The document is an evaluation of a student's media product project. It summarizes the technologies used in constructing the media product, which was a music magazine. The student learned to use a digital camera, Adobe Photoshop, the internet through a blogging platform, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Publisher, and Microsoft PowerPoint. These technologies helped improve the media product by allowing photos to be taken and edited, research to be conducted, and content and evaluations to be written and presented. The various software programs were new to the student and required learning how to utilize their functions to complete different aspects of the project.

1. EVALUATION
REISS BETHANNY LEE

2. Question 1 - Who would the audience
for your media product be?

3. The audience for my media product will be people from the ages of 16-25, this is a wide age variety but I
think it quite accurate for my media product. I think that this would be the age range because of the
artists involved, not only are the artists new but there are old artists included inside my media product
like ‘Mary J. Blige’ for example and she hasn’t really brought out much music recently so the people who
will be reading the magazine will know of her because of their age.
I think the sex of the person that would buy my magazine or pick it up in a shop would be female and I
think this because it is Hip-Hop and generally more of a feminine magazine. But on the other hand I don’t
think just a female would pick it up and I think that the colour scheme does this, a girl would usually go for
the colour pink but my front cover doesn’t include the colour pink so it wouldn’t just attract females. As
you can see on my front cover there is a trip which you can win and this wouldn’t be available for the
younger audience of the media product but it would be available for the over 18’s.

4. Men and women that
go to concerts
Both men and women
My ideal audience
People who socialise
People who know about
music in general
People who listen to
R&B

5. People who are most likely to use some of these social media and music apps (on phones) are
most likely to be the people that would be my audience. This is because for people to know
about music and want to know more about music they must listen to it. Then social media to
keep up with music artists that they are interested in, on twitter for example.

6. Question 3 - What kind of media
institution might distribute your
media product and why?

7. What is an institution? An
institution is a company that
disperses a media product for
audience consumption.

8. I would chose SpinMedia to distribute my media products because
they distribute one of the biggest R&B magazines which is ‘Vibe’ I
think that both Vibe and Lush would go well together.

9. My magazine will be a monthly issue
which will go out mid month, so the
15th. The price of Lush will be £2.50
which is a lot cheaper than sister and
rival R&B magazines.

10. This is Vibes official website and as you can see they have a lot to offer. As soon
as you go onto their website you can see that they have videos and pictures
that can be viewed by any user. Then at the very top they have icons for social
networking sites and other things, this is to widen the audience and therefore in
the long run they will sell more magazines overall.
Below that they have 4 sub headings which are links, news, music,
entertainment and style. These are all things that match the genre, news on the
magazine and stories on R&B artists and so on..

11. Pictures and Videos which when
clicked on are linked to stories
which are in the news section
Social networking sites
to bring in a wider
audience
Sub headings which
are links where you
can get a further
insight on what’s
happening in the R&B
world including who’s
dating who and who is
wearing what
This section has the latest news coming in which will be
updated every hour, including new gig dates, stories about
upcoming pop stars and much more

12. There are other ways which you can distribute your
products and this could be through;

13. Question 4 – in what ways does your
media product use, develop or
challenge forms and conventions of
real media products.

14. Billboard uses three different colours on the front cover excluding the colours used in the image, I used
four on mine and this was to break it up from all being the same. My magazine cover compared to the real
life magazine is a lot different and in many different ways. On my magazine I have a white background
unlike the other magazine, I did this because I wanted it to be different, I didn’t want it all to be coloured,
white is part of the colour scheme that I chose. With my image I wanted it to be placed to one side of my
cover and not central, I picked out three real life media covers and all three of them were central, even
though you lose more space to write more information for the magazine it seems to work rather well.
Usually on a magazine you would get the barcode at the bottom of it but I wanted my magazine to be
different, it is still at the side of the magazine but its been rotated and moved up so it isn’t situated at the
bottom. One thing that you usually get with a R&B/Hip-Hop magazine is posters, so at the bottom left I
included three pictures which were “exclusive”.
Overall I think that my magazine uses some of the conventions that are usually used in real life R&B/HipHop media magazines but I also added some ones that are used in other magazines to make it a bit
different compared to a normal one. Like the button for example where you can win a free trip, you
wouldn’t usually use this on a R&B magazine. I also included a special offer which also wouldn’t usually be
used but I think that it all works well together.

15. My media magazine portrays some of the conventions that would be used in real media products;
magazine based. I am going to compare my front cover to another front cover which is from the
R&B/Hip-Hop magazine Billboard. First of all my title is bold, stands out and takes up a big proportion of
the page and is situated at the top of my magazine just like other magazines. On my front cover you can
see basically the whole word of my title where as on the real life media magazine half of the headline is
missing, this is because it’s a popular magazine and people who buy it would probably by it every week.
Behind my headline I have a block colour, this is to make the headline stand out even more, the colours
go well together so it also makes it look good too. The colour red which I chose to be the block colour is
used in a lot of real life media magazines and this is why I chose the colour red.

16. The name of my cover star goes over her body just like Rihanna’s does on Billboard. Below the cover
stars name on Billboard there is a quote of what she has said but on mine I didn’t want a quote because
later on in my magazine where my double page spread is there will be an article on Frankie where she
talks as an interview where quotes will be included.
Although I didn’t use a quote from my cover star I still included quotes on my front cover which were
from celebrities but made up to sound realistic.

17. As you can see with the two pictures below they both have quite similar conventions and this would be
some of the text that is included, I have used the words ‘upfront’, ‘features’ and ‘music’ just like Billboard
have. This is because I wanted my magazine to look more like a real life magazine. Underneath the
subheadings there is text which has a page number followed by what is on that page. Under the
‘features’ section you can clearly see that the name of the celebrity that the article is about is in bold on
both, the real and my contents page.
Both of the magazines also use the section music to write more about but we both did it slightly different,
although I took that connotation from a real life media magazine I didn’t want it to be the same I wanted
it to be slightly different so I changed it and just wrote down some R&B singers/group with the page
number where as on the Billboard contents page they haven’t just wrote artists names they have included
other things related to music such as ‘charts’ which will talk about music that’s in the charts and not just
artists that are making music, like mine.
Overall I think that my contents page looks more like a real life magazine compared to my front cover, I
think that the conventions that I have used are very similar and make it look more professional. One thing
I would have changed on my contents page would the font, I think that this doesn’t work that well on the
page.

18. Above this image there is another image which is
about half the page, sometimes, well, usually
contents pages include more than just one picture
and again I think this is to break up the text that is on
the page. On both of the images there is a page
number and this tends to happen in real life
magazines too and that’s why I did it. This is so that if
someone opens it and sees a picture they like then
they can go straight to that page to see more about
that picture and read more about it.
My contents page uses a lot of conventions that
would usually be used in real life magazines. At the
bottom of my page there is a large image standing
out, usually in magazines on contents pages there is
one big image then with text placed around it.
Usually the picture is put with text but on mine I just
added a caption with the photo. “introducing R&B’s
new star!” draws in the reader because they will
want to know more about this new star and it also
breaks up the picture from being so large and
dominating the page

19. Seeing as though it is a contents page this needs to be clear and it is on my magazine this convention is
also something that is always used in Billboard and other magazines. It tends to be quite big and quite
bold and mine is this is to make it as much as a real life magazine as it can be.
Another convention that usually occurs on a contents page is the name of the magazine but I didn’t
want to include the name of my magazine because I wanted to use the space for other stuff so instead I
just took the first letter of my headline which is ‘L’ and I put it on Photoshop and make it a bit opaque so
that I could put it over a things and still be able to see what is behind this. I think this works well.

20. Although I haven’t added the text to my double page spread you can still tell what similarities there are
and then also the differences. As you can see on both of the double page spreads there is a picture
dominating half of it, but you can also see that they are totally different. On the real life media one you
can see that the picture is more revealing and a shot taken from far away, probably a mid shot, where as
on my double page spread there is nothing that is revealing but the picture is a close up of my stars face.
I put my picture in black and white because I think that it fits better than with colour, this wouldn’t
usually happen in real life media but occasionally it does.
My double page spread is an interview where as the real life media one is an article. I chose to do an
interview because as it is made up it will be easier to write the answers that are being asked rather than
having to make up a whole article.
I put the stars name on my double page spread and I did it in quite a big font and bold, I did it in black
because later on the colour changes. I didn’t use the convention for this like a real life magazine because
people who would be buying the real life magazine will know who the picture is of usually whereas
because my magazine isn’t real we have to introduce the star with a name.
The double page spread on the left which is the real life magazine is just black and white where the text
is concerned but on mine which is on the right I added colour. Underneath the stars name I added a red
line and this was to separate the name from the interview.

21. Question 5 – how did
you attract/address
your audience?

22. I attracted my audience by a range of features in my
magazine:

23. Masthead
Date and issue
number
Unique
selling point
Main
image
Cover star
Barcode
and price
Free give
away
Quotes
Features
Extra
added
pictures

24. First of all I attracted my audience with the
language that I used throughout, because of
the genre of my magazine I had to use formal
language because of the audience that would
be reading the magazine and then just because
of the magazine itself. But its not formal all the
way through, on my double page spread which
is an interview I used informal language and
this was to pull the readers in because it is
more up to date. If I talk in a chatting language
then they can relate to the magazine and can
understand it better than if it was very formal.
It also makes the text more interesting and less
boring. I used some forms of slang in the
magazine to make the text seem recognisable
to the audience. On the front cover all of the
language is formal and this tends to happen on
this genre of magazine.

25. Secondly the font I used was different to a normal boring font, it was a font that is barely
used, I didn’t want the font to look too unprofessional because my target audience isn’t
the kiddie kind. The text I used was big, bold and bright to make it stand out above other
magazines. I didn’t use the same font throughout the magazine and this was to make it a
bit different from being just the same all the way through.
This is the font I used for my
cover stars name on my front
cover.
Frankie Jamieson
This is the font that I used for the masthead of
my magazine and it is different to the font
above, although they both look bold when
made bigger, they look different like this and
adds more range to my media product.
LUSH

26. The images that i used in my media product were big and bold especially on my front cover this is
because the front cover is the thing that pulls the buyer in. The first thing that they look at is the
front cover and it is usually the picture that pulls them in so it is a good idea to make sure that the
main image is big and in colour, it’s not compulsory that the image has to be central so I didn’t make
my image central just to make it different from typical magazines. She is looking into the camera
addressing the audience. This technique is done by lots of popular magazines so I did this is mine to
make it look more professional.

27. The masthead on my magazine was made big and bold and covered up
a proportion of my front cover this is because it is the main thing on
the front cover and if it is bold it will catch peoples eyes.

28. Question 6 - What have you learnt
about technologies from the process
of constructing this product?

29. During the creation of my media product,
music magazine, I’ve learnt a great deal about
technologies and they have vastly helped, and
improved, my media product had I been without
them

30. To make my product I used a number of
different technologies. Needless to say, I used a
computer but below is a list of other
technologies I made use of for the task; -Digital
Camera, Adobe Photoshop, Internet
Explorer(Weebly) Microsoft Word, Microsoft
PowerPoint and finally Microsoft Publisher

31. Digital SLR Camera This was used for taking pictures
for my magazine and proved extremely helpful. The
fact that it was digital rather than a traditional camera
meant that instantly I could see what I’d taken and
had the option whether to keep it or not. Due to the
large amount of space on the camera I was able to
keep all of the pictures until I could see them on the
larger computer screen. The fact that I could see what
I’d taken however was very useful as I knew if I was
along the right lines of what I’d envisioned or whether
I needed to change the camera angle to achieve a
different end photograph. With this camera I learnt a
number of things, namely how to use it but also how
to use the features of the camera to get different
effects for my photographs.

32. Adobe Photoshop is an image
manipulation program that allows me to edit the
photo's I'd taken, it was extremely useful in the
development of my media product and made
possible images which simply couldn't have
happened previously. I had never used Adobe
Photoshop before taking media so it was all new to
me and I had to learn everything from how to put a
picture on to it to editing it so the picture had no
background.

33. Internet Explorer The internet was
immensely helpful to me during this project,
not only during the research section of the
project but also through the creation of the
blog which allowed me to document the
work that I'd done. During the research
stage the internet was extremely useful as it
allowed me to look into the forms and
conventions of magazines and do some
basic research about magazines before I
went to look at three during my detailed
research.

34. The internet enabled me to go on to my
blog. The blog was also used to keep a track
of the skills and experience I've gained
through the production and post-production
stages of making my magazine. This proved
extremely helpful when coming to do the
evaluation.

35. Microsoft Word and Publisher, this
specific technology has allowed me to
prepare the written feature for my
double page spread and also to write
down any information that I needed to
add and to make notes on to edit my
evaluation.

36. Microsoft PowerPoint, this programme
has been extremely useful during my
evaluation, as shown by the fact they're
being used for this answer and one other.
I've learnt these help to make the pages
more interesting not only because more
pictures can easily be included but also
because people have to interact with the
slide to read more and are therefore
more engaged.

37. Overall technology has helped me with my
task of creating a front cover, contents page
and double-page spread in numerous ways
and without it; the end product I created
would be considerably less professional and
of a lesser quality. It would have also
resulted in me being less organised and
showing less cohesive and clear research,
planning, skills and evidencing.

38. Question 7 – looking back at your
preliminary task, what do you feel you
have learn in the progression to the
full product

39. In the progression from one magazine to my
other magazine I have learnt a great deal.
I have learnt how to use different types of
technology to make the product more
professional such as Photoshop.

40. I have also learn how complicated real media products are
and this is because;
They try there best to make it look good
They rarely leave any free space
They use bright colours, bold text and a catchy title
And this is all to draw the reader in, so when going from
my Aquinas Mag to Lush which is my final media product I
learnt that I had to add more things to make my magazine
look more professional and more eye catching. To do this
research was included and a lot of thought and planning
went into my final media product.

41. I also learnt that you cant get anything perfect the
first time so that planning is essential when doing
something like this because you will find on later that
you will have a better idea and that it will need
changing. Also when planning you have a rough idea
of what you’re going to do, without planning you will
have to start from scratch and that is never easy.
Finally when planning you can research and see what
you will need to add to make your product look good
overall and I learnt this on both, especially my final
media product.