AS Media evaluation

1. AS Media evaluation Beatrice Durston

2. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? My media product has few ways in which it uses and develops forms and conventions of real media products, these are: • Titles and headings: I have chosen to make the titles and headings of my magazine larger and bolder than the subtext of the article. I have chosen to keep this convention of a real music magazine because I feel it is an effective way to engage readers attention and draw their eye to a specific point of my media product. • Contents page: I chose to model my contents page on FHM and NME real music magazines. This is because I feel the style they use is most similar to the style I wanted for the form of my media product. For example: the contents page of my music magazine is separated into sections just like that of FMH’s contents page. • Colour scheme: just like real media products I have chosen to keep a colour scheme throughout my contents page, front cover and double page spread. I think this convention helps to create a brand image for the magazine and is remembered by readers. My media product challenges the forms and conventions of real media products in the following way: • Page numbers: Unlike the majority of real music magazines, I have chosen not to include page numbers on both my contents page and my double page spread. I have chosen to use this convention as I feel this fits the image of my magazine best. Cover stories and main pages will not have page numbers, this is to convey confidence to my readers when reading my music magazine.

3. How does your media product represent particular social groups? At the start of my project I conducted a reader survey, as shown earlier in my blog. This helped me decide which social group my media product would target and represent. My media product represents two social groups: • Young females: The results from my questionnaire showed that females would be the most popular gender amongst my readers. Therefore, the colour scheme and layout of my music magazine represents young females. I have chosen to use pink as my colour scheme (a stereotypical colour that represents females). I also chose a layout that was aesthetically pleasing to me, as I am a representation of this social group. • People who enjoy acoustic/new music: My magazine represents this social group as this is the music it focuses on. Therefore, the way in which I chose what fonts to use was also to conduct a survey amongst this social group. This meant that when making final decisions I knew my media products would represent the correct social group with its fonts, layout and style. • Younger generation: Finally, my media product represents the younger generation as apposed to an older generation. I have chosen to have a ‘gossip’ twist to my magazine as this will represent the younger generation social group. An older generation of readers would not be the social group I am targeting with my media product.

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

5. Who would be the audience for your media product? The target audience for my music magazine, as justified by the results of my questionnaire, would be as follows: Females, aged 14 – 21 The results from my research helped me confirm my target audience. How did you attract/address your audience? I attracted and addressed my target audience in the following ways: • Colour scheme: the colour scheme I have chosen to use attracts my target audience, this was justified in my questionnaire. I have chosen to use a pink/purple colour scheme as these are stereotypical colours that address females. I have also softened the colour as this addresses the age of my target audience. • Layout and style: I have chosen a simplistic layout for my music magazine as I feel this is the style that will attract my audience in the best way. I have also tried to create a brand image for my magazine by using simple, yet bold, font throughout. • Photography style: I chose to take my photos in a way in which I feel would attract younger generation females. I did this by using music and fashion magazines as inspiration, I then combined the two styles to address my target audience appropriately.

6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product? I have learnt many things in the process of constructing this product, these are: • Apple Mac software and Microsoft software does not always work together well. Throughout the project I experienced several problems when using Apple macs. The computer often crashed when I was in the middle of producing my product. This taught me to save regularly as technology is often unreliable. • I also experience problems when uploading my products to my blog. This was due to the technology I used to construct my media product. Therefore, I learnt to use Microsoft documents for text and convert my images to jpeg before uploading them to my blog. If I were to construct this product again, I would use my experiences and what I have learnt to do the following when using technology: • Save my work regularly • Convert work to the correct format for my blog • Use either Apple or Microsoft software throughout • Update my blog and check my links work/images show correctly

7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product? In conclusion, I have learnt the following things in the progression from my preliminary task to the full product: - Composition of