The document contains an evaluation of a music magazine created by James Colgan. It includes 6 questions about how the magazine uses or challenges conventions of real magazines, how it represents social groups, what type of media institution might distribute it, who the target audience is, how the audience is attracted/addressed, and what was learned from constructing the product. James provides detailed responses to each question, noting how the magazine follows conventions like placement of the masthead and date but also challenges conventions through an unorganized contents page and inclusion of background guides on artists. He represents social groups like rockers and discusses attracting the target audience.

1. Music Magazine
Evaluation
James Colgan
Our brief was to make a new music magazine with
4 pages (front cover, content and double pages
spread) and a minimum of 4 original images

2. Questions
1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or
challenge forms and conventions of real media
products?
2. How does your media product represent particular
social groups?
3. What kind of media institution might distribute your
media product and why?
4. Who would the audience be for your media product?
5. How did you attract/address your audience?
6. What have you learnt about technologies from the
process of constructing this product? (Screenshots will
help to illustrate this)
7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel
you have learnt in the progression from it to the full
product?

3. In what ways does your
media product
use, develop or challenge
forms and conventions of
real media products?

5. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
My magazine follows conventions in that the masthead starts in
the top left and continues on one line. I did this so it is
noticeable at the top and if you see it it’s one of the first things
you will be attracted to.
Another convention that it follows is
that there is a main image that takes
up the front cover and that image
has an anchor to tell people who is
in the image then a line of writing
underneath that to explain why they
are on the front cover.
My magazine also uses the rule of
thirds. The person is on one side of
the cover and his eye line is in the
third which follows conventions.
However the text is on the right hand
side which breaks conventions
because it is usually on the left
because they are stacked so the
left is showing in many stores but not
all stores.

6. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
I put the date and the issue
number on the front cover so
that people can see when it
was released and it is also
convention to do so
I also used a barcode in the
bottom right corner as it is
convention t do so.

8. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
On the contents page I have put
“contents” at the top right of the
page as it is convention to do so
I have also used images of the
people featured in the magazine
and have listed in categories some
of the main features that are not
all advertised in the pictures like
Kerrang! did in this issue.
Another thing I have put is the
editors message to talk to the
audience just to say something to
them. This is not a convention but it
is in magazines quite often.

9. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
However my
magazine breaks
convention as it is
unorganised and
things on the
contents page
overlap.

11. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
I have used the convention of using the left
page for a image related to the text of the
double page spread then the text on the other. I
did this for aesthetic purposes.
Another convention that I followed was to put
the title at the top highlighting the name of the
band so people see it if they are flicking through
and they enjoy the band/artist.
I also have a pull quote on the picture that
doesn’t obscure the view of the picture but it
does intrigue you as it says something interesting
that catches your attention and you want to
read it so you can know why they said it

12. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
My magazine challenges the convention of a
double page spread with the logo in the
background which is not usually in magazines
but I put it in because it made the article look
more interesting because without it both of the
pages are grey and boring.
Another way it challenges conventions is that I
put a guide to the band on the right hand of the
text to give people background information on
the artist in the article, it includes the albums and
how it did and just lets you know the person you
are reading about and if you are interested you
will go out and research more.

13. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
In my magazine I included bands that people in the target social
audience (which are the rockers and “scene” groups who like Rock and
Metalcore), including bands such as Foo Fighters, Biffy Clyro, Motionless
In White and The Amity Affliction showing what music people of those
social groups like. However I have not stereotyped them in the
magazine because they are generally seen as different types of people
to who they actually are because the “scene” community are usually
“nerds” (the wider meaning of it though not just the smart people but
people who like nerdy things) which is why I included games (as in video
games). I have tried to represent them as they really are rather than
how people outside the social groups see them as, this was to appeal to
them more and make them feel like I understand rather than putting out
a magazine aimed at the stereotype of the audience.

14. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
I would use IPC Media to distribute my
magazine because they only have one
music magazine and that is an indie
magazine and my magazine is a rock /
metalcore magazine so it wouldn’t
compete against any of their existing
magazines. Whereas if I chose a different
publisher , for example, Bauer, they
already have Kerrang! which is the same
type of magazine as mine and therefore
they wouldn’t want to publish it as it is
competing for the same audience. That
is also the same for Freeway Press Inc.
who publish Rock Sound magazine
which would also compete for the same
audience as my magazine.

15. Who would the audience be for your media product?

16. Who would the audience be for your media product?
The target audience for my magazine is mixed gender but more
male than female. They enjoy bands such as Biffy
Clyro, Alexisonfire, Motionless In White or The Amity Affliction. They
would wear band merchandise. They would attend festivals like
Download Festival and shop at places like Blue Banana or
Pulp, or online at merch stores of the band. They would also be
individualists who just buy what they like and don’t care what
others think as long as they like it themselves; they won’t chose
something because it is a known thing that everybody else uses.
They would be in the age range of 16 – 25 who are mostly c2, d
and e’s. They usually like nerdy things such as videogames and
comic books / graphic novels

17. How did you attract/address your audience?
I attracted my audience by using bands that are popular in the genres of music
like Biffy Clyro and Asking Alexandria because they are big bands in the Rock /
Metalcore genres and they would attract the most people who like the genres to
buy the magazine. I have free give posters in the magazine because, according
to the questionnaire I passed out during the research and planning of my
magazine, people are more likely to buy a magazine with free things for them
inside or on the cover such as gifts, CDs and posters. I addressed the audience
formally but not in a business type style just in a way that looks like I am addressing
the audience as one trying to appeal to them all rather than the individual
because everybody likes different things so I can’t talk to them individually and
appeal to all of my audience.

18. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
I learnt how to put a logo on the background of my double page article.

19. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
To put the logo in the background all you have to do is pick a logo either with no
background or one that you got rid of the background on. Then make it the size of the
page(s) that you want and make the transparency of the logo very low so you can see
the logo but you can also clearly see the text/images behind the logo.

20. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
One thing
that I have
learnt is
how to do a
cut of a
photograph
on
Photoshop.

21. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
First you have to select a photo to do
the cut of (to get rid of the
background of the photo)
Then you select the polygonal lasso
tool on the tool bar at the left of the
screen it should look like a normal
lasso to start with but if you right click
and select that option you will get the
right tool.
Then you click off of the picture then
the selection has started drag the
mouse to the picture and a line should
appear click on the picture and then
follow the part you wish to cut out
round clicking at every slight
adjustment of the picture and follow it
all the way round. When you are
done if you double click the line will
join to the fist place you clicked.

22. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
After you have gone the whole way around and
joined the ends up click Select > Modify > Expand
and expand by 1 pixel.
Then again click Select then Modify but the chose
Feather and make the feather radius 1 pixel as well.
Finally if you the press delete on your keyboard you
should have exactly what you wanted remaining.

23. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
I learned how to make puffs that are
different colours and have more
interesting text styles.
To make it first pick a shape for your
puff by clicking the shape in the tool
bare then selecting the shape you
want.
Then you draw the shape how you
want it and the size that you want it
by clicking and dragging it to the
right shape and size.
Then you will have to chose the
colour of it. Start by clicking the 2nd
from last box on the tool bar and
clicking apply colour. Which should
turn it the colour of the box.

24. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
Then you select the colour that you want by sliding
the arrows until you get the colour that you are
looking for.
Once your puff is the colour you want chose the type
tool and draw a box inside your puff.
Then you type in the message that you want and
change the text to the font and colour that you want.
Then you rotate the text to then angle that you want
and then you have the puff that you want for your
magazine.

25. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

26. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
One thing that I learnt during the process of making this
magazine is how to do a better masthead for the
magazine. Before I make a box then put text over that to
make the masthead. However during the making of my
music magazine I learnt about a website called
dafont.com where you can chose many different styles of
fonts for the words that you want. If you type in what you
want you can get a preview of the text that you want
and then you print screen it, crop it so just the words that
you want are there then erase the background and that
is how I made the masthead for my music magazine
“Sound Opinion”.

27. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

28. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
Another thing that I have learnt in the process from the
preliminary task to the main task was that different
audiences will be attracted to different layouts for
example the target audience for the preliminary task
was college students looking to know more about
college life therefore I made everything neat and
ordered but for the main task I was going for the
rockers and the scene groups so I made it more
overlapped and less ordered in structure to appeal to
the groups more. Another example is the colour
scheme for the college magazine I used the college
colour of purple as it is bright and relevant as it is the
colleges colour but for the music magazine I used
mainly red and black which are darker and fit more
with the feeling of the Rock and Metalcore feel. The
yellow was for contrast to make the word contents
stand out.

29. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

30. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
Another thing I learnt was how to make a double
page spread because in the preliminary task we didn’t
need to make a double page spread. I took inspiration
from the NME double page spread with Biffy Clyro
because although NME is an Indie Rock magazine the
layout of the double page spread was something any
magazine could take inspiration from to make a
double page spread because it was simple and
nothing overwhelms anything else; there is only one
picture which is one the left and then the text is on the
right so it is separate and the picture doesn’t distract
you from the text. I used a pull quote on the left hand
page along with the picture that I thought would
make people question what it is about which would
make them want to read the article to find out why it
was there. The text is set out as a question and answer
style article with the questions and answers unedited
and just how they were spoken in the interview . This
was to make it feel like they were more connected to
the artist because it is like reading a conversation
between them and you get to see how he really is. I
put a guide to the artist on the right of the article for
anyone reading it who didn’t know who they were to
give them some information on the person that they
are reading about. The background is the artists logo
and is there for aesthetic purposes and to make it
more interesting because without it the article was
really grey and boring to look at so I put the logo on
for a change from the endless boring grey
background.