AS Media Evaluation
1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Front cover:
When creating my front cover of my magazine I wanted to challenge the concept of real magazines slightly – I wanted my magazine to be different and unique, yet I still wanted it to look like a real magazine, therefore when challenging the forms and conventions of other magazines, I only challenged them slightly, to make sure that my magazine was still sellable. Instead of having a left side third on my front cover, because of how my main image was I moved the information from the left side of the page to the right, and had the text, puffs and plugs situated on the right hand side.








Here is a cover of NME magazine which can be used as an example of a traditional magazine - the forms and conventions are layed out as follows: the image is in front of the Masthead and on the right side of the cover; also, there is a left hand third being used.









Here is a picture of my final front cover - the forms and conventions that I have challenged are layed out, in comparison to the NME cover, as follows: the image is behind the Masthead and is situated on the left hand side of the cover, therefore there is no left side third - all of the text is situated on the right hand side of the cover or in the center across the bottom of the image.







Contents page:
With my contents page I pretty much stayed within a normal contents page layout, I had 4 small images covering a third of the page and text covering the rest. Some could say that I challenged the form slightly as I chose to have the contents heading in the top right hand corner of the page instead of the top left hand corner, also it could be said that I challenged the conventions slightly, as not all magazines have a photo and letter from the editor on their contents page – I chose to have one in the top left hand corner of my magazine. As well as both of those things, it’s sometimes seen as unusual for magazine editors to feature a quote from their main featured artist in the contents page, I chose to challenge this convention and feature a quote from my featured artist on my contents page, I situated it in the top right hand corner underneath the contents heading and above the small image of the artist.








Here is an example of a traditional contents page from an issue of Q magazine - the forms and conventions are as follows: the page title is situated in the top left hand corner of the page, there is an equal and sufficient amount of images and text but there is no letter or photo from the editor of Q magazine.







Here is a picture of my final contents page - the forms and conventions that I have challenged are layed out, in comparison to the Q contents page, as follows: the page title is situated in the top right hand corner instead of the left and there is a letter and photo from the editor of my magazine.











Double-page spread:
With my double-page spread I only challenged the form and conventions of a normal magazine slightly as I thought that because I’d challenged them fairly drastically with my front cover and contents page, I didn’t want to go overboard with my double-page spread but I still wanted it to complement my front cover and contents page, so therefore to complement it yet still make sure to not go overboard, I challenged the conventions only slightly. The conventions that I did challenge was the image – normally in Indie magazines the image used for a double-page spread article covers either the entire background of the double-page or the entire background of one page and is usually a horizontal image with a landscape view behind; with my magazine I chose to challenge this convention and take my image in a bedroom instead of with a landscape view behind it, I then cut out the entire background of this image so that it would go against a white background used for my double-page spread. As well as the background behind the image, I challenged the conventions of the image itself, normally when it comes to double-page spreads in Indie magazines there is just one single image from the main photo shoot, however I decided to manipulate my image using Photoshop – I cloned parts of the image so it looked like the model in the image was moving in a sequence. I chose to challenge this as my magazine is of an Indie genre, and the name of my magazine is Unico – unique in Italian – so I wanted my magazine to be original and unique, I didn’t want to follow the trend of normal double-page spreads. I feel as though this image manipulation worked well with my double-page spread and the overall forms and conventions that I had challenged in my front cover and contents page.


Here is an example of a traditional double-page spread article from NME magazine - the forms and conventions are as follows: a large yet simple image covering one page of the article with a simple bedroom landscape behind it, sections of text covering corners of the main image, smaller sub images used on the other half of the article alongside the main text.






















Here is a picture of my final double-page spread - the forms and conventions that I have challenged are layed out, in comparison to the NME double-page spread, as follows: there is no text, apart from page numbers, situated on top or covering any part of my main image, my main image hasn't got a traditional landscape background and has been edited and manipulated using Photoshop.

I challenged the form and these conventions of a normal magazine because when I did my primary research and evaluated the comments from my three methods, there were many aspects that steered me to try to make my magazine different yet still believable. The first thing I took into consideration was the fact that the majority of people I asked from my target audience, are buying up to 7 magazines a week and if I want my magazine to be bought it has to stand out amongst these magazines, I have to challenge the competition and make sure I win, therefore my magazine has to be different, so challenging the form and conventions of normal magazines, but in a good way, will make my magazine stand out to my target audience.

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
When looking at my magazine it is clear to see that not all social groups would be attracted to it nor would they want to buy it, however, although it doesn’t appeal to certain people it still appeals to other people – like members of my target audience.
In terms of demographics, the social grades that my magazine appeals to are: B and C1 – middle class and lower middle class.
The reasons in which my magazine doesn’t appeal to social grade E is because, state pensioners aren’t going to want to read about the newest Indie music or the best festivals and gigs around, neither do they fit into the age range of my target audience. As well as social grade E, my magazine doesn’t appeal to social grade C2 and D as the members of this social grade are skilled and unskilled manual workers – people who take no notice in music magazines, these members are working class, therefore they may not have a lot of money to spend on weekly magazines, therefore my magazine proves unappealing to these social grades.

The members of social grade A are higher managerial, administrative or professional upper middle class people; therefore my magazine proves unsuitable and unappealing towards this social grade as, business men and people outside of my target audience aren’t going to want to read about a 17 year old up and coming music artist, they’re not going to want to know how she’s dealing with her new found fame and about a boy she loves, these issues aren’t important to business men – they want to know about facts and statistics and apart from music charts, this magazine doesn’t feature facts and statistics about the world.

There are various aspects of my magazine to take into consideration when attracting the right target audience – I had to think about what 15-25 year olds, both male and female who were into Indie music, would want out of a magazine, so I thought about images: I analysed other Indie magazines like Q, NME and Kerrang and looked at how the images on their front covers were – they were mainly headshots of the artist conveying an emotion that was present in the quote they’ve used from the artist as an extract from the double-page spread article, also I looked at the clothing that the artists were wearing; and found out that they were dressed in clothes suited to the Indie genre –simple and understated, yet also suited to them as an artist, the male artists are mainly seen wearing simple jeans and a t-shirt whereas the female artists are usually seen wearing either a simple dress or a shorts and t-shirt combo, therefore, after taking this into consideration, I chose to use a headshot of my artist on the front cover of my magazine and I styled her in just a simple red dress, so to make sure I was drawing in the right audience – 15-25 year olds, and social grades B and C1.





















I used these three magazine covers as research when looking at the images used on a front cover - how the model was dressed, their expression and whether it was a landscape or headshot. These magazines helped me when I was deciding on the main image I was going to use on my front cover, I chose to keep to the traditional forms and conventions of normal magazines and use a headshot for my front cover.




This is the image that I used on my front cover.

















Another aspect that I had to think about was the main article that would be featured in my double-page spread: I read a few articles from artists such as Bombay Bicycle Club and Florence and The Machine and the main topics that were talked about were the lyrics, the fame and the touring; I chose to use these articles as an example of what would appeal to my target audience and I ranged my questions around the topics that stood out; when my article was finished I chose a few quotes from the article that were the most interesting and eye-catching and I maximised the font size and scattered these quotes around the page, so to draw the reader in – most people take one look at the double-page spread and if they’re not entertained, they don’t buy, therefore if I pick out the best quotes and maximise the font, these will be the first things that the reader will see and if the quotes are interesting, the reader will want to continue reading the article, therefore it will result in the reader buying the magazine.

I also analysed the image aspect of double-page spread articles and how they were situated, what size they were and how many were used – most articles had one main image and then two or three minor images embedded within the article, I chose to challenge a few boundaries when it came to my double-page spread article, however I did make sure that the images and their sizing’s and placements within the article were still appealing to my social grades –B and C1- and my target audience – 15-25 year olds, both male and female.


The final important factor to consider when making my magazine appealing to my audiences is my colour scheme: I looked at Q, NME and Kerrang magazine and I analysed the aspects of their colour schemes – they were consistent throughout their front cover, contents page and double-page spread and they used simple and bold colours with the occasional brighter colour; and when I did my primary research, the colour scheme they most favoured was a simple and bold colour scheme with an occasional bright colour, therefore this is the colour scheme I will use, as I have found out through my initial and primary research that it is clearly suited to my target audience and the genre of music I have chosen –Indie.

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

Not only do I have to think about how to sell my magazine but I also have to think about where to sell it, and there are various institutions that would distribute my magazine, such as: music and book stores – HMV, Zavvi, WHSmith, Borders, Waterstones and major supermarkets – Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda.

I have to think about my target audience and where they would normally purchase their magazines; as HMV and Zavvi are the UK’s biggest music stores and sell all types of music magazines; my magazine will surely be sold at these two media institutions as this is a likely place for members of my target audience to buy from.

Borders and Waterstones are two of the UK’s biggest book stores and sell only the leading fashion, kids and music magazines and my magazine is a serious music magazine, it will be the main magazine of its genre alongside Q and NME and therefore will be sold in Borders and Waterstones; the same applies for all major supermarkets as they too, only sell the main leading magazines from each genre when it comes to music magazines.

Another institution that could sell my magazines are companies that produce merchandise at gigs, my magazine could be sold alongside this merchandise at Indie and Alternative gigs.

Another possible institution that could distribute my product is schools; although some schools don’t allow the distribution of any magazine other than their school magazine, some schools do however allow the distribution of music magazines; therefore a small number of schools could distribute my magazine in their tuck shops.

Alongside shops, the main media distributer of my magazine would be a webzine; this would open up the market completely for my magazine – drawing in new audiences and attracting more customers. The webzines that would feature my magazine are: drownedinsound.com, mydadrocks.co.uk, pastepunk.com, shakenstir.co.uk, soundsxp.com and pushtofire.com. I would sell my magazine on a webzine as my target audience is 15-25 year olds, both male and female, and the most likely place for my target audience to be these days is on the internet.

As well as all of these media institutions distributing my magazine, another obvious distributer would be the website and radio station that co-inside with my magazine, for example: my magazine could produce a website to feature everything in the magazine online at Unico.co.uk and could then have a Unico radio station that plays songs of the featured artist in my magazine that week as well as other bands of the Indie genre. This could further the marketing of my magazine as its associated with my Masthead brand and its promoting the aspects and features of my magazine altogether, it’s the perfect way to branch out from just having a magazine and to promoting my magazine.

Although it is stereotypical to suggest that my target audience are on the internet most of the time, but it is also partly true, however they also like to read something and they like to have it with them when their on the move to pass time, and not all people have the money to produce resources for on the move internet, therefore my two main distributors of my magazine will be in shops, so that people can have it literally and on the move and webzines, so that people can view my magazine in a comfortable place.

4. Who would be the audience for your media product?
The audience for my magazine is highly based around my target audience – 15-25 year olds, both male and female. I reached this decision after doing some research into the current selling market for music magazines, and through the feedback from this research I found out that the majority of my target audience are very image orientated and trendy, therefore I was able to use the research that I had gathered about my target audience to associate the features and aspects of my magazine to their needs and wants.
My target audience didn’t change throughout the process of my magazine and I think the reason for this is because I had undergone a lot of necessary audience research beforehand to make sure that this was the audience that my magazine and my ideas would appeal to the most and the audience that would buy my magazine.
I found it quite easy to accommodate my magazine to my target audience as my decisions were very personal and influenced by my own taste in music, this is how the Indie genre came about for my magazine – through personal influence.

5. How did you attract/address your audience?
Not only did I have to think about what my target audience would be, but I had to think about how I would go about making my magazine suitable and appealing to my genre. To do this I took into consideration the images I would be using, who my models would be, how they were to be styled and the type of image, the colour scheme and whether it would be consistent throughout or not, the features and their appeal, the manipulations that I completed on my original images, the style and layout of my front cover, contents page and double page spread, whether or not I would feature promotions, the price of my magazine and finally the genre.


Firstly I decided upon the genre I would have my magazine as – indie; this is because of the recent trend in indie music upon teenagers and also a personal influence and the most sellable music magazines these days are all of an indie genre. I made sure that my front cover had an image that was striking and full on so to attract my audience, I also made sure that my colour scheme complemented my images so that the overall design ties in together, also when manipulating my images I made sure to play on the fact that my target audience are very image orientated, therefore I made my images look air brushed a lot of the time, but only to a certain extent, I don’t want my magazine to be completely based around my images so I still made sure there were a few blemishes that made my models unique; when adding an effect to these images I made sure that I experimented with different styles but also realised that the images I was going to use for definite in my magazine, had simple yet striking effects – to tie in with the indie genre and simple structure of my magazine.





































When choosing the colours for my colour scheme, I made sure to use simple and bold colours – to keep within and complement my indie genre and also so that my magazine would appeal to both females and males within my target audience. I used the pinks and reds to attract females and the blacks and reds to attract males, making sure that I used a variety of colours yet still a sufficient amount so to not make it over crowded or busy, to entice and attract all members of my target audience.


When making the features and article appealing to my target audience I had to make sure that I took into consideration not only my target audience but also the social grade of demographics that my magazine appeals to – I made my article fresh and very musically based and I made sure the features of my magazine were eye-catching and not boring; I talked about teenager based issues and discussed clothing and lyrics, I made sure that the topics that were featured appealed to my target audience specifically.

When deciding my price range I looked mainly at demographics, and what social grade my target audience fits into, I also used the research that I had done to get a specific price range suitable to my target audience – after doing all of this, I made sure all aspects were considered when rounding my price to a final number; I made sure it was cheap and affordable yet not so cheap it’s less than a bargain.

Finally, I chose not to feature promotions in my magazine as, after a lot of research, I thought that my target audience weren’t that bothered if there was or wasn’t a promotion of freebee in my magazine, therefore I chose to stick to my instincts and went without a promotion in the hope that this is the choice that appealed most to my target audience.

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

When undergoing this product I used three main sources of software to construct my magazine, these were: Adobe Photoshop CS3, Adobe In Design and Blogger.com.
This software enabled me to do various different manipulations and uploads when creating my magazine – I used Photoshop and In Design to put my overall magazine together; to manipulate my images and text I used Photoshop and to upload my evaluation of my overall product I used Blogger.com.







I manipulated my images and text to make sure that my magazine looked real and appealing, not boring; I used things such as the healing brush tool, to get rid of certain un wanted parts of my images, the spot healing brush to, to get rid of any blemishes, the warp tool to create a manipulated and funky effect on my text, and various other things.

Photoshop was a good software for me to use as it allowed me to add a lot more detailing and manipulation to my original images and text, In Design was a good software as it helped me with my layout and was better to use for my double page spread then Photoshop was and finally, Blogger.com was a good collaborative software to use as it allowed me to upload my evaluation of my final product to the internet via my personal blog, making it available for others to view.


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

When comparing the aspects and quality of my magazine in my preliminary task to my final magazine product, it is clear to see the differences between the two – the overall quality of the images used are a lot better as I feel with my final magazine I used a photograph plan, therefore considered more aspects of how my image would look, than I did during my preliminary task.
The editing skills in Photoshop and In Design have clearly been improved since my preliminary task – I developed a better understanding of the software so therefore developed a more wider range of understanding towards the tools that I would used when cutting out my images, I swapped the use of pen tool from the preliminary task to the magnetic lasso tool when editing my images for my final magazine.






















These are images of my preliminary task.























These are images of my final magazine.

When comparing the images of my preliminary task to the ones of my final magazine, it is clear to see the differences and improvements between the two and how my knowledge of Photoshop, Indesign and Blogger.com have developed throughout the course.