Music Magazine Evaluation

Electronic Evaluation of My Electronic Evaluation of My Music Magazine ProductionMusic Magazine Production

Question 1

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

My media products does not so much challenge the conventions and forms of other media products, I would say that it expands on them, it uses the same kinds of colours that other magazines of the same genre would use, for the same purpose, as they both use these colours to attract customers, this can be seen in the comparison on the right

The NME front cover and contents both use massive writing and pictures to attract readers as well as huge images and big block writing filled with colours such as red and black, which are known to attract readers because they stand out from each other.

My magazine uses these same kinds of conventions and uses these colours in block form to attract readers with its colourful appearance and massive writing.

Some fonts unfortunately are unavailable to use at this time but improvisations were made

Question 2

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

The Product itself represents itself to Groups of people such as Skaters and Goths, the product is a dark one as it focuses on a black and red outlook on all the pages and they are the ones which represent Rock. The darkness could be considered a deterrent for some groups of people such as those who are into rap and blues however to those who like the music of people like Disturbed and Paramore it is a very inviting piece.

The magazine represents itself as focusing on bands such as the Prodigy and other such bands of that genre, these can appeal to a variety of groups, however in this magazine it is used to appeal to the social groups of people like Skaters and such because those are the people who were targeted after the questionnaire (see Presentation Analysis or Written project for details) was handed back and evaluated.

Question 3

3. What kind of institution Would distribute you product and why?

There are many different media institutions which could distribute my product for a variety of reasons, however there are a few setbacks which could be a problem or questions which could be asked by the institution before they begin to distribute it. For example an institution such as Bauer would ask questions like, “why should we distribute your magazine when there are many out there like NME Q and Kerrang which are already best sellers when yours is still unknown” to which an answer would be “My magazine is not as broad as them, it would focus on the specific issues of music which I decided to focus it on e.g. rock whereas magazines like NME are broad and I’m sure that when people have read my magazine they would be more inclined to purchase it regularly”.

Other institutions such as IPC or Natmags would also get on board for the distribution of new magazines as the music industry is always looking for new ways to move onto the shelves, and with the addition of another music magazine covering the less well known bands and indie music, it would be a smart move for any potential investor.

Question 4

Who would be you audience for your media product?

My media product focuses on people from a few particular groups. It focuses on the music genre of rock which can fall into the social groups of many people, it can fall into Goths, Skaters and Emos. However the main target audience for this magazine would be skaters as they are the group who most listen to this kind of music whereas Goths listen to harder music and would prefer other publications

The reason that the magazine was designed in that way to target those types of people is because the questionnaire (which is in my written evaluation) came back saying that people enjoy the rock brand of music as well as the alternative rock.

Question 5

How did you attract/address your audience?

The initial attraction to the magazine is one which is used by all magazines, it is using huge images, block writing and high attracting colours. Its colours like red and black used together which stand out to the human eyes, the black and the red look good together as they stand out from one another and the title itself is black against a white background which stands out from it.

The font on the front page was also an important factor as it was the best for the job (see written analysis for full sized and proper fonts) As I believed that the font accurately represented rock in its best form.

The customized writing for the band (Whiskey Tango Foxtrot) was also a big attraction factor as it showed that the band had taken time to personalise and customize their logo, the colours of the name was also another major factor as colour is a general attraction for many people, as it was proven that people are more likely to buy a music magazine if the colours stay true to the genre.

The magazine addressed its readers in the same ways, using colours, big images and writing etc. however it also made the writing easy to read and in a consistent font to keep the reader entertained, as a different font on each page or section would have clashed with each other, and the constant rock font kept the magazine true to its theme.

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

Throughout the process of this products creation I have been working with many different programs, I used a Desktop publishing program to create the magazine, contents and front cover. Using the Publisher, I found that it was a program which is suited for making magazines and other such publications however there are definitely more professional tools out there than the one I was using, as the program I used was a basic publisher and I feel like I could have achieved a better product if I had used a more advanced program to create my piece.

To edit and create new images I used Photoshop, there was a great deal about Photoshop which was new to me as I had not used a graphics editing program on that scale before, I understood the basics of a photo editing program such as how to cut out backgrounds using the cut out tool, which can be either the wand or the lasso tool to cut out huge sections or smaller sections of an image, and add other textures, but it was adding special effects to the photos that I used which was the interesting part. Even though there was only one specially edited image that I used in the magazine, it took me a while to create (The Crucifix over the Metallica symbol image) as it was the cutting which was the basic part I decided to add a special effect to it and it took me a while to decide but in the end I decided to solarise it as it would make the image appear darker and stand out with the red and other ark colours used in my magazine

Overall I can say I did not learn too much than what I already knew apart from improved graphics editing however for programs such as desktop publishers, document writers and presentation programs, I knew most about them already.

Question 6

Solarisation comes from the stylize menu in the filter bar along with a variety of other effects.

Magic wand and lasso tool shown on the left

Question 7

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

Since I made the school magazine I felt that I have learnt a lot more about the specific groups which other magazines target e.g. my magazine targets skaters who listen to rock and alternative music, whereas the school magazine has no real target audience as it is made for a school and students, there is no target group which can be selected, aside from 6 th formers, however the magazine which I created for the school was for 6 th formers but it still wasn’t very specific as it can be seen on the right, it contains the story on exams, the common room and the gym so it has a bit of a story in there for everybody, however my music magazine (as seen in analysis) is specific to its audience and does not contain a story about a band such as Disturbed (a hard rock band) and then a story about Eminem (a rapper) because the two will not mix.

Overall I can say that I have learnt mainly that different magazine types require different audiences, while some require specific audiences e.g. a rock magazine others can appeal to a much wider audience e.g. a magazine such as the TV times which can afford to be varied as so many people read it where as magazines like NME require to stick close to the conventions they have set over the years.