Evaluation

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

My media music magazine uses and develops conventional ideas already currently used within media products; other popular music magazines such as NME, Sugar and Bliss. I also used the conventional ideas of having the title as the masthead at the central top part of the front cover and also including the barcode and price on the cover. As well as this, I have used one main photo of a music group on the cover with smaller pictures to represent the features. This is therefore conventional to that of other existing music and general magazines.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My music magazine represents its target audience of female teenagers who enjoy pop music. Pop music is a genre of music that is usually associated amongst teenagers and has a mainstream style which i will represent in my magazine by bright and bold colours and images.The features will also be relatable to this age group. As well as this, the content and interview will also relate and represent the social group of female teenagers who enjoy pop music as they can relate to the interview of the young female music band.

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

IPC would publish my music magazine as IPC media is a leading UK consumer magazine publishing company. Statistics show that about 2 in 3 UK women and over 45% of men read a magazine published by IPC media. Other popular magazines such as NME and Look are published by IPC media and therefore, my magazine would be published alongside magazines of the same genre as well as their audience gender of females.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

The audience for my product would be female teenagers of age 14-17 that enjoy pop music; my magazine is catered to this age audience by its features, colours, photos and type of language. Pop music is usually aimed at a teenage audience because it is the age group that this genre of music is specifically popular amongst; Pop music is music with a noticeable rhythmic element and catchy melodies, alongside a conventional structure and mainstream style.

How did you attract/address your audience?

I have used colours and photographs that appear aesthetically pleasing and inviting on my cover to attract the female target audience. As well as this, i have included features that will attract and address my target audience and in addition to this, i have 'advertised' some of the features on the cover so that this will appeal to my target audience.

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

From the process of constructing my magazine i advanced my skills and knowledge with technologies such as photoshop and digital cameras. made my magazine in photoshop and when making my magazine i did not come across any particular problems with photoshop. I used a digital camera to take my photos and the problem that i came across when doing my photos was the lighting of the images. In addition to this, i also came across some problems with 'sunspots' within my photographs meaning i needed to retake some to make the brightness and colouring better.

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

When looking back at my preliminary task and comparing it with my music magazine i can see that i have made progress in making a magazine appealing to my audience as my preliminary task looked formal whereas my music magazine appears less conforming and more laid back; therefore more appealing to my female target audience of age 14-17. In conclusion, i am overall pleased with my music magazine and feel that the pictures, text, colour and features will be appealing to my target audience. I used the information from my focus group and questionnaires to know what features and competitions to include to also make it appealing.I feel that i have worked well within this project and have produced a magazine that would gain and retain an audience of females age 14-17 interested in pop music magazine.

Double Page Spread

Contents Page

Front Cover

Publishing my magazine

I will publish my magazine with IPC media.
IPC media is a leading UK consumer magazine publishing company. Statistics show that about 2 in 3 uk women and over 45% of men read a magazine published by IPC media.
Magazines published my IPC media are magazines that seemed popular to my target group from research that i have done and from my questionnaires and focus group. These magazines include; Look, NME and Marie-Claire.

Research Summary

I have found that by doing lots of research for a music magazine, it has helped into designing my own music magazine that will be appealing to my target age group of females of age 14-17.

I began by analysing front covers and double page spreads of existing music magazines so that i could see what conventions they used to make the magazine appealing. Many magazine follow typical conventions on the front cover of the magazine and this attracts more people as they feel 'safe' with the layout.

Many magazines use a typical colour scheme and fonts for each issue so that the cover is recognisable to the particular magazine and so that the audience can recognise it. A typical convention followed is having the masthead in the centre and top of the front cover.

I made a questionnaire for typical teenagers of my target age group and form these made ideas for my magazine. As well as this, i made a focus group of 3 people between the ages of 14-17 and asked them more in depth questions about my magazine to gain a better insight into what teenagers of this age group would want from a pop music magazine.

From my research, i found out that many existing music magazines such as NME and Top of the Pops magazine also have features on television programmes and films and therefore, i would challenge this convention by producing a magazine that is just based on music.

Inconclusion, my research has helped me to find out what i would need on my magazine and what features to include so that it will appeal to my target audience.

Focus Group Feedback

I asked my questionnaire to all of my focus group and i accumulated the results in order to gain my a better insight into what would attract my target audience towards my magazine.

The majority of the focus group said that they would not mind whether it was a male or female artist on the front cover.

Ellen said; ''I would not mind if the person on the cover was male or female. Bands would be good on the front, such as McFly or a girl band such as The Saturdays.''

Cassie said; ''The magazine would appeal to be more if there was somebody on the cover that i liked and was a fan of; bands such as The Script or McFly. But i would not mind if it was a male or female artist, as long as the cover was appealing and looked as though it was aimed at my age group.''

The majority of my focus group would prefer a colour scheme of a light colour and a dark colour such as light blue and dark blue or green.

Hannah: ''i think a blend of light and dark colours would be appealing . Colours such as blue, green and pink would make a nice contrast on the cover and on the pages of the magazine.

Existing magazine layouts that appeal to my focus group are covers from magazines such as NME and Sugar/Bliss magazine. Therefore, i will use this particular feedback to design my cover so that is following the typical conventions of these layouts.

I would design my music magazine to be released monthly and it will include monthly competitions as from my focus group i learnt that competitions will attract them to the magazine. As well as this, each issue of the magazine will not just be about a certain artist/band; they would be about a variety of music artists.

My results were mixed for having a letter page in the magazine that would have interaction between the readers and the magazine; but i will include something similar so that they can send in readers photographs and photographs with celebrities.

In conclusion, i will use the information from my focus group to make my magazine appealing to my target audience.