Evaluation - Question 7

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

Evaluation - Question 6

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

During the construction of my music magazine, I came across six different pieces of software and technology that I have never used before. The first piece of technology that I had to use to be able to create my music magazine pages was Adobe InDesign.

Adobe InDesign was the main software that allowed me to create my front cover, contents page and double page spread professionally. Before creating my music magazine pages, I had some practice of using this software through the development of my preliminary task, which was to create a school magazine. I found it very difficult to get use to using this software when I firstly started my preliminary task seen as this piece of technology has many different tools that I have never used before. After developing my preliminary task I felt more confident when using this software, the preliminary task allowed me to believe that by the time that I came to developing my music magazine I would be able to use this software correctly and proficiently. Eventually I felt that this software was easy to use and therefore was very useful during the time that I spent creating my music magazine. I believe that my music magazine wouldn't have been as good if I had not got to grips with this piece of technology.

Before starting my preliminary task I had also never used Blogger. Blogger is a blog-publishing service that allows you to track your work step by step, I tried to blog regularly about what decisions or changes I had made during the development of my preliminary task but mostly during the time that I spent creating my music magazine. I found that blogger was very easy to use, it allowed me to present my work in a sophisticated way. On my blogger account I uploaded drawn drafts of my magazine pages, drafts of my developed pages by saving them as a JPEG on my memory stick, image options, primary and secondary research on music magazines and information about my target audience.

I used a digital camera to capture my images for my magazine pages, instead of using another type of camera, so that I was able to produce images that had better quality which made my images look more professional. Also I felt that using a digital camera was beneficial as it provides a flash, which I used when taking some images inside where there wasn't much natural lighting. This piece of technology was an exception as I had already used a digital camera before my magazine pages.

 Photoshop is an image-editing software that allows you to alter a digital photographic image. During the development of my magazine pages I didn't use this software much, I only used Photoshop for my main image of the band 'Rage City' on the front cover of my music magazine, by removing the background of this image. I removed the background of this image by using the background eraser tool. Even though I only used one function of this software, which was the eraser tool, I still found Photoshop quite easy to use. It didn't take me too long to get used to how it worked it was pretty straight forward, although it did take quite a long time to use as removing the background was time consuming.

PowerPoint is a software package that is designed to create electronic presentations which consists of a series of separate pages or slides. PowerPoint was also a software that I had already used before, just like the use of the digital camera.  During the development of my magazine pages I used this software a few times to be able to present my progress in PowerPoint form on my blog, I did this by uploading my PowerPoint through my slide share account. I used PowerPoint specifically to present my target audience questionnaire, my target audience focus group results which related to my masthead options, my music magazines contents page draft and whilst answering question five in my evaluation. I believe that PowerPoint presentation is very useful as it allows my blog to look more appealing as it is a different way of posting my updated progress other than just using plain tradition blog posts.

Prezi is an online application, just like slide share. Prezi is another way of showing your work instead of using traditional blog posts, it allows you to make your blog look more appealing. It has a similar purpose to PowerPoint seen as it is an alternative way of creating a presentation. During the development of my preliminary task, I was firstly introduced to this online application. I found Prezi quick and easy to use, it wasn't hard to understand. Prezi's creative template designs allow my blog to look more attractive as it allows my written content to be displayed in a more appealing visual format.


During the development of my magazine pages, the internet has helped me dramatically with my work. Similarly to Adobe InDesign, the internet has been the main foundation of  my music magazine progress. I wouldn't have been able to carry out a lot of the tasks without the internet because I wouldn't have been able to access blogger, prezi, and slideshare. Also the internet has provided me with beneficial secondary music magazine research which helped me during my decision making process.

Evaluation - Question 5

How did you attract/address your audience?

How did you attract/address your audience? from elliereedx

Evaluation - Question 4

Who would be the audience for your media product?

Evaluation - Question 3

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

If my music magazine Pitch was a genuine media product, I would definitely use Bauer Media to publish my magazine. My main personal reason for choosing this kind of media institution to distribute my media product would be that it is the main publisher of Kerrang, which is the music magazine that I used to base the development of my magazine pages on. Also I would choose Bauer to publish my magazine seen as I have already included a few of kerrang's techniques to my music magazine Pitch, to attract my target audience effectively.

Despite my personal reasons, I would choose Bauer Media to publish my magazine for the obvious reasons such as the fact that I would want my magazine 'Pitch' to be a part of one of  the biggest publishing groups in Europe. Bauer media is seen as one of the biggest publishing groups because they have grown to become a global media empire, owning 80 brands and 230 magazines in 15 different countries which serve approximately 19,000,000 people. They also have a massive audience and statistically 4 out of 10 people experience one of their products, which could be from brands such as Kerrang and Q magazines. According to this I believe that choosing Bauer Media to publish my music magazine Pitch would be highly beneficial seen as the global acknowledgement of their existence and therefore their global success, could help my product grow   increasingly even further with their support. Choosing Bauer would also increase the chances of my media product being successful seen as it is a global media institution  that knows exactly what they're doing in the magazine industry, therefore they would be a trust worthy publisher for my magazine.

Bauer Media also publicises their products with cross-media platforms such as the Internet, Television and Radio. This would help to support my media product even further by increasing it's popularity and by gaining global recognition through advertisement of these platforms. Also I have decided to choose Bauer Media to publish my music magazine because it is evidently reliable seen as most successful and recognisable music magazines are published by Bauer, therefore I felt that it would be extremely difficult to trust any other media institution to publish my magazine. Even though there are other existing publishing groups such as IPC media that could help publish my media product, I believe that Bauer would be more beneficial as it would reliably push my media product to its full potential and also would possibly attract my music magazine 'Pitch' to a complete new target audience to create a global fan base for my product.

Bauer owns 80 brands that are all distributed by Frontline. Frontline was formed by Emap in 1986 to handle their demands of an expansion in their circulation, but frontline now distributes Bauer Media products since Bauer took over Emap publications in 2008. If my music magazine Pitch was a genuine media product, I would want the biggest magazine distributor in the UK to distribute my magazine. Frontline is the biggest distributor in the UK because it sells and distributes over 160 magazine titles, including 54 of the top 200 selling titles in the UK. Frontline distributes media products from brands such as Kerrang and Q magazines which are seen as successful magazines. Seen as Frontline is the biggest magazine distributor in the UK, therefore the most successful, I have decided to distribute my magazine 'Pitch' through Frontline.

Evaluation - Question 2



How does the Media Product represent a particular social group?

 

When I created my target audience profile I decided that my music magazine 'Pitch' would be targeted towards teenagers who are predominantly males, seen as when I carried out my primary research, through the method of a questionnaire, males were more keen to take part in my research. This made me come to a conclusion that males are more interested in music magazines than females, my questionnaire results show that 60% of males are interested in music magazines whereas only 40% of females are. But regardless of whether they're males or females, I decided to target my music magazine 'Pitch' towards teenage students who are into the genre of rock because of this I decided to base the pages of Pitch on the real music magazine Kerrang! because it shares the same target audience as mine. I also decided to base my pages on Kerrang! because my results from my questionnaire state that 50% of the public would read the music magazine Kerrang! which evidently shows that my target audience prefer the style of this specific rock magazine in comparison to other existing music magazines. The main aim of my music magazine was to appeal to a certain social group (teenagers and mostly males). I believe that my completed product has achieved this in a variety of ways.

 

The front cover of Pitch was designed specifically to appeal to my target audience, I tried to do this effectively in a similar way that Kerrang! does. Kerrang's front cover is seen as informal and is sometimes described as having a 'cluttered layout' it is in contrast to Q's clean cut structure. Kerrang! is quite focused but still has a laid back teenage feel about the music magazine, the artists and the bands featured in the magazine are usually from the genre of rock or punk rock. This is the same direction that I wanted my music magazine 'Pitch' to aim for, but I decided to stick to the complete genre of rock instead of aiming for the punk aspect of this genre. I also decided not to have a dark coloured front cover like some Kerrang! issues such as the one placed below, instead I just decided to keep to the same colour scheme.

I modelled Pitch's front cover on this issue of Kerrang! because I felt that it was one specific issue of kerrang! that wasn't over-detailed. I decided to create the layout of my front cover based on this existing kerrang! magazine. I liked the layout of this kerrang! issue in comparison to other music magazines because I felt that it looked professional, keeping to the forms and conventions of a real media product but also had an edgy relaxed feel to the music magazine for example I felt that the free poster special made the magazine look more attractive as it tries to entice my target audience in by the use of subsidiary images of bands included in the magazine instead of cramming the page with sell lines, which some readers may feel is overwhelming and off putting as it doesn't straight forwardly state who's in the magazine. I also included the free poster special as this feature would definitely appeal to some people who are heavily influenced by music, and are a fan of rock music; which leads to the stereotype of rock fans having posters all over their bedroom walls. I chose this issue as it conveyed a professional look, it has a specific layout showing that it follows a structured plan and lastly it keeps to the specific genre of rock, which my target audience are interested in. Over all I believe that this style of magazine would attract my target audience as it appears to be inviting and eye-catching. The pose of the band makes them look dominant and intimidating, showing that they mean business. I wanted my image to achieve the same effect as this by using an image of the boys that makes them look rebellious, ambitious and mysterious but also with a mellow non-aggressive feel to there presence.

 

I eventually chose this image to be displayed as the main image for Pitch's front cover. I decided to use this image of the band because I believe that it represents their age and their social group effectively through their gaze, body language and their costumes which also still relates to the genre of the magazine. The three band members in the photograph are males within my target audience age range. As my questionnaire results show, my target audience favour a male group. I have also tried to use similar clothing to other bands modelled on the front cover of music magazines which share the same genre as mine (e.g kerrang, NME), I did this so that the band 'Rage City' represent the same fashion style that fits with the audiences preferences. This image helps to relate the band 'Rage City' to the audience and their social group, showing that the magazine understands them, which allows the audience to trust the magazine, therefore sale figures will increase.

 

 

In the article the best representational aspects can be seen from the main image on the double page spread, but also from the textual content. For example, the image portrays ambition and dominance. I chose this image of the band 'Rage City' because I liked the fact that the three band members all stared straight at the camera having the 'gaze' that all rock bands have in the photos included in conventional music magazines. I also liked the edgy urban feel of the background making the band members look dominant which fits in with the genre of rock. Also I chose this image as the band members have strong eye contact with the target audience through their gaze, which allows the audience to feel connected to the band and their story line. This allows the particular social group that are being presented (the target audience) to feel like they understand the band 'Rage City' deeply.

For my written article, I decided to keep to the layout of other conventional music magazine articles. Therefore I made sure that I included details such as credits; stating the name of the journalist and of the photographer, pull quotes, drop caps, an image of the band on one whole page of the double page spread, the colour scheme of the magazine as a whole, conventional language such as "exclusively" or "subscribe", page numbers and lastly web site details so that my music magazine 'Pitch' is able to attract its target audience, who are technophile. Also I included a web address to portray that this brand has multi-media platforms. All these specific details allow the music magazine 'Pitch' to be presented as professional seen as it follows the forms and conventions of a real media product and it also allows my music magazine to appeal to its target social group.

In the contents page the best representational aspects can be seen through its images again. The band members clothing represent the same fashion style that fits with the audiences preferences. I have also kept the same band members for the cover page, contents page and the article, to portray how the pages inside the music magazine 'Pitch' link together. I also decided to use the same band members in the images shown throughout the magazine so that it helps my targeted social group to make a connection between these  pieces of content and it also allows them to develop a connection with the band. I decided to include female artists and female band members in my subsidiary images on my contents page so that my music magazine 'Pitch' also appeals to females. I believe that using a mix of genders, makes my music magazine appealing to both males and females.

Similarly to my article, my contents page has specific details that many existing music magazines have, such as having conventional headings and page numbers allowing my target audience to have knowledge of where to find certain artists/bands/articles.

Evaluation - Question 1

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? Front Cover Contents Page Double Page Spread