Evaluation of my Media Text

Evaluation Of My Media Text

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
I feel that in various ways my media text is similar to that of real media texts. For example, my choice of layout and sinister colour scheme provides connotations and associations with a rock/metal genre based audience. By using the colour green we get the interpretation that this magazine is not completely gloomy and threatening as some may feel towards that genre of music but that it is also for those attracted by lighter forms of the rock genre. This therefore challenges the conventions of real media texts due to the fact that many rock and metal based magazines are aimed towards a niche sector of that genre and often use darker, more gothic colour schemes. I would say that this magazine is predominantly aimed at males, we can see the connotation of that through the images used throughout the piece of media text and the fact that they are all of the male gender and convey no apparent portrayals of women in any way. Although it seems that this magazine is centred on appealing to the male gender, it is a defined music genre magazine and therefore means that it is also suitable and acceptable for the dissection and scrutiny of female readers.

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

The dark colour scheme in contrast with the bright green on my front cover reflects audience and genre of the magazine. The colour scheme and images portray connotations of youth but specifically of older teenagers to young adult demographic range, they do this through the lack of dazzling childish primary colours alongside more matured style photos. By using the lure of an exclusive interview and free C.D on my front cover I believe this may show that the audience is of an age where exclusivity and freebies are still appealing and that my audience are still at an age that even though they may wish to be looked upon as maturing and responsible, they still value their opportunity for childishness appreciation. The title of my magazine 'Moshcore' includes the use of specific vocabulary directly related to the genre of music (i.e. mosh pit) therefore creating the idea of exclusivity. The fierceness of the photograph on my front cover has connotations of the rock/metal music movement mentality and the boldness of the title complements this.

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

I think that the type of institution that my media text would fit into is something along the lines of Bauer Media (a large German publishing company). I believe this would be a suitable institution because the way in which the magazine has been created is somewhat similar to real media texts they currently distribute. The strength of this company would make it a good choice as its worldwide circulation of magazine titles amounts to 38 million magazines a week. This magazine may well fit this institution because I think that there is a gap in the market, which could be filled with a magazine such as mine, which is laid out in a similar way to many existing music magazines yet has an aim to cater for a wider audience within the niche rock/metal genre market.

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

The audience I would be aiming for with my music magazine would be around about 15 -24 year old music fans. I wanted to aim for a unisex audience as I felt it would give a wider and superior opportunity for attraction.

5. How did you attract/ address your audience?

Using a single black and white image as my front cover feature I felt was a simple yet efficient way of drawing in the attention of potential readers. I tried to attract and address my audience through my bold colouring and statement mastheads in order that it would catch the eye of a browsing possible customer whilst on the shelf/stand.

I tried to use continuity of colour scheme right through my magazine with the colours red, black, green and yellow, I felt that keeping to a smaller quantity of colours and using a negligible amount of endorsement throughout my main task would appeal to the audience by attempting to charm them into a sense of sophistication and refinement rather than a juvenile boxy and undeveloped attempt.

The structure and design of my magazine was neat and orderly with the use of bold fonts on main headlines so they also stood out and were very apparent to the audience, which is important as that is often an important component when choosing a magazine.

I tried to appeal with lures such as freebies and exclusivity and I feel this would market well as these two offerings were both near the top of the page on the front cover just below the masthead and also in line with the head of the person in the photo, which is more often than not the first thing that will catch the eye of a purchaser.

Another appealing aspect that may well influence a purchase was the written text, which was comprehendible as it was proportionally distanced around the pages throughout. I thought that it would be more attractive to use a sans serif font for the whole product except the numbering on the contents page as serif fonts are frequently used for reserved and official text and also because I was continuous with this it would appear more commonsensical for the reader.
Whilst creating my project I never lost sight of the importance of the consumer and I also took into consideration the gratification theory and had to ask myself whilst I produced my project how it would be involved in the consumer's life and how my media piece would be interpreted.

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

Through the creation of my music magazine I have used a minimal quantity of different computer programmes; these include Publisher, Adobe Photoshop, Paint, Internet Explorer and BlogSpot. The utility of paint, publisher and the internet were already common to me so I was not really learning anything new there. Adobe was a new addition to our computer system and was difficult to use at first, however by creating my magazine it has improved my knowledge and ability to use the programme as I have spent long periods of time using the programme and exploring the different tools it offers, also by working alongside other media students using the same programme I have been able to generally expand my knowledge and I am now at ease with this new programme. Before my music magazine I had little experience with the editing of any photos at all which meant I was attempting something completely new. To document all my work and comprehend the amount already complete and that which needed to be completed, I created a blog account and uploaded it all onto www.blogger.com, from this I have learnt the importance of progress, as it has enabled me to clearly map out and document any changes I have made to my project and made the improvement easy to see.

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

I have found that editing has been a tough challenge throughout both parts of my tasks although in the creation of my main full product, I found that the editing reached a much greater demand both in terms of quality and the quantity at which it had to be done. This I feel is a positive thing as it has given me the knowledge and helped me learn that every single detail matters and trying to skip through the minor details quickly is not a good option as in the end I’d just be degrading my own capability and losing precious marks.

I have learnt about the complexity of creating a specific music magazine as my main product and realised the simplicity and lack of attention to detail in much of my preliminary task. I have learnt from my preliminary task that the visual appeal of my front cover was primarily the most important factor in the creation of my main product as it has to attract and draw in the audience, so the aspects of main cover lines, Images, Company name, and USP were absolutely crucial. I have developed my knowledge throughout the process of creation by studying examples of real media texts, research of genres & styles on the internet and exploring the use of design in terms of layout, images colour schemes, audience & institutions etc.

My technical ability over the time of production of my media text has increased due to the practice and alterations of my preliminary task and the early drafts of my main product, which therefore gave me the ability to create the final main product, and spot errors that I may not have noticed before and I learnt how and why to correct them. After completing our preliminary task, we received the new software Adobe Premier, which meant not only did we have to improve in our editing and creative skills to a higher level than that of our preliminary task but we also had to quickly adjust and learn about the functioning of this programme.

5 Final Pieces

This is my final copy of my main product contents page.

This is my final copy of my main product middle page spread.

This is my final copy of my main product front cover.

This is my final copy of my preliminary contents page.

This is my final copy of my preliminary front cover

Third Attempt At Contents Page

This is my third attempt of my contents page. I took the comments from my latest focus group and they agreed that the simpler colour scheme was a simple yet effective improvement and they said that the change of images at the bottom of the page was a lot better.

Third Attempt At Middle Page Spread

This is my third attempt at my middle page spread. I have again made fairly small changes from my second draft, such as putting one of the pictures into a frame and moving it to another location on the page. I also edited the contrast and brightness of a photo to help improve it as it was admittedly a rather poor quality photo.

Third Attempt At Front Cover

This is my third attempt at my front cover. I have only made minor changes from my second draft, and they were alterations like changing the size of some font or unhighlighting the feature writing. I feel that these small changes make a worthy difference and this draft was a way of almost finalising any little mistakes.

Second Attempt At Contents

This is my second draft of my contents page. I tried to take the comments from my focus group that the orignal draft didnt flow and looked messy and tried to keep to a simpler design with similar colour scheme but with slight changes.

Afterwards I asked another focus group what their thoughts of the hopefully improved contents page and they said that they thought it was fairly good although I had used one of the same images from my middle page spread which they thought could be changed and improved and they also commented that my image in the bottom lefthand corner of the page was poor quality and desperately needed changing or editing.

Examples Of Music Contents Pages

some examples of magazine contents pages that I used to help plan my own contents page

sketch and first attempt at music contents page

This is my sketch of how I was planning to layout my contents page, I drew this before creating my first draft so that it could work as a guide.

This is my first draft of my contents page. It was a basic idea of the layout and different ideas for the page I was designing. However once put together I was unkeen on how it looked as a whole, so I asked a focus group and they agreed that it didn't flow and was a bit to crazy and psychodelic to concentrate on.

Focus Group

I asked a focus group what they thought of the second draft of my middle page spread and they said that it was a vast improvement and looked much better, they said that they couldn't think of any futher changes I could make to it so therefore my second draft is in fact my final draft.

second attempt at music middle page spread

This is the second draft of my music magazine middle page spread. I asked a focus group what they thought of my first draft and they said that although it was good that i was trying keep the colour scheme the same as the cover it was not in keeping with the look and style of the band being interviewed. They thought that the layout was nice and that I should keep it how it is, so I took their advice and left it how it was and then changed the colour scheme to one which seemed more fitting to the band.

first attempt at music middle page spread

This is the first draft of my music magazine middle page spread. It gave me a basic idea of how I wanted the design and layout of my interview to be portrayed. The colour scheme I used is the same as that of my front cover, I thought this would help my middle page spread to seem inkeeping with the style and tailoring of the rest of the magazine.

Double Page Spread Example and Sketch

This is my sketch for my middle page spread, after studying real media texts I thought that this would be an attractive layout and has acted as a guide in the creation of my middle page spread.

This is a middle page spread which I got from a music magazine, I labelled the aspects that I thought would be important to consider when creating my own double page spread.

second attempt at music cover

I got a focus group together after my first attempt at the music front cover and the feedback I recieved was that the majority of the focus group thought that there was to much black on the cover and it made the magazine look to dark and gloomy to seem appealing on a shop shelf. The group felt that it was very boxey and set to rights. So I tried to accomodate these opinions into my alterations of the cover and came out with this.

I then asked another focus group what they thought of these alterations and they said this was really good and they could not think of anything huge or specific that could now be changed again, sothis is my final draft of my music magazine front cover.

first attempt at music front cover

This is the first draft of my music magazine front cover. It gave me a basic idea of how I wanted the design and layout of my magazine to be portrayed.

music magazine front cover examples and sketch

This is my initial planning sketch that I created to help and guide me with a basic design for my own creation.

Here are the front covers of two music magazines. I used a vocabulary sheet given in class to help me analyse the pieces of media text using technical terms.

The idea of this is to not only help me familiarise with different forms of media text but also to give me ideas and hints about how to design my own front cover.

contents page examples, initial sketch and actual page

This is my contents page.

This is my rough sketch of how I was planning on setting out my contents page. I did this beofre any actual publisher and computor creation of the contents page.

I used these contents pages from three different magazines as examples of how to create one of my own.

final cover

After the comments made by those who took part in the questionnaire and focus group I made some alterations and I felt that i accomodated most of the ideas, this is the result of the changes I made.

examples

Here are some of the magazine covers that I studied after my first three drafts of my front cover, I studied them to help me finalise my front cover and just give me little hints of how I can make it look as realistic as possible and incorporating the ideas for my own layout into it.

third attempt at cover

This is my third attempt at the front cover, I made these alterations after looking at more covers of magazines aimed at the younger generations. After these changes I then collected my questionnaires in and asked students what they thought of what I had done so far at the same time and wrote done notes of their further suggestions. These suggestions included a plainer coloured backing to the sections of written text, possible additions that might be seen on real media texts and a less boxy and easier flowing appearance.

second attempt at cover

this is the attempt of the front cover in which i began to add different features before the results of my questionnaire came back.

Sketch and First Attempt At Cover

This is my sketch of how I thought I might lay out my front cover, I did this before I began any actual work on the creation and production on publisher.

this is my intitial attempt at my school magazine front cover. I used this just to get a basic idea of how i might set out my cover and what design to use.

questionnaire

This is the questionnaire which i sent out to 5 girls and 5 boys from each of the year groups so that i would have a clearer understanding of what they look for in a magazine and what they would like to gain from it.

The majority of the results seemed to conclude that they would like to see big bright photos on the cover and would feel respected as a younger audience if the cover was laid out in a sophisticated manner, even if the innards are not of the most mature works. They thought that a magazine that contained school notices would be useful as many miss the school noticeboard. A unisex colour scheme was also very important to the students as they thought that was more appealing rather than a magazine that would appear to be aimed at a specific gender.

magazine covers comparison

Media Magazine Covers Evaluation
The two magazine covers i am going to be evaluating are ‘In the Night Garden’ and ‘COMPANY’. It is clear from just briefly looking at the front covers that the two magazines are aimed at completely different people in two respects: age and interest.
‘COMPANY’s target audience I believe is primarily women, particularly around the ages of 16-25. I have come to this conclusion because of the use of bold, bright, feminine colouring of the fonts with a mix of both serif and sans-serif to give it a young, trendy and sophisticated edge which would attract their target audience. The use of well known celebrities on the front cover will captivate the audience and try and entice them into purchasing the magazine as the audience may be intrigued about the article concerning the celebrity. By giving snippets of the content of the magazine it lures the audience in because they may feel intrigued to know the rest of that article.
‘In the Night Garden’ attracts a target audience of very young children as it is based on a TV programme for that age group, specifically those at toddler age. The producers and designers attract consumers by using mainly pictures of the characters from the programme to make the children excited and want the magazine. The fact that the magazine also comes with a free toy and stickers entices the parents to buy this magazine for their children because they feel they’re getting a good deal even if the magazine has very little and simple content, because it is advertised with a free gift people are immediately attracted to it.
The institution responsible for producing the ‘In the Night Garden’ magazine is the BBC. We can tell this as on the front cover there is both the BBC logo and the logo for the company within the BBC known as CBEEBIES. However with the ‘COMPANY’ magazine it was not as obvious as to which institution was responsible for it as it gives no indication on the front cover so I had to research it on the internet and the institution that I found was called hearst digital.

2 magazine covers

This piece of work was used to help us understand the different features and techniques used in magazine design. In doing this I will have a better idea as how to create on of my own for my media portfolio.