Magazine Evaluation

Kay Murphy

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

products?• Throughout my magazine, I have shown a number of conventions to show my

magazine genre clearly through different attempts of challenging the magazines expectations. I chose NME Rock/Indie music magazine as a template The black background works well with colours of Red, Blue, Yellow and White on top of the black to contrast and make stand out. A main image in the centre of the front cover links to what rock magazines I researched and the conventions that are shown such as puffs and plugs, advertise on Rock magazines to the information. Medium Close up and Mid Shot and Long Shot match to NME. They use the camera shots through every issue they publish on their magazine which is my template, I have used these camera shots for that purpose. All images are in colour, as this magazine is filled with a lot of colourful colours on this magazine already, it works a lot more. I did try with all images being black and white but it didn’t have the same affect with the colours. It shouts out to you lots more which is what I want.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

• My media product represents social groups especially for Rock/Indie music lovers. Rock is a very ‘in your face’ genre so choosing bright colours and conventions to attract others with the amount of information expressed in my magazine, links to the target audience. A before, I thought to go along with creating an Indie magazine, through my research and creating the indie magazine, I decided that it wasn’t going anywhere. There wasn’t any specific conventions that would defiently show a target audience member that it’s an Indie Magazine. Deciding to start again, I began to create a Rock magazine. Conventions and target audience will defiently show that my new magazine is a Rock magazine from colours, conventions, main image, puffs etc. It made the process a lot easier as well.

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

• I chose Bauer Media Group as this institution owns and publishes many different magazines. The magazine categories mainly are women’s weekly’s, TV listing magazines and music magazines. Q Magazine for example now have been expanded from your magazine to TV and radio which is used to advertise and make profit but also advertising their products that they own. They have a website that informs news, shops and links to other products. The music area is a very big portion that the institution have prize in for the likes of music video channels, such as the very popular 4Music. This channel will contain adverts in between videos gaining much profit as it’s common channel directing to the younger audience which most advertisements will be centred upon. Institutions control its distribution, for instance it may be advertised in other ways being their media products on main channels. They sell magazines in big stores as they try and appeal it to as many people as possible to make more profit. The products have media conventions within them which people recognise easily which continuously helps its admiration to regulars who buy/watch/listen etc. All these media products that are shares of the Bauer Media Group will gain maximum of their profits from the advertisers they get to act in their media products.

Who would be your target audience for your media product?

• Both genders for 16+. This is because the age I have chosen seems suitable. Rock is a deep and hard genre that can contain strong language in some magazines I read whilst researching. 16+ understand and develop more in depth what music is and what genres they prefer and listen too. They are enticed into bands, duo or solo artists. Rock are known for band and their instruments play a highlight through main images on magazines which is why I used images that showed a band with instruments as well in the picture.

How did you attract/address your audience?

• I attracted my audience through my magazines with bright colour scheme throughout addressing both male and female. My images were all centre of Long shots/Mid shots to show who the magazine with be based on and it’ll attract the audience and especially target audience from the main cover line advertising the band more closely. As before when creating an Indie magazine, I was using minimal colours and minimal conventions to grab the audiences attention. The colour scheme was green and purple over a black background. Looking back, there were no structure to the Indie magazine as their were no information at all over all 3 products I created. So deciding to go along with creating a Rock magazine, seemed very easier to create. I have a colour scheme that links to my chosen genre, Puffs and taglines giving an insight to the magazine and drawing in audience. The Indie magazine was lacking in all of those things.

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

• At the very beginning, we started off with a lesson on Photoshop which helped me learn the basics such as editing, font, colour, etc and progressed a lot through the process of creating my magazine. I have learnt a lot more than I did at the beginning as at the start I wasn’t very steady when editing a photo. I have used a camera to capture my own pictures for my magazine and edited those using Photoshop learning different editing tools along the way to cut even the finest detail such as Lasso tool.

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

fully product?

• Through the process, I have become much stronger through my work and myself as at the start not knowing how to use any tools on Photoshop, to now using every tool on the side bar that could help me through my work. I now have more of an understanding of music magazine genres and any target audience after applying such research in my own work when producing my own magazine to attract my audience whether it being colours or the main image etc. Plus, I now understand that genre is a key part when selecting your target audience through the music that we hear today on music channels and on radio stations.