think about subscribing whilst reading the rest of the magazine. I purposely put the magazines name half way down the page so that I didn’t detract the audience away from the main image or title page name, ‘Contents’.

3. 1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? ImagesThe images used in my product are original and unique, making them stand out amongst text. I styled the female on my front cover to blend in with the colours I used for the text, the brightly colourful bandana draws attention to the masthead and the main image, immediately informing the reader of the genre of the magazine and what to expect. The clothing worn reflects the products genre – different and indie. I have tried to use a variety of pictures and differ the people featured in them, I included both males and females in my images to attract to both genders of my target audience. The image is also my unique selling point as this is the first thing the reader will see which will ultimately decide whether the reader wants to read this magazine.Media productsI included a barcode, date and clear masthead with a brief slogan/ definition of what ‘Allegro’ means. I also included a competition for readers to be in the chance of winning tickets for Kings Of Leon this helps to strengthen the reader-writer relationship and entice the reader.Type of shotsMy front cover consists of two images, both of which are mid-shots. I chose to use mid-shots as during research I found that most pictures found in published magazines were mid-shots and feel it draws attention to the face of the person in the photo, when applying this to my front cover the reader will instantly become familiar with the magazines name and attributes.

4. 1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? My primary purpose for this double page spread was to entertain and the secondary purpose is to inform the reader about the band and what they’re like.I chose to write the questions in red so that it would become clearer to distinguish the questions from the answers.This picture shows Sienna in a different light as here she looks confident and sexy, consequently becoming an idol for young females.Picture shows her looking vulnerable enticing the reader to want to read about her as you feel quite sympathetic towards her.

5. 2. How does your media product represent particular social groups? In my opinion, my music magazine is appealing and recognisable to someone who enjoys the music and culture of the genre I have chosen. There are many different stereotypes that the media portray, this is easily done through the use of magazines etc, in my media product I tried not to stereotype as it may come across as quite insulting and almost patronizing to those reading it. I tried to go against the traditional stereotypes of men and women and feel I achieved this, my double page spread is on a woman who is the lead singer of the band ‘Love Of Thunder’ the fact that the female is the lead singer shows elements of power and control, as fifty years ago it would not of been classed socially acceptable for a woman to be the lead singer of a ‘rock’ band. This goes against the typical house wife stereotype and shows women in a different working environment. The typical stereotype of a woman is that they are well reserved, young ladies however, the stereotype for a woman that is in a rock band would be one of which differs vastly, people would assume that women in that sort of environment are rude, aggressive and careless, however this is not the case and I hoped to have achieved that through my media product.Laura Mulvey is a British feminist film theorist, she said that Men actors in films were there to act and to be judged upon their ability to act, whereas women actresses in films were there to be judged because of their looks. This could be applied to bands and singers of alternative and indie genre, women are judged by their looks and not their talent to sing or play drums etc.

6. 3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? The company that will be publishing my magazine will be IPC, this is because they are diverse and offer something for everyone ,they publish NME and as this magazine has many of the same conventions as my magazine I feel they are experienced with my sort of genre.It will be sold in most supermarket chains such as Tesco, Coop, Waitrose etc. Also it will be available in newsagents such as Whsmith and local village/town shops, this is because I want my magazine to be easily purchased.My media product includes the uses and gratifications theory as it’s informing the reader of new bands, articles and tickets available, however it is also entertaining for the reader – this was my primary purpose.

7. 4. Who would be the audience for your media product? The audience for my media product is niche, this is due to the fact that my genre of music is rock/alternative and isn't commercialised popular music. The primary audience for my media product will be teenagers/young adults who are passionate about music and have a great interest in it. The reason for this is that my magazine will be written with an informal tone, similarly to NME and Kerrang; this is what teenagers and young adults are familiar with . To appeal to this audience I included competitions such as WIN Kings Of Leon tickets – this band will be familiar to my primary audience. The secondary audience would be music enthusiasts, people who enjoy music and share a great interest in discovering new bands and music. I feel my title ‘Allegro’ is versatile and could apply to both a female and male gender. I’ve tried to make it a multi-gendered magazine by including images of males and females and by not stereotyping either sex.

8. 5. How did you attract/address your audience? I addressed my audience by writing in the style/format they would recognise - this being an informal and chatty tone with features of colloquial language. I included current existing bands in my magazine which are of the same genre and would be likely to feature inside a magazine of alternative music, although I did this I also included non-existent band names which sound as if they would be featured in my magazine - attracting the primary and secondary audience. The pictures featured in my magazine reflect a careless, free, laid back attitude which reflects the bands attitudes. I used a colour scheme of RED.WHITE.BLACK which is my house style and I repeated throughout each of my pages to show consistency. These three colours are striking and stand out making the magazine differ from others of its kind.Another convention I used to attract my audience was my masthead. The title ‘Allegro’ stands for quick, fast, tempo – reflecting the genre of music I aimed my magazine at. It’s unusual and stands out from other music magazines. The font could have two meanings, it could either be seen as a barb wire affect this would give connotations of danger and aggression – matching my genre. The second approach would be a life support monitor, checking heart rate, the fact that the waves are close together could show excitement and energy which helps express the meaning of the word Allegro.

9. 6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product? During the making of my media product I have learnt: How to create, write, monitor and upkeep a blog,

10. How to edit and crop pictures according to the shape, format and layout of my pages and articles, allowing them to look professional.

11. How to use publisher to create a more exciting and engaging product.