Evaluation Questions

1) In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
After analysing many magazine covers, double page spreads and contents pages i managed to fully establish the codes of conventions. This meant i was able to create my own pages, as similar as i could to real magazine pages.

I tried very hard to follow the codes of conventions when creating my front cover. As you can see the main image i used is of a girl directly staring into the camera. This is good mode of address to attract my audience. Audience members will feel more related to the celebrity on the front if it looks as if she is giving eye contact. I have also placed the title of the magazine in the top left of the page. Again this follows strong conventions, and makes it look professional like a normal music magazine. Again on my double page spread i have again followed the codes of conventions as much as i could. I have used an image on one side of the cover, and the other side a standard interview. I have enhanced quotes, making them bigger and bolder to attract readers, within the interview. This may catch the eye of readers who are just flicking through.
However on my contents page i have challenged the codes of conventions more. I have used a picture for the entire background. During my market research i didn't come across a contents page where this occurred. However after trying many different compositions and positioning of photos i found that this looked the best. Seeing as the background of the picture was black and white it fitted in very well as a background to the contents page.

2)How does your media products represent particular social groups?
I did a lot of research to discover what kind of audience i was looking for. I found that the social groups i was aiming for would be people with similar interests and hobbies as myself. They would obviously be people who like music as it's a music magazine, but also people who are interested in fashion. They would also be a similar age to my self at 17/18. Therefore on the contents page i added pages that are about music festivals. Music festivals are places where you can listen to music, but can also be seen as a high fashion event. Festivals such as Glastonbury are seen as a place where you can find very 'indie' style fashionable people as well as celebrities stating the latest fashions. During my research i also found many pages on summer ware, and the 'festival look' when it comes to fashion. Therefore the main social group i was looking at was modernist groups. These people are into anything modern. Therefore attributes that are new and up to date. I also included competitions to win ipods on my contents page. Ipods are very new and modern so would interest this social group.

3)What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
When researching i found the magazine publisher IPC. This institution have published magazines such as NME. I did a lot of research on the NME magazine as i really wanted to make mine the same kind of style. I therefore think that my magazine will have a similar audience to NME as it has many of the same attributes. They both target the same kind of audience as the style of music featured in my magazine and MNE is very similar. IPC would be the perfect distributor to publish my magazine as they already have experience in publishing something similar. This means they will know how to sell the magazine successfully.

4)Who would be the audience for your media product?
I created questionnaires to help me decided exactly what my audience members would be in to and exactly what they would be like.
Once i knew the age (15-10) I then took the results of the questionnaire to form what a female and a male audience member would also look like. (see my audience profile page for images). Both my audience members will follow fashion quite well. They will both shop in high-street fashion shops such as Topshop and River Island. Both sex's will be very sociable, with lots of friends and will often be out and about. They will obviously be very in to their music as they will buy this music magazine.

5)How did you attract/address your audience?
I knew my target audience was in between the age of 15-19. I therefore made sure the people i used as models for my artists were a similar age. This means they can be related to my audience when addressing them.

I also used male and female artists within my magazine. Seeing as my target audience consists of males and females i wanted to make sure i appealed to both as much as possible. The male artist will appeal to the women in terms of sex appeal. Males will also appeal to other males as they can relate more. The female artists will attract the males as well as women too. Women will then also feel less threatened by women in the magazine. Especially my front cover where i have made sure it is not a high angled shot but it is a direct shot in the middle. This makes her less intimidating and stimulates eye contact with the reader. This makes the cover much more appealing to the eye.

I also used the temptation of winning competitions quite a lot on my front cover and double page spread. I know that it will encourage readers to buy, and read on when there is a possibility of winning something. I Incorporated the artists i used into the competitions. Seeing as i made sure the artists appealed to the readers i know these competitions will too.

6)What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
Through out the making of these pages i have become very Strong in computing. I have always had a basic knowledge in computers but i find that this has really exceeded my knowledge in computers. I have really enjoyed editing photos, using different software to complete the look i want. I've learnt how pleasing it can be when you have worked hard on getting an image to look how you want it too. I have also learnt a lot about colour and designing, how it can take a lot of trial and error before you get something right. I have also learnt how much effort actually goes in to making magazines. There is an awful lot to consider. It's not just content but colour, shape and composition.

7) Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
I have learnt that it takes a lot of effort to get something looking how you want it. It make take a while to discover what doesn't look right, however you just have to keep changing things round to get it how you want it. I also had very little knowledge about the programmes i used and the detail of music magazines. I know however know an awful lot about both. I've learnt that a lot more goes into the making of these magazines and that very skilled, clever people are behind the creating of them.

I've learnt that i actually have a lot of patience and can be quite creative when i want to be. I've also learnt that i have really enjoyed completing this coursework and am very pleased with my final outcome. You can tell by the difference between my preliminary task and my final outcomes how much i have learnt fro this project. I am very happy with my final outcomes and am even happier going away with the knowledge i have gained.