Tom Sleightholme felt he progressed well from his preliminary college magazine to his final product "Pulse" by learning skills in software to make his photos more professional and the overall presentation of the magazine more polished. He believes his final magazine has a more aesthetically pleasing and professionally designed layout than his first with more carefully chosen fonts and editing. The progression has allowed him to create a magazine with a very good professional look and feel.

1. Media project Evaluation
Tom Sleightholme

2. Question 1: How do you feel you have progressed
from the preliminary task to the final product?
Overall, from my
progression from the York
college magazine to
Pulse, through the
continued use of software
I learnt many skills to
make the pictures I took
look more
professional, as well as
the general presentation
of the magazine.
All in all, looking at
the Front cover for my
college magazine and my
final magazine, I think
that the latter is a lot
more aesthetically
pleasing, as well as this
the fonts and layout have
obviously been more
meticulously chosen and
edited, making for a more
professional look, so all
in all I believe I have
made very good progress
throughout the project.

3. Question 2: In what ways does your media product
use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of
real media products
- I think on my front cover I have gone for
the quite simplistic style seen with a
magazine such as K mag but it also goes
against the conventions of other (more well
known) music magazines such as Mixmag that
tend to be cluttered and more ‘in your face’
- The colour scheme seen on this magazine I
think is more suited to, for example a
rock music magazine such as NME (white
red and black). I wanted to go against
normal conventions for electronic music
magazines so as to set my magazine apart
in the market
- For my cover image, I chose a young guy
(around the age of the readership I'm
targeting) so as to relate to the
audience, I've also included him
wearing headphones to go with the
normal conventions of DJ’s.
- I also took influence from K mag in
particular for the ‘Plus:’ section of
my front cover as it is simple and
nearly the only thing on the front
cover
- Barcode conforms to the - Finally, I used a bold title font on my
normal conventions of front cover as seen in many different
magazines, gives it music magazines, so I think this goes
authenticity and is a legal with the conventions of needing an eye-
requirement. catching headline.

4. Question 2: In what ways does your media product
use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of
real media products
In my contents I went with a
convention I noticed in mixmag for the
title, with the contents and magazine
title being included along the top of
the page, this is a convention upheld
in a few of the magazines I studied. I
also included the date (as seen in the
mixmag contents across the top)
Also seen in mixmag, I used a colour
different to the main text (red
instead of white) to highlight
different points and to make the page
more aesthetically pleasing. In mixmag
we see this used with the yellow
highlights rather than red.
My contents is dominated by one main
picture (a continuation of the theme of my
front cover as it includes the same
person) and then has 2 sub pictures to go
with it, I think this is effective and
goes again with a convention taken
directly from mixmag as it means the page
is not too cluttered with text. On the
pictures also I've decided to use numbers
to link the picture too an article in the
magazine, and this convention is seen in
many of the magazines I’ve looked at.
I have included a website address as
the bottom of the contents (and would
most likely include it throughout the
magazine) this gives the mag
authenticity and is a convention used
throughout every genre of music
magazine and most magazines in general.

5. Question 2: In what ways does your media product
use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of
real media products
I pulled out a
quote from the
main body of
text and
included it
elsewhere on
the page, I saw
this convention
used in quite a
few different
magazines I
studied and I
think it is
quite a
commonly used
convention.
A convention I saw used in some of
the magazines I studied was the use
of a limited colour
palette, sticking to only a few
colours for the whole page , I stuck
with this convention when looking at
my D.P.S as i only utilised a
blue, black and white
The main focus of my D.P.S is
the picture that spans both
pages. I think this challenges
the usual convention seen in
music magazines of having one
half of the D.P.S as a picture
and one half as an article.

6. Question 3: How do you attract/address
your audience
On my Front cover, I specifically used a male, around the age of the
readership my magazine would be looking to attract. I think this
would attract the audience I'm looking for as it is mostly male and
aged between 18-25. As well as this, the inclusion of my model
wearing headphones I think again specifically attracts my audience as
they can immediately recognise and relate with the cover the first
time they see it.
I noticed on many magazines they are branded, with a slogan or
something to remember on the front cover. I think this gives the
magazine something for people to identify and remember in relation to
the magazine, making them more likely to return and buy it again. As
well as this, as I believe my potential readership will be young and
affluent they are likely to go for ‘independent’ magazines that might
be high quality and specialised.
Including on my front
cover, activities such as
festivals that the musically
orientated readership will be
interested in is a good way of
attracting readers as if they
see a review, for example of
something they like they are
highly likely to want to read Finally, I think I have gone against
about it . The same concept common conventions when it comes to the
applies with sub headings such colour scheme of my front cover, the
as ‘MUST SEE ARTISTS OF 2013’ convention being that a cluttered
as this gives the article a bright front cover, especially with
point of common interest, as dance music fans can attract more
my readership is likely to readers. I have gone the opposite way
always want to be in the loop and gone for a limited colour
with new tunes. pallet, as I believe it is still
striking and my audience will be
attracted to a more ‘stylish’ looking
magazine.

7. Question 3: How do you attract/address
your audience
On my contents only, I decided to include a simple
logo. I noticed that most magazines do not have a
logo, only a title in what might be a magazine
specific font. So I thought the logo adds more
interest to the page and generally gives the
magazine a quality feel, meaning its bound to
attract more readers.
As a continuing theme from my front cover I
included the same model in both main pictures. This
again helps my audience to relate to the story as
he is roughly from the age and class demographic
I'm aiming at.
I used a common convention seen in magazines ‘buzz
words’ in my contents as a way of attracting
readers to certain story's in the magazines, ones
that may be of great interest, meaning that the
reader is more likely to buy the mag.
Including articles on
how to make music as
well as just about the
music itself means from
I've included a website the audience I am
link on this page, this looking at more peoples
means the target market
who are largely centred tastes are catered for,
around computers, mobiles increasing the span of
and the media can be more
involved in the magazine
interest and therefore
that just reading it. hopefully increasing the
Many magazines I studied
used a website to
amount of people buying
effectively communicate it.
with their readers.

8. Question 3: How do you attract/address
your audience
I have utilised a limited
colour pallet on my double page
spread which goes with common
conventions I saw in other
music magazines, I think it
makes the page look quite high
quality and goes against the
usual conventions seen in
magazines, although there were
a few exceptions. As well as
this I have decided to included
a picture across the whole
double page spread, a
convention I did not see used
in many magazines, but i
personally was attracted to
this d.p.s which inspired my
own.
As with the other pictures in
I have included in
my magazine in my double page
spread I decided to use a male the picture for this
model in the age range, gender double page spread a
and ethnicity I was aiming mixing
for. This meant that it was desk, directly
obviously going to attract my relating to my
audience effectively audiences interests.

9. Question 4: Who would be the audience for
your media product? Reader profile:
Age: 16-25
Gender: Mostly male*
Income bracket:
Although my readership
may be young and not
earning not much
money, they tend to be
drawn from A B and C
bracket income households
who may have enough
disposable income to buy
the magazine.
Likes:
Partying, Drinking, clo
thes, shoes, technology
, festivals
Info: The readership for my
magazine are going to be
heavily musically
orientated, whether it is
making music, listening too
it or buying it. This is
represented mainly by for
example the
*: From my audience research I found out speakers, decks, and pictures
that electronic music is mainly dominated of festivals, all of which
would play a large part in
by Males, so my magazine is catered towards
advertising in my magazine.
that specifically (e.g. with the use of
male models etc. As well as being musically
orientated, technology now
plays a large part in my
readership’s interests, for
example people are a lot more
attached to their phones and
laptops and more set on
getting the latest
models, etc. than 10 years
ago, this links in again with
music, with software packages
now being readily available
for anyone to try and make
electronic music.

10. Question 4: What kind of media institution might
distribute your product and why?
Many media institutions exist today all producing an array of different
magazines, whether they are musical or not, some of these institutions include:
Development hell ltd.: Producers of
magazines such as Mixmag ( of which I
have based some of the ideas of my
magazine on) and The Word. Mama & Company are an independent
publishing group who also run music
http://www.developmenthell.co.uk/ festivals such as Global gathering and
music label Godskitchen.
http://www.developmenthell.co.uk/
Bauer Publishing: Producers of magazines
such as Kerrang! And ID magazine as well as Which publishing companies would I choose to publish my
many others. magazine?
http://www.bauerpublishing.com/
Time Inc. is one of the worlds
largest publishing
institutions, publishing magazines
such an Entertainment weekly and
Time mag.
http://www.timeinc.com/home/
Future PLC produces mainstream magazines
such as Total Guitar and Total gamer.
Which publisher and why?
http://www.futureplc.com/
(Next slide)

11. Question 4: What kind of media institution might
distribute your product and why?
- From the one existing
- MAMA & COMPANY magazine that is in Mama’s
- Expertise in the Music industry portfolio you can see my
(festivals venues + magazines)
- Main Brands: THE FLY (magazine) , Global
style would fit perfectly
Gathering (festival) The JAZZ café into there way of doing
(venue), Love box festival, Godskitchen things as both front
(music label)
covers are quite minimal
and both use a limited
colour pallet for effect.
Mama & Company: As my first choice for an
institution that I want to produce my magazine, MAMA
seems to fit perfectly for many reasons, as a
company they currently only produce one
magazine, ‘The Fly’ which is primarily an indie
magazine not focusing on the electronic genre of - MAMA runs many live
music, this primarily could mean that for MAMA there music venues such as the
is a Niche in the market that they are missing out Institute in Birmingham.
on when not producing a wider span of genre’s of I think my product would
fit in with the scene
magazines. that comes with these
venues and again the
As well as MAMA having a clear Gap in the market expertise in the music
industry can be an
they could delve into, behind them they already have important factor in
the expertise that comes with being the brand Brand marketing my product.
partners behind Dance music festival Global partnerships
gathering and Trance Label Godskitchen, this also
means they also have a potential market to introduce - MAMA has affiliated itself in brand
the magazine into, as they could sell it at Global partnerships with major companies such as
Topman, Xbox, HTC, WKD and Bacardi, all of
to get the word out . these brands fit in with the hobbies of my
target market and so the branding expertise
can be specifically targeted.

12. Question 6: what did you learn about technology
from the process of constructing this product?
During my whole project I used I also used a combination of
different pieces of software (some hardware to complete some
more than others) to complete the tasks, such as…
given tasks, these included…
• Canon 550d SLR camera
• Photoshop • Computer
• Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel
• Blogger
• Survey Monkey
- During this project I used blogger for
the first time, I learnt how to utilise
tools such as the tool to
organise my blog and I also learnt the
basics of how to set up my own blog.
-I had never used
Photoshop before I
- I needed to use many font files in started this project
this project and learnt how to download and I learnt about
and apply fonts using (www.dafont.com) For the title of my magazine I many useful tools
and I learnt how to make them useable throughout the
layered the ‘PULSE’ text and process of making
in Photoshop using
changed the opacity of the the magazine. Some
duplicated layer to give the of these tools
included the ‘photo
shadowed effect. filter’ which I used
on my D.P.S to
create the ‘blue
filter’ effect.

13. Question 6: what did you learn about technology
from the process of constructing this product?
- Could you have completed your project without
the use of technology?
Obviously the project was nearly all
based around different technologies whether it was
hardware or software. So no I don’t think it could
have been completed without them. Without the use
of software such as Photoshop the quality of my
final magazine would have been affected greatly.
And similarly without the use of, for example the
Canon 550dSLR as the quality of my pictures would
have also been affected.
- Which pieces of technology could you have done
and not done without?
I could have done without some of the
technology I used, for example the SLR camera and
Photoshop, but these would have meant the quality
of a lot of the work would have been affected, as I
said in the last question without the use of high
quality software and hardware the quality of the
final work would have been lessened.
- Positives and negatives of using different
technologies?
The positives were that I managed to
produce a high quality product by combining all the
different technologies that I had to use together.
But in contrast the things I used were often quite
complicated, for example Photoshop took a while to
get the hang of using it for the first time.

14. Question 7: How does your media product
represent particular social groups?
Gender: Throughout my magazine It is nearly
all male orientated, both in the actors I have Class: In my magazine I have not included a
used and in the artists that I have included. So range of different classes I have only included
I think Men are much more heavily represented one. This would be the middle/upper class that I
and more important to my magazine. Looking back am aiming for with this magazine, as my audience
at my preliminary research it is clear that for would usually have enough disposable income (or
the genre of music I have made the magazine their parents will) to be able to buy a magazine
in the price bracket of mine, as well as having
for, the audience is predominantly male and so I
enough money to spend on the latest
have targeted my magazine this way. Drum and
fashions, festivals etc.
Bass, Dubstep and other forms of electronic
music are all stereotypically dominated by men This representation I believe is quite comparable
and my preliminary research confirmed this. to the class I was going for in the first
place, the A, B and C bracket household incomes.
Age: The age range of my magazine, from the These classes stereotypically have enough money to
media packs I looked at relating to my genre (s) spend on nice things, new clothes, mobile phones
and my preliminary research is around 16-25. So etc. as well as magazines and I believe the price
from this is chose actors to be in the pictures and quality of my magazine is high but this is
from my magazine that were both in the middle of catering for the specific social class.
this range (19-20) so I felt they represented a
good cross section of my audience. Ethnicity: In my magazine I have only
included one ethnicity, which is white European. I
The stereotypes around men I think are generally believe my audience reflects this monocultural
catered for in this magazine, but only really approach as they are seen as being mostly white
through the fact that male actors have been males, 16-25.
Included, and with the music comes the stereotype
of men anyway, meaning my magazine specifically
caters to that gender.