Evaluation

In order to gain public feedback to my magazine, I have set up a poll asking my audience their thoughts and opinions on my magazine. The majority of people who have completed the poll have been between the ages of 16 to 24 years, which is the primary age group that my magazine is aimed at, therefore the response to my magazine is taken from what would be my potential audience.

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

I believe that my music magazine follows the conventions of other products within the same medium. I learnt these conventions when I carried out my research, where I looked at a selection of other music magazines from a variety of genres. My front cover contains conventional features such as a masthead, an edited photograph, a bar-code, price, issue number and a headline. The contents page follows the conventions of real media products by containing additional edited photographs and by giving information such as page numbers, article titles and short descriptions of the magazines content. The article on my double page spread follows the conventional layout of an interview, and again contains an edited photograph, a headline and a strap line. This spread is also conventional as the photograph is the main focus point of the article, as it takes up the whole of the right hand side page, in the same way as the articles in the magazines I looked at in my research. The limited palette of colours which I used on my contents page follows the same conventions as "Q" magazine, which uses simplicity in order to attract it's audience. The masthead on my front cover follows the same conventions as "NME" and "Q", as I used white text against a bright red background to make the page as eye catching as possible.

How does your Media product represent
particular social groups?

The social group that has been represented in my magazine is young men and women, between the ages of 16 and 21, who are members of bands or who are solo artists. They have been represented through the original photographs that I have taken. I felt that using people from this age group in my photographs would appeal to my primary target audience of 16-24 year olds. I portrayed the models as being happy and relaxed, as I wanted their positive mood to reflect on my audience. I wanted to represent the models in my photographs as being modern and fashionable, and styled them accordingly. I felt that styling them in this way would appeal to my target audience because they would be attracted by way the models are dressed. I also used props such as guitars so I positioned my models in a way that made them appear as though they were enjoying playing their instruments, because this gives a positive representation of the music industry. I also felt that using photographs where the models were actually playing their instruments would create a feeling of energy and excitement amongst my audience.

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

The kind of publisher who might wish to distribute my product could be one such as “IPC”, who publish “NME” magazine. This is a magazine that could easily be compared to the style of my own magazine "Jam", as they would contain bands from a similar genre and would appeal to a parallel target audience, so their publisher might also be interested in distributing my product. This similarity in style can be supported with evidence from my poll. From the appearence of my magazine, the majority of voters believed that my magazine covered artists from the indie/rock music genre. This is the style which I wanted to create, as "NME" covers artists from this same genre, therefore I believe that my audience will have noticed some similarity in the style and representation of artists in my magazine.

Who would be the audience for your Media
product?

The audience for my music magazine would cover both males and females, primarily aged between 16 and 24 years. This is supported by the results from my blog poll, as the majority of voters who saw my magazine also felt that my magazine was targeted at this particular age group. However I believe that my magazine could also be enjoyed by a more mature age group who are interested in the genre of music that my magazine promotes because of it's professional appearance. Additionally, it would be suitable for younger readers as it would not contain taboo language, and the level of informality in the written articles makes the stories very easy to read and understand.

How did you attract/address your audience?

I used a variety of techniques to make my magazine appeal to my initial target audience of 16-24 year olds. I wanted my magazine to appear sophisticated so I used colours and font styles which made my product look professional. I also used lots of bold, capitalized text where appropriate so that my audience would find it eye-catching. However because my target audience is primarily older teenagers to young adults I kept the language informal and chatty so that the articles didn’t seem too hard going. I also think that my magazine's name "Jam" would appeal to my target audience because it is short, punchy and therefore memorable. In my poll, the majority of voters thought that the title held the connotation of a magazine aimed at geniune music fans and one that specialises in promoting upcoming artists. This was the connotation which I hoped my audience would take away from the title.

Another technique which I used to attract my audience was to give short, vague descriptions of the articles on the contents page so that their interest would be captured but so they would have to buy the magazine to find out more. I also feel that my original images would appeal to my audience as I styled the people in my photographs in a way which a younger audience would find appealing, for example they were photographed wearing modern, fashionable clothing. The photograph on the front page is edited to make it look refined, giving the magazine a professional feel. However I used more natural photos on the contents page so that my magazine didn’t look too heavily polished, as I didn’t think this would appeal to a young audience.

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

I have learnt a number of new skills from constructing my finished product. I have learnt a lot about the conventions of magazines, particularly music magazines and the kinds of techniques that they use to appeal to their target audience. I have also developed my skills of editing photographs, and how to frame them effectively. On top of this I have also discovered lots of features on Microsoft Publisher that I was not aware of before this project, such as how to wrap text around images and how to adjust the margins on the page.

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

From producing a college magazine as part of the preliminary task to going on to produce my music magazine, my production skills and knowledge have greatly improved. I have become more confident and adventurous in taking photographs, and have experimented with a variety of different shots, angles and frames. I have also developed my understanding of magazine conventions and how these are used to appeal to a particular kind of audience.

Finished product with analysis

Front Cover

When producing the front cover of my magazine I made a number of decisions to make my product appeal to my target audience.

I placed the name of my magazine, “Jam” in the top left hand corner, as this is conventionally where it is located in other magazines. I found that on the magazines that I looked at in my research the main photograph was often placed to overlap the magazine name, so I used this technique on my front cover as well. This gives the impression that the magazine is confident that readers will recognise the magazine purely by its style of presenting. I used a bold white font against a red background and capitalized the word so that it has maximum impact and would attract the attention of my audience. The colour red was also used to attract the audience in other magazines I looked at in my research, for example, "NME". Another conventional feature I found in many magazines was the use of a strap line underneath the masthead. My strap line reads “The weekly music magazine”. This informs the audience how frequently the magazine is published. This line is written in a traditional style font to give the cover a ‘polished’ feel. I also chose to write it in a pale gray to create contrast between it and the masthead. This colour also stood out against the green of the background.

The price, issue number and website address of my magazine are conventionally placed in the top right hand corner of my front cover. The audience will expect this information to be placed here so it will be easy for them to find it. Making the navigation around my magazine simple will appeal to my audience and would encourage them to buy it.

The most eye-catching feature of my front cover is the photograph of the girl sat holding a guitar. The acoustic guitar is iconic of the genre of music magazine I have produced; therefore my target audience would instantly be able to identify what types of music my magazine focuses on, which would primarily be the indie/rock genre, which is often associated with acoustic music. I framed the photograph to leave a deliberate space between the neck of the guitar and the girls face, as this is where I planned to put my headline. I edited the image using “Microsoft Picture It” to make it look more professional. I blurred out the guitar slightly so that the main focus is on the girl, as she would be the main feature that would attract my audience. I also slightly increased the contrast of the picture so that her facial features stood out against the white background. In addition to this I added a background of a field to give the image a sense of location. I felt that a background linked with nature would suit the laid-back style of acoustic guitar music. The colours included within the backgrounds are mainly purples, blues and greens, all of which have the connotation of calmness and tranquility, which would reflect upon the mood of my audience.

My headline is another eye-catching feature of my front cover. I situated it in the space between the girls face and the neck of the guitar, which is central on the page. Here the audience will be immediately drawn to it, and if the headline interests them, they will be more likely to purchase my magazine. I also left the information about the article quite vague, so that the audience would have to buy the magazine if they wanted to find out more. I found this technique was used by a number of other magazines I looked at in my research. I used both red and black font in my headline and sub-heading, as I felt the red contrasted against everything else on the page so that the text stood out. I also chose the colour red because it is a connotation of love, which links to the word “heart” in my headline. I capitalised two key words “Music” and “Heart” because I felt that these were the head words that would most capture the interest of my audience and I wanted to make them as bold as possible.

Another conventional feature that my front page had to include was a bar-code, which I placed in the bottom left hand corner. Again I found that this was where the bar-code was universally placed on a number of other magazines that I looked at, therefore it would be easy to locate. This is another way in which my own magazine follows the convetions of other products within the same medium.


Contents Page

I repeated the name of my magazine in the top left hand corner of my contents page, using the same style of font as on my front cover. I found that the magazines I looked at in my research used this technique to re-enforce the magazines identity to the audience. I wrote the heading “Contents” underneath the masthead in a traditional black font, the same as I used for the strap line on the front cover. I thought that using the same fonts would allow my magazine establish an individual identity and would make its appearance more memorable to my audience. I also capitalised the word “Contents” to make it eye-catching, and because it is one of the most important pieces of text on the page.

One aspect that I have changed on my contents page from when I produced my initial draft is that instead of taking a picture of the already existing band "Snow Patrol" from the Internet to use in the top right hand corner, I decided to use a fifth original image.

I used three of my original images on my contents page which I felt would appeal to my target audience. The first is an image of a girl holding a radio on her shoulder. The radio is iconic of the music industry, and therefore fits the genre of my magazine. She is styled in modern dress, which shows that the magazine is contemporary and is primarily aimed at a young audience. Her happy expression reflects my magazines friendly approach and the aim to entertain it's audience. I also chose to make the photo black and white as I felt this looked really effective and modern. It also created some variety on the page which makes it appear more interesting, as all of the other photographs which I have used have been in colour.

The next is a photo of the same girl featured on the front cover, this time seen to be playing her guitar. Because she is included in the main article, I felt it would be appropriate to have another photograph of her on the contents page. I chose to have her playing the guitar in this image as I wanted the photos on my contents page to look more natural than the one I used on my front cover. The last image I took is of a boy playing a bass guitar. Again the guitar is iconic of the type of magazine I have produced. Once more I wanted this photograph to look natural so I had the boy actually playing the guitar when I took the photo. I edited these photographs using “Microsoft Picture It”, increasing the contrast so that certain aspects of the photo stood out, for example the guitars. I positioned these two photos down the centre of the page as this would immediately draw in the reader and make them want to find out about the articles.

I used two sub-headings on my contents page to categorize the articles, “Reviews” and “Features”. This would make the navigation around the page easier and would allow the audience to quickly locate the type of article that they are interested in. Again I capitalized these sub-headings and used a traditional, classic font to give the page a sophisticated appearance. I also made them bold and underlined them, as well as using an eye-catching red font to draw in the audience.

For each of the articles on the contents page, I made the page number bold so that it would be eye-catching to the audience. I capitalized the first couple of words for each article, and then gave a short description underneath. I also alternated the colours of the article headings between red and blue, which I felt made them stand out more against the plain white background. This would captivate the audience’s interest and encourage them to buy the magazine to read more. I gave slightly more detailed descriptions of the articles accompanying the photograph, as the audience would expect that these items were of a particular significance or importance. I found this a technique used on the other magazines I looked at in my research.


Double page spread















In the production of my magazine so far I have used a limited palette of colours to keep the appearance simple but effective. However on my double page spread I decided to make the page look ‘busier’ and used a range of colours to grab the reader’s attention.

The photograph on my double page spread is one of the most important features, so I decided that the image would take up the whole of the right hand side page, while the text of the article was written on the left page. This layout was used on both of the double page spreads that I analysed in my initial research, therefore the design is conventional and would be familiar to my audience. I also felt that if I used text on both pages it would dominate the spread too much and my audience may be put off wanting to read the article if they thought there was an overload of information.

The photograph is a medium close up of a girl, and she is positioned to give the impression that she is looking up at the headline. She also looks happy and in control, which is how I wanted her to appear because the article is about her having success as a solo artist after leaving a band. I styled her so that she was wearing a black jumper because I wanted this colour to flow from the background of the opposite page into the photograph. I edited the photograph using “Microsoft Picture It”, so that her features, particularly her eyes stood out and would draw in the audience.

I imported a photograph of a brick wall to use as the background behind the photograph so that it looked like the girl was standing outside. I imported this image because when I took the photograph the weather was very wet and windy and I felt that if I took the photo outdoors this may have ruined the way I wanted my model to look. I felt that the brick wall was a simple background and therefore allowed my model to stand out against it, but also gave the image a sense of location rather than just having a plain coloured background. The brick wall is a connotation of a modern urban environment, therefore the photograph would interest a contemporary audience who are exposed to this kind of setting.

On the left hand side page I used a black background with white text for a contrast compared to the white background used on my front cover and contents page. I used the theme of black and white as this links to the headline “Checkmate, you win!” I split the main body of text up into three columns, is this is conventionally how magazine articles were laid out in other examples I looked at. I wrote the article in a clear, legible font which would make the reading as easy as possible for my audience. I also enlarged a key quote from the article and positioned it near the centre of the page. The double page spread which I looked at in "NME" also used this technique to captivate the audiences interest to the article. This is an example of a convetional feature of magazine articles which I included in my own product.

The language that I used in my article was informal and friendly, using colloquial terms such as "thanks for joining us" and "it pays off in the end." Keeping the language informal would appeal to a young audience, and also fulfils my magazines aim to entertain it's readers. If the language was too complicated then it is likely that the audience would not take pleasure from reading the article.

The headline “Checkmate, you win!” ran over both pages of the spread. I wanted the text to stand out so I kept the text on the left page in white and then changed the colour of the font on the right page to black. I felt that this also looked quite effective and professional, which would appeal to my target audience. I chose a font which was bold and easy to read so that the words were prominent against the background.

I also used a strap line to give a short summery of the article, but kept it vague to make the audience want to read on. Using a strap line gives the reader an idea of what the article is about but still leaves them wanting to find out more. Again I wrote this text in white so that is stood out against the black background. I also contained it within a white border to separate it from the main body of text.