Evaluation

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? My final product is very similar to a real media product in the aspect that it includes a main image, headline, barcode, price etc. This is mainly as to why I wanted my final product to be based on magazines in which I have researched so that it looked more realistic. I think however my final product is aimed more at females possibly because it features celebrity gossip and also the colours perhaps could be associated more with females. I chose to name my magazine 'flex' this is because I think it sounds modern and is short and snappy which would be attractive for a dance music magazine, also flex means to bend which is often done when dancing. The reason I went with my final choice of image for the front cover is because the reader can clearly see the headphones which immediately shows the magazine is about music, also bright colours are featured which again could possibly draw the reader because of the colourful image. I like the way in which she is standing it makes her look proffesional which is what I wanted, I edited my image only slightly so that it was a fraction lighter than originally this is because I wanted it to look brighter mainly because on the front cover it was advertising a competition to win a trip to Ibiza therefore if the image was brighter it could perhaps be associated with the summer. For the name of the magazine I decided to keep the colour of the font very simple therefore I chose the colour black, black is often seen as classy and wouldn't clash with the main image or any other colour font featured on the page. It is also different many of the magazines which I analyised used the colour red for their name therefore I wanted my magazine to be slightly different and unique. So that the main image is the main focus for the reader I deliberately centered the image directly centre on the front cover with any text surrounding the image so that it doesn't take the attention away from it.

I chose the colours of the fonts carefully as many colours are associated with specific things, for example I chose an orangey red colour for the text which was explaining about the competition to Ibiza I did this because orange is seen as a warm colour therefore represents summer. For the words 'win, win and...win!' I used oranges and yellows for each letter this again shows that is a summery topic.

I have made my front cover as bright and eye-catching as possible, dance music magazines are often very busy and bright which is what I tried to achieve. For the main headline I think the font I chose makes the headline look sophisticated as this font would probably be featured in fashion magazines.

How does your media product represent particular social groups? My final media product represents mainly females aged from around 16-late twenties, within this I tried to represent the particular social group by creating gossip stories in the contents so that it would appeal to this social group I also used femine colours such as pinks and yellows and a suitable theme and layout so that it would appeal to my particular social group.

What kind of media institiution might distribute your media product and why? A media institution which could distribute my media product could be emap, this is mainly because they distribute magazines such as mojo, heat, closer and mixmag. All of these magazines have similar characteristics to my final product as heat and closer are all about celebrity stories which would be found in my final product and mixmag is a dance music magazine therefore has the same music genre as my final magazine. Also if Emap published my magazine it would be very unique as most magazines do not aim to appeal to the particular social group as my final product.

Who would be the audience for your media product? As discussed above the audience for my media product would be females around the age range of 16-25/late twenties who are interested in dance music and like to keep upto date with the celebrity stories. It would also interest them because of the worthwhile competitions which I have advertised on my final front cover.

How did you attract/address your audience? When creating my magazine one of the first things I thought about was who to have on the front cover, because my magazine is aimed at females between 16-25 I decided to use a female who was between those ages so that it would give off a realistic impression. I also dressed her in modern, stylish clothing so therefore it would attract the particular social group I was aiming for. I think the name of my magazine 'flex' also addresses my target audience as it sounds fun and modern. On the front cover of my final product it features a competition, this will give readers a chance to get involved. With the price of the magazine featured on the front cover I made it fairly cheap for a music magazine priced at £2.25 therefore this would be competition for other music magazines. In my contents page I decided to include celebrities who are very successful at the moment and who are in the media spotlight therefore it would look realistic.

What have you learnt about technologies form the process of constructing this product? I have found since beginning media studies that I have used a lot more technology than I did before, I also feel I have improved with using documents such as word and photoshop which I feel more confident in using. I have also learnt the important convensions which are used in making a magazine after researching and analysising several magazines.

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product? Since doing the prelininary task I have learnt simple things such as the conventions used in creating a magazine, I feel that final product appears more realistic that that of the preliminary task perhaps because upto beginning my final product I researched and analysed music magazines. I have also discovered websites for unique fonts which I have used in my final product which I never knew of when doing my preliminary task. I think the preliminary task was helpful into creating the final product perhaps so that I could practice on the different documents such as photoshop. I feel with my full product I had a lot more time to be able to research ideas and come up with ideas for my headlines and also the name for my final magazine and with taking the main images I could take them in different places. I have also learnt about the different publishers used in the media such as emap, IPC etc I found out what magazines they published therefore this helped me decided which publisher I'd like to publish my dance music magazine.