Evaluation

1. In what ways does you media product use, develop and challenge forms and conventions of real media products? When making my own magazine cover I took inspiration from existing magazine covers for Q and mixmag.

I downloaded the font which I used for my title from dafont and used Microsoft word to change the colour. I followed the convention of having the title is located at the top of the magazine cover, it runs along the width of the magazine like mixmag but has a rectangle of backing colour reminiscent of the Q title. I have used one main image on the cover of my magazine it is a medium close up of the band members. The people in the photo are looking straight ahead, making eye contact with the reader just like the artists on the cover of Q and mixmag. I also manipulated the image and removed the original background in order to place the image on a plain background like those on the cover of the existing magazines I looked at. On my magazine cover I have included all the standard information you would expect to find on a magazine cover – price, barcode, date and web address.

For my colour scheme I decided to use blue and yellow as my main colours to appeal to my target audience but I also liked how the colour scheme of blue and yellow worked on the cover of mixmag. Like Q magazine a number of other magazine covers I looked at, such as NME, had a red, white and black colour scheme and I thought that using a slightly more unusual colour scheme would help my magazine stand out against other magazines. I also used a grey background like Q and mixmag because it makes a good neutral background and helps the image and coverlines stand out. I followed the conventions of real magazines in terms of my layout, I had one main image positioned in the middle of my magazine and I placed my title right at the top of the cover. I have a number of coverlines across the cover of my magazine. I have written my coverlines mainly in blue but made a few certain words yellow such as ‘free’ and ‘have’ in order to make them stand out. I have also used a button to highlight one of my cover lines like on the cover of Q.

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups? In the image of my musicians – like those on existing magazines – the members of the band are arranged so they are close to each other and looking forward, making eye contact with the reader. Unlike the musicians on existing magazines who are dressed in plain dark colours, my musicians are dressed in brightly coloured clothes. They also have happier more friendly facial expressions instead of menacing and moody expressions such as the musicians on the cover of ‘Q’ and ‘mixmag’. My magazine is representing young, vibrant, creative, independent people similar to the musicians displayed on the cover of my magazine.

3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media and why? The Bauer Media Group – founded in 1875 – is a large German publishing company based in Hamburg, which operates in 15 countries worldwide. Worldwide circulation of Bauer Media Group's magazine titles amounts to 38 million magazines a week. Bauer brands include women's weekly and TV listings magazines; namely Bella, Take a Break, that's life! TV Choice and Total TV Guide as well as a number of puzzle magazines and music magazines. Music magazines published by Bauer Media Group Q Kerrang Mojo IPC Media – founded in 1963 – is a consumer magazine and digital publisher in the UK, with a large portfolio selling over 350 million copies each year. IPC Media groups its current titles under five magazine divisions: Connect (women's weeklies such as Now Magazine and Look), Inspire (leisure and specialist), Ignite! (Men’s lifestyle and entertainment), Southbank (women's lifestyle and home interest), and TX (portfolio of television titles). Music magazines published by IPC Media NME Uncut

Future Publishing – founded in 1985 – is a media company which publishes more than 150 magazines in fields such as vide games, technology, automotive, cycling, films, photography and music. In 2006 it was the sixth largest media company in the UK. Music magazines published by Future Publishing Classic Rock Metal Hammer D.C. Thomson & Co. Ltd – founded in 1905 – is an independent publishing company based in Dundee, Scotland. Publications include; Sunday Post, The Courier, The Evening Telegraph, My Weekly, The Scots Magazine, The Beano, The Dandy, Commando, Jackie, Shout. The company produces more than 200 million comic books, magazines, and newspapers every year from offices in Dundee, Glasgow, Manchester and London. As of March 2011, the company employed around 1,700 workers. I have decided to use D.C. Thomson & Co. Ltd as my magazine publisher, as it is an independent publisher it will suit my magazine well since I have decide to produce more of a niche market magazine. D.C. Thomson does not yet publish any music magazines and this means that my magazine will receive more attention and have less competition within it’s publisher than if I were to use a major magazine publisher such as IPC or Bauer.

4. What would the audience be for your media product? My audience will be aged between 15 and 18, and will be mainly students with part time jobs. My audience will be both males and females but more predominantly female. Since they are young they will be interested in modern technology, and will have iPods, facebook and twitter accounts, some are likely to play instruments and most will be interested in going to gigs and festivals.

5. How did you attract/address your audience? In order to attract my audience I have used blue and yellow as my two main colours. I chose blue because I am trying to appeal to both genders and blue is the favourite colour of both genders and more people claim blue as their favourite colour than any other colour (over 50%). Yellow often makes people feel cheerful, energetic and happy it will make my magazine stand out against others on the shelf. The image I have used is of a group of young people in an Indie Rock band they are similar to those people who read my magazine meaning that my audience can relate to the people in the image. I have priced my magazine at a fairly reasonable price because my audience is made up mainly of students who will therefore not have a great deal of money. I have called my magazine ‘Seattle Sound’ because the term Seattle Sound is synonymous with the genre of music that my magazine is covering, and therefore the title gives an indication of what my magazine will be about. My magazine also has a website making it more accessible to my young teenage audience.

I have offered a competition to win free tickets in my magazine, this is attracting my audience because the magazine is offering something they would be interested in and it shows that those producing the magazine care about the reader and what interests them. I have included an editors letter in the magazine which is addressing my audience I have used the ‘you’ and ‘your’ in order to make the letter seem personal and to show it is aimed directly at the reader. I have also made careful decisions about the type of language I used in order to attract and address my audience. I have used imperatives such as ‘have to see’ and rhetorical questions, to make it appear like I am speaking directly to the reader.

6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product? To take all the photos for my magazine I used a digital camera and I learnt how to use Photoshop in order to manipulate my photos and make my front cover, contents page and double page spread. I also learnt how to download fonts from dafont to use for my magazine title and for the title on my double page spread. I learnt ho to use the blog site wordpress which the class used set up blogs with which to upload their coursework onto. I also used a memory stick in order to save files.

7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product? I also realised it was better not to divide the cover into blocks. On my school magazine I haven’t used enough cover lines and I have learnt the importance of fonts and branding. I have made a lot of progress and improvements between making my school magazine and making my music magazine. I created my school magazine using Microsoft word but after learning how to use Photoshop I used this program to create my music magazine. After studying existing music magazines I realised it was best to use only a maximum of three main colours instead of a variety of different colours because it made the cover look too busy and unprofessional.