MEDIA EVALUATIONQuestion 1:

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

AnswerThe media product that I have created is a music magazine. The title of the magazine that I have created to use in my media product is directly linked to the music industry, I named it ‘Stereo’ as this has connotations to music and it is short; this means that it is easy to read and direct to the reader. I designed a colour scheme of black, white and grey, this helps bring out the modern appeal of the magazine- I discovered that during my market research, people wanted a modern magazine. I have kept the overall appeal of the magazine as clear and concise as possible in order to simplify what the target audience reads. A sans serif font was used for my main text as this also related to the modern texture that I was after, this helped the magazine become easily readable.

For the media product that I have created, I have used the Guttenberg Design Principle and a professional house style to give the effect of a well-made magazine. To use the Guttenberg Design Principle I placed my most important text- being my masthead in the top left hand corner of the page, this is so it strikes the reader instantly. Therefore, in the bottom right hand corner, I have inserted the barcode. As important as this is to complete the overall look of a real magazine, it isn’t important to the magazines main content for the reader. Once again, this was all typed in a sans serif font. The house style of my music magazine uses a modern triage of colours being black, white and grey incorporated into a gradient across the page. I found these types of colours during my market research, in other music magazines such as NME that uses these types of colours to reflect on their target audience.

Image Demonstrating the Guttenberg Design Principle

I professionally took photos in a photography studio to give me a high grade of good quality photos. Using the rule of thirds technique, I made sure that my photos were well balanced and that the entire main points of interest were included. The photos of the person being photographed were given props selected by me such as a wooden guitar that helped me gain the most out of the photos. I discovered that during my market research, these types of props would have been used in a band image; this is along with the use of the rule of thirds which I found to be used in many of the magazines I looked at. After looking at previous examples of music magazines such as NME and Q I discovered that many of their artists used props in their images.

The image editing that I have used on my images are things such as the colour replacement tool and the sport removal tool. I firstly used the colour replacement tool in order to change the colour of the clothing on the person I photographed. I changed the colour of his jumper from a red to grey; this was done so it would match my main house style colours of black, white and grey. This also helped me to encompass the sleek and modern look of my magazine as preferred during my market research. I finally used the sport removal tool to remove any blemishes or spots to give the image a much cleaner and professional look.

Overall, I feel that I have been successful in developing many of the conventions used in my media product and that I have been

able to learn a lot from developing a magazine through the creating and market research that I conducted in order to create a

successful media product.

QUESTION 2‘How does your media product represent particular social groups?’

AnswerFor the media product that I have created, I wanted to create a magazine that was aimed at a target audience of teenagers to young adults as I discovered during my market research that this is what was most wanted by participants. I also wanted the magazine to be aimed at these particular social groups as this is who would be most likely to listen and be interested in the genre of Indie-Rock; the type of magazine I was creating. I would say that this music magazine is preferably aimed at men; I believe that this gender would gain the most out of the magazine. To help me create this music magazine, I used a young person to take my photos of. This was the focal point of creating my main piece for my magazine. Furthermore, I used a young male to take photos of; this helped me create a music magazine aimed at a young target audience for men.