Evaluation

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

My media product uses conventions from women’s weekly magazines, the way that the pages of these magazines are arranged influenced me to create my product around this bold, brassy and exciting layout, rather than traditional music magazines which I found were slightly dull and lacked colour. My media product therefore challenges forms and conventions from traditional music magazines because the colours used are not the same, and also the target audience for my magazine product is different to the two music magazines I looked at. My magazine product targets a more mainstream audience, whereas NME and Kerrang target an “indie/rock” target audience – making them both quite niche market magazines. My media product I think is new and there is not a successful similar product in the market today, it develops on traditional music magazines content by making the content more mainstream – but still using the same interview and page layout conventions.

Who would be the audience for your media product?
The audience for my music magazine is definitely mainstream, I would like to think both genders would be interested, but most likely females will buy the magazine as the type of music that is girls seem to like is mainstream pop, whereas boys tend to like rock, indie and dance. I think that the age range could possibly be as low as 12, for buying my magazine – however, it is intended for the ages 14-30. I have decided this age range as it is the age range that buys the most magazines, and therefore is the largest age segment of customers, making my magazine more likely to swim rather than sink when it comes to sales.

How did you attract/address your audience?
I attracted my audience by using bright colours and plenty of images, so that the magazine would stand out on the shelf compared to the other music magazines. There is a range of stories mentioned in the contents page, and I also think that this will entice audiences, because there are features in the magazine which allow the audience to be interactive. I especially like it in magazines when there are features showing opinions of “everyone else” about topical issues.What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
I have learnt how to use Photoshop effectively. Before this coursework I had used Photoshop, but not using the software to its full capacity. I browsed the software using effects that I never knew about, however I found that some of the effects made the final product look a bit to “full on” and over the top, so I edited and undid some of my actions. I already knew how to take photo’s using a digital camera, but I am now more conscience of the different angles and distances

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
Since the preliminary task I have learnt how to use Photoshop. I at first had been introduced to the software, but was not fully competent at using the software. The preliminary task made my skills better, and allowed me to see what I could do to images and text – so this helped me when I came to plan my music magazine, as I was able to see what I was able and unable to do.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?
My music magazine represents celebrity musicians. This is a mix of the women’s weekly magazines who represent celebrities with limited or no talent and the music magazines who represent musicians with often a limited celebrity status. My music magazine mixes these representations and only includes celebrity musicians, so that the focus of the magazine is about music, and not about trivial idle gossip.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
A magazine institution such as Bauer or IPC would distribute my magazine because at this moment in time, these institutions currently publish magazines of a similar content. However, these institutions do attract a wide range of audience, so I think that any magazine could be published by IPC or Bauer. I think that smaller institutions would be reluctant to distribute my magazine product, mainly because there is a big risk with introducing new magazines to the industry – which is shrinking due to the use of the internet.