Andrew Hone | AS Media Studies

Evaluation

For my Foundation Production, I have created a music magazine front cover, contents page and double page spread using original images that i have took myself. I have used conventions real music magazines and I have analysed other music magazine front covers, contents pages and double page spreads using the key concepts of LIIAR (Language, Institution, Ideology, Audience and Representation).

My music magazine is aimed at a young audience between he ages of 16 to 24. I have used many conventions of a real music magazine to try and make it as realist as possible. The genre of the music magazine is mainly Indie and alternative rock. I studied many other music magazine, similar to what I wanted mine to be like, such as Q, NME, Kerrang, Mojo and Uncut. I have included all of the main elements and conventions of a music magazine into my created magazine, such as a colour consistency (house style), a masthead, date, price, bar code, main cover line, cover lines and a main image. The cover lines I have created on the front cover, with a white box around them, I am very pleased about because they stand out and they look professional and convention to a magazine. Like many other magazines, I have over-lapped the main image and the masthead. This is to show that the masthead is and should be well known and that even if it is partly covered up, my audience should still know what the magazine is. I feel that this is an essential conventional on a magazine front cover. Other conventions which I used include mise-en-scene. It was essential that I used effective mise-en-scene to portray the genre of the magazine, allowing the target audience to be drawn to the magazine. I have used a consistent house style throughout my front cover, contents page and double page spread, using a silvery background in them all and using the same colours and fonts. I have done this so that you can piece them all together and that it is recognisable that all of these different pages are all from the same magazine.

My media products that I have produced are aimed at a younger audience therefore my media product is representing an Indie kind of group. With it being the Indie genre, the ideology has created an alternative type and style to pop and mainstream music. It is aimed at people who like easy listening music, people who wouldn't really fit into a category or social group, and people who consider themselves to not be in any kind of group. My music magazine is aimed at both males and females and all ethnicities, also.

With my music magazine being for a younger audience and more aimed at teenagers, this would mean that the type of institution which is going to distribute my magazine will be the average corner shops, supermarkets, and book stores such as WHSmith, Woolworths, Asda or Tesco as well as distributing my product on the Internet. My magazine is going to have its own website which will be able to distribute my magazine through a subscription service. Also, for another subscription (the first one not needed) the audience will be able to view the magazine online. I want to distribute it this way because the Internet is used mainly by the younger generation are therefore are more likely to see the magazine and maybe even purchase it online. My magazine would be distributed by EMAP along with other similar commercial products such as Mojo.

I have created my music magazine with a young audience in mind, people around my age, 16. The age group I have aimed at is between 14 and 24. I have chosen to aim my magazine at this age group because I feel that these are the kind of people who are most likely to read a music magazine, out of all of the ages, the younger generation are the most likely to pick up a music magazine.

To connect to my targeted audience and attract them to look at my music magazine, I have placed elements in my front cover, contents page and double page spread that can relate to a younger audience and I have made it so it isn’t too formal and can be understood easier by my target audience. To attract my target audience I have made my front cover eye catching with the simple use of colour, not too many different colours but enough to make it stand out. By using a contract between the black and the white colours I have made it look effective and therefore will hopefully attract my target audience and catch their eye.

I have learnt a lot about technologies whilst creating my music magazine front cover, contents page and double page spread. The use of Photoshop is the most important in this case because this is the program that I used to create all of my products. I have learnt how to use Photoshop very well from the beginning of Media when undertaking my preliminary task. I now find Photoshop easy to use and enjoy using it. I used Photoshop CS3 to create all of my components for my music magazine and I really enjoyed using it and creating all of my components for my music magazine. To use Photoshop is a very good thing to know and I am glad that creating my music magazine has helped me teach myself on how to use Photoshop. To create all of the original images, I had to use a camera. I found this easy as I knew how to work a camera.

Looking back at my preliminary task, I can see a great difference. The change in professionalism is what stands out the most, you can really tell a difference between the college magazine and the music magazine. I feel that I have learnt a lot from creating the college magazine to finishing the music magazine. I feel my use of Photoshop and skills on it have dramatically increased (hence the fact that I feel that my music magazine looks more professional). I now feel that I have used the conventions more and addressed my audience better in this music magazine task. I have kept a house style and made my music magazine look professional. I feel that my skills overall have improved and I am happy with my created music magazine overall.

Audience Feedback

To gain audience feedback on my music magazine I have set up a poll. There are a series of questions about my magazine and answers to choose from on the right hand side of the page. I created this in order take into account peoples thoughts, opinions and criticism on my music magazine. The majority of people who have completed my poll have been within the ages of 16-24, which is my target audience. This is good as they would be the potential audience for my media product.
My audience feedback is all positive and on my blog, on the right hand side, you can see the results of all audience feedback

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