My Media Magazine Evaluation

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

College MagazineMy college magazine is conventional in the sense that it is similar to other college magazine’s. The magazine on the left is just a college magazine image I have taken off Google and below is the college magazine and contents page I have created. Although the Google image is an actual published magazine it has the same purpose as my magazine.

My target audience is also for the students in the college to give them information about what's going on in the college and how to help them through their studies. My magazine is very stereotypical in the way that all college magazines have a student on the front who are looking very happy and all the sell lines are there to help the students who get this magazine through their education. I think both are quite simplistic with the layout, images, colours and sell lines and that was my aim whilst creating it, I don’t think the college magazine needs to be cluttered it just needs to get the information across.

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

Music MagazineI believe its hard to say that my magazine is conventional as there isn’t really a conventional music magazine out there, they are all pretty different as they include lots of different genre’s of music which makes the photography, font and colour schemes different. Although, the purposes for these magazines are to entertain the reader by feeding them information about music and other topics related to it. The magazine on the left is also a magazine that I have taken off Google images.

The magazine cover on the right is the music magazine I have created with my double page spread and contents page above it. Not many music magazine’s give a clue about the genre of music they are supplying inside which I believe is also the case with my magazine. Both of these covers have the same colour scheme but fonts and layouts are very different. Also ‘MOJO’ tends to have articles about classic rock and mine is an indie and pop genre, this backs up my theory of you don’t know what’s inside the magazine the outside may look similar but they may be about completely different genre’s of music.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My music magazine will vary in the people who buy it. Its easy for me to target an audience of 15-30 year olds but that hasn’t taken into consideration of gender, race, ethnicity and social class. Social class is a big part to take into consideration, lower class may not be able to afford the magazine which then the magazine will be aimed at the middle class. Higher class are most likely to not buy this magazine they would probably look it up on the computer or other kinds of technology.

My college magazine is regional as it will only represent that college’s students and high schools around that area. The age is also a big part, people will only be reading it from 16 onwards as they will only be the ones who will achieve something from reading it.

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

These magazines are made to be distributed for the print industry, but will most likely be available to look at on computers, tablets and smart phones. Technology is growing vastly.My college magazine will only be distributed by the college it is about and maybe some of the high schools around that area. This is because the aim for my magazine is to help students know about events around the college and to help students with their studies and exams. The public wouldn’t be interested in this and it would have no use to them. And we may send it to high schools to let the year 11s who may be going up to that college get a feel of what its like. Where as my music magazine we would be out for the public to buy which will most likely be sold in a newsagents, music shops, supermarkets, magazine stores and the internet. This is because we have made this magazine to entertain people who enjoy music and topics that relate to it. These are the typical places music magazine readers would go to find one.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

The target audience for my college magazine would be college students, teachers and high school students that are going to higher education at that college. The age range would tend to be sixteen years old and onwards. The only reason why they are the only audience is because these are the only people who will get benefits from reading this magazine.

My target audience for my music magazine would tend to be 15-30 year olds. They would also be interested in music, films and artists. The genre of music they would be interested in is indie music and pop music. I have said 15 as children under this age may not be interested in the topics we include and we will also include film reviews for mostly films with the restricted age of 15.

How did you attract/address your audience?Music Magazine.

I used the colour scheme black, white and red, this stands out to the audience. The Red font on top of the black and white images and background really attracts the readers eyes.

The main image address’s the reader by the two girls in the image making contact with their eyes staring straight at the camera lense and drawing you in. Also it is a fairly close photo and although its grey scale you the picture is very defined.

Like most magazine the barcode is at the bottom.

The flash at bottom of the page breaks up the cover giving it some thing slightly different and also highlighting the main parts will draw the attention of the reader in and make them want to find out what the pictures are like.

The masthead is big, bold and going across the whole top of the magazine cover. This is what the readers will remember of the magazine and look for the next time they want to buy one.

The black strip along the top lets me change the font colour around, rather than having black I have white. It breaks it up and doesn’t seem as plain and boring. Attracting the public to it if it was on a shelf in a shop.

The date is in a different place to regular magazines. This gives it a slight twist.

How I attracted my audience on my magazine contents page.

I use four large different images, all including different colours. This will catch the readers attention.

I use the same font for the title on this page as the same on the masthead, NME inspired me to do this.

I include texts underneath the images to give the reader a guide to what it is about. Some of these include quotes and some include rhetorical questions. All of these will absorb the reader into finding out what the page is all about.

This is my way of telling the reader what else is in the magazine, I have put this white text on a black arrow facing of the page. Firstly the white text and different coloured page numbers stand out on the black filled background and the arrow pointing of the page is a clever way to encourage the reader to turn over the page.

I put the page numbers at the top of the pictures so the reader knows what page this picture is from. It also makes it stand out and I got this idea from NME as well.

I really like the lines/grid around my pictures keeping them separate from one another making it easier for the reader to understand.

How I attracted my audience on my double page spread

The Long shot image is a really good way to attract the audience, it covers half of a page and the girls in it are sharing eye contact with you which draws you in and also they are wearing very bright clothing which makes the page stand out.

The quote at the top is also included on the contents page so as soon as they see that the audience will know what they are looking at. It is also very colourful, large font and stand out.

I have used the same colour font as the girl in the images clothing. This brings the page together, and also on a white background as the colours are really bright they stand out to the audience and absorb them into reading the interview.

I include a drop cap , this makes the page look more professional and I have also changed the colour of the letter which draws your eyes towards it.

I have changed the colour of the font of which the blue is the question and the black in the answer to try and not confuse the reader.

I have added a picture to break up the page so it doesn’t look like one whole essay. I have added a polaroid frame around it to give it a modern, fresh feel.

How did you attract/address your audience?College Magazine.

If you look at the logo, the colour scheme for my front image is following the same as the college logo colours.

The main image is a medium close up so it is very easy to see the features on her face. Her eye level is direct with yours and very inviting.

There is another image on the page, it brings more colour to the page.

The sell line going across the page is in larger font will attract the readers attention, and making the number 50 bold as its a big number will get the audience wondering what its about.

Having a sub-title for the sell line below draws attention to the reader as it is also bigger font and different colour. The audience will notice this before reading the actual sell line.

How I attracted my audience on my college magazine contents page. I have also included the colours from

the cowa logo. My front cover and contents page are very similar.

Putting the red square box's behind the images make the image stand out more.

Alternating the colours of the font break the page up so its not boring,

I have put this image in the middle of the contents page because it is my main story and this has the main focus on it.

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

I have learnt how to use many different programmes on the computer by creating these magazine’s. I have learnt more by doing the music magazine rather than the college as I went more in depth with the music magazine using Photoshop and quark express. Before I done media studies I didn’t even know about the quark programme. I new about Photoshop but I didn’t know how to use it correctly. By creating the magazine’s I now know how to use these correctly and this will benefit me in the future.

I never had many skills with a camera but throughout this task taking photo’s for my magazine I learnt how to use a camera properly and actually bought one myself because I enjoyed it. I also learnt how different lights have effects on picture quality.

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

product?When I first got given the task of creating two magazine covers, two contents

pages and a double page spread I didn’t have a clue where to start. I had never created one before and when we started learning about the layout, colour schemes and images I didn’t realise how in depth these products go.

Throughout the process you can tell I have improved my knowledge on how to make magazine’s look professional and be beneficial to the readers. We got given a sheet at the beginning of the task of how an ordinary magazine layout looks like and that helped a lot throughout the tasks.

I have learnt ways to use camera’s correctly, the angles and lighting to make picture quality good. I am now more knowledgeable about colour schemes, what layouts work well with main images. The ways in which audiences are attracted to front covers and how you relate colour schemes and images to the audience you are targeting.

Finally, my preliminary task was basic. I didn’t understand how to use programmes such as Adobe Photoshop to make my images and layout of my magazine look professional. After gaining knowledge on how to use these programmes and understanding how to create a magazine my task to do so has turned out very well and I am pleased with the results.

These are my final piece’s:

My completed college magazine front cover and contents page.

My completed music magazine cover.

My completed music

magazine contents page.

My completed double page spread for my music magazine.