My Evaluation

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

I think that although my product is generally conventional, as I was worried about it's credibility, there is one unconventional twist about it.

My genre challenges the real media products, as most music magazines are focused on rock music, whereas I chose to surround mine on popular, chart, mainstream music. I did this because I believed that it is still the most common interest of people in Britain, and I thought it deserved to have a magazine purely dedicated to it, rather than mainstream music lovers having to flick carefully through magazines like Q and Clash for small features on their favourite artists.
My genre is present in every element of my product, and has changed the way I've used codes, as obviously with such a different genre it means my reader is somewhat far from the average music magazine reader. Those who read Clash and Spin are predominantly male, and mine has evolved to become aimed at female readers mainly. Typical music magazine readers are often characterised by the gig-goer stereotype, constantly listening to their iPod, plays an instrument, tried to be in a band at one stage or another, but I don't believe such an obsession with music is required to have a genuine interest in it, enough to buy a magazine about it anyway.

That is the main way my magazine challenges real products, and really the rest of the features are quite conventional, but I consider them to be slightly developed in the way they have been manipulated in order to appeal to my unstereotypical reader.

My language is basically conventional, but I think the style of sarcasm and other humour used is more out there as it is slightly blunter than that of Q, and very opinionated therefore acting as a source of personal identity. This was to represent the strongness of the genre, often considered as not "real" music which was the theme I was trying to prove throughout my product, especially through the name.

The smaller features of language are all very conventional for that of a music magazine, in the forms of the features listed in the contents, the generally straightforward denotations, the Q&A style of my interview and the way artist's names are used. So the format of all of my language is the same as most media texts, but the style in which it is written is slightly developed in a sense.
A specific feature which challenges the convention of another topic closely linked in with musical entertainment is the way I've chosen to have another section on a range of topics. This borderlines on teenage magazines, which I think is really something different and unusual.

My images all the way through my product are very conventional through the concept of them. The simple poses, minimalist look, shot distance, plain backgrounds and facial expressions of them all add to there conventionality. The way I've edited them with high contrast and high brightness is unusual, but I think it's an example of how I've manipulated a convention to fit in with my genre and style, as I think they look more lively and fun, connoting that music isn't serious, it's for leisure.

For my colours I have stuck to the conventional amount, and used black and white, so is typical on paper. But I think the bright colours I've used means there's never really any darkness like on a lot of magazines, but again is an example of how it's been twisted to fit to my female audience. It isn't that neutral anywhere, but is very fresh and lively as the bright colours I've used both have very energetic connotations as I've explained. So in some consideration, they've just been developed in order to match my unconventional genre and readers.

The layouts I've used have also been conventional, but with an edge. The cover for instance, has the masthead on the opposite side. A tiny difference, yet I think it's very noticeable and slides my product out of level with other similar magazines. The contents again, pretty typical columns of text and images, but over 2 pages and again my DPS shows the twist of 2 images. All these are not major, so I wouldn't consider them to be challenging that of a real magazine, but I think the fact these small changes run throughout as part of my house style means they're like a signifier proving my magazine is different, if only by a small margin.

My fonts are something I demanded on keeping plain, as I always noticed it never ever varied on real products when doing my research. It's vital they are plain as without this simple element the magazine loses credibility instantly because it would be indistinguishable as one of its own kind next to similar products.

Overall, my magazine has enough conventions to be counted as a music magazine, but I think the variations and edge it has to it distinguish it from real media products in a positive way.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

As a main theme of my magazine was to represent the strength of the genre, I feel I’m representing the fans of that genre as real, strong people, a contrast to the representation of them often portrayed by other media and social groups. For example, people who like mainstream chart music may be considered as mindless drones by some die hard rock music fans, just because their attitude to music is less serious, but I think my magazine counters this. Through my strong connotations of the title, the shock language and sometimes offensive humour I think I represent chart music lovers to be individuals and a force to be reckoned with, which I think is effectively positive.

Also, I think I represent females well. The bold colours again show they’re not a weak gender and the clothes my models wearing also represents how women don’t need to be shown sexually, they can have an impact in other ways. I think there’s quite an independent vibe because of the strength I’ve aimed for, so it represents women in their own right, not in connection to men. Generally as my cover artist is female, it shows authority. But it isn’t a tomboy style, because although the colours are bold and strong, one of them is still pink. However it is a hot pink and has much more feistier connotations than pastels.

Because my audience will mainly be old teenagers, I think a representation of them can be drawn from my product too. Because my product’s style is so clean and fresh, it puts a positive light on teenagers, as there’s no grunge and it’s very organised. So at first glance, it basically present’s the younger generation as goody two shoes, but then on closer inspection where the blunt sarcastic humour and bad language come in, it puts a rebellious spin on how teens are represented. Yet it still holds some dignity and maturity because the bad language is infrequent and the humour is sometimes quite clever.

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

I would hope a publishing company like Bauer Publishing would take on my media product.

They already publish a few music magazines - Q, Kerrang and Mojo. I think as mine is unconventional in any selection of music magazines, there’s a gap for it in this area of their publishing. It also publishes only 1 teen magazine, therefore a music magazine aimed at that audience may be welcome.

Plus as they publish a massive range of women’s magazines, it means there’s an even better place for my music magazine as it’s aimed more at women. I think the unconventional style of my magazine would fit in with their publishing as they also publish Pop, a quirky fashion magazine, so showing they’ve experimented away from the norm before.

Also as it’s the same company that owns Big City radio stations, like Metro Radio and Kiss, it provide a complimentary link to my area of mainstream music and an intertextuality relation.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

When deciding on my target audience, my initial open ended criteria was “anyone older than 12 who felt stupid reading Top of The Pops” (which actually doesn’t exist anymore!) but I developed this to 15 – late 20s, both genders and interested in mainstream.

Throughout the production of my product I feel this has evolved more, and became more specific, especially with my audience feedback exercises and looking at the media packs for Clash and Spin.

Firstly, it’s developed to be more aimed at females than both genders, but I’m glad of this because of Clash and Spin readers beings predominantly male, making mine for a more alternative audience than existing media products. Also as I mentioned before, because my genre of music is more unusual for a music magazine, my audience is also more unusual.

Far from the typical male music magazine reader, characterised by the gig-goer stereotype, constantly listening to their iPod, plays an instrument and trying to be in bands at one stage or another, my female audience exists. My audience will probably have less of an obsession with music, and it will act as a leisurely part of their life, enhancing it rather than ruling it. They would still be interested mainly in mainstream music, but may just like a wide variation.

From my audience feedback questions I’ve learnt my audience is basically a normal girl, no one with an extreme lifestyle or anything, someone who often fits in with trends and likes mainstream elements of other things in life, but may have an individual streak in their fashion sense or personality making them a little edgier and stronger than a completely average girl. However, they are quite sophisticated and mature I think, and have a well rounded lifestyle equally split into different parts of life.

How did you attract/address your audience?

Generally, to attract females, I gave the whole style of my magazine a very neat organised feel, which I think is definitely more suited to females than males. I made sure everything matched perfectly, even the artist’s clothes fitted in well with the colour scheme. Also I think my reader’s overall attitude is made obvious in the presentation of my magazine. Obviously their sense of music is appealed to by the fact I used real artist’s from the mainstream genre to get this across.
The colour scheme is a large part of how I addressed my audience, as it’s very fresh and light, hopefully mirroring my reader’s sense of fashion and general lifestyle. There’s no darkness and a very optimistic look, representative of the stereotypes who may read my magazine. Also, the bright colours will be much more appealing to a female, especially the pink, and these colours may be popular in their clothes.

The light-hearted humour in the language is a reflection of how my reader’s view music, not seriously at all, but just in a casual leisurely way. I think this feature particularly is very telling of what kind of people I want reading my magazine. The DPS is less heavy with music info, again showing my readers don’t consider it a life supply, more of an enhancement. My quote in the contents also sends out this message, as it’s about partying with music, effectively a luxury of life.

My individual magazine feature, which consists of elements from other parts in culture, is also designed to attract my well-rounded readers who will have mainstream interests in other things like TV, films and comedy.

To appeal to my reader’s strong streak, I think the blunt and often offensive language will be on the same level as their own attitude. Also by the artist I used on the cover, it provides a possible role model for my kind of readers.

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

From each part of my audience feedback I’ve learned different things.

From my questions I asked to 2 other people, I’ve learned that my preferred readings have come across well, hopefully because of the way I’ve encoded my product and used recognised codes and conventions, plus making sure they co-ordinate with dominate social values so that they’re more likely to be decoded correctly. I think I’ve proven this on a small scale in the way that the majority of my intended meanings matched the way my sample interpreted them. Hopefully, this wouldn’t vary too much across a more widespread sample if my preferred readings agree with hegemonic trends. These similarities mean I’d be more likely to attract my target readers, and my product would be a success.

From my quotes I've learnt that my product is pretty realistic. Each one commented on the professionalism and high standard which is obviously really positive. Also my target readers were judged well as female, teens and early 20s. Although I planned it to not be gender specific, after I noticed my cover seemed more aimed at females, I carried on this theme, and now I'm glad after finding out the majority of Clash's and Spin readers are male, as it makes my audience a bit more different.

They show that my photos are a vital piece to my product as they were praised specifically in 2 of my quotes, for the standard and how well they represent the style of the magazine and artist. The language is said to be a main element that tailors it to my target reader, as it doesn't waffle, and probably because of humour and style. The way it's presented was also noticed to appeal to readers, as it was a carefree style, but also an effective, neat layout with an obvious house style, which is something I'd aimed to achieve throughout my production

One quote said it veered from a mainstream teenage style magazine, appealing to the niche market, but I think it means when it is included with the teen magazine genre (rather than music genre), it's more different that mainstream, which can be considered positive as maybe it's appealing to more individual, mature teens.

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

My main IT resources used throughout were the Internet, Publisher and Photoshop, general DTP. I’m fairly experienced with these from general work and my GCSE Media Studies practical production.

For my research I used Google Images and Flickr to save some high quality images of covers, contents and DPS to analyse and form conventions. I’ve never used Flickr before, but I’m glad I found it. To get images of real magazine features I'd found I used a scanner to get them on the PC. I also learnt I could use the Internet to download media packs from Spin and Clash's websites to learn more about reader profiles.

For my planning, I learnt I was able to scan sketches of layouts and poses to try out on layouts which were very helpful. That also allowed me to post images of my sketches on my blog. Using Publisher, I made developed drafts for each of my pages which were very important in the creation process as I had a guide to follow.

Technology in the construction stage was arguably the most important, as obviously my whole product came together using Photoshop, where I think my skills developed because a higher standard was need for this product. Because it's such an advanced programme I felt it really extended my creative decisions and I could do anything I needed to change really, and I feel my skills were developed enough to make what I needed. In order to take images, I used my camera, another important technology in construction, and although mine was fairly low quality, it still was obviously vital for the factor of original photography. I learnt about shot distances and lighting in order to get the best out of my images. Also I used the Internet to download the perfect font for my style, which I believe was a major help in the professionalism and credibility of my product.

In the evaluation stage apart from using this blog to type it up, I didn't use much technology. I used my blog to show people my product and one of my quote sources delivered the quote to me through a comment. I did also email my questions to people, so in a respect I used more IT than I noticed, as it's just a natural occurrence to me now.

Overall, I learnt that different technologies are extremely efficient when producing something so IT orientated. It helped me with my time management and generally made everything easier.

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

A major thing I’ve learnt is that a lot more consideration can go into things, to get better results and to have better reasoning to use them. Just extra detail and research into things can go a long way.

Thinking more about language and fonts especially can help fit into conventions more easily, so therefore gives a more professional finish.

I feel I’ve learnt more about image editing in the progression because I was thinking so much more specifically, like where shadows should be and the shot distances used. Trying out different poses and facial expression is also very important, as this is something I didn’t really do at all in my preliminary task, I just jumped straight in there, but I think this was partly to do with the medium close up control.

Also I think my ability of making effective layouts has grown, as my cover layout on the preliminary tasks were very simple and straightforward, but I know that on my full product the layouts have much more advanced thinking behind them and therefore work better.