Evaluation

“When it comes to rock, women are a gender not a genre”

Female figures are completely sexualised in rock music, whether they are singing or being sung about. Rock is a genre driven by males. Women are either seen as sex symbols in magazines or are hardly featured in them at all.- Guardian newspaper

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

products?The style of my magazine is similar to existing magazines such as ‘Kerrang’ and ‘NME’. The title of magazine was ‘FUSE’. The genre of my magazine was alternative rock with elements of indie influence. Overall I feel as if it used the conventions of a real music magazine

For my front cover:I knew instantly that a large masthead should be the most prominent feature as this is a convention which most music magazines follow, therefore I positioned it on the top left corner.

There is only one image on the cover. This is done deliberately as again most magazines usually have one image on the corner.

The artist being interviewed was the main focus of the cover, the focus was maintained by having the artists name in a large font which was different to the rest of the font.

I followed a specific colour scheme which consisted of red, black, white and a small amount of green.I noticed that the colours red, white and black were a convention of most rock styled magazines.

While looking at other magazines I found that incentives were used to attract the attention of readers, so I decided to add my own plug.

I used a limited amount of fonts for my cover as magazines generally tend too have 2-3 fonts to keep the magazine from looking to busy.

I also added a bar code and price because without them the magazine is unable to be sold.

For my contents page:

I featured the title of my magazine at the top of the page as this is a convention that most magazines use.

I used the same colours again to build continuity between the pages..

The article headings are sectioned out to make it clearer to read, most music magazines have a clearly structured layout.

I added an editors letter at the top as again editors letters are a common convention

I have only used one large image of the artist looking at the article headings, this challenges a typical contents page as most contents pages have more then 1 picture. I wanted to keep my contents page simple but effective.

I used a black background so that the coloured text would stand out better on the dark background.

For my double page spread:

My double page spread was an interview which was in a question an answer format.

I had a small paragraph to introduce my artist.

The colours were again the same as the front cover and contents page to further build continuity.

I have used one image that takes up a whole page, this is a convention used by a lot of magazines, ‘Kerrang’ in particular uses this convention.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Being an alternative rock/indie magazine it is aimed at people that listen to this type of music.

There are many social groups that my magazine could represent, such as rebellious teenagers or rock lovers, the make up that the artist is wearing is deliberately put on to emphasize this. The contrast of the dark black and bright white and red colours could also represent this

However I feel as If I don’t want my magazine to represent any social group specifically as the music you listen to doesn’t always define the category that you fit into.

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

What is a media institution?A media institution is an establishment which is in charge of distributing, marketing and producing different media products.

Bauer Media is a UK based media institution which distributes magazines like ‘Kerrang’. It also deals with 100’s of other iconic brands across the country.

Bauer Media also sells magazines to a wide range of retailers, this is good as it will offer my magazine to a wider range of people maximising the amount that it could be sold.It is also a good choice as ‘Kerrang’ is a similar magazine to mine and it is a benefit as they have the relevant knowledge on how to market the magazine.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

My main target audience would be females aged 17-24 as I feel that my magazine caters appropriately for this age group.Although I didn’t over complicate the language I used in my magazine, I decided to keep the language relatively formal to appeal to both younger and older readers.

How did you attract/address your media audience?

There are a variety of different sized fonts and colours to catch the readers attention.

The artist on the cover is of a similar age to the target audience making her immediately relatable to the reader.

The artists angle of gaze is right at the reader building a connection between the magazine and the buyer.

The limited colour scheme makes the magazine look professional increasing the chances that it will attract people to buy it.

The cover is full of text suggesting that it will have a good amount of content on it which is appealing to the audience.

I have added an incentive in the form of a competition as many magazines do this to increase the amount of people that buy their magazines.

I have named other well known artists on the cover, to generate more interest in the magazine.

The magazine price is clearly on the front which is £3, this is a reasonable price for a magazine

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

I used adobe Photoshop to construct my magazine. I hadn't used Photoshop since the preliminary task, so my skills were only basic.I have learnt a variety of things that I used to edit the images in my magazine. The cover in particular had the most effects added to it. I learnt how to change eye colours, brighten pictures, add strokes to texts and create rip effects by altering brushes.

Ripped Effect

Eye colour change

Colour change of the rose

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

full product?During the process of making my magazine there has been a great deal of things that I have learnt. I have found that a huge amount of pictures are needed to be taken so that you have variety and that will give less limitations. I have also learnt how to edit the exposure and contrast of images and to be able to take high quality photographs.

I feel as if I have improved immensely in comparison to the prelim task and my Photoshop skills have gone from basic to proficient. I have learnt to do many things on Photoshop and have grasped how to use various tools which has helped my magazine to be the best that it can be.

I have also learnt that small things such as mise en scene can be what highers the standard of your work and helps build continuity and bring the magazine together as a whole.

I have learnt that coloured backgrounds don’t work well and distract the readers attention.

I have learnt that the contents should be layed out clearly.

Most importantly I have learnt and understood the conventions of a music magazine better.