Product Evaluation.| Amelia Springthorpe | 6502 | AS Media |

| St Paul's Catholic College |

The magazine, across the 4-pages, ‘repeats’ (Steve Neale) codes and conventions from established magazines, such as ‘NME’ which was used as my magazine of inspiration.For the front cover of the magazine I have ensured to include key conventions of magazines, such as:

Masthead Strap line Headline Barcode Date/ Price Issue number Convergence

And in the contents I have followed conventions by including:

Sections Editorial (styled on the ones featured in ‘KERRANG’

magazine) Convergence (so the readers can access further

information) Images that relate to stories on the front page

The double spread also follows the conventions of music magazines, for example:

I have used columns and differing colours to define the questions and answers, this makes the text much clearer and so easier to read.

I have used images of the subject of the interview. Additionally, I have taken a quote from the interview

and enlarged it. And finally, I have introduced the interviewee to the

readers at the beginning of the interview.

However, there are examples of ‘difference’ in my media product, for example, on the double page spread, rather than using one large image of the subject, I have use 3 smaller images.

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

real media products?

The denotation of representation is the way in which ideas, people, and places are re-presented to us in media texts. Representation works by using messages and stereotypes in the media to make the audience develop beliefs about ideas, people and places that our represented in the texts. In this context, I means whether I have used appropriate material in order to attract my target audience. If the magazine was aimed at multiple social groups, it would have a higher economical success as it would have a larger target audience. However because my product, contains material, primarily about the rock music genre, it is most likely to only attract people from the ‘alternative’ social group.I also believe that the target audience of my magazine would be in the Esteem stage of ‘Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs’ because the magazine would look at the achievement of artist that are new to the industry.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The magazine also gives the audience a ‘Window to the World’ (Wendy Helsby) because though interviews with different ‘Stars’ (Dyer) the audience are given an insight to their lives, thoughts, and what it feels like to be them; this arguably could help the reader personally identify with the stars featured in the magazine. For example, Niall (who is representing the ‘Star Appeal’ (Dyer) in the magazine), is presented as a person who has come from a very ‘normal’ background, and has worked hard to get to where he is today. This could inspire readers to keep working on achieving their aspirations, which would be important to adolescent readers because it could be argued that at this time they have the most aspirations about their futures, and need the most encouragement to achieve these hopes.

“Bauer Media UK reaches over 22 million UK consumers every week through a portfolio of world-class, multi-platform media and entertainment brands

including heat, Kiss, Grazia, Empire, Magic and Absolute Radio. It creates and curates entertaining media content that audiences love whenever, wherever

and however they want through a multi-channel strategy and a focus on product excellence and audience insight.” - http://www.bauermedia.co.uk/

I imagine that Bauer Media would publish my product, due to the genre of product, music; or more specifically, rock music. My product uses lots of cross-media convergence, through social media and it’s own website for readers to access more information about features and to give them the opportunity to get more out of the magazine. This fits in with many of Bauer Media’s other publications, such as ‘KERRANG’ as they also utilize cross-media convergence.Bauer media also establishes a strong relationship with their audience, just as I believe my product does through the editorial, which directly addresses the readers.

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

According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, my product would appeal to people in the self-esteem stage, which is often adolescents. This could be because this age group that attempt to climb the metaphorical ladder of popularity, and so they would read this publication in order to become ‘educated’ and ‘informed’ (Katz) about all things new. Uses and Gratifications theory (Katz) say that the people take what they what from the media for their own uses, for example, the readers between the ages of 14 and 20 may take the inspiring stories of ‘stars’ working hard for their achievements. Because the ‘Stars’ featured in the product would be of all genders, it would not apply to a single gender, thus widening the target audience, Katz’s UGT suggests that while female readers will be attracted to the magazine because they are able to establish ‘personal relationships’ with them, while male (Hartley) readers will be attracted to the product due to the use of female images used as attractants, as females are often objectified for the pleasure of the male audience (Male Gaze – Mulvey). Since the main ‘Star’ of my product is male, it could be argued that this works the other way round, for instance, the male readers will establish a ‘personal relationship’ with him, while female readers will be attracted to the magazine due to his appearance.

Who would be the audience for your media product and why?

Some of the conventional methods I used to attract my audience was the ‘puff’ or promotional competition. And using words such as ‘exclusive’ to describe the interview with Niall.‘Star Appeal’ (Dyer) is also very important in attracting audience. I chose to have Niall looking directly at the audience in the image, because this is welcoming and creates a bond between the reader/audience and magazine. The strapline under the masthead also attracts the audience because it gives a very brief introduction into what the magazine is about. The use of a familiar masthead will also attract the audience because it will make it instantly recognisable to the audience through ‘repetition’ (Steve Neale).

How did you attract/ address your audience?

To create the media product, I used a program called Adobe Photoshop SC4. When I began the project, I had very minimal knowledge of the program, however while creating the product, I learnt how to effectively use layers, edit images, for example removing backgrounds, how to insert backgrounds, including gradient overlays. To create the masthead, I used, ‘dafont.com’. This was so I was able to create an individual image that would be instantly recognisable to the audience. The variety of fonts used on the front page are conventional of this genre of magazine, and this ‘repetition’ (Steve Neal) of these codes make my magazine fit for purpose.In order for my product to fit in with its purpose I needed to make it appeal to the target audience, to do this I used, features from other magazines of similar genres on my cover, for example using fonts and colour schemes similar to those found on ‘Kerrang’.

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

Because the genre of my magazine was primarily rock music, I styled Niall in a leather jacket, as this has connotations of the music genre, similar to the dark coloured t-shirt and black skinny jeans.

Photography Planning (Front Cover)

As seen in the second image, a full body shot of Niall, it can be seen that he is wearing ‘Doc Martins’ which are also commonly linked to the rock music genre.

The image of Niall that was used on the contents page was also used as an additional image on the double page spread, I decided to do this as I felt that in a similar way that using similar colour schemes across magazines links the different pages, the use of the same image links the contents page and the double page spread. Additionally I decided to use the other images as I felt that they effectively presented the genre of the magazine through the use of the stereotypical clothing and bright hair colours / styles.

Photography Planning (Contents)

Photography Planning (Double Page Spread)In the original draft of my product, the image on the front cover was also the image used on the double page spread, however, in my feedback I received many comments about how my product would be better if I used a different image. Therefore I gathered more pictures of Niall, although he was wearing similar clothing, I asked Niall to use different poses, that may have seemed more ‘fun’ and ‘playful’ in contrast to the image used on the front cover. Before adding the image to the double page spread I removed the background of the image, and then added ‘silhouettes’ behind it, in an ‘echo affect’, as seen to the right.

Front Cover AnalysisMasthead

Puff/ Promotion- competition

Main Image(following convention, the head covers part of the masthead)

Convergence

Date

Strapline

Main headline

Quote linking to main feature

Cover lines

Barcode

Issue number / Price

Contents Page AnalysisTitle

Sections

Page number

Other imageEditor photoEditor signature

Convergence- website

Editorial

Images relating to cover lines on front page

Smaller version of the masthead

Mainimage- smaller than in conventional magazines – ‘diference’

Double Page Spread AnalysisQuote

Byline

Social media sites

Question in different font and colour to differentiate from answers

Introduction to the ‘star’ (Dyer)

Smaller version of the masthead

Convergence, magazines website

Page number

Additional images

Audience Feedback“I like the font, very appropriate for the target audience. Colour scheme good, I like that what he's wearing fits with the colour scheme. The polaroid's are really good. The back ground of the double page (silhouettes) look brilliant” - (Joseph Gibbs)

From the feedback I received about my magazine I decided to fill the space at the top of my double page spread by enlarging the polaroid images and adding another image.

I also found that the colour scheme I had used was successful.

I added a drop shadow to the text on the double page spread because I received feedback that the red silhouette made the red text difficult to read.

Feedback.

I believe that between completing the preliminary task and the full product, I have learnt to use Photoshop in the most effective way possible for my purpose.Specifically I think my ability to manipulate columns on my pages improved after research in the form of tutorial videos and a lot of “trial and error”.

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

to the full product?