Evaluation

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

My media products conform and challenge the stereotypes of music magazines. The research of realism print products has helped me to find out the codes and conventions of music magazines; I was able to then understand the sterotypes and start producing a product that would appeal to my audience.

I chose to aim my product at young teenage girls who enjoyed pop music. I did research to find out the conventions and looked at similar products such as Top of the Pops and Smash Hits. These magazines use pink as their main colour scheme. I have followed this convention and used pink as my housestyle, alongside shades of purple and white. These colours will represent my magazine and target audience.

The layout of my magazine is simple. The stereotypical pop-based music magazine would have a front page which is crammed full of stories and pictures. I challenged this image by allowing a maximum of two images on the front page. I have use one mid-shot image as my background and for the main article. The mid-shot shows a typical girl dressed quite casually. I am trying to represent that you don't have to be skinny and beautiful to be a star. This image will represent every single female that reads my magazine and I want to put that statement across.

The contents page is also much more simplistic than stereotypes. I have used three images, an editors note and contents. These images are quite candid and personal to the cover star. I have collected images that belong to Jess that I am going to use to open up the interview. I have kept to the colour scheme of pink and purple and used the font from the magazine cover. I used the font called ElizaJane. This is quite a girly font which uses hearts for its commas, full-stops and exclamation marks. I used this text to write the editors note as I believe it makes it feel more personal to the reader. The text I used at the bottom of the page is more of a solid font. This is called Felix Titling. It is quite a serious font and I have used it for most of the quotes and titles. If I was to change anything, it would be the layout of the contents page.

My double page spread features one image on the right. Stereotypical double page spreads feature one image, therefore I am conforming to this. However, this photo is always posed and looks fake sometimes. I have decided to go for a more relax and be-yourself photo. This also makes the article feel more open to the readers. I justified the text I have written, so that it is clear to read. The quote that I have used at the top of the page reads "I'm nothing like what the magazines say...". I chose this quote because I thought it would represent an individual and normal teenage girl who is criticised for doing what she loves. Most people don't understand how the press can manipulate the lives of celebrities. My magazine will not be doing this as the manipulation mostly takes part in the magazines which are focused of gossip and fashion.

My media products conform and challenge the normalities of music magazines.


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

I wanted my magazine to represent the average girl and inspire teenagers to go for a dream; even if that saying is a cliché. I chose to aim my magazine at teenage girls that enjoy pop music. I have done this as I feel there is a gap in the market for this age group - however I will discuss this later. The representation of my media product shows that normal girls can become stars and as I mentioned earlier, the whole Californian girl with blonde hair and blue eyes is just a sterotype. Anyone is beautiful. My magazine would love to boost the self esteems of those girls that feel that they aren't like the others. From my double page spread, the article about Jess says that girls shouldn't conform to the contemporary pressure. My character, Jess, is the perfect role model for the target audience of my magazine.


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

I would like to think that the BBC Magazines would distribute POP! as part of their magazine collections. Although they already own Top of the Pops, a magazine which elaborated from a TV series which focused on all genres of music, I believe there is a gap in the market for another teenage pop music magazine. The range that BBC Magazines for teenagers is very small and that having an older-teenage group as the audience for a magazine would benefit their range.

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

I have decided to aim my magazine at girls aged between 12 and 16. I have chosen this market as I believe the current magazines that are available are fairly childish. The publishers have tried to produce a really childish magazine by using small words and lots of pictures. I think the market needs a magazine for this age group which is more mature. Although I have kept the use of pink and purple which represent the young audience, but I have tried to make it more mature by adding in solid fonts such as Felix Titling.

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

I attracted and addressed my audience by using bright colours and text effects which allow the pictures, text and boxes to stand out from the page. The drop shadow tool allowed my magazine to look more effective that others. The use of space also allows the reader to go through the information without being overloaded with articles and images.

I decided to use buzz words which would capture the readers eye. I also noticed when doing my research that these genre of magazines use a lot of exclamation marks. The two of these combined work well together, and capture the readers interest.

I decided to use an informal style of language in my magazine, as I feel that this will make the reader feel like a member of the magazine 'team'. The coloquial style also means that readers will understand the language style used, and will not be confused by any large or ambigiuous words that I use.

I also chose to use images which were quite bold. I removed the background which was dull and grey and replaced it with a gradient pink background. Although I think this was too bright and I would reconsider this option if I was re-doing this project. The colours I used for my magazine were chosen to attract my target audience, 12-16 year old girls. I feel the colours I chose worked well, as pink and purple are colours stereotypically associated with girls and femininity.


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

Throughout the creation of this project, I have learnt to use software such as Adobe Photoshop and Adobe InDesign. These are going to help me when I come to create my print for A2.

Photoshop allowed me to manipulate images. I was able to use the dodge tool to whiten teeth and eyes. I was also able to use tools such as the clone tool to remove spots and blemishes. All of these tools allow me to create the "perfect" image of the characters. Although I wanted to create an image that anyone can be beautiful, I wanted to create this image to represent the flawlessness of stars.

I was able to change eye colour, lip colour and over facial features. This allowed me to change colours and contrasts to even out the photo; for example I changed lip colour as I thought Jess' lips were quite pale. I made them pink so they fitted in with the housestyle too.

When putting my media product into InDesign, I found out that for future reference I will need to be aware more of bleed marks; this is because I lost part of my double page spread.

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

My preliminary task allowed me to gain experience with Photoshop and learn how to use all of the tools. I was however quite pleased with my college magazine. The main advantage of a preliminary task it that I was able to learn how to use products in full, so that my experience would be brilliant when it came to the full product.

I was also able to research the codes and conventions and learn how the layouts are stereotypically done throughout magazines. Also, I was able to see the whole range of texts and begin to look at what I could use for my full product. The images I could use were also important. I began taking photos for my full product and comparing them with the college magazine. I looked at the contrast and found out how much more that music magazines are more glamourous.