Evaluation

In what ways does your Media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
I think that my media product develops and challenges forms and conventions of a real media product. From making my college magazine I learnt to use Photoshop so I found this front cover easier to produce as I knew what I was doing. I used Photoshop to produce my cover as I thought it was the best programme to suit what I was doing as it has all the features I needed to produce a magazine front cover. I think that my front cover develops and challenges forms and conventions of a real media product because it includes all the aspects that a magazine should, even little things such as bar code, price and the date. These help to make it realistic because a real media product wouldn’t be published without them on. I have also included the major aspects of a media product such as the title and additional articles, which I made sure stand out the most along with the picture. I think that the picture is a major aspect of a magazine front cover because most people look straight at the picture so you need to make sure that it is good. I think that my front cover clearly shows what genre my music magazine is by the picture and what the additional articles are about.

How does your Media product represent particular social groups?
The social group which my media product would represent would be young Hip Hop artists which are interested in what is going on and how there rivals are doing. This social group has been represented through the image that I have taken and produced my double page spread on. Even though my picutre is of a boy I think that it is also aimed at girls to. I placed a picture of a girl on the contents page to make sure people knew this because my double page spread was also about a boy.

What kind of Media institution might distribute your media product and why?
I think that the media insitution that might distribute my media product would be IPC media as it covers a wide rang of magazines of different genres.The magazine would be published for many reasons such as to promote new music and to keep update news on everything that is happening in the Hip Hop music industry.

Who would be the audience for your Media product?
My media product is aimed at particularly teenagers as they are the group which are usually into this type of music. The way which I tried to represent the audience in my magazine was by the age of the person who the picture was of and the additional articles which are included in the magazine. I also made the layouts fairly simple which teenagers usually prefer rather than really complicated because they just like the read it easily to find out what is going on. I would like all ages to like my magazine if they are interested in the genre though.

How did you attract/address your audience?
I used several techniques to attract and address the audience. Such as i wanted my magazine to come across as a mature magazine, I did this by making my picture serious. I also wanted my magazine not to come across as boring so I did this by using a range of colour throughout my magazine not just one all the way through. The colours I used on the front cover were black, white and red. I think these where the most appropriate as the background of the picture was quite dark so it made it stand out. On my contents page i used the same colour scheme as I thought it was appropriate to make them match. On my double page spread I used browns and white as I thought they match the colour scheme of my photo as it is outside.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
Whilst I have been making my music magazine I have learnt a lot of different techniques. I have learnt how to use Photoshop more instensly and I feel like I can use it properly now. I have also learnt how to make a double page spread on publisher. I learnt what conventions are used within making a music magazine and how to put them forward and make a magazine. I have learnt how each individual music magazines use conventions in different ways to appeal to there target audiences. Whilst making my magazine I have developed my skills in editing photographs in Photoshop to how I want them.

Looking back at the preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
Having to produce the preliminary task, which was making a college magazine front cover and contents page helped me to gain an understanding of the different programmes that I needed to be aware of to produce a magazine. The skills which I then learnt through the preliminary task helped me to produce my main task with more skill. I also developed more of an understanding of how a magazine is best laid out, the colours of the texts which match your genre the best and the different ways to take a photograph to the best potential.