Evaluation Question 7

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

When I began the course one of the first tasks was to create a front cover and a contents page for the college as part of the magazine. The college gave us a average camera and our task was to take photos around the college that would look suitable and what we think would look good in our magazine. Once we had these we would also had to think of headlines and sell lines to go with the magazine. Once we had all of the necessary parts of the magazine. We then went onto photoshop and created my  magazine. As I have said previously that this was one of my first attempts on creating a magazine front cover/contents. Below is a prezi on which I have created on how I have developed from my peliminary task to my final products. 

Evaluation Question 6

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

When designing and creating my music magazine, I have used various forms of technology and software to help me through the whole production process, as shown by the smilebox below:

As you can see throughout my coursework I have used a wide variation of technology and different pieces of software. If I were to do this again I would have used more pieces of technology, for example I would have used youtube and animoto to make my work look more wide spread and better. Some of the technology that I have used in the progress of creating my magazine I have used before, PowerPoint and photoshop, so I already had a little bit of experience. The main pieces of software I have used are the iMac's and a camera. The camera was used to take all of the photos and the iMac was used to do all of my research/planning and everything digital. The two pieces of software that I used most would have to be Photoshop and Blogger. I used photoshop to create my magazine and edit my photos. I used blogger to edit and create my blog posts.

I have previously used photoshop when I was in school, yet what I had learnt was just the basics so when it came to the point of doing for my music magazine it would not be enough to be a sufficient music magazine. As a result of this I have had to learn a lot more about photoshop, I learnt more about Photoshop by watching videos on YouTube and spending more time on Photoshop. As you can see below are two front covers one for a college magazine and one is my near to complete music magazine front cover. The college magazine was my first attempt at a front cover for a magazine. You can see that there is a big difference from the two, through time I have developed my photoshop skills. For example the font needs variation otherwise it would not follow conventions from real music magazines. The font is all the same in the college magazine as is the colours of the font. Compare this to my dance magazine where I have used more fonts and a variation of different font colours. Before I could edit my photos on photoshop, I had to actually take the photos. I did so in a photo studio at Sunderland University. What I had learned from that is that there is a huge difference in the quality of photos compared to taking a photo on a mobile phone. So once I entered the studio I had to grasp the concept that it was a hard device to learn all about straight away. So it took me some time to understand fully how to work the camera, once I was capable of using the camera professionally I cracked on with taking the photos that I needed for my covers in my magazine. The photos that I had taken are a huge difference to the ones that I have taken on my mobile phone, you can see the difference as I used a mobile phone for the photos on my college magazine. This has all been very effective as they have helped me improve my final products. 

Evaluation Question 4/5

Who would be the audience for your media product?/
How did you attract/address your audience?To allow my magazine to attract and appeal to the target audience in which I will be marketing my magazine towards, I made sure to understand both their interests and their lifestyle in order to cater my magazine to be interesting and suitable for them. Before I started to find a overall target audience. I took a basic guess at what my target audience would look like, that liked my dance music magazine.

The photo of the man above, James, and twenty years old and is a student at university. In order to understand and develop more about my target audience, who is going to buy my magazine and who is going to enjoy reading my  I interviewed James and what he likes and what his hobbies were. His hobbies where going out drinking to clubs and regularly going out with his friends to the pub. If big DJ's come to his region him and a few of his friends will go to see that DJ at a jump of a heart beat. He will not spend a lot of money on other genres of music. Yet will spend whatever he needs to on going to see a DJ. Finally he likes to go shopping for clothes and keep up with the latest fashion, which is sometimes is inspired by the music tastes. After gaining a basic understanding of James' hobbies and interests, I am now able to define what my specific target audience. I would define my target audience mainly to be males, although I would get a smaller percentage to be females. The age range would be between the ages of sixteen to around late twenty's. This below is a reader profile. In which this will sum up what my magazines target audience will be.

A way to attract my target audience the language in my magazine would be aimed to be able to connect to there lifestyles. For example the reason I have done this is because if I choose to use a more sophisticated language my target audiene might not be able to read/understand what I am trying to get across. So what I have done is to use simplistic language and slang in my magazine. This is due to the fact my target audience is a young age and many might still be in eduacation. I also haveb a low price for my magazine. The reason for this is that the readers for my magazine will not have jobs or if they do, it will most likely be a low paid job. In addition they might even be paying for university so they will have a lack of money.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMAq1KrJ0rQ

Here above is a hyprelink to a YouTube video that shows the type of people that are my target audience.

Evaluation Question 3

What kind of media institution might

distribute your media product and why?

To find out what media intuition was best for my music magazine I researched what media institution already distributes magazines with either similar music genre or if possible the same genre as mine, for example Mixmag.

From the research that I have been doing. I could not find the publisher of Mixmag magazine so like I said I might of had to use a different yet similar music magazine to start off. The Q magazine audience is aimed at a wide range of audiences. With my target audience being one of them. I feel Bauer Media Group can offer my music magazine a lot since it has a wide recognition. They would be the best for selling big music magazines. Q magazine is a very well known magazine that has been round for many years. So hopefully they will be able to follow in their footsteps.  

Bauer Media I feel like could open a lot of doors for my music magazine. My thoughts behind this are that since not only do they distribute there magazines in magazine form. They also post it online and through podcasts now. Making magazines a lot more accessible and not a dying product. I feel that since my target audience is of a younger age that they will really be wanting to be reading it on there smart phones are even listening to it. I would not only stop there, but I feel like Bauer Media would be able to offer a App for people to download. Compared to a magazine and wait until the new issue to come out to find something new out. The App would offer brand news news all the time. And I feel like this is something my readers would like.  

Evaluation Question 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My music magazine is aimed at the dance/rave scene. People who go out to seek having a good time. If I was being stereotypcial the people that are my target audience like to dress up to date and are not bothered about looking 'different'. Dance music is typcially black becuase of nightclubs, raves etc. and then the bright lights. The hairstyle that they normally have is stereotypcially short. I would class it as an anomaly if there is a DJ that goes against this, in fact the reason that they might grow long hair is to go against conventions of a dance act. And going against convention might get them more of a fan base and more publicity. 

 These photos are a stereotypcial photos that you will find in dance music. These DJ's are Steve Aoki and Calvin Harris. These DJ's are very popular with the music culture. These artists are seen as icons within this genre. Males will look up to these two artists and will aspire to be these men. Based on there talent they have rose above the rest and become the best in the department. Both being one of the best at what they do. I feel like my music magazine represents this music social group as my music magaizne has articles about similar artists dressed up the in a similar outfit. The language that I have used in my article would represent the social part of the genre as it is a up to date and fresh.

Evaluation Question 1

1) In ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
       
     In order for  my magazine to be recognised as a dance music magazine by my target audience, I have ensure to follow particular conventions which apply to this genre of music magazines.