Evaluation
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
From my research for my preliminary task I found that most school magazines had pictures of the school concerned and lures that were about successes within the school, interesting events and competitions. My school magazine challenges the conventions of using an image of the school. I chose to do this because I was aiming my product at teenagers and I didn’t feel that an image of the school was necessary. Instead of this I have used pictures of events within the school which may draw my target audience. However, my use of a masthead and lures are typical of those used in school magazines.
The school magazines that I looked at for research had either pictures of the school or a school logo. I decided to follow this format and included our school logo on the contents page. I decided that I needed to make my contents page more colourful to attract the reader. However, this meant that it did not follow a House style that is usual for this type of magazine.
The pictures that I used followed the conventions for this type of media product because they are pictures of the pupils and teachers and a range of shot types were used, depending on the subject of the photo.
For my main task I chose to produce a magazine for the acoustic genre. My music magazine front cover follows the forms and conventions that I found whilst doing my research. All the magazines seemed to have a main photo on the cover which represented what the double page spread article was about. I made my masthead slightly different to the conventions as I put it at an angle rather than square on the page. I thought that this represented the image that I wanted and was less uniform.
Another convention that I have followed is the use of lures on the front cover. The job of a lure is to attract people to buy and read the magazine. These can include free items available with the magazine and exclusives inside. Most of the magazines that I looked at included one or both of these and so I decided to stick to that convention. The Uses and Gratifications theory suggests that there is a highly active audience that is making use of the media for a range of purposes to satisfy needs such as entertainment, information and identification. The audience for my magazine will feel satisfied with the product as it contains exclusive information and is offered at a discounted price. They will feel that they have received value for money.
More people are likely to buy my main task because of the editing done to the main picture. When I made my contents page I edited pictures and I used two long shots and 1 mid shot. By having a mid shot it makes the reader feel that they are getting close to Rajko. I used two long shots because you can see his whole body which reflects his attitude towards his music and shows how much he likes this music industry. If I just used a close up it would not show his whole body attitude towards the music. I used a different font style which helps makes it stand out and more interesting to the reader.

When planning my double page spread I wanted to have an interview with the featured artist and some pictures. The music magazines that I looked at had either too much writing for my target audience or didn’t include interviews. So by creating my double page spread as I have I have broken the conventions of some music magazines but this suited the style and needs of my target audience.
Most of the contents pages that I looked at had a lot of text which I didn’t feel suited my target audience so I decided to have a mixture of images and text to appeal to the audience. I have tried to use a House style throughout the music magazine products and this is a convention that I have tried to adhere to.
How does your media product represent a particular social group?
The social group that I aimed to reach was people who were into the acoustic music genre. It is essential that magazines reach their target audience. My research told me that for this genre I needed to use soft, muted colours rather than vibrant ones. I made my magazine for people who are into mellow music, such as Jack Johnson and Donovan, and I have made my front cover appeal to my target audience. If my front cover hadn’t have appealed to my target audience people would not buy it, so this will lead to a decrease in sales of the magazine and then less profit for the magazine company. The masthead for my magazine is “Mellow” which will tell my target audience what genre of music it follows; I had to make sure it stood out from all of the other magazine mastheads, so more people are likely to see mine before the competitors, which will help increase sales.
I have used the editing programme to create graphics on my picture for my front cover, so this makes it stand out and will make people want to read more because the picture of Rajko was very mysterious. My front cover of my magazine is similar to the ones we see on the shelf at any supermarket, this is because I have used colours, pictures and cover lines to make my magazine stand out. I have edited my magazine photo to make it black and white so it is soft on the eye, if I used bright colours it would not suit my target audience because my music industry is targeted to people into soft, acoustic music.
I have used a lot of black and white for my images because this magazine front cover is targeted at males. I have edited the picture of Rajko to be the size of the page to make it stand out from the rest of the magazine on the shelf of the supermarket. The lures I have used on my front cover are mainly about boys performing at gigs, this could also attract girls as well because they might find this person attractive and who are big fans of the music. Due to the fact that I am targeting my magazine to a wide group of people this means I could get more sales making more profit as a company, but it will be hard to attract both males and females. The double page spread is getting close and personal to Rajko, who is a very attractive young man, and women would love to get personal with him because of his looks. On my content page I have used the lure “Getting up close and personal with Rajko”; this will help to increase sales because people will read this lure about Rajko and will want to read more. I made sure the photos I used for my double page spread are ones which Rajko looks good in, so this will keep the girl interested in the interview.
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product & why?
Before I started my front cover I looked at other magazine front covers to get ideas for my own. A music magazine company called “VIBE” use good soft colours which are the same style as mine. I also looked at a magazine company called ‘Q’ which has the same style as my magazine; this is good because the company makes a lot of profit from the sales of their magazines. The reason why I would send my magazine to this company is because they are very well known and they make a very good profit. Like most well know magazine companies they make sure people can see the masthead; the masthead I have used is clear and prominent and suitable for the genre. I feel that my magazine front cover follows the brand identity that distinguishes ‘VIBE’ and ‘Q’ in the market.
Who would be the audience for your media product?
My target audience is males aged between 17 and above. Although I feel that my magazine would be mainly for males, I do think girls would buy this because I have used a good lure saying “getting close and personal with Rajko”; he is a very attractive young man so girls will want to see and know more about him.
The sort of boys who would buy this magazine will be into writing their own music and playing instruments in the music industry. My magazine is aimed at people who like going to the beach on an evening watching the sun go down and playing a guitar. This music style is also good for when people are stressed out and the music style is very relaxing, so this would chill them out.
In the photos I have used Rajko is Playing the acoustic guitar rather than the electric guitar because the electric guitar is target to people who are into heavy metal. This helps tell my target audience see what sort of genre my magazine is aimed at.
My magazine is reasonably priced so people of all ages would be able to afford to buy it, including students. If the magazine was put at a higher price then less people would be likely to buy it. By having it placed at a reasonable price sales will be higher, leading to higher profits.
The magazine is for all classes of people. My magazine is called “Mellow” which is at the side of the page but in big bold writing, this is symbolic/ arbitrary sign because it can be culturally learned because whenever I have heard the word Mellow I always think about soft and chilled music/ people.

How did you attract/ address your audience?
By having the main picture of Rajko filling the whole page, my target audience will be able to tell what famous person is on the front of the cover and if they are a fan of Rajko they are likely to buy the magazine because there is an interview about him.
The hypodermic audience theory was one of the original models used to research audiences. Its basic idea is that people who use the media are passive, people who can’t think for themselves and that everything they see on TV, the cinema or read in a magazine is right and true. The idea is just as the title suggests, the audience is injected with ideas and meanings.
My use of the lure ‘Exclusive’ draws the target audience in to find out more about the featured artist and the exclusive story. The front cover design is intriguing, it will encourage the audience to look closer at the magazine.
I made sure the picture was clear and that people were able to tell who it was, I used a mid shot of Rajko showing him playing the guitar, and singing into a mic. This is a good picture because my target audience can easily see what sort of music genre it is. Using black and white for my background makes it soft on the eye and I used red for the exclusives to make them stand out.
By using a picture of Rajko it opens up the target audience to include females who are fans of Rajko. By making my title in word art means it makes it stand out a lot more than the other magazines that might be on the shelf and by using bright colours for my cover lines means that people will be able to see it and the colour will attract people .
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
In my preliminary task I used the basic Microsoft Paint software to edit my photos, but in my main task I used Adobe Premiere editing soft ware called Adobe Photo Shot Elements 7.0. This meant that I was able to edit my photos to a higher level making them look different and cool. The reason why I have done this is because it makes it stand out more and will catch my target audience attention, because it makes it look more professional. The graphics produced look sharper and make my magazine look very professional, unlike my first task which looked very amateur.
I have learnt the significance of different types of camera shots and tried to make sure that I used appropriate shots to signify the feelings that I wanted to convey. I used mid-shots to make the reader feel closer to the featured artist and a long range shot to encapsulate the feeling of the music genre.
I chose to record my progress using a blog. This has developed my knowledge and skills in this area as I was previously unaware of blogs and the information that can be stored. I found it an easy way to record information and have had to develop my internet and computer capabilities in order to keep my blog fully operational and updated.
Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
My preliminary task was a learning curve for when I produced my main task. In my preliminary task I didn’t do very much editing to the pictures I used, so the front cover magazine was dull and plain. However, in my main tasked I used new editing software called Abode photo shot 7.0 so I learnt how to use the new editing software. By using this new software I was able to make it stand out more to my target audience so I would get more sales from this magazine unlike my preliminary task. I learnt that I had to edit my photos for people to like it and for people to buy it. The better it is edited the more likely people are going to buy it, so I learnt for my main task I had to do more editing.
For my preliminary task I didn’t follow the house style so it did not really professional, however in my main task I made sure I used the house style for my front cover, contents page and the double page spread to make it look more professional. The contents page on my preliminary looked very boring with mainly all the writing on one side, so in my main task I made sure I made it more attractive using pictures and different font styles to make it appeal more to my audience.

I was not happy with my contents page because it didn't suit the style of my front cover and double page spread and also my focus group did not find it very attractive, detailed and easy to read, so I have made several changes. I have changed the background colour and the main picture in the background because I have used it on my front cover and also on my double page spread. I have used a black background so the font is more easy to read and it is more attractive and follows the house style.

This is my Final contents page. I am not happy with this contents page I dont think it goes with my front cover and double page spread. I am going to hand it around to my focus group and see what they think about it, so I dont think this will be my final contents page.

Now I have finished my double page spread I need to design a contents page for my magazine. I have been looking at Contents pages in different magazines, getting ideas from them. My target audience would like to have pictures and a lot of colours which makes it stand out. Having a good contents page will people draw people into the magazine wanting to find out more about the stories inside the magazine.

My Final Double page spread with all the corrections from my focus group.

I have created my double page spread and I have shown it to my focus group and I have got good and bad points from them:

negative:

Boring and doesnt match the front cover theme

The pictures look in the wrong place and the way they are laid out is not great

Have two pictures on each page

A bit too dark

Postives:

Good colour and font style

Having the answers in a different colour

Good lay out

Good use of pictures