MEDIA EVALUATIONDavid Lea

IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT USE,

DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS

OF REAL MEDIA ?

Introduction. Throughout creating my media product I tried to

use as many conventions of my targeted genre as I could without trying to be too predictable. For example, on my front cover I took inspiration from magazines such as NME and Kerrang and Metal Hammer.

I also tried to keep the same colour scheme of red, black and white and heading font throughout the product to add a professional look.

How I have used conventions !

A few typical conventions of my genre of “indie rock” are; to be independant/unique, abstractness and darker colours.

On my front cover I have tried to stick to as many conventions to my genre “indie rock” as I could without looking like other magazines.

I took inspiration from the NME magazine for my top banner. This is on many of their front covers, so I decided to take the idea but make it into my own.

I planned out what I was going to do in my research, by taking surveys, collecting data from other magazines and taking ideas that I thought would look best in mine.

How I have challenged conventions.

On my front cover I have used block text. This is not something that you would not normally see on a front cover due to the research that I carried out, however I feel that it adds character and it also makes the text stand out, and attracts a wider variety of people including my target audience. pushing the boundaries of my genre.

How I have challenged conventions !

During my research I found that alot of existing music magazine’s have kept to a colour scheme of three colours on their front cover. I have challenged this by adding a fourth in; red, black, white and now yellow. This will hopefully intrigue people as it will catch their eye, seeing as it is a brighter colour than the other three. It now looks more organised and tidy, it will also stand out from other magazines.

Another convention that I have challenged is the style of my whole magazine. Most magazine’s out there at the minute are all about famous bands that are well known. Mine is about new and upcoming bands that nobody has heard of before. This should attract people into buying it as they will want to know more about these new bands. It also keeps it exciting and unpredictable.

Unknown band – Aslan and the Cubs

Well Known Band – Florence and the Machine.

HOW DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCTS/S REPRESENT PARTICULAR GROUPS?

In the modern world there are many different subcultures around and get stereotyped for everything they do. For example Moshers, punks, emos, chavs, indie’s to name but a few. I feel that the magazine that I created represents the subculture of indie people aged 15 and above in many different ways.

The cover star that I chose is an indie band, along with many other bands that are mentioned throughout the magazine. This band are up and coming and people who see themselves as indie tend to like change and accept to it better as they want to be unique/individual. Because the youth of today tend to get alot of bad press, this band could be seen as a role model as music can get people off the streets, drugs and alcohol. They will be intrigued by this and being huge fans of music will help alot with sales of my magazine.

On my magazine I used a variety of brushes on the contents page and the double page spread, this adds a grungy and unique look to it making it appealing to my target audience. Sticking to my conventions will help to represent the indie culture today.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media

product and why ?

What kind of media institution might

distribute your media product and why ?

Before carrying out my production, I did a lot of

research including questionnaires, different types of magazines etc. I looked at

different types of media institutions to see which would be most specific to my genre.

Kerrang’s publisher is Bauer. This is a big

publishing company in Germany and own more than eighty influential media

brands

The publisher of mixmag is DMC (disco

mix club). This company do much

more than publish, they also DJ, have a store

full of merchandise and much more

The publisher I chose to look more into was

Bauer. This is because it is more specific to my

genre of indie rock, rather than rave

magazine’s.

Owning over eighty influential media

brands of not only music. For example FHM, Grazia, Heat, Closer and many

more. I feel that Bauer would

distribute my magazine as it is something different and unique. It is for new up and coming bands, and due to

my research I found out the vast majority would like to be told more about bands that are unheard of, and

taking the music scene by storm.

There are many different places that it could be distributed, such as at

concerts of my specific genre “indie”, in a wide variety of

shops, and because we depend on technology,

people could download it onto their mobile phones,

computers, iPods or tablets.

Who Would The Audience Be For Your Media Product?

For my media Product I have chosen to target teenagers of 15 years old and above, who enjoy indie music. I decided to choose this age group due to the content inside, even though it is informal and colloquial language, it may be too complex for people under my age barrier as they may not fully understand the terms used. I feel that my magazine is more targeted towards the male gender. This is because it is a more manly band, and the terminology used is more appealing to men.

In my research I looked through many different media packs for NME and Kerrang. This included what Genre the magazine was, issue size, cost to advertise, yearly sales, regular and featured content. This helped me in deciding who to aim my magazine at.

The age of the band I used (Aslan and the Cubs) also play a huge part in being a role model to the audience as they are 3 years older that the minimum, making youngsters look up to them and want to be like them. The band are also the age range of prime readers, giving them a chance to connect to the audence. Making them more popular and also the sales of the magazine would go up.

LOOKING BACK ON YOUR PRELIMINARY TASK,

WHAT DO YOU FEEL YOU HAVE LEARNT IN THE

PROGRESSION FROM IT TO THE FULL PRODUCT?

To get used to learning about the different tools and how to use Photoshop, before the music magazine we had to produce a college magazine which included a front cover and a contents page. This was our Preliminary task.

Because I was new to Photoshop I made a lot of mistakes when using the different tools, for example I kept rasterizing the wrong layer, and I tried to rub out the outline of the cover star instead on using the magnetic lasso tool.

Due to making these mistakes my college magazine wasn’t as good as I would have liked it to have been as the spacing's weren't correct, and my layers were very unorganised.

Because I made alot of mistakes I wanted to make up for them in my music magazine. When I rasterized the wrong layer, I corrected it by naming the layers and putting them in the correct order, this also helped with the organisation of my layers. I used the different lasso tools to cut out my coverstars and banners/block text giving a much more professional look rather than rubbing it out.

Overall this task has taught me alot about Photoshop and how to use it. If I am set a task like this again I will feel much more confident in using the software as my music magazine is of a much higher standard than my pre-lim task due to the corrections made.

My Music Magazine Front Cover and Contents Page

My College Magazine Front Cover and Contents Page

How did you attract/address your audience?

To attract my targeted audience of people aged 15 and above I stuck to the conventions of my genre of “indie” whilst pushing the boundaries to create a magazine aesthetically pleasing and worth buying. A technique I used to attract my audience was to include free incentives. On my front cover I have used two competitions with very good prizes, these were to win tickets to festivals in 2012, and to win a recording session at a famous studio in Manchester with featured bands. This would excite the audience and hopefully get them to buy the magazine.

I also used buzzwords such as WIN and FREE. Words like this are pleasing to the eye and attract people towards them as they become intrigued by winning and not having to pay. This is helpful towards my magazine to increase the sales of it.

The cover star of my product is a big way to attract the audience. For example, if you didn’t have an appealing cover star nobody would buy the magazine, even though they are not well known, the band I chose are up and coming, this will intrigue the reader as they want to know what they are about.

The layout of my product is very structured. On the front cover I have split it up into blocks, for example, I have the top banner at the top, then a banner behind the masthead, then the cover stars, and block text, finally a banner at the bottom, these keep my cover organised without being too boring. On the contents page I have kept it organised again, I have the pictures on the left hand side, and the information about what is in the magazine on the right hand side. I took inspiration from NME’s My Chemical Romance double page spread. I took different components of it and made it into my own, for example the photos that I took, I put in black and white, this adds to the indie effect by making it look more urban and specific to my genre.

Throughout the whole of my product I kept the same colour scheme of black, white and red. This was a popular choice when I was carrying out questionnaires for my research. It is also a convention of my genre, “indie”, as it is dark and mysterious, however I had to be careful not to push the boundaries of my conventions too much as I didn’t want to make it look ‘too rock’.

With the text I tried to address my audience in an informal manner, this lets the editor seem on a social, mutual level with the audience. This will let them feel that I am speaking directly to them, making it more interesting and fun for the reader.