Evaluation Media Studies
For my Foundation Production Portfolio I was asked to complete the front page, contents and double page spread of a new music magazine. All images and text used must be original, produced by you - minimum of four images.
2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
My product represents social groups such as ‘indies’ to be under the demographical age of 14 - 24 this is because non mainstream music such as indie rock is a very modern type of music to listen to so therefore will not interest an older gender. Rebellious, as the colour scheme indicates through the black and red which are stereotypically known as being rebellious colours. To emphasise the point about the typical ‘indie’ person being rebellious is the type of bands that are featured in magazine, such as ‘The Kooks’, ‘The Klaxons’ and ‘The Stokes’, as these all have rebellious characteristics.
As the ‘indie’ genre is not mainstream, and the representation of ‘indie’ is rebellious, it is thought to attract the lower band of social class people as they can relate to the rebellious attitudes conveyed by the magazine, this means that they are represented to be in the psychographic band of E as they will be probably unemployed/students, this is because this links to my demographical age range and the current economical environment.
3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
As the magazine is an indie/indie rock magazine this means that a publisher like IPC, who publishes NME, would probably not want to publish my magazine as they already have a magazine in that section of the market. The more likely source to publish my magazine would be competitors of NME and IPC such as Bauer Media as they will want to compete within the same section of the market as NME and take away IPC’s profits and set NME back.
4. Who would be the target audience for your media product?
The audience my magazine will target is the people who listen and are interested in Indie rock and non mainstream music. My magazine is aimed at the demographical gender of both male and female; this is because both genders are interested in lots of non mainstream music (mainly indie rock). The demographical age that my magazine is aimed at will be 14 - 24 this is because non mainstream music such as indie rock is a very modern type of music to listen to so therefore will not interest an older gender.
My music magazine is aimed at the psychographic band of E as they will be probably unemployed/students; this is because this links to my demographical age range and the current economical environment.
My music magazine is aimed at the psychographic band of E as they will be probably unemployed/students; this is because this links to my demographical age range and the current economical environment.
5. How did you attract/address your audience?
As my target audience is in the psychographic E band this means that they will not have much money to spend on the magazine, alongside this, the demographical age is 14 – 24 which means that a large part the age range will still be in education, either at school, college or university, this means that they will not be earning as much money as they would be if it was compared to someone working full-time. This is the reason why I made the product £3.00 and a monthly magazine, this allows my target audience to save enough money each month to be able to afford the magazine.
The reason for why my magazine appeals to my target audiences demographical age group is because it fits in with new trends as indie music and culture is rapidly becoming more and more popular in the target age range, this means that this magazine will fit into the lifestyle they want or are following, and by purchasing this magazine they will be able to keep up to date with all the new information. My magazine is a £3.00 monthly magazine which will make it easier for my target psychographic age group to be able to pay for it, this also coincides with the fact that people under the psychographic E band are stereotypically rebellious which is what my magazine represents, this means that my target social group can relate to my magazine and will be influenced by the contents within in.
6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
All of the images/contents for the magazine were taken with an OLIMPUS 600Z camera and edited on Photoshop or Microsoft Publisher.
Draft Final
For my front cover I used the quick selection tool to cut my main image of its original background and placed it onto the new background which was originally red, but then I decided that just a plain red background made the magazine look ‘tacky’ so I decided to change the background to a white-to-red background. Once I had the image I used the blur tool to make the image have smoother edges so it looked more realistic and more natural within the magazine, I also used the transform scale tool to enlarge my picture to fit into a conventional place on my front cover as she is in the middle, under the masthead. I used the text tool to add all of the writing (except the masthead) onto my front cover, I then changed the main headline on my front cover as I wanted it to be bigger to catch the audience’s attention and so it didn’t cover up as much of the front image as it did on my first draft. For the splash I took a picture of a record and then cropped the picture onto my front page. I also moved the cover lines down a little as a believed this to be more conventional for a magazine cover.
For my contents page I decided to put a border on my original draft as I wanted the page to seem compact with a noticeable resemblance of the colour scheme I have used throughout my magazine, I then decided that my contents page does not need this and is not conventional to a magazine so I got rid of the border and put my features and news sections etc. down the right hand side which is conventional to a magazine and looks far better. The reason I decided to move and make my images smaller is so I could fit more writing on the page, I did this by using the transform scale tool which allowed me to manipulate the images to where I wanted them.
I made the main headline ‘contents’ and the date ‘12/11’ cross my using transform scale and by changing the opacity of the text so they can have a transparent appearance. I used another self-taken image of another record for my splash on this page, I then cropped the picture using the quick selection tool then used transform scale to change the size of the image to fit into the position I wanted it to. The reason I change the number order and position is because in my draft it is not conventional as the numbers are not in order and there were not enough pages which I felt was not good enough for the audience and did not want a poor audience review.
For my double page spread I fist used the wrong type of page layout, I needed to use international A3 paper, so I needed to change that first of all. I then had to adjust my image to the page layout which involved my having to use transform scale and moving the image around to find the correct positioning for my image without going over where the crease of the page is as this is not conventional to a magazine. I used the inner and outer glow tool on the smaller heading on the final piece at the top to give a eye-catching effect to it. I also moved the main headline across the bottom of the page as this is more conventional to a magazine and doesn’t intervene with the crease of the page. I also added drop caps and a pull quote onto my work as this is also more conventional to a music magazine and grabs the audience’s attention, I did all of the text in publisher as this was the simplest way to add drop caps and a pull quote and fit the text into the page.
7. Looking back at you preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
Reflecting back on my preliminary task I realise that I have extended my knowledge of Photoshop hugely, this, I believe, has been displayed in my final front cover as I have learnt and understood more about the different media conventions throughout the course.
The different conventions have become a lot more clear and understandable to me now as I have been able to identify the different conventions when looking at my own and other music magazines.
My media language has improved massively as I have learnt how to convey a certain message through the way I layout and the thing I put within my magazine, for example, this picture shows no representation of what I am trying to convey, whereas my front page shows that it is an indie genre through how the model is dressed and the use of colours used as well.
This coincides with how I have learnt to select a target audience and how to actually attract them, this is through how to represent the genre that they are associated with, the demographics and psychographics they relate to etc.
