The document discusses the evaluation of a student's media product, which is a magazine aimed at teenagers. Some key points: 1) The magazine uses conventional design elements seen in other rock music magazines, such as a dark color scheme, but adds more color variation to cover lines to make it more eye-catching. 2) Layout and organization of content follows standard practices, but the double page spread only features one large focused image rather than multiple to avoid distraction. 3) The target audience is portrayed as young, mostly male rock fans through cover lines about bands and references to brands like Nike and Apple popular with teenagers. 4) Feedback was obtained through questionnaires and focus groups to improve the magazine

1. MAIN TASK- EVALUATION
By Craig Bishop

2. PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP OR
CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS
OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS?
• My magazine uses a conventional dark colour scheme often associated with rock genres.
I‟ve also used dark images and backgrounds similar to magazines such as Kerrang! The
variety of colours used in my cover lines are slightly less conventional, where most
magazines would use three or four different colours on the cover I‟ve made my magazine
more eye catching by using eight different colours (including the ones used for the title and
banner).
• The layout of my magazine is quite conventional as the content is organized in order of
importance along the path of the eye, with the title of my magazine being the first thing to
be seen followed by the cover story, then the cover lines and finally the banner. The
contents page is similarly simplistic in that a image of my cover is placed in the top left
corner, then the bulk of my contents page is taken up by the contents of my magazine in
three neat columns with images placed on the bottom right being the last to be seen
excluding the page number.
• My double page spread is conventional in that it contains my logo on either side of the title,
one page contains the text and a large picture fills the whole of the page opposite. I‟ve
organized my paragraphs. Though many magazines feature more images on their double
page spreads, I thought one focused relevant picture would ensure the reader wouldn‟t get
distracted from the main article. The neat layout of the text of my double page spread is
quite unconventional due to it‟s neatest, this is not necessarily a good thing as a neat
layout does not suit my genre however it does make the article simpler to read.

3. HOW DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT
REPRESENT PARTICULAR SOCIAL
GROUPS?
• My magazine represents teenagers mostly as the images and
language used would most appeal to them. The use of cover lines
focused on modern rock bands and sub-headings concerning
companies the stereotypical teenager knows well such as Nike and
Apple has, I believe, successfully portrayed my magazine‟s target
audience as being young, most likely male, rock fans.
• The use of a female (unprofessional) model for the cover and double
page spread would appeal to both genders as on one hand, girls
would be most likely be interested in reading about a successful
female musician and on the other hand guys enjoy looking at pictures
of girls in magazines.
• The use of a heart shaped logo appeals more to girls than guys
however this is compensated for my the dark colour scheme with
heavy use of the more masculine red colour.

4. WHAT KIND OF MEDIA INSTITUTION
MIGHT DISTRIBUTE YOUR MEDIA
PRODUCT AND WHY?
• Ideally, Bauer Media Group would publish my magazine as it‟s an
international publishing company that clearly knows how to market
magazines effectively to target demographics. However as Bauer Media
already publishes a number of music magazines such as the widely
successful rock music magazine Kerrang! It seems unlikely that they
would chose to publish my magazine.
• I would most likely be better off looking to publish my magazine with a
smaller company or independently, possibly via a free medium such as
the internet.

5. WHO WOULD BE THE AUDIENCE FOR
YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT?
• The audience for my media product would primarily be teenage boys.
• It would also appeal, to a slightly lesser extent, to teenage girls.
• The relatively low price would make my product available to anyone
within the ABC1 demographic.

6. HOW DID YOU ATTRACT/ADDRESS YOUR
AUDIENCE?
• The variety of mostly bright colours tends to appeal to teenage boys more
than older or more effeminate social groups.
• The use of companies that are known to be popular with younger people
such as Apple and Nike also appeals to a younger target audience.
• The use of a teenage girl as a model addresses a teenage audience and
will most likely appeal to both genders.
• The use of the „broken heart‟ logo further addresses teenagers as such
emotional imagery is often associated with teenagers stereotyped as
“Emos”.
• The conventional informal text used suggests my magazine is aimed at a
younger audience as the magazines aimed at old generations tend to be
more formal.

7. WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNT ABOUT
TECHNOLOGIES FROM THE PROCESS
OF CONSTRUCTING THIS PRODUCT?
The creation of my main media product has taught me the following things:
• How to use Word on a Mac to effectively format a document
• How to use Photoshop to edit photos effectively
• How to use high quality cameras to take near professional/decent
quality photos
• How to obtain feedback via numerous questionnaires and/or filmed
focus groups
• How to create appealing images using Paint
• How to use publisher to create double page spreads

8. LOOKING BACK AT YOUR PRELIMINARY TASK,
WHAT DO YOU FEEL YOU HAVE LEARNT IN THE
PROGRESSION FROM IT TO THE FULL PRODUCT?
• The preliminary task, being focused around school magazines, involved a
lot less variety in terms of colour and images.
• More feedback is required for the main task compared to the preliminary
thus I obtained more experience dealing with target audiences and focus
groups than I did in the preliminary.
• I also had more experience using a video camera to film the feedback
obtained via a focus group.
• A lot more detail is required in terms of text and formatting in the main
task for the music magazine compared to the school magazine for the
preliminary which meant I looked into the conventions of magazines more
I order to decide which font, size and colour of text would be most
appropriate.