magazine evaluation

Evaluation for my media magazine

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

My media product challenges other real media products because of its design and layout. I’ve combined the house style, layout and design of three major rock magazine companies KERRANG!, Q and NME. This means that all the things that these three magazines do well are all incorporated into my magazine to make one big amazing magazine. 

For my front cover, I used the traditional conventions of a magazine by using; a main masthead which is at the top of the page and goes right across the page, a strapline which tells you the band that’s on the front cover, plugs and puffs  

For my contents page,  I also used the convention of an ordinary magazine with the page numbers listed at the side and then a bit of writing to tell you what that page is about which is all in cased within a box. There’s a picture of the lead singer from the band on the front page at the side of the box. Also there’s a little box above the picture telling you who the picture of the guy is.

For my double page spread, I didn’t use the ordinary conventions I challenged them the putting my article of the band in columns and then putting the pictures of all the band members at the bottom of my page so it looks different to other rock magazines.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My media product represents the indie social group the sort of people who go to gigs to see their favourite bands play and the way it’s written is the way that, that sort of social group like because when they read it, it’s easy to understand. The type of bands that feature on the front cover dress in the same type of clothes that the social group does as well, so they can look like their favourite members of a band.

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

The sort of company that would distribute my rock/indie magazine would be a company like Future PLC who sell magazines like music ones that mine is. They sell 2.2 million magazines every month, and export to 89 countries, making them the UK’s number one exporter and licensor of magazine content. They would be interested in distributing my magazine because firstly it’s a music magazine which they sell anyway. Secondly, it has all the codes and conventions of magazines like Kerrang and Q which are very popular magazines all over the world. Thirdly, this magazine is based on the indie side of rock so it has a more specific target audience therefore meaning that all the fans of indie rock will buy this magazine instead of buying Kerrang because it’s only on the genre of music they listen to. Fourthly, indie rock is a growing industry which means that the fan base behind it is getting bigger therefore meaning that there will be more people willing to buy the magazine. Fifthly, I took my inspiration for my magazine by combining Kerrang, Q and NME together to create a magazine that has all the good things each magazine company do but just put into one magazine, all that I’ve changed was the genre of music that it promotes. Lastly, the magazine also focuses on the new and upcoming bands which help to promote their cause by telling you about what there like and whether you should look out for them in the future.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

The audience that my magazine is aimed at is either an age group of between 14-50 years because I don’t think that people older would go to gigs and listen to that genre of music and I don’t think that people younger are old enough to go to gigs and listen to that genre of music because of the lyrics meanings and some of the words they say are inappropriate or people who are interested in the rock/indie world and want to read about what indie bands are doing e.g. articles, tour dates stuff like that and all the up and coming bands that you might be interested in or who you should look out for in the future.

How did you attract/address your audience?

I attracted my audience by; one, the front cover having a picture of a band that covers the entire front page which draws the reader’s attention especially if they know the band on the front. Two, the magazine also focuses on the new and upcoming bands which help to promote their cause by telling you about what there like and whether you should look out for them in the future. Three, it looks different to recognised music magazines such as Kerrang, Q and NME as three examples of a good rock magazine.

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

I have learnt how hard it is to use software like Photoshop because of all the little things that you can change e.g. red eye reduction and how bright or dull you want the picture so the contrast. Then there’s organising the layout of the magazine by placing all the codes and conventions on the Photoshop page and then picking which layout you want to use. There’s also the photo editing needed to make sure that all the pictures are the right contrast and not pixelated. It’s very time consuming making sure that using all the technology you have available is used and used so that your magazine is as good as it possibly can be. I feel that the amount of time needed with all the things you can change using Photoshop is ridiculous, you need a really long time to make sure that everything is okay.   

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

Looking back I feel that I’ve learnt a lot of things especially how much time and hard work it takes to produce a magazine with all the pages needed. There’s all the research it takes to find out all the information you need to put into an article, there’s also the amount of time it takes to design all of your pages needed to create a magazine. I’ve also learnt that there’s a lot of codes and conventions used in a magazines front cover to make it attractive for someone who walks past them on the shelf it has to catch their eye.