Evaluation

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

Institutions are large companies that publish and distribute magazines.

These are some of the main UK based media institutions. The main

magazine I researched was MixMag. This is published by Development Hell.

www.bauer.co.uk

www.developmenthell.co.uk

www.bbcworldwide.comwww.ipcmedia.com

www.futureplc.com

Bauer is the institution I have chosen to distribute my magazine. They are one of the biggest institutions in the UK. They publish popular magazines such as Bella, Mojo, Take A Break and Kerrang. I chose Bauer because;

•They do not currently publish any dance orientated magazines.• They have lots of money to be able to fund the magazine so it sells at its highest.• The name is well known for its quality and popular magazines so this would give TranceNation a head start

TranceNation could be extended to follow along the footsteps of Kerrang by having live music events under its name. It could also spread out in the media world by having its own website on which the consumers can download the latest dance tracks. It could have its own TV channel and radio station to advertise the magazine and to play the best songs and footage from their live events.

This is my magazine cover in-between their other music publications.

As you can see there are many comparisons to my magazine and theirs already. I think this would be a good fit into their portfolio and you can also see that it extends them further into the music industry.

This is a collection of BAUER’s most popular magazines. As you can see they already have a very wide range, and this isn’t even all their publications! They range from Music magazines and Women’s weeklies to Rail magazines and Business monthlies.

No other major UK media publishing institution has this wide a range of publications. This is one of the main reasons for choosing Bauer. Other publishers either do not have enough music publications (for better production through experience) or already have something too similar.

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

From starting out making a college news paper using photoshop with minimum skills and basic training to making a fully professional looking music magazine I have learned many things and have now become much more advanced in using image manipulation software and also in writing.

In photoshop I have developed skills on these things through making this magazine:

• Removing backgrounds• Adjusting colours• Creating realistic effects• photoshop shortcuts• an aesthetic eye for image manipulations

Through making this product I have also developed skills on basic programs that I use regularly. For instance I have learnt more about Internet Explorer and its capabilities. A good example of this is SurveyMonkey. This allows you to create an electronic survey and then calculate your results and present them to you in a number of helpful ways.

Technology aside, through the actual text used inside my magazine, I have developed my skills in writing in a specific way for a specific audience. The articles have improved my structure and also added hugely to my vocabulary.

Who would be your audience?

The target audience for my magazines can be mainly grouped by 2 things:

• AGE: The specified age for this product is people within the ages of 18 and 30.• GENDER: The majority of readers for this type of magazine would be male.

There is no specific class that my magazine is aimed at as Trance music is really for anyone who enjoys night life and dancing to fast paced dance music.

Not much research would have to go underway when making a magazine like this because trends within trance music don’t change, it has always been the same. This is as apposed to say a pop music magazine. This would have a much larger connection to things like fashion and would therefore then have to monitor changes in these trends to maintain the audience.

These are some generalised things that the audience of my magazine would be interested in:

MASTHEADSTRAPLINECOVERLINE

COVERLINE

COMPETITIONS

IMAGES

The font used is a techno style font this addresses the audience in styles visually appealing to them. The term ‘hottest’ was used to address the audience in a style they are attuned to as apposed to a word like ‘best’.

This image is an informal pose as he is stood in an irregular position. It is also not posed as the theme of relaxed fits in with trance. This is addressing the audience in a way they are used to.

Again here the font used attracts and addresses the audience because of its electronic theme.

By saying “The world’s best trance” the consumer is already attracted because we insinuated our magazine is the best .

The masthead attracts the audience by using a font themed to trance and by using the colour green that is associated with electronics and computers.

A competition to win tickets to see a very popular artist within the genre of trance is a good way of attracting the audience.

Attracting and Addressing the audience

As you can see in the picture the only prop that was used were the head phones. These have been made to stand out by making them one of the few parts of the image in colour. The head phones link greatly to trance because of DJ using them and fans using them for maximum audio quality on the go.

The theme of electronic fonts is continued throughout my magazine. As is the style of writing to address the audience.

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

PLANNING

PLANNING

PRODUCTION

PRODUCTION

PRODUCTION

PRODUCTION

RESEARCH

RESEARCHRESEARCHRESEARCHRESEARCH RESEARCH

EVALUATION

EVALUATIONEVALUATION

EVALUATION

Here on the right is a breakdown of the programs I used through the production of my magazine and what stages out of these for they were used for:• Planning• Research• Production• Evaluation

The whole production of this magazine (including the research, planning and evaluation) could no possibly have been done without technology. It would be very hard to make things that attract and address an audience (fonts for example) without programs such as photoshop and resources such as DaFont. Of course one of the main aspects of a magazine would not have been possible without technology. Without a camera the magazine would be very boring to look at.

There were some pieces of technology used that were only used for ease or access and could have actually been done without. An example of this is survey monkey. I produced an electronic survey then distributed it on the internet to gather research information. I could have made a physical survey on paper and handed it out but to save time and effort this was done electronically.

Saying this, there are definitely some pieces of technology that would make it impossible to produce a magazine without. An obvious example of this is image manipulation software (photoshop in this case). It would be very tedious and time consuming to do all the things needed like formatting text, placing images etc. By hand.

A positive of using technology is definitely the ease of doing things. The internet is a very useful resource to have when carrying out the research part. Presenting the finished product via a blog is a much easier way and would not be possible without technology.

With positives comes negatives, technology as great as it can get does have its flaws. One main thing that can get frustrating is that you will always need access to a computer to use these kinds of technology. Also there are limits as to what photoshop is capable of.

In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions

of real media products?

Codes and conventions are elements of the magazine that are repeatedly used for reasons to attract and address the consumer. Examples of codes and conventions for magazines are;• Page numbers• Masthead• Fonts• Colour scheme• Style of photography• Writing style• Pull quotes• Cover lines• Barcode•Advertisements •Freebies

MASTHEAD

STRAP LINE

COVER LINE

FREEBIES

FREEBIES

ADVERTISING

ADVERTISING

BARCODE

COLOUR SCHEME

How does your media product represent particular social groups