Hattie Jane Freer

EVALUATION

1. IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP

OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA

PRODUCTS?

The most dominant thing on my front cover is my main image. This is to make evident that the artist is the main focus of my

magazine. This is something most magazines try to achieve. The headline on my magazine also has a dominance on the page,

because this is the name of my artist. The masthead is positioned on the left hand side and the top of the page, I changed this numerous times to truly get the right size of the box and the

writing. Seen as the masthead is one of the most important things to involve. The anchorage is the third biggest writing on the page,

explaining a little more about the chosen artist. The cover lines are positioned around the main image, because they involve

information about what’s inside the magazine. I involved a line with information about a competition. This is more selling lines

for people to be attracted to the magazine. I positioned it underneath the masthead, so it’s hard to miss. There is also

another selling line at the top of the page, which is an ‘extra.’ The barcode is positioned at the top right of the cover, which I thought was a good place, being that it’s a different place for a barcode to appear. The secondary lead, was put in because I needed to fill in the space. But it turned out to be another good thing to appear on the cover. I included a picture, and a caption, making it seem that the people in the photo had said what was in the caption. The date

line, and issue number for my magazine is positioned at the bottom, which is where you would find most on other magazines. The most dominant things on my contents page is the masthead

which I repeated on to this page, the writing saying ‘contents’ and the main image, for the interview artist.

I left the text quite plain and simple, because the magazine reaches out to a variety of people. This leaves it open and available to appeal

to a range of people. My magazine represents a range of different types, and genres of music, so it has a large audience of interest. I

wrote about the festivals coming up in 2012, so people interested in going to festivals would read this magazine. I also included a range

of musicians and artists so many people would be interested in reading it. The social group, or groups of my magazine I would say are halfway between ‘pop’ and ‘indie.’ The ‘indie’ scene has turned

into something that I wouldn’t want my magazine being judged with. I’ve made it halfway between these social groups, and made it more ‘pop’ for this reason, this is also the scene I am interested in myself.

But with the festival information and different artists, it becomes indie as well. My magazine I designed, has quite a girly feel about it, with the pink, and the main image having a very feminine feel, with

the model’s long hair. It would appeal more to the females in my target audience, but would have some male attraction as well.

2. HOW DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT REPRESENT

PARTICULAR SOCIAL GROUPS?

There are two big leading magazine publishers in the UK. IPC Media, and Bauer Media. IPC Media produces over 60 iconic media brands, with print

alone reaching almost two thirds of UK women and 42% of UK men, almost 26 million UK adults. Their

websites collectively reach over 20 million users every month. Bauer Media reaches over nineteen million UK adults across multiple media channels.

They have more than eighty influential media brands, some of these including: heat, GRAZIA,

Closer, MCN, FHM, Parkers, MATCH, Q Magazine, Kiss 100, Kerrang! and 4Music. The main magazine

that IPC Media distributes is ‘NME magazine.’ Probably the most popular music magazine in the UK. I used this to help represent my magazine, as ‘NME’ also uses a range of different artists and

musicians; the audience is also wide. Other popular magazines that IPC Media distributes are Look,

TvTimes, Marie Claire, and most ‘television guide’ based magazines.

3. WHAT KIND OF MEDIA INSTITUTION MIGHT DISTRIBUTE YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT AND WHY?

The audience for my particular music magazine, would be from teens to adult. Seen as it talks about festivals and such

like, things that young children would not be taking part in. My audience is targeted for people who are interested in attending

the festivals, like V Festival and Leeds Festival. The audience are people who are

interested in a range of artists, so, not particularly people who belong to a certain

social class. The magazines includes an interview with an artist, and in a real magazine, such as ‘NME,’ they would

choose an artist or musician that appealed to the target audience. To get an idea of

who would read my magazine, I created a questionnaire. It included a list of questions based around my magazine, and what types of people would actually read it. It gave me

an idea, and helped me figure out my audience variety.

4. WHO WOULD BE THE AUDIENCE FOR YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT?

The layout of my magazine is designed in a simple way, the colours used seem feminine, with

the colours used. To not make it feel utterly designed to attract only the females in my target

audience, I used a certain type of pink, not a bright, ‘Barbie’ pink. The black, simplicity adds to the simple design. Black was a safe colour to choose, but it works well. Using the colour black for the headline, brings it to stand out more. Big,

black, bold letters are perfect for letting something stand out on the page. To attract the

target audience for my magazine, the covers lines create a sense of what my magazine is about. For the double page spread I have also used a simple design, to make it feel like a real interview page.

I used the image I wanted for the double page spread, and displayed it over one whole side. The

main way I have attracted my audience is by using particular words, in particular fonts, to make them stand out. The red lettered words, ‘WIN,’ ‘PLUS,’ and ‘EXCLUSIVE’ attract the audience straight away. My editorial in my

magazine, is in conversational speech because it is an interview. This attracts the audience further as they feel they are reading the exact words that

the interviewee have said. This means they can relate further with the audience.

5. HOW DID YOU ATTRACT/ADDRESS YOUR

AUDIENCE?

During the constructing of this product, I have learnt further how to use programs such as Adobe

Photoshop, and Adobe InDesign. I learnt how to create something using Photoshop, and then

moving it and putting it in to InDesign. This was because we had to create the final product in

InDesign, but certain things were easier to create and tweak in Photoshop. I learnt the technique of writing a piece of writing in Microsoft Word, and

then moving it across to InDesign, which is a much easier way of creating writing in columns in

the right way. I learnt how to construct a magazine in the correct way using both these

Adobe programs, making it easier to create. I’ve learnt more about presenting things on my blog, which helped me during and after, the process of

producing this magazine.

6. WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNT ABOUT TECHNOLOGIES FROM THE

PROCESS OF CONSTRUCTING THIS PRODUCT?

The difference between my ‘College magazine’ and my ‘Music

magazine’ is huge. With the college magazine, I was at the

stage of not fully knowing how to go about producing a magazine. It

seemed to me that it was my experimental product, before I produced a more official one. I

didn’t know entirely how to present everything on the

magazine, and what needed to be included. Looking at my college magazine, after producing my

music one, I realise that if I did it again, I would have to include

much more, for it to be a proper magazine. It’s missing a lot of

things, which my music magazine includes. My college magazine

looks very plain, compared to my music one. It’s good it works out

this way though, because it therefore shows my progression, from one magazine to another.

7. LOOKING BACK AT YOUR PRELIMINARY TASK (THE COLLEGE

MAGAZINE), WHAT DO YOU FEEL YOU HAVE LEARNT IN THE PROGRESSION

FROM IT TO FULL PRODUCT?