The document discusses the process of creating a magazine cover, contents page, and center spread for an alternative rock magazine. The creator looked to MOJO magazine for inspiration on conventions and forms to emulate, such as using a large bold heading, placing cover lines and images prominently, and including pull quotes and photos on the contents page. The creator learned Photoshop and InDesign skills like removing backgrounds from images and laying out pages. Comparing the preliminary and final products, the creator felt they learned to make the magazine more professional through additional research and an audience focus.

1. Distort evaluation Kate Wray

2. In what way does your product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? When creating my magazine front cover, contents and centre spread I looked at other examples of magazines to gain inspiration and to analyse the forms and conventions they use. I looked at magazines such as Q and Kerrang! However, the main magazine that I looked at was MOJO; I chose this one because it was the most relevant to the alternative rock genre that I’ve chosen for my magazine. Here is the final outcome of my magazine cover; I used similar elements from MOJO magazine : I decided to use a large bold heading, similar to MOJO. I made sure it was a distinct font with a solid colour that would stand out and be recognisable to the buyer. This is seen in most magazines. When looking at MOJO magazines I noticed that most of them have their cover line on top of the main image in the centre of the magazine. This stands out making the reader take notice at the main story in the magazine. I placed the barcode in a place that is easily visible to the reader, as it contains the date issued and the price. I also made sure that it is in a place that isn’t too busy, similar to many other magazines.

3. In what way does your product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? I found that most other MOJO magazines had a banner at the top. This tends to contain snappy captions and images to get the readers attention and sell other information about bands that will be in the magazine. Every magazine contains a large cover image to catch readers attention. However, a lot of MOJO covers use black and white images to give a more gritty rock ‘n’ roll feel.

4. In what way does your product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? When creating my contents page, I continued to research into MOJO magazine to gain inspiration to change and adapt to my magazine. I found a few MOJO contents pages contained a pull quote from one of the bands. This puts emphasis on their story and grabs the attention of the reader. The image is the main view point in the contents page, it catches the readers attention and relates to the artists article in the magazine and their pull quote. I moved my image above the text due to the layout of the image, yet it still has a similar effect.

5. In what way does your product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? The contents pages in MOJO tend to be very simplistic, making it easier to read and I used this simplistic layout for my contents by creating a banner which reads the date and issue number, and also has the masthead repeated in the same font and colour to continue the theme of the magazine. I made sure to make a realistic page number at the bottom of the page which is easy to read and is in the logo’s font and colour; this is similar in most magazines.

6. In what way does your product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? I found that in a lot of magazines I looked at there were pull quotes, I decided to use these in my centre page to attract the reader to the article. A collection of images which relates to the story in the article. I found this in a lot of magazines and it helps break up the writing to grab attention and make more interesting to read.

7. In what way does your product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? Page number in the bottom corner, to make it easier for the reader to navigate through and it also has the magazine logo on it, to continue the theme. I found that this is common in a lot of magazines. Captions under pictures to describe where the images are, this helps break up the images and gives more information on them and the article. I found these a lot in many magazines I found.

8. How does your media product represent particular social groups? Cover image from my magazine MOJO magazine cover example

9. When creating my magazine I tried to keep it to a certain social group, one that is similar to the magazines from my initial research. This is the centre image that I used for my magazine cover, when compared to the image from another magazine you can see the similarities in them that relate to the type of social group that it represents. For example, both images are of men; they are similar ages and take on a similar posture, their mouths are open and they are looking up and away from the camera. The images are both in black and white, with the background changed to solid black; therefore parts of the images fade into the background. However, my image is wearing a hat instead of glasses and has a microphone in front of him. Overall these elements in my image represent a young generation of social groups. It also shows a ‘cool’ looking rugged type of person, you can see this through the clothing worn and the black and white editing. This fits well with the alternative/rock genre of my magazine, and thus can relate to the young adult target audience that my magazine is aimed at. This is shown throughout the images in my magazine, they are all black and white and show rugged ‘cool’ looking people. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

10. H. Bauer. My music magazine is aimed at a young adult audience, and revolves around the alternative rock music genre therefore I believe that H. Bauer would be a suitable media institution to distribute my product. H. Bauer already distributes music magazines such as MOJO, Q and Kerrang! These magazines relate the most to my product, they all aim towards a young – older audience and relate to alternative/rock music, especially MOJO and Kerrang! However, Bauer also distributes magazines such as: Empire and Grazia, these examples look at films and celebrity news. As well as the music magazines, these things all relate well with the interests of the target audience for my product. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

11. My product is aimed at an audience of young adults, aging from 18+. This is because the young people are attracted to the alternative rock genre and therefore would be more interested than anyone younger. This audience would be appropriate because the content of my magazine may contain more mature subjects, for example: the ‘sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll’ element that the bands of this particular music genre are associated with. This type of material would not be suitable for an audience under the age of 18. The layout of my magazine is very professional looking and uses a simple colour scheme, with full articles regarding the topics in the magazine. This would not be something that would interest a very young audience as it would not be attractive to them and they may get bored or will not be able to understand the content of the articles. Who would be the audience for your media product?

12. The price of my magazine is £2.50 I decided upon this price due to the results I gained from the questionnaire in my initial research. I found that young adults would not mind paying this price for a music magazine. My magazine would be aimed at an BC1 audience, this is because the price is reasonable enough for a lower-middle class but the magazine is professional enough and detailed enough for a middle class audience. To conclude, the audience that my magazine would be aimed at would be: Young adults aged 18+ People who have an interest in alternative rock music People who work or attend college/university Who would be the audience for your media product?

13. How did you attract/address your audience? The colour scheme of my magazine is mostly black, red and white. These colours help relate to the rock genre and people who listen to this genre. The image is of a musician, it has been edited to black and white with a slight agustment to the contrast. This makes the image look gritty and rough, which relates to the rock genre, attracting the audience. Bold masthead which stands out to the audience Banner containing cover lines of other artists with pictures beside them, to stand out. Spacious arrangments and a plain black ground to make it look stylish and professional.

14. The main thing that I used to attract an audience are images, for example: How did you attract/address your audience? My centre spread image Centre image example The image I used is very similar to the example image from a centre spread in MOJO magazine. They both contain images from a band playing live, and they both have similar looking people holding guitars and standing in front of microphones. The image of guitars and microphones helps relate to the alternative rock genre, and thus attracting the target audience.

15. When creating my magazine, the two main technologies that I had to use was Adobe Photoshop and Adobe InDesign. I had only used Photoshop a small amount previously to this task, therefore I only had a small understanding of how to edit a photograph. When editing my cover image, I learnt how to use the ‘pen’ tool to take the image away from the background to add to a different background. I also changed the contrast and brightness on my image to increase the detail that my image gives, making it look rougher to fit in my magazine style. I also learnt how to remove any faults on the image such as ‘red eye’ to make the image look more professional. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product? Before After

16. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product? To present the work I did throughout the project, we had to publish all our work onto a ‘blogger’ account. I have my own blog previous to this on a different website, therefore I found the idea of this very simple. However, when it came to trying to navigate around the website it was I found it slightly confusing, images would not move correctly and a lot of file types would not upload. After getting used to the website, it became very simple and useful, because it meant that I didn’t have to hand in paper copies of my work it could all be done electronically.

17. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product? When looking back at my preliminary task I have found that compared to my music magazine it looks very unprofessional and very little like a magazine at all. I think that this was because when creating it I hadn’t done much research into other magazines and I hadn’t done any audience research to go from. The layout of it looks very spaced out and empty, the colour scheme doesn’t go, making it look very unprofessional and difficult to read. Since then I have learnt lots of other small things that have helped make my music magazine look more professional and more appealing to the reader, such as; fonts, colour schemes, image editing. Overall I’m very happy with the final outcome of my music magazine in comparison to my preliminary task.