MEDIA EVALUATIONJENNA PINDER

Introduction

Q1: In What ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

It conforms to magazine conventions by including the bar code, date and price.

The colour scheme I used is black and white to it give a classier feel to the front cover also reflecting on the style of the artist.

At the bottom of the page I have provided information on free gifts that come with the magazine enticing the reader in.

Camera shot is a close-up with eyes as the main focus again catching the reader’s attention.

Music artist is the main feature of the front cover; direct address is used to entice readers.

I have put the main title of the magazine in white and bold. The article style writing I have used suggests an older age range. The text is also contrasted against the background making it stand out more.

I injected the colour purple into the front cover to give it a much brighter feel and again making the artist stand out.

I kept with the theme of the colour purple but no so it over powers the black and white theme

I have split the contents into three headings features, front of book and style

On my contents page I have included the page number next to the artists image, I have followed this typical magazine convention as reader can easily flick to the artist of their choice

I have challenged the conventions of a magazine as rather than filling the contents page leaving no space, I have placed my text and pictures in a concise order leaving space at the bottom of the page.

Like a magazine article, the most important thing is the content and this is what I have focused on here rather than filling most of the page with pictures.

Three images are included to show a variety of camera shots and I have done this to show different personalities to the artist.

I have used grab text ‘you know that kind of generic boring music? I don’t think I could do that’ is a typical magazine convention which catches the readers attention making them want to read on.

I have continued the black and white theme, with a pop of purple, to give it a more a feminine feel, however I have included a mint green which compliments the purple well to highlight the question being asked

I may have challenged magazine conventions by having a longer introduction to give it more a formal like feel.

I have once again included the floral grey background on ¼ of the page reflecting the target audience but still following the greyscale theme.

Rather than just making the artists name stand out, I have also made sure the quote ‘strings attached’ also stands giving an insight into how deep the article will go

Q2: How does your media product represent particular social groups?

In media product I have chosen to represent female indie music artists by choosing to base my feature article on a female article. I have represented this group well by the layout, font style and colour used. However rather than using obvious ‘girly’ colours such as pink, I have chosen colours such as black, white and purple but I believe that the image on the font cover with the floral purple with the slight white sparkle softens the black given it a feminine feel.

In contrast to the outfit chosen for the front cover, I chose to go for a ‘grunge’ twist but because of the way artist is posing it doesn’t override the female social group I was trying to achieve.

In the feature article, the artists answers are polite, well thought out and do not include swear words, they show an ambitious artist with a goal in mind, which is expected in a female artist.

This image may not be direct address, however the way she is looking up, slightly angled to the front so you can see her smiling gives the image a laidback, natural feel rather than just making the image all about the way the artist looks which is how I wanted to represent an indie female artist.

Makeup and hair was kept simple, with the eyes as the main feature. The hair swept to the side frames her face giving her a elegant and innocent side which is typical in a female magazine.

In this image I decided to choose a pose with a little bit more attitude, still keeping in theme with the female social group but trying to portray the indie side to the female artist.

In order to sell more magazines to my target audience, I had to represent the female social group well. Rather than my making my a

Q3: What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

After Researching different types of magazine institutions. I believe that Bauer Media would be best to produce and distribute my product. Bauer Media is a division of the Bauer Media Group, Europe’s largest privately owned publishing Group. The Group is a worldwide media empire offering over 300 magazines in 15 countries, as well as online, TV and radio stations. Bauer Media owns more than eighty influential media brands spanning a wide range of interests, including heat, GRAZIA, Closer, MCN, FHM, Parker's, MATCH, Magic 105.4, Kiss 100, Kerrang!, Q and the Big City Network. According to Bauer Kerrang, Q, Mojo and Empire are all aimed at the male market, at this moment in time they don’t produce any music magazines for female market which could benefit then massively as they will be widening there target audience. They will have experience in producing music magazines and they also produce fashion/lifestyle magazines so they will also have experience in that area too.

I chose to target my magazine at middle class sixteen to twenty five year old females of British nationality who are interested in indie music, I focused my magazine on female inspirational composers and song writers such as artists like Eliza Doolittle and Lykke Li. My magazine has a slight fashion slant on it also. Although it has a fashion and lifestyle slant music is the main focus of the magazine. The reason I have chosen the middle class is because I believe that there is a gap in the market for that socio-economic status. My chosen age range means that many of my readers will be students so as they fit into band E in the socio economic scale, the price I decided was cheaper than many other glossy music magazines (£2.25) and as a fortnightly magazine students will be able to afford to buy the magazine and because its every fortnight they will be able to be loyal to the magazine as they wont have long to wait before the next issue comes out whereas if I was too increase the price and make it a monthly issue then I may find it will become less popular.

Q4: Who Would be the audience for your media product?

How did you Attract/Address your audience?

Firstly my title BACKBEAT indicates what genre I am aiming to achieve which is indie. Its short and snappy and by including the word beat it immediately informs the reader that it is a music magazine. This title was a popular choice as 11 out of 16 people from my questionnaire believed that backbeat as the title best fit my magazine.

The image on the front cover of my music artist play a big part in grabbing the readers attention, by using direct address and making the eyes the main focus, I am able to draw in the readers. Through the use of photo editing I was able to create a soft natural feminine picture showing a cool, sophisticated young artist. The front cover makes a statement and by contrasting black and white, the title and the name of the artist stands out which is what a front needs to do.

Also by using the pop of colour on the artist this again makes the image the focal point and also draws your eyes to the free giveaways which again can entice readers in.