Evaluation Final draft
After recieving feedback from my first draft, I have improved and delevoped my evaluation to create my final draft.
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
My music magazine challenges the forms and conventions of the other music magazine products of today by featuring a different section of the music industry. The majority of music magazines such as NME are known for producing magazines which only feature famous artists. However my music magazine challenges this common aspect of music magazines by also featuring artists who have not yet been discovered and who are just starting their career in the music business - giving my music magazine a sense of individuality from other magazines. I felt that by doing this, I will be giving my audience something that the majority of other music magazines will not. My music magazine also uses the conventions and forms of a ‘typical’ music magazine. For example the price, barcode and subtitles have been used on the front cover in a similar way to other music magazines. This was done to give my media product an appearance similar to other music magazines which gives it the sense of being a real music magazine and not a cheap/fake magazine made by a child. I further used the forms and conventions of a music magazine front cover, double page spread and contents page through containing layouts which are similar to other music magazines. For example, I adopted a similar aspect of a layout for the front cover from many other music magazines such as Vibe.
As seen above, my front cover contains: a central image, sub-titles and a title which is layered behind the featured artist’s head much like this issue of Vibe magazine. By looking at both front covers, it is clear to see that the layouts of both magazines are very similar, which gives the sense that they are both the same product - a music magazine.
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
My media product represents young adults through the use of aesthetics which represent a young adult’s music magazine opposed to a child’s or elderly person’s. This meant that I was very careful when choosing which freebies could be distributed with my media product. For example, if the magazine as distributed with toys and colouring pencils it would appeal more to children who are known to prefer those particular items. I therefore chose to give £2 off the entrance fee to Earls Court which hold concerts. I did this due to the idea that young adults would find this useful as they are more likely to go to find this more useful and appealing than toys. My media product also represents a particular social group by focusing on a specific type of music - Indie/Alternative. This simply means that the magazine is aimed at the young adult audience (ages 20 - 25) who are interested in these genres. This can be suggested as my media product includes information on artists, concerts and events which relate to the genre. For example a fictional Indie group named ‘Acoustic Rangers’ is featured and again Earls Court hold Indie/Alternative rock concerts. In addition, it could suggest that my media product is of male interest. This is due to the fact that the majority of artists covered within the magazine are particularly male. (E.g David Caden and Michael White). This is owed to the fact that I found it quite difficult to appeal to both a male and female audience because there are not many female Indie/Alternative artists and it may be harder to find undisovered female artists to represent/appeal to the female audience.
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
Media institutions such as: http://www.myfavouritemagazines.co.uk/music/ , The magazine’s website www.standbymagazinemagazine.co.uk, off licenses, supermarkets and independent record stores may distribute my media product. The reasons for these are:
- Firstly, I found this website: http://www.myfavouritemagazines.co.uk/music/, which is a website which allows you to buy various music magazines online and have them delivered. It has a wide range of magazines and I feel that this would be a great institution for distributing my music magazine.
- Secondly, my music magazine will have its own website. From this website, the magazine can also be purchased and subscribed to.
- Thirdly, stores such as off licenses and independent record stores are key stores people go to to look for magazines. The majority of off license shops display magazines at the front of the shop which is a great way to catch people’s eyes.
- My target audience are likely to start food shopping for themselves no rather than relying on their parents. So they are therefore likely to shop at supermarkets such as Tesco & ASDA.
Who would be the audience for your media product?
The audience for my media product will be adults between the ages of 20-25. From the results of my survey, I discovered that a large amount of young adults enjoy listening to music from within the Indie genre as shown below.
The reason for choosing this age group to be the target audience is not only because a large number of this age group prefer the genre of my music magazine, but also because this age group will be more consistent in their buying habits and behaviour (which makes this age group a dependable target audience). This is because adults have a longer attention span than age groups such as teenagers. This means that teenagers are less likely to keep interest in a particular topic and are more likely to be interested in different things at different times. Which includes genres of music. I came to this conclusion because I found that as a teenager I myself go through phases of liking different types of music at different times and therefore I am more likely to be inconsistant with buying a particular music magazine. I also found evidence in my research that teenagers statisticly have shorter attention spans than parents. Although I understand that a number of people from within my target audience may not yet be parents, parents however represent the age gap of all adults because all adults (considering they have been fertile at a time in their adulthood) have the potential to be parents. It is therefore more probable that young adults have a longer attention span than the majority of teenagers such as myself. My audience will also contain more specifically males rather than females. This is owed to the fact that as mentioned earlier - I found it quite difficult to find female Indie/alternative rock artists to represent this audience.
How did you attract/address your audience?
I addressed my audience by keeping the ‘Indie style’ of photographs which usually use a black and white effect. This can be seen with many photos of the band Oasis. I also took into consideration that during adulthood, people begin to mature and drift away from using slang words. I therefore avoided from using too much slang, and kept the language suitable for the target audience. I therefore kept the language suitable for my target audience by avoiding the use of too much slang in within the article and subtitles. Additionally, my music magazine survey showed that a large group of people are more intrigued to buy a music magazine if it comes with ‘freebies’, and that they would prefer the magazine to be delivered rather than buying from a shop. I approached this by making the first issue come with free 30 days subscription which was made clear to the audience on the front cover through the use of a sticker. With this subscription, the second issue of the magazine is delivered to the subscriber for free – persuading them to buy this copy.
As shown above, it is clear that my target audience prefer this method of accessing my media product. And therefore would be attractive to my audience.
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
Adobe Photoshop: I found the program Adobe Photoshop very useful when making my media product. From the begining of the course, I had a rough idea about how the program worked. During the preliminary task of making a school magazine cover, I was not following a very strict plan of what the magazine should look like. Therefore, if I did not know how to design a particular part of the cover, I would not attempt it and design something I was more capable of doing. However when following a planned music magazine I was not able to do this. This then forced me to learn how to use Adobe Photoshop by following decisions I made about my magazine prior to using photoshop. For example, I had initially decided to use a sticker for both my preliminary task and my music magazine cover. I did not make the sticker on my preliminary task due to the fact that I did not know how to do it effectively. However when making the cover for my music magazine, I was forced to attempt to do this. And after time, I was able to use photoshop to create the sticker on the front cover. Through attempting to desing things I wasn’t capable of doing,I have learnt a large amount of skills which have now allowed me to be able to:
- Design a magazine by following specific plans and ideas,
- Adjust my personal pictures so that they look less amateur,
- Make leaflets/banners to advertise events.
Computer skills: I have also gained ICT skills throughout the process by learning how to use both the computer and internet more effectively. For example I have leant how to:
- make an electronic survey and distribute it across various internet sources to gain results.
- download from websites such as www.dafont.com to install interesting fonts onto other forms of software such as Photoshop and Microsoft word.
- Create a blog
Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
Looking back at my preliminary task, I feel have gained many new skills and have improved my work extensively. The preliminary task was of a great value for me because it allowed me to observe my photoshop skills and see what I was able to design and what I wasn’t. Although I feel I did quite well in the designing of my school magazine, I do however believe there is substantial progress in my organization skills between the preliminary task and the music magazine project. I am now more independent and confident with the productions I have created because I had taken the time to plan and look closely at little details. Evidence of this is the more effective use of emotive language which keeps the audience interested in my music magazine.
(Effective emotive for example ‘First Issue!’ being a sub title showing the emotion of excitement)
(little use of emotive language which is noticably not used within any subtitle)
