The document discusses the student's evaluation of their media product, which was a magazine they created. They compare their magazine to conventions used in other magazines. They also discuss how they represented particular social groups through their choice of a female lead singer and band. The student reflects on what they learned about design technologies through creating the magazine using programs like Paint.net and Page Plus.

1. MY EVALUATION
Rian Doherty

2. QUESTION 1
In what ways does your media product use, develop or
challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

3. On my front cover, many of the
conventions I used were
influenced by other magazines
with a similar genre.
I researched in to some of these
on my blog:
http://riandohertymedia.blogspot.
http://riandohertymedia.blogspot.
Main cover star isn’t giving
direct address but is
appearing strong as present
so draws the attention of the
audience this way.
Cover lines, on the left side
so are able to be read easily
Image of the band
precious
influence to see
the main star in
her band.
I think my masthead is fitting with the
convention of an indie rock magazine

4. My contents page for the magazine
was influenced by the idea of collage as
well as the visual layouts of some of the
other contents pages I researched here:
http://riandohertymedia.blogspot.co.uk/201
The contents headline
matches my masthead to
show a style throughout
my magazine
My contents page is a collage
of images that relate to the
articles inside, so the readers
can see visually what is inside
of the magazine.
The main
features are
also written
down to help
readers
locate where
they most
want to read.

5. Quote
from
article to
inform
audience
of content
of article
at a
glance
Main image of artist
gives a feel of the mood
of the article
Smaller images,
provide a range
allowing artist to
be portrayed in
numerous ways.

6. I’ve put my magazine front page and contents next to a few other magazines to see how well it fit in with
the others. I feel my magazine is most similar to NME due to the darker colours used on the cover and the
style of fonts used. However, other magazines have influenced my cover, such as Kerrang where you can
see the masthead is more ‘worn’ similar to mine. On my contents page, I’ve followed a similar style to
magazines like NME as they use blocking to separate the different sections/articles. However my use of a
photo collage wasn’t taken from these magazine but rather personal influence as it was an idea I picked up
early in the creative process. Some of my contents page ideas can be seen here
http://riandohertymedia.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/blog-post_20.html
http://riandohertymedia.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/working-with-page-plus-designing-front.

7. When comparing my double page spread to those in other magazines, I found that I’ve
adapted a similar style to magazines of a similar genre. A large image is covering one
of the pages is usually used generally accompanied by and eye catching quote from the
artist being interviewed. I talk about magazine layout here on my blog:
http://riandohertymedia.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/c.html

8. QUESTION 2
How does your social media product
represent particular social groups?

9. • The lead singer in the band featured in my magazine is a woman,
which challenges the gender representation in some ways. As women
are usually represented as being more passive. Her dominance within
her group, as she is the one who is marketed most, is another challenge
of the stereotype as it’s stereotypically males who assert the power and
dominance over females.
Other magazines showed a similar representation of women here:
http://riandohertymedia.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/the-second-artist-i-chose-to-do.htm
• However, stereotypically, women are also often represented as more
motivated so her ability to manage ore work, such as the media
coverage of her banmd, follows this stereotype. The double page
spread interview, looking deeper into her life, includes her emotions
and past experience, the allowed vulnerability is commonly associated
with women, as often males attempt to present a strong ‘macho’
exterior.

10. • My inspiration to create a lead singer like this, came from bands such as
Florence and the machine, where Florence Welch is the main face of her
band.
• I did some research into her and her previous magazine covers on my blog to
find out her style and see how she presents her femininity along side her
power and assertiveness.
• Her careful balance between vulnerability and femininity compared with her
dominance and motivation, create a perfect example of a lead female singer as
she retains the ability to relate to others.
http://riandohertymedia.blogspot
.co.uk/2013/10/florence-welch-
from-florence-and.html

11. QUESTION 3
What kind of media institution might
distribute your media product and why?

12. Distribution company
• The distribution company I have chosen to distribute my magazine is
IPC media, as they distribute many magazines of a similar genre.
• One of the magazines they distribute is NME magazine, a magazine
that has been a big inspiration behind my own.

13. QUESTION 4
Who would be the audience for your media
product?

14. • The target audience for my media product would
be those interested in indie rock/alternative
music. Although directed towards and age range
of 18-26 often older people may still read for the
featured artist or a particular feature.
• On my blog I’ve made a post for my target
audience and have also compared to a magazine
with a similar audience already in circulation:
http://riandohertymedia.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/
blog-post_2550.html
• Although the genre is found to be more widely
listened to by males, with the increased number
of popular niche female singers a new female
audience has begun to be created. This magazine
is possibly more geared towards a female
audience due to finding insight into particular
artists life which is usually appreciated by female
readers. However, the band technical
information and upcoming tour dates, along with
many more of the features in the magazine, are
likely to be enjoyed by males as well.

15. QUESTION 6
What have you learnt about the technologies
from the process of constructing the product?

16. • I’ve found that some of the programmes I’ve used during the creation
of my magazine have limitations. For example, paint.net, although
allowing brilliant photo manipulation and layering, was difficult to
navigate often. Also, if the image was flattened, there is no way to
change the positioning of the parts of it as they have become one, so if
flattened before finished could result in having to start over. When
doing my preliminary task, I flatten by accident when saving and had
to restart due to not being happy with the work. I thought paint.net was
a good programme but very time consuming and technically difficult
to use.
• For my final magazine, I used page plus to create it. This programme I
found easier to use and learn. Despite only beginning to use it a few
weeks before, I knew more about how to make the most out of it than I
did paint.net.

17. Strengths
Publisher/Word Paint.net Page Plus
Ease of use Image manipulation Flexible layers to allow
change at any time
Range of fonts and sizes
with ease of editing them
Wide range of tools to
use image and text
Quicker to use in
comparison to paint.net
Spell check Layering More options for photo
manipulation
Accurate print previews Easy to understand and
navigate

18. Weaknesses
Publisher/Wor
d
Paint.net Page plus
Can’t save as a jpeg Most time consuming
software of the three
Background removal
can be tricky sometimes
The movement of text
and images can be
difficult
Unable to edit layer
after deselecting so can
be frustrating
Temptation to overuse
effects
Can’t edit photographs Less high quality with
the effects

19. http://riandohertymedia.blogspot.co.uk/201
3/10/blog-post.html
https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?
blogID=4252790567850580552#editor/target=post;pos
tID=3084900905742564436
This is the magazine I created when
practicing my use of page plus features.
Although creating an issue of a magazine
that already exists, It gave me new ideas due
to discovering the new things I was able to
do. For example, The contents page collage
is an idea I carried forward into my final
magazine as I thought it was quirky and
effective.
My use of paint.net in the
preliminary task was
more limited.

20. Photographic choices
I used Kellie Evans as my model for the female
artist in the band precious influence.
I took a range of photographs to maximise my
contentment with the ones I chose.
I chose the photographs I did based on their
conforming with the style of the magazine, for
example the black and white photo on the front
cover matches the image I wished to portray of the
artist best.

21. Blogger
• I think using blogger was an effective tool for storing and displaying all of our
work. The blog posts meant that we would be able to access our work from
anywhere with an internet connection rather than a folder on a specific
computer.
• Although you were unable to add posts in at the times you wanted to after the
day, posts could be doubled on another post to add it in.
• Also the ability to add html as well as text and image is useful when
displaying slide share presentations.
• Posts are easy to edit and remove if necessary
• In my opinion blogger is a useful and efficient method of storing our work
http://riandohertymedia.
blogspot.co.uk/

22. QUESTION 7
Looking back at your preliminary task, what
do you think you have learnt in the
progression from it to your final product?

23. I feel my work has progressed a lot since the
preliminary task. The use of fonts for the
cover lines is poorly chosen and the
placement on the page doesn’t fit. The
magazine does look disjointed but it
solidified my knowledge of the conventions
of a magazine as I was conscious to include
as many as I could. Therefore I was able to
use it as a reference tool throughout the
creation of my final product to ensure I
included all of the necessary conventions.
Another thing I do like about my magazine
is the font used on the headline – it looks
drawn and was the inspiration behind my
final choice of font for my music magazine
title.
http://riandohertymedia.blogspot.co.uk
/2014/01/masthead_31.html

24. When comparing the two magazines you can see where I’ve improved as well as where I have
gained inspiration from first creating a magazine cover. In my preliminary task cover I didn’t take
care with my font choice meaning some of them didn’t fit the style or purpose of the magazine.
However, I liked the idea of using a ‘handwritten’ style masthead which continued into my final
cover.

25. I feel my contents page has improved massively as previously it didn’t show any
correlation with the cover and was free from images and originality making it just
look like a list.

26. QUESTION 8
How successful do you think the end
product is in fulfilling the task? How
well does it fit the brief?

27. OVERALL
• Overall I am pleased with how my magazine creation went. Although I
found it difficult to maintain the time management of the blog, I thought that
the final product turned out well. I am most pleased with my contents page
as I like the photography that has been used, as I think it is fitting with the
genre.
• If I was to change anything I would have ensured my blog posts were made
more regularly as this has effected my time management. Also, I would have
began to collect my original photography earlier in the year as this would
have expanded my options of photographic choices.
• I was pleased with my photographs, especially those of the main artist as I
had a number of her but lacked a range of other artists to enhance my
contents page.