Evaluation

Evaluation

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

A typical front cover has at least one picture on the front; they also have a title of the magazine, cover lines, banner and a masthead. I have included a title, masthead and banner; I added my cover lines into the masthead as I didn’t want too much writing to cover the picture and I also added the price for the magazine. However some of the front covers I have looked at only have a title and cover line, as there is so many picture, they didn’t want writing to distract you from the images. I have slightly changed the layout of my front cover. The plan layout was to have more cover lines and the picture to be centered, however as the model is tilting her head there isn’t much room for a lot of cover lines.  However I kept my contents page the same. I didn’t push the boundaries of this magazine because as it’s the first one  out of the many magazines I’m planning on designing and as I wanted to attract as many customers as I could I went for the  more conventional style for a front cover. Also there were some restrictions; such as having a mid-close up for the main picture which made it difficult to have an unusual front cover.

 

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The social group I have represented is teenager girls who are in rhetoric and looking for jobs or universities. My front cover is of a teenage girl and she is around age 16-17. I also have photos of many teenage girls in my contents page. The language I have used is colloquial and chatty as it’s for a teenager market I thought chatty language would be better. The ratio of text to picture is that there are more images than text in both my front cover and my contents page. I wouldn’t say my magazine was stereotypical as typically publishes use skinny attractive models whereas I used an average teenage girl. I think it was a good idea using a normal girl for my front cover as it show that this magazine is for everyone. I think the magazine has a positive representation of teenage girls as the model is wearing school clothes which shows she is a hard working although she is wearing unusual earrings that tell the audience that she has a fun side too. As you can see from the magazine called “Justine” they use a stereotypical model to sell the magazine.

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

There are no many magazines aim for students however there are a lot of magazines for teenage girls for example teen vogue and seventeen. I think there is a gap in the market of a magazine aimed for teenage girls going off to university. A company would want to distribute my magazine because it offers tips on getting into university and how to revise better. St. Edmunds College would also publish my magazine even though there is other student magazines in the school they are not aimed for students aged 16-17. Also the magazine talks about the future instead of just what has been happening at the moment.

4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

 The audience for my media product would be for teenage girls aged 16-18. The magazine is aimed for girls who are interested in celebrate gossip, new movies and universities, the university articles mentions different courses and activities that go with different universities.

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

 What I included in my magazine to make it attractive to my target market is spotted! Which is embarrassing photos of people from St.edmunds; this will make it interesting for my target market, as it will be pictures of them. Also there are reality stories, which from my questionnaire people are really interested in. also most girls are interested in fashion and therefore I have added an articles on fashion and how the students of St. Edmunds have made and designed clothes. As only 70% of people buy magazines on the spur of the moment; I had to make the front cover of the magazine interesting and eye catching. From the results of my questionnaire people have told me that the front cover has to be interesting or they wouldn’t buy the magazine. Therefore I have focused on the colour, design and font. As my magazine is for a teenage aged audience I use chatty and informal language.  Someone would want to but my magazine because it has god clear information that will help you in later life; such as the article called “what university is right for you”. Also it has light hearted stories such as “reality stories” and “day to day life at St. Edmunds”. 

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

I have used many different types of technology when making my magazine; I have used blogger which records all my research. I have used Photoshop, when making my front cover; I have also use a digital camera to take picture for the magazine, as well as a scanner to publish some of my layouts and some other student magazines, and finally I used Microsoft Publisher to create my contents page and to place my title font onto my front cover. I had used Photoshop before so I knew how to crop and paste pictures onto another page however I didn’t know how to change the colour of the background or how to change the amount of light on a photograph. However I didn’t know how to use Microsoft Publisher and I found it very helpful in cropping the title of the magazine. I had never used a scanner before; I found it effective and easy to use. I hadn’t used blogger before I learned a lot from using it, for example how to post your ideas and photos. It was useful in get feedback and people’s opinions on what I posted however, I don’t think I got enough feedback as I would like.