School &Music Magazine Evaluation

School &Music Magazine Evaluation WemmyCarabuena

Contents In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge form and conventions of real media products? Photographs Who would be the audience for your media product? Representation ( School Magazine) Representation (Music Magazine) How did you attract/address your audience? What institution might distribute your product? What have you learned from your audience feedback? Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product? How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation?

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge form and conventions of real media products? For my preliminary task, I made a front cover and content’s page of a school magazine. My school magazine used conventions of real school magazine because it has a main cover picture, a masthead with the magazine’s name on it, the logo, the price and the barcode. I decided to follow the conventions of real magazines as it will make my magazine easy to identify with. For my final task, I designed and made a music magazine which consisted of the front cover, content’s page, and three double-spread pages. My front cover also used form and conventions of real music magazine because it has a masthead with the magazine’s name on it, the price, the month the magazine was released and the bar code. However it also challenges the forms and conventions of real media products because I decided to keep the whole layout simplistic by not putting any sub-topics on the sides. I decided to do this in order to make the audiences focus on the front cover models instead. However, I added names of music artists and bands below the main picture in the hope that it will grab readers’ attention.

Who would be the audience for your media product? For my school magazine, my target audience would be Brakenhale students from Year 7 to Year 13. I decided to design and make a magazine for this audience so that they can have something they can regularly buy to see any new changes and news around the school. It will also be something that will guide them in their studies but it was designed to make sure that they have fun while reading it. The target audience for my music magazine will be females aged 13 to 18 years old who are into different genres of contemporary music. I decided to make a magazine for this audience as their currently isn’t any music magazines around that is specifically intended for this age group. My music magazine will be having different genres in order to get a broad range of audience in the market. It will also be different from other magazines because from what I've seen most music magazine on the market focuses mainly on one type of music. By designing this, people that likes different types of music would finally be able to buy a magazine that includes different genres.

How did you attract/address your audience? To attract the audience for my school magazine, I decided to include a free item with every issue. This decision was based on the results of my questionnaire which showed that 8 out 15 people would like to have a free item with my magazine. I also included several informations that would interest the target audience such as competitions, advices, games and any upcoming events in the school. I chose bright colours to ensure that it will captivate the audience into buying my magazine. All of this was again based from the results of my questionnaire to ensure that my magazine is meeting the audiences’ need. For my music magazine, I chose to attract the audience by choosing bright colours such as red, fuchsia pink, orange and purple. I chose this colour scheme as I found out from the results of my questionnaire that most people preferred these colours. Like my school magazine, I also chose to include a free item as 15 out of 15 people who took my questionnaire said that they like getting free items. As my magazine is aimed for people who like different types of music from RnB to Rock, I made sure that my magazine included informations on different genres. This is why I made double spread page that has an interview of different types of music artists. This makes my magazine appealing as it will have more subject matters to talk about rather than just focusing on one genre.

What have you learned from your audience feedback? After finishing my music magazine, I carried out another questionnaire in order to see if my target audience liked the overall design and contents of my final product. The general feedback has been very positive and I’m glad that the audience liked the finished product . All of the people I asked would consider buying my magazine which means that I have done a good job on addressing their needs.

How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation? Media technologies such as the computer, digital camera and graphics tablet has helped me very well in the process of making my magazine. The internet was my main source of research. From the internet, I gathered informations about different institutions that publishes magazine. From there I also compared the layout of different music magazines around in the market. I also used a digital camera in taking pictures for my magazine. To make the pictures I’ve taken much more suitable and interesting, I used a graphics tablet and Photoshop. The use of a graphics tablet together with Photoshop CS2 allowed me to do things that extended my creative control. It has allowed me to change the background and edit the lightings of my picture which would have been much harder without these technologies. I also used a variety of desktop publishing software such as Microsoft Word, Microsoft Publisher, Microsoft Excel and Microsoft PowerPoint. My planning and questionnaires were done in Microsoft Word. I chose this particular software for these task as it was the most suited because it involves more writing. I Microsoft Publisher to make the front cover. It was easier to do it in Microsoft Publisher because it allowed me to change the background colour into anything I wanted which wasn’t accessible in Microsoft Word. I used Microsoft Excel for analyzing the results of my questionnaire and converting it into charts . Finally, I used Microsoft PowerPoint for this evaluation in order to make it presentable in front of a larger audience.

Photographs School Magazine For the front cover, I chose a Brakenhale School student as the model. This is suitable because the magazine is designed for Brakenhale students . The picture was taken outside the school showing a sight of the building and a golden brown bush which suggests that it was taken in autumn term. The photo was then edited in Photoshop CS2, making the background slightly blurry in order to make the readers focus on the model. The whole look of the photograph is simple and formal as it is mainly aimed for secondary students. Music Magazine For the front cover, I chose three young women as my front cover models. This decision was based on making my magazine appeal to young women who are aspiring to be successful as well. My target audience was 13- 18 years old females so the clothes they are wearing are fashionable but in a classy way. The picture was originally taken in a room with a plain background so that I could edit it easily after. I then changed the background to a cheetah print which connotates independence. I also adjusted the lighting by increasing the brightness of the image slightly to make the picture stand out more from the background. I then added different coloured light effects on each corner making it seem that the models are the center of attention.

Representation School Magazine I constructed sense of reality by making a Brakenhale student the front cover model. By doing this, it will make my magazine seem relatable to the readers because they are students from the school themselves. The front cover also includes different texts on the side which informs the readers on what is new around the school to keep them updated. However, I excluded representations of students who are not achieving very well and are trouble makers in the school. I decided to do this in order to keep the positive representation of the school which will help encourage the students to do well. From looking at the content’s page, we can tell that the target audience are interested in what’s new around the school, different after school clubs students can go to , revision tips and several information about their school.

Representation Music Magazine For my music magazine, I constructed a sense of reality by making sure that the content’s will include topics which people can relate to and talk about in their everyday social life. This is exactly the purpose of the ‘Featuring’ section where it show the latest news about several music artists. As my product is a music magazine, I also included a double-spread page where people can imitate an artist's look and style . This makes it appear as if my magazine is the readers companion when it comes to music and even hints of fashion. I want my magazine to have a positive representation of women as it is aimed for females aged 13-18 years old. I kept the representation positive by excluding swear words and violence at all times. I also chose three females as the front cover models which put emphasis on female independence.

What institution might distribute your product? The institution that I think would distribute my music magazine is the Bauer Media Group. It is a large German publishing company based in Humburg, which operates in 15 countries worldwide. This institution produces and distributes many popular music magazines around such as Kerrang and Q. The Bauer Publishing Group comprises 238 magazines worldwide in 15 countries, as well as TV and radio stations. I think my music magazine would be suitable for this institution because my magazine is different from all the other magazine they already publish. They publish different varieties of magazine but from what I’ve seen on my research, they currently don’t publish any music magazine that is aimed mainly for women. This makes my music magazine suitable for this institution as it has something new to offer to their broad range of audiences.

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product? Looking back at my school magazine, I have learned the importance of understanding the needs of the target audience before making the final product. I gained more knowledge about the forms and conventions of music magazines . With this knowledge, I got an idea of what forms and convention I would include when it comes to designing my own magazine and what forms and conventions I would challenge. I also gained more awareness of how a photograph can attract and grab the audience’s attention. This project allowed me to use and improve my photo editing skills. I learnt that organisation and time management are very important when carrying out this project.

Thank you f or watching my presentation!

School &Music Magazine Evaluation