Evaluation on media coursework
- 1. My Magazine Evaluation By Elliot Smith
- 2. My magazine pages Front cover
- 3. My magazine pages Contents
- 4. My magazine pages Double page spread
- 5. Evaluation questions: •In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? •How does your media product represent particular social groups? •What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? •Who would be the audience for your media product? •How did you attract/address your audience? •What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product? •Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
- 6. After the completion of my magazine I Does the masthead tell thought it would be a good idea to get feedback. To see if it targeted my target audience effectively. Questionnaire you it’s a music magazine? I asked friends and family who had a fond interest in music but also those Is the main image inappropriate? •Yes, The word “beat” who don’t. The questions I asked were... tells us it is of a music •No, the models are well dressed variety and stylish. •Yes. Do you think the magazine is •No. clear and easy to follow? •Yes, the font used is •No, both models look mature girly and a beat in music and comfortable in what they are is a constant rhythm. •Yes, I believe it is •Yes, the pages are set out clearly. wearing So you know what you’re looking Would you buy the If you saw the magazine in a at. magazine if it was sold? •Yes shop, would the front cover attract you towards it? •Yes, in a instant! Do you think the magazine is •Yes. The magazine is well made? •Yes, but better font colours refreshing and targets a would help wide audience. •Yes, but it requires more work •Yes, The front cover is very eye- •Yes •Yes, It looks very professional catching and makes me want to •It looks mature and well set see what's inside! Is it finished well? out •Yes, it’s easy to identify what •Yes the target audience is. •Yes, it looks great •Yes, I’d buy it in a flash.
- 7. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? Front cover of Q magazine Main image Masthead barcode price Sub-headings This an example of a published music magazine. It features various codes and Heading conventions. I used this magazine as inspiration into what to put into my magazine. lure
- 8. •In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? lure This is my front cover of “Beat” Masthead This is my final front Main image cover of my magazine. I have used various codes and conventions Heading often seen on the front of magazine covers barcode Sub-headings price
- 9. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? With the inspiration I received from the example I used similar codes and conventions in my own magazine. For example In the Q magazine the main image has direct eye contact with the audience. I mimicked this with my magazine as my image is directly facing the audience. Q magazine also has a lure in the form of “free inside! 70- page special” below it says “WOMEN IN MUSIC”. I used a similar lure in the form of “free lipstick inside!”
- 10. My research into social groups for music magazine ideas Twenty year olds Emo Hipster/indie Examples of social groups The elderly rockers Middle class Chav
- 11. Negative representations of women in various types of media
- 12. Positive representations of women in various types of media
- 13. How does your media product represent particular social groups? In my magazine I decided that I would use positive representations for the women featured in my magazine. On the previous two pages there are positive representations of women. And negative representations. They are not limited to one type of media source. But a variety. I focused on television shows, movies, books and video games as it captures a wide Varity in how women are displayed. Either as being a good role model for women. Or negative. Each women featured on the previous two slides have their positive or negative characteristic. For example Judge Judy (fig.1) upholds the law in court and is in a position of high power. Irene Adler (Fig.2) is a female who betrays Sherlock for her own gain. Positive negative Fig. 1 Fig.2
- 14. How does your media product represent particular social Both models are groups? The ‘Gun’ symbol can feminine in what represent the power they wear. They both of these models do not have a have. Both are fierce lack of clothing, and independent in yet they don’t their facial expression look like they’re and their body wearing too language. many layers Their facial either, just a expressions are split. reasonable In that the model on amount. the left has a playful There is sexual face. While the connotations in their facial model on the right expressions. Both girls are has a more serious looking at the reader with facial expression. eye contact looking fresh Neither of these faced and in a good mood. facial expressions are However it isn’t obvious , as threatening. It also they are wearing a decent shows that girls can amount of clothing be serious, and playful
- 15. Examples of some media institutions
- 16. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? Looking at these two magazines I believe that IPC media would represent my magazine better than Bauer media would. The reasons being is that I tried to set out my magazine with a similar style of NME. While I believe that ‘Heat’ does contain some of the features in my magazine such as the gossip listed on the content. Overall my magazine is more akin to NME.
- 17. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? The type of media institution that might distribute my magazine would be IPC Media. The reasons being that some of the magazines what IPC media distribute already are in a similar style to my magazine. My target audience is young girls aged 15 to early twenties and i demonstrate this is my target audience by the use of colour , styles and language used. The colours throughout the magazine that are used are pinks, light blues, reds and black. The colours Pink and light blues represent females stereotypically. The red could indicate that the magazine may talk about love and relationships. While the use of black makes the magazine more formal. The style used in the magazine would attract my audience as it is set out like a “real life” magazine such as Heat and the main audience of Heat magazine is females. The images used in the contents and double e page spread are playful and girly.
- 18. •Who would be the audience for your media product? My magazine is focused on females, They are based around the ages of 15-early twenties. Here are some examples of what my target audience would look like.
- 19. •Who would be the audience for your media product? The reason why I chose to focus my magazine on young women is because I thought it would be a challenge coming from a male perspective. I had to look at what young girls and women liked to see in a magazine. I studied various magazines in detail and tried to see who their target audience, and why they were that target audience. For example when looking at the music magazine NME I saw that the target audience was probably males aged from late teens into their twenties and thirties who also had a interest in mainly rock with other niche genres of music. In my magazine I wanted to focus on one type of genre of music for my target audience. I chose mainstream for my target audience as it has a wide selection of artists branching off of it. So my target audience would find something for them in my magazine.
- 20. •Who would be the audience for your media product? When thinking of my target audience i discovered that my target audience would be Aspirers. My magazine highlights celebrity life. On my contents page there’s mentions of celebrities splitting up, fights between rival artists and the fashion trends of the current year. My target audience would enjoy this as they see the sort of life celebrities can get up to and would want that type of life. This is further explored in my double page spread with my chosen band. They are famous and live quite a easy life, but have trouble with the press. Many of my target audience would dream of being famous and having a higher quality of life that fame brings. The magazine also is focused at mainstreamers in the sense that the music that the magazine focuses on is mainstream artists.
- 21. •Who would be the audience for your media product? My demographic is girls aged 15 to their early twenties. They would mainly be targeted at the middle class section of society. My target audience would most likely be students at either secondary school, sixth form/collage or university. The target audience location would mainly be focused in the UK. My target audience would have similar interests in fashion, showbiz and music. My target audience would have a positive attitude.
- 22. •How did you attract/address your audience? From looking at other magazines similar to the style I had hoped to use I saw there were key similarities in attracting my audience. For example when I looked at ‘Heat’ magazine i saw that the majority of readers were young women. In this magazine in contained a lot of showbiz gossip and readers responded well to this. With this in mind i decided that i would merge showbiz gossip and mainstream music to form a magazine for my target audience to suit not just one of their needs, but two. From looking at the feedback from my questionnaire I handed out, I can see that my magazine was received positively.
- 23. •How did you attract/address your audience? On my magazine there are lure which would attract my target audience to pick up my magazine in shops and be interested in what they see. I used “Exclusive interview” which would make people interested in the magazine as it uses the phrase exclusive which means once in a lifetime in the media sense. I also used “Voted the UK’s best girl magazine” in order to appeal to the audience to make them aware that it’s a magazine for girls and that it has a good representation by being called the best. I also used real world artists including Drake and Katy Perry to draw the audience in with their popularity
- 24. •How did you attract/address your audience? Masl;ow’s hierarchy was a way of looking at needs. In order to fulfil the safety need, the physiological need must be fulfilled and so on. Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs can be linked with my magazine in certain ways. When my audience buys my magazine they buy it because they wanted to belong to a certain social group. So they know there are people with similar tastes to them out there. They also gain esteem through reading the magazine as they look at the models and aspire to be like them in what they do, what they wear and how they act.
- 25. •What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product? Fig.1 Fig.2 In my magazine development I used the editing software Photoshop to manipulate my images. My original photo (fig.1) has no editing done to it. I decided that I wanted to make my models more brighter and colourful. I also wanted to focus the audience on the models. But the brick wall behind them takes a lot of focus. In the edited image (Fig.2) I successfully changed the image into what i wanted it to be. So the main focus is the models.
- 26. •What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product? In order to take the picture of my models I used a digital camera similar to the one shown. After taking my pictures I uploaded them onto a computer and used Microsoft PowerPoint 2007 to create my magazine. I then used paint and Photoshop to adjust the images and backgrounds. These tools have helped me greatly into creating my magazine.
- 27. •Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product? School magazine When creating my music magazine I took inspiration Music magazine from my School magazine but evolved it. I took ideas from the school magazine, but also implemented new ones. For example I created a lure in the music magazine which states there is a free lipstick inside. My school magazine lacks a lure. In my School magazine my model was facing away from the audience. However in my music magazine I changed this and instead had my models use eye contact to attract the audience.
- 28. •Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product? School magazine contents Music magazine contents When creating my contents page I used inspiration from my school magazine contents page for inspiration. The style I used in my music magazine is definitely different to the layout of my school magazine. In my school magazine the pictures are layered on top of one another. While in my music magazine they are spread out to give a sense of neatness with the music magazine as opposed to the school created magazine. I also a range of different images in my school magazine. If i had the time to go back i would include a larger range of images in my music magazine. There is also more information set out on the music magazine. And it’s clearer to understand.
- 29. •Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product? I feel like I have developed my understanding of tools such as Photoshop and can use it more easily in my work. I have developed my understanding of looking at what a audience actually wants when they buy a magazine in the way that it isn’t just as simple as someone buying a rock magazine purely for that one particular genre. Instead they look to be accepted when they buy the magazine. To have a sense of belonging. I also discovered that people aren’t black and white in their musical tastes. In my questionnaire I asked various people their opinions on my magazine. People who liked the metal genre could appreciate my magazine as much as those who liked pop music.