Evaluation

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

Before starting to make our product, we looked at other front covers, contents pages and double page spreads to see what they were generally made up of. We analysed three of each. We analysed five music magazines of different genres and one fashion magazine. We did it from different types of magazines to see the difference in how the messages are portrayed. Also to see if there is a difference in the form they are in. We looked at NME, Q, MOJO, Kerrang!, Vibe and Vogue magazines. We looked at layout, colour, media language, institutions, genre, representation, audience and ideology of all these magazines as can be seen on our blog. Looking at all these aspects of the media products gave us an idea of what our product should contain and how it should be composed. Our product uses forms and conventions of real media products because we looked into the products in great detail. We analysed the ideology behind all the products and adapted an extract from the current products into our own product.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?


We aimed to generate a product aimed entirely at the teenage and young adult music fans. The ages of the audience would be from around sixteen through to about twenty-six. However now that music is becoming a part of literally everyone’s daily life, however the product could appeal to a much wider audience. Nevertheless, we started producing our products based on what a teenager or young adult would like to see in a magazine. We intended to construct a product designed for a mass market, the teenage market. We found out what teenagers would like in magazines by conducting a survey. As a group we concluded that the audience/readers of our product generally wanted to experience conventions and rudiments that related to the demographic we are targeting. For a magazine which is aimed at that field of audience, it would contain lot of advertisements, concerts, festivals, interviews, reviews, charts and much more. All the covers we looked at had a powerful image of a musician or model. This attracts a lot of attention of particular social groups. We used images for our front covers which complimented the cover on a whole but also had the potential to draw interest of our chosen audience. Our media product represents a particular social group because we used certain codes and conventions to appeal to our chosen group. We used bright colours, and our cover models wore clothing from current fashion trends. We also used content which would attract them and make them want to read the magazine. Our product represents a young social group because they would be more aware of what is going on in the music world.

What kind of media institution might distribute you media product and why?

IPC and EMAP are two of Britain’s leading media distribution companies. IPC specialises in publishing magazines, distributing over 350 million copies a year. EMAP specialises in producing business-to-business magazines. There is also Bauer Media Group, a German publishing company which distributes many popular magazines and has stakes in television and radio. They currently produce, Q magazine and Kerrang! magazine. Out of the three institutions; we would say that IPC or Bauer is more ideal in distributing our media product. This is because they produce at least one music magazine and a successful product is what they want to be a part of distributing. Our products have a lot in connection with the products that Bauer produce because Bauer specialise in music produce. Our product is a music magazine which includes a lot of content which would highly appeal to a music magazine consumer.

Who would be the audience for you media product?

The audience for our media product would be from older teenagers to young adults and maybe a little older. We have specifically targeted those ages as they are the ages where most people pay more attention to music and the music industry. They want to know about the latest music, new artists, up and coming gigs and concerts and more.

How did you attract/address your audience?

At the beginning of this task, we carried out extensive research on methods current media products use to address the audience. We found that they use powerful cover images. They use images which reflect the theme of the current issue. The props and costumes used in the cover image praise the subject matter. Eye catching colours and iconic attire go with the theme the magazines try to portray. We also found that bright colours are used to draw attention. Strong and dynamic words are used to bring attention to the product. We took all those methods and put them to use in our own products. We used strong cover images and bright colours throughout the whole process of producing the products.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

The software’s we used to produce our product were Microsoft Publisher, Adobe Fireworks and Adobe Photoshop. The main structure of the magazines was made in Microsoft Publisher. This software was extremely easy to use as we have used it many times before. We used Adobe Fireworks to construct the logos and edit images. This software was fairly easy to use as we have used it before and learnt how to use it in another subject. The last software we used was Adobe Photoshop. We used this software to edit images in detail and to add effects to some images. This software was quite hard to use as we haven’t used it in much detail before. The tools however were the same as on Adobe Firework but Photoshop had a few more extra tools which were helpful. From constructing our product, we have learnt that nowadays up to date technology is highly relied upon and enormously essential. Without these software’s, producing a product would be very difficult. We both have learnt a lot of new skills in completing this task. Skills which will certainly help us in the future.

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

The preliminary task was a school magazine aimed at an audience from the age of 11-18 which is quite a niche market. This is because not a lot of people would have thought to produce a magazine aimed at schools. However the final product is a music magazine which is quite a mass market because there are a lot of companies that produce and distribute music magazines. For example there is Kerrang!, Vibe, NME, Q, Rolling Stones, MOJO and many more. From a school magazine to a music magazine, the audience has expanded to a wider range of people.

GINA > When I look at my preliminary task and my final product, I see a total change. The fonts I used on the preliminary task were the same but I changed them by making them either bold or italic. I used different colours because they are colourful and stand out on the page. This would attract a school audience from the ages of 11-18. However on my final product I used a different font for the title, but the same font for the writing on the page. I did this because the title of a magazine should always stand out as well as the image on the front. By having an eye-catching title and image the audience are immediately attracted to it. The colours I used were kept predominantly the same because i didn’t want to have bright and colourful fonts on the page because I don’t think it would attract an audience of 16-25. The colours I kept to were black, red and white. These colours are simple but powerful and stand out among the page, whereas i think my preliminary task looked quite childish and didn’t meet the audience of a 17 or 18 year old. The layout I used for both magazines was conventional. They both have a title at the top with an image of a young female in the middle that stands out. This is what is called “normal”; nearly every magazine you look at has the same layout. The content of my final product involves a front cover, images, an interview and a contents page, whereas my preliminary task only has a front cover and a contents page. The contents page of my preliminary is also very colourful, with lots of images relating to the topics on the contents. I think it’s quite suitable for the audience I was targeting but not so much the 17-18 year olds whereas my contents on my final product, i think is suitable to the audience and is also quite appealing.

MONISHA > I see a lot of difference and change from my preliminary task to my final product. In the preliminary task, I had to produce a winter themed cover and contents page of the school magazine. First of all, I had completed the preliminary task in quite a rush. I hadn’t made a suitable logo or edited the image properly. The preliminary task was aimed at a different social group of school students. This task is aimed at an older social group of music fans who may not be in school. In the process I feel I have learnt a lot form the progression. I have learnt of codes and conventions publishers and editors portray though their product and tried to do the same in my product. I have learnt a lot of what thoughts go into a production and that it is not entirely about the layout, composition or colour schemes. I have also learnt how to use specialised software’s to my advantage. I had learnt how to use certain tools which made the production much easier to complete and helped make the final product much more legitimate and authentic. I learnt how to use certain methods which would appeal to a certain social group and audience.