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

Both images of the left are my front cover and contents page from my preliminary task, and the images on the right are my finished products from my main task of creating a music magazine.

It is difficult to compare my front cover and contents from my prelim to my final piece as they were based on different things. As one was about a school magazine and one a music they will obviously have very different sell lines and different visual things. However I have learnt to use different technologies, how to manage time and also how much actually goes into constructing a music magazine. I defiantly have learnt a lot from making this and I am much happier about my final piece.

Looking back at my preliminary front cover it is very plain and also does not look that professional in comparison to my final piece. It covers a lot of the hair and is not in a straight line but also it looks very bare in the bottom left hand corner. If I had a chance to edit the prelim then I would change a lot of things, I think know that I have had more opportunities to use technologies then I would be able to create a more professional looking school magazine.

When looking at my contents page it does look very boring and does not really look like a contents page. There is no images that stand out to me and also the main thing which I feel stupid for is there is no numbers to actually tell you where a bouts the article is in the magazine. It is very bright which I do not like and also is not the shape for a contents page as it is square. I was really pleased when I created my front cover and contents page as I thought it looked rather professional but putting my final piece against it it makes it look very unprofessional and looks like it has been made by a much younger person. I have learnt so much when making this magazine so hopefully this is shown by my final piece.

If I looked at my prelim task on a shelf I would not pick it up as it does not attract me at all the sell lines do not stand out and everything on the page feels as thought it is squashed. 

When I look at my prelim I realised that I did not spend as much time as what I would like and also I did not do a lot of research. When making my prelim I did not know any terminology or theories to make sure that my magazines had these or followed them to make it the best that it could be. The more research you did then the higher chance of producing a conventional and professional magazine. I would say that I am a organised person and I planned each post to make sure that I did not leave it to the last minute. I feel that overall, I have learnt a lot about research and time management when going from my prelim to my final task. When I carried out the research I made sure that I blogged about it so then I could easily look back and find out about each thing that I needed to. The detailed research has allowed me to make my final product the best that it can possibly be by putting in the effort and planning my time efficiently.

I thought that I did spend a lot of time perfecting my prelim, however now that I have looked back on it it doesn't look like I have compared to my final task. Hopefully my final piece looks as though I have spent much more time than my prelim as I have and I am pleased with the amount of time that I did spend. 

When I made my prelim I only had the opportunity to make a front cover and contents page so when it came to make the double page spread I didn't really know what I was looking for. I had to start researching what the typical conventions were for the main task. I did find this the most difficult to create as I had less experience however once I had made my first draft I felt as though it looked rather professional. I thought that it gave me a sense of achievement as I have never created this before like the other two pages so when I did I felt more pleased with this than my other two pages.  

I have to admit when I was looking at other people's music magazines I did think that mine in comparison didn't look at well produced but I changed this as you can see this in my drafts. As my prelim didn't have any drafts I though that I could of made some just to show how I created my magazine. 

I did use pixlr on both of the tasks and as you can tell one looks like it has had better production than the other, for my prelim task contents page I put it as a collage which tell you that I really didn't have a clue how to make it on pixlr. I have since had a lot of experience to help me assist on my pixlr skills.

I learnt that feedback is key and even though I did not get feedback for my prelim I decided to always get it for each draft so then I could change it to appeal to my target audience. When I asked people about my magazine it was good to get positive and negative feedback as then I could change it to what they think they would prefer to look at. If I did not have any feedback then I would not of created a magazine like this one as I would not know what other people would think about it. For a magazine that is going to be sold it was vital to get peoples opinions. 

I had to think a lot about responsibility as I had to look after my model as well as take the photos on quite expensive hardware. Also the macs at school I had to look after as I am so clumsy I was scared about breaking them. At school they have a system where if you wanted to take something out like a tripod then you would have to fill out a short form which was good as then I knew when to bring it back by.  

Overall I think that creating a prelim of my music magazine was really helpful as it gave me a rough guide onto what to put on it and how it appeals to people. It then gave me an idea about research, time management and audience feedback. I have learnt about new technologies and websites to create things on which I know that I will use again in the future. I am glad that I have looked at other music magazines as I will probably go out and buy one as I know understand how much hard work it is to create one. Although they do have a numerous amount of staff working on the magazine it is very difficult to gather audience feedback as they can not ask people what they like and dislike as they are trying to sell the magazine to these people. 

I am proud of my final products and I am so much happier about these than my prelim and hopefully you can see the amount of work that I have put into these.

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

EVALUATION 5 - How did you attract / address your audience?

I used various techniques on my front cover to try and attract my audience, these were mostly things that are included in my audience pleasers post. Audience pleasers are as set of techniques that a magazine will use to persuade an audience to buy their magazine and to maintain that readership. They are things that people like that make them feel good, how people spend their free time, how something is presented to suit their audience and what the magazine thinks the audience wants. 

One of these is direct mode of address which is how the magazine speaks to the reader by the use of colloquial language which is language that is personal to you and also personal pronouns. As my magazine front cover is the first things that the reader will see I used language that would be interesting for the reader to see such as ritzy, collab and stars. All of these words instantly draw the reader in as they tell the reader that the things inside are going to read about and they will have to buy the magazine to see what the stars are, or what the ritzy scam is about and also who the collaboration is going to be with. There is not any personal pronouns which I do think I could add in as then it would make it more engaging however my sell lines would not work with personal pronouns in them. If I had put you're exclusive interview it would work  better however I would then run out of space on my front cover. 

Secondly I put a burst on the front cover which was a free download. Customers love the sense of being given to as they feel as though they are having the magazine for free as they are paying the price of the free item and getting the magazine free. When I interviewed one of my target audience I asked them what draws you in and she said the free download so I know that this defiantly works. If I wanted to put another free item or a competition on the page then I would probably put it on the bottom however I could use this in the next issue as then my readers will buy the magazine again. 

There is information on the page that also engages the audience. I have put tour dates and also the ritzy festival scam on the front cover as they will want to read about them, with this information it acts as news on music and people will want to find about the latest news on the music front. 

The next thing is the 'ritual pleasure of consuming of readers' this is when people subscribe to a magazine, I put this on my contents page as it is where people look for information also it is following the conventions of magazines. 

Another thing was belonging of self definition I didn't want forums on the website as this could be dangerous, but I did want my target audience to feel as though they could talk to other people that is interested in the same music. This is why I have put fan mail as a feature in the magazine this makes it easy to communicate and see what other people are listening to and also what they like and dislike in the current indie music charts. 

So now onto the visual things that attract my target audience. 

Firstly I attracted my readers through the use of a masthead, this is the largest piece of text on the cover, this is really important as the title is the first thing that a reader sees, if they are looking to buy the magazine they will look for the name which is on the top of the page. As it is called En(ore you can instantly relate it to a music magazine as encore is when a artist or band comes back on after they have finished a gig and perform another song. I did use a very different font as it was neither sans serif or serif it was font that looks like a stamp. This could connote its importance. 

The sell lines down the left and right hand side of the magazine also attract the audience. When I was thinking about what to put for my sell lines I knew that I had to include something that is interesting and then I know they will want to buy the magazine and read about this. By including relevant topics for my genre of music magazine will interest them more as they will want to find out about the upcoming indie stars etc. I decided to put the 'exclusive' in a block of white colour so it will stand out and therefore they will know that the sell line underneath is going to be the most important article in my magazine which is my double page spread. In addition I decided to use a burst which was 'free download of the xx' the xx is a massive indie band so that will interest my target audience also it shows the style of genre that my magazine is about as the xx would not be on a country or hip-hop magazine. The use of the burst encourages the reader to buy it and also could make them want to buy another issue. 

Next is the main image that I used these are on all three pages, on my front cover and double page spread it is breaking conventions as my model is not looking directly at the camera so could possibly not engage the reader. However I still believe that it attracts my audience as my model is of a young age and people of the similar age read the magazine. Also the location of the image is very intriguing as it is mysterious and people might like the image as it is very quirky and you can get fashion shoots with images like this that people have as posters. On my front cover I used an image that was a full body shot but my model was bent down so it shows that she is not superior and doesn't show off, on my contents page I have a head shot as that draws the reader in as she is looking directly at them and finally on my double page spread the image in off centre but looking at the article so works well as it makes the article look important.

My colour scheme also attracts my audience as it is simple and is easy to read. The purple, blue, black and white is good as it attracts both male and females. Also when looking at other music magazines they had four colours for example NME have black, red, white and always another colour that goes with the artist. When I use these colours throughout the magazine it shows that it is well designed and also is consistent which would attract the audience as they then know that the magazine is well produced so has some main stars in it. Also blue and purple connote cool and chilled people, I think that the colours are good in this case as it goes with the lifestyle of my target audience.

When you look at my double page spread the pull quote will engage the reader as it will make them want to read the rest of the article. As it is bigger than the rest of the text it makes it one of the first things that they will see, also the font is the same as the masthead of the title of the magazine so it must be important. 

Overall I believe that I have created an engaging magazine that attracts my target audience, as the ways that I have presented certain bits of text is eye-catching so they will want to buy it. 

Below is one of my target audience answering some questions on my magazine about the things that attract her.

So onto the uses and gratification theory.
People buy the magazine to escape real life dramas so it allows their tension to be free. It allows them to get their social integrative needs as they can read it with their family and read about the fan mail which allows them to socialise with other people who enjoy the same music. Another way that this magazine uses the uses and gratification theory is their affective needs as when reading the magazine it could allow their mood to be good as they are reading about something that they like. Lastly it shows their cognitive needs, as they can read about information and news about the indie genre.

EVALUATION 4 - Who would be the audience for your media product?

One thing that I did not put into my video about my audience was about the penumbra effect, the penumbra effect is when your magazine appeals to someone who is not your in your target audience. When I made my magazine I did have in mind that I wanted it to appeal to a wider audience this is one of the reasons in which I put meet the stars of 2013, this could be indie stars as well as other artists in different genres. Also some of the artists on my front cover have collaborated with people that are not indie, for example Florence and the machine collaborated with calvin harris who is a dj so some of my audience could be interested in this genre of music but decided to buy my magazine as it has one of the artists that he collaborated with. 

EVALUATION 3- What kind of media institution might distrbute your media product and why?

During the coursework I recently posted about the media institutions, I chose which one would fit best for my magazine, by what else it publishes and also the amount of people that read that particular magazine.

IPC media are a rather successful company who publish over 60 iconic media brands, it is a privately owned business however I decided that IPC MEDIA would be the best media institution for me as it already publishes NME which is the closest magazine to mine, also it is well known so people would recognise that my magazine is published by IPC. However recent research on IPC has made me change my  mind there is a problem with having IPC as my publisher would then make me have a competition between the sales of my magazine and NME as they have similar artists inside them.

If I didn't want the competition between my magazine and NME then I could have Bauer as my magazine publisher. Bauer is a very successful company, they are the largest european publisher so I know that if they published my magazine then I will have a mass audience. They sell one of the best selling magazines with over 700,000 copies a month and also produce may magazines worldwide to attract a wider audience. Although the magazines that they are currently selling are not my genre they have many different magazines genres so they do not just cater to one style of music. As we know Kerrang! is a rock magazine and Q is mainly based on chart music, they are two very different styles of music so I think that Bauer would benefit from having an Indie style music magazine.

After looking in more depth at the two media institutions I have now changed my mind. Beforehand I was going to have IPC but now I am going to have Bauer as there is a space for my magazine genre. I did look at two other media institutions which where oyster house media which was an independent publisher which was not as well established as I would hope. I also looked at BBC magazines but these did not publish music magazines so I thought that it would not be a good idea to go with this company.

So onto where my magazine will be sold. There are a lot of places that sell magazines from supermarkets to small corner shops. I would like my magazines to be sold in a well established store as then I will know that my target audience are more likely to buy from that place. Whsmith is a very well established store that sell a lot of magazines, people go into Whsmith to actually buy a magazine rather to look around. In comparison supermarkets have a wide variety of magazines however my target audience normally go to supermarkets for groceries rather than magazines. If my magazine was to sell well then businesses would happily stock my magazine, I believe that if you have your magazine in Whsmith then it is very popular. Either of these businesses would be ideal for my magazine as my target audience will shop at both of these stores. I do believe that the lower age of my target audience will buy from tesco and my higher age will go to Whsmith this is good as I will know that all ages of my target audience will have the opportunity to buy my magazine. 

EVALUATION 2- How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Social groups from rhiannashley


Deconstruction of magazine

On this front cover the girls are shown in a provocative manner. This could be shown as a convention as many magazines show very sexual images on their front cover, I have not done this as my social group are young students who I do not believe should be seeing this image. I didn't want any of my pages to have any bad or negative connotations and therefore I wanted to stray away from taking any inappropriate images. I also think that these girls are very thin and I do not want my social groups to look at the image and look up to my model so much that they would be ill to want to look like them. This is why I have taken an image of a healthy average girl in normal clothes and therefore my social groups if they want to be like her will not have to put themselves through pain. Also the gold on the front cover could connote money and wealth I think this colour is not good to use as not everybody has good a good amount of money and think could make them feel as though they are not good enough to read the magazine. Some of my social groups will have jobs but this will only be a certain amount of my target audience. I will also only have the image of my model rather than have anyone else on it to attract other people, in my case if I had naked men on the front then girls will probably want to buy it but my social group will want to read it because of the music rather than the images. 

EVALUATION 1- In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?