AS Media StudiesEvaluation

By: Nelab Rahmani

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions

of real media products?I have used many conventions in my magazine that are similar to real media products. For example on my front cover I have put the title of the magazine at the top of the magazine because most magazines put it at the top of the magazine.  I have also put an image of my model behind the title and I made the text around the image to come on top of the image, most magazines have similar conventions. I have mainly used two colours, purple and black as most magazines use about two or three colours. I have also used the usual conventions like the date, issue number and the barcode. I also used the usual conventions like the date, issue number and the barcode.

Final front cover:

Front cover before:

This is how my magazine looked before but as you can see I had to change it a lot. For example I had to change the image because most music magazines either use a medium close up or a medium long shot. I used a medium shot so I had to

change it, also the model I used didn’t have the look for the front cover so I changed the model. I had to change the colours because most music magazines mainly use 2 or 3 colours and at first I had used 4 colours which was too much then I

reduced it to blue and black but then I had to change it again because the blue wouldn’t look nice with the new model’s outfit, that is why I changed it to purple and black. I also made the title bigger as most magazines make the title big so that it stands out. I also added more sell lines to make it look realistic and so that there isn’t a lot of spaces left on the cover. So I

had to improve it to make it conventional. I did this using photoshop.

I have mainly used this Blender magazine front cover as a guide to produce my own front cover, that is why my magazine looks similar to this magazine. I have used a

female model similarly to the Blender magazine. The framing I used is similar to the framing used in the Blender magazine. Also you can see from the Blender magazine that there is only two colours used, blue and black, that is why I made my text two

colours two, purple and black. So overall my magazine is very conventional and uses typical conventions which are used in professional music magazines. I haven’t used

anything unconventional that challenge professional music magazines.

Main Image

Masthead

Sell lines

Numbers

Barcode

Shapes

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

First of all I have used an image of a girl who is dressed in purple and posing in a girly way. From this image it represents

girls in a stereotypical way. Also on the front cover I have used mostly purple and black which is mainly a girly colour so again it

is a stereotypical representation of girls.

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

I would want Bauer Media to distribute my magazine because they distribute a lot of popular magazines

such as Kerrang!, Mojo and Q magazine.They distribute lots of different types of magazines for example women, mens lifestyle, Gardening , sport, pets

magazine and many more.They produce a lot of well known magazines that is why I want Bauer media to distribute my magazine because f they distribute it I

will have more readers because they know that Bauer distributes good magazines.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

From my audience research my audience is teenagers around the age of 15-19 years old. I have chosen this particular age group because teenagers mostly buy

magazines. Although it is aimed at teenage boys and girls I think mostly teenage girls will be attracted to the magazine because in my contents page it is mostly about

gossip and clothes, which will interest girls more than boys. But on my front cover I have used a girl who is posing in a attractive way which might attract to teenage

boys as well. But mostly its teenage girls because of the colour purple that has been used and all the models are girls so it won’t attract boys attention as much as

teenage boys. In my questionnaire I had mostly a female audience and they liked gossip and fashion magazines that is why I decided to have features about fashion and gossip in my contents page. As a teenage girl I have a better understanding of

what they want than other age groups and gender, that is why I made my magazine based on teenage girls as it would be more successful than if it was aged at a

different age group or gender. Mostly teenage boys like male artists more than female artists so by not having male models will mean that there will be less teenage

boys interested in the magazine. Therefore the main audience is teenage girls.

How did you attract/address your audience?I have used many techniques to attract the readers attention. For example on the front cover I have used an attractive image of my model that would attract any one

passing by. Also the layout seems to attractive to the audience too. I have used direct mode of address which

again will attract the readers attention as it is inviting the reader to look inside the magazine. The sell lines will also

attract the readers attention for example, “Glamorous stars on the red carpet in the Brits Music award inside this issue”

readers will want to know about the award and what the artists had worn, so having this sell line on the cover would

make the reader want to read the magazine. On the contents page I have put many features that will attract the

readers attention for example I have information about competitions which would interest the reader because they

would want to know about competitions. Also I have got features such as “Amy jailed again” and “recent

relationship affairs” these features will interest the reader because it is gossip and people mostly like gossip so they

will be interested in reading the magazine. I have used a lot of attractive images for example I have used a picture of one of my friends in a dress to make it look as if she is in

the award and she looks as if she is going to get the award. There is another image of a group of my friends and they are in the park and they are look as if they are having fun. These images will interest the reader because when the reader looks at the contents page the first thing that will

attract their eye would be the images and if the images are interesting then they will want to read about it. So by

having an image of someone in a dress will interest the teenage girl readers and my having a group of girls posing

in a park will attract the teenage male readers.

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

product?

I have used and learnt a lot of technologies when I was making my magazine, for example:•Photoshop: I learnt how to use Photoshop, where I learnt how to edit and crop pictures, how to set up my layout of the front cover, contents and double page spread. I learnt how to use layers so that images and text can overlap and create gradient affects for the background which makes it look more realistic and professional.

•Blog: I also learnt how to create and use a Blog to put my work on and show the steps and research I did to produce my magazine.

•Slideshare: I also learnt to use Slideshare which is an online storage site to put documents such as presentations and word documents onto my blog.

•Divshare: Another online storage site but I used this site to upload my focus group audio so that I can put it on my blog.

•Microsoft PowerPoint and Word: I also developed my skills in using Microsoft PowerPoint and Word to present my work.

•Camera: I also improved my skills in using the camera where I took the images to include in my front cover, contents and the front cover.

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

From the preliminary task I have learnt how to layout the text and images around the page to make it look better. I learnt how to

improve my Photoshop skills to make everything realistic. Also for my preliminary task I didn’t do any audience research so I didn’t know

what to put on the cover or contents page but for my production task I did research so I knew what people wanted and what type of things

I should include in my magazine. This made me realise how important audience research is when producing a magazine. Also we

didn’t have much time when producing the preliminary task compared to the production task so we had to rush the preliminary

task that is why it wasn’t as good as the music magazine. This shows that time management is important when producing a music

magazine. Also when we had to take an image we didn’t have time to edit the image in the preliminary task while for the production task

we did. That is why the images on the music magazine looks more attractive than the one on the preliminary front cover.