Final Evaluation

1. The magazine I have produced has used conventions of magazines such as my text layout, cover image and masthead. The general layout of my magazine is the same as an ordinary music magazine in the sense of the size of it and the layout which features house style and a masthead. My product challenges forms of real media products because of its general layout the layout is quite similar to mixmag which uses house style and an original masthead as does my magazine ‘Fresh’. Below is a comparison of my draft magazine and mixmag.
Both magazines
have a masthead and show examples of house style.

2. My media product represents particular social groups by targeting them directly. My magazine follows an Electro/Dance genre using house style. It will appeal to a 40-60 female dominant split audience; the reason for this is that this genre of music appeals to females as the genre of music is portrayed as being glamorous. The main social group it targets is students who are the people who are most open to this genre of music, due them stereotypically going out more than the average person. They are represented by the dress sense within the magazine and also the language used which appeals to the audience. The images used in my magazine mediate the subjects I have used. The images encode within the readers head in order to give preferred reading, the images suit the text and are relevant to the magazine.

3. My magazine would be best suited to be made by an independent company, this is down to the fact that the sub-genre of the magazine is quite low profile at the minute, in time though due to the gap in the market for my magazine it may be beneficial to be owned by a conglomerate company which will be able to reach a larger audience through the above the line promotion methods that they use such as T.V, Radio, print and banners. Where as an independent company would use the opposite below the line promotion such as short term methods such as posters and special offers. However to be owned by an independent company at the minute would be beneficial due to it only seeking low circulation figures at this moment in time. My magazine would be advertised in clubs where my target audience would be, this would be done by posters and flyers and also advertised in city centres where it is relatively busy in order for a wide range of people to recognise my product thus raising overall awareness. Ideally if my magazine was successful then it would be able to use cross media ownership to advertise, this way it would be able to have its own radio station which would target the audience even more. Having a website would allow consumers to stream songs online such as special remixes etc.

4. My product will appeal to a target audience of 16-24 year olds with a 60-40 female dominant split. This is due to women being slightly more interested in the genre of music and the genre of music being portrayed as glamorous. My magazine will target a niche audience due to their being a smaller audience at this moment in time. The decision made for the target audience was based on independent research that I carried out into demand for genres of music and my target audience demand the product that I am offering thus I am filling a gap in the market and meeting demand which should in theory increase my sales figures. The decision for my target market was also based on the potential and survival of the magazine in order for the magazine to survive I had to be sure I as targeting the correct audience.

5. In order for me to attract my audience I had to carry out research into my proposed genre of music. I chose to address my target audience by making my magazine suit their needs. The mode of address I chose was peer to peer which enabled me to contact the audience directly, the use of bright colours and pictures which appealed to my audience attracts them to read my magazine.

Magazine Annotations

-The peer to peer mode of address used, uses language appropriate to the magazine.
-The masthead font connotes an electronic look which suits the preferred genre of the magazine; -the font used is called 28 days later.
-The front cover image represents ‘sexy’ and glamorous’ which will attract the audience.
-The use of housestyle and bright colours appeals to my target audience.

6. While completing my coursework I have focused mainly on three technologies these are Photoshop, Quark Xpress and web 2.0 for my blog. Using such technologies has allowed me to complete my coursework to the desired standard. The use of Photoshop has allowed me to edit and enhance my images by using tools such as crop, magnetic lasso and the magic wand tool which has allowed me to select certain bits of my picture and change or enhance them. Having a blog has allowed me to view all my work at the same time and keep on track with my work, it has also enabled me to receive feedback regarding my work, due to this I have been able to analyse my work and make significant changes to my work. The use of quark xpress has allowed me to design layouts for my double page spreads and contents pages. In terms of strengths and weakness before being introduced to the software properly in lesson I was pretty weak with all the software, but now I am able to carry out tasks independently and complete work to a good standard. I now know the ins and outs of all the programs and I am happy with my finished products.

7. In the progression from now and when I first completed my preliminary task I feel as though I am now able to fully operate the software and complete tasks to a good standard. My preliminary task was rushed and not a lot of care was put into it due to the build of frustration due to not being able to operate the software correctly. The photographs I took and used for my preliminary task didn’t really suit the genre and the camera angles were poor. Having analysed this before starting my final task I carried out significant research which enabled me to use the correct camera shots in order to complete my magazine.