Evaluation for my AS media studies magazine project

1. My Finished Music Magazine

2. In what ways does your media product use, develop
or challenge forms and conventions of real media
products?
The genre of my music magazine was 'New Wave Rock' I chose
this genre as the market for this type of magazine is less
saturated than markets for other genres such as Pop, and Metal
This also meant that I had to rely more heavily on my audience
feedback and questionnaires, as there weren't many magazines,
in publish, that focused heavily on New Wave Rock
For my magazine I wanted a strong colour theme which would be evident and easily
recognisable by the target audience. Britain was one of the world's leaders in the emergence,
and development of New Wave Rock during the late 70's, and 80's
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Wave_music)
Because of this I wanted my magazine to have a certain British feel to it, I decided to try Red,
White, and Blue as my colour theme (colours of the Union flag)

3. Colour Theme/House Style
Like almost all magazines on the market, I wanted my magazine to have a unique
and noticeable house style. I wanted to follow this common convention to add
consistency to my magazine, and make it instantly recognisable to my audience
I liked the Strong colours
of the union flag, so for my
magazine's house style I
used a similar colour
theme ->
I conducted a survey to see which
colours, my audience thought, best Digital Survey
Results
suited my magazine. And which
colour theme fitted in best with the
rest of the magazine's style and
genre. From my survey I found that
my target audience preferred the
colour theme: red, white, and blue

4. Whilst designing my magazine cover, I followed common conventions from other
magazine covers, so that I could emulate a real product which you could easily imagine
being on sale in a store
I achieved this by studying the layouts of other popular music magazine covers, such as
'Q magazine' and 'Record Collector'
I liked the main Image of this front cover, as I found the close up very appealing and
striking. The fact that he is looking straight at the camera instantly connects with the
viewer, as they make eye contact and feel personally engaged
Also following the common form and convention of Q magazine, I placed all of the cover
lines in the 'left third' as this is where the viewer will look to first
I tried to follow the
common conventions of
having all of my cover lines
placed in the left third, and
having my model look
straight into the camera
lens

5. Although I wanted to follow the conventions and practices of real media products out
there, I also wanted to try and stretch some of the boundaries, and bend the rules a little
in order to give my magazine a unique and rebellious feel.
The extreme use of
block colour breaks the
conventions of the
music magazines that I
have studied. It gives
the contents page a
bold, unique standing
I studied the contents pages of other magazines such as Q magazine, NME and
Record collector. One obvious convention which these magazines had in common was
the colour scheme used on the contents page. With all of these magazine, not much
colour was used, mainly a plain white background with simple black text. I wanted to
try and expand on this convention by adding a lot more colour

6. How does your magazine represent different social
groups?
My media product was aimed mainly at an older, male audience. The period in which New
Wave was most popular in Britain was in the 70's and 80's, so original fans who were
interested in New Wave would now form an older, more mature fan base.
Taking into account all of the above, I did not want to single out younger fans of New
Wave, who were not necessarily alive during the emergence of New Wave. I did not want
to exclude this proportion of my audience, so I tried to adapt certain features of my
magazine to appeal to a younger viewer. I added content which led viewers online
(Facebook/Twitter address) as I thought this would appeal more to younger viewers who
are commonly portrayed as more technologically capable
By expanding the magazine onto the
internet, I hoped to widen the fan
base, and attract a younger
audience. I also kept 'old' ways to
contact the magazine though, as the
target audience is primarily more
mature

7. What kind of institute might distribute your product
and why?
Given that my target audience is mainly older males 40 – 60, I think that my only way of
distributing the magazine would be in a hard copy, as studies show that older clients are
much less likely to pay for something digital.
However, in an attempt to widen the audience to younger customers I think that selling
my magazine in a digital format online may increase sales and create a wider, more
diverse fan base.
I think that my magazine should be sold as a hard copy
in independent newsagents, supermarkets, and high-
street stores. The kind of high street stores that would
stock my magazine are places that already distribute
music, magazines, and music related products. For
example HMV would be a suitable distributor as they
already have a well established career in music
distribution.
In addition to this I think it would be wise to try and sell
my magazine in specialist record shops, as this would
give my magazine direct contact with my target
audience.

8. In an attempt to appeal to younger viewers, (therefore widening my target audience and
boosting sales) I would also prepare the magazine for sale on the digital market.
Online distributors such as 'Issuu' could distribute my magazine digitally. This would also
open up a gap in the international market. It would not be viable to prepare physical
copies of my magazine for foreign markets, as the market would be too small, and would
almost certainly make a loss. But with distributing the magazine digitally, foreign buyers
would still be able to download the magazine without a risk to our profits
In order to successfully market the magazine online, We would have to create a huge
marketing campaign. We could advertise online, combined with use of other media
formats (such as Facebook, and inside the magazine itself), for additional, low-cost
advertising
Online piracy could be a negative factor and dent sales, but with recent closures of illegal
distributors such as 'LimeWire', and 'The Pirate Bay', I think that online distribution is still
a good idea which will be positive for marketing the magazine

9. Who would be the audience for you media product?
The target audience for my music
magazine is working-class males,
around the age of 40-60. I chose this as
my target audience, as these people
would have been young and free when
New Wave emerged 30-40 years ago. I
hoped that by marketing my magazine
for this type of audience, I could
simulate positive feelings from their
youth which would instantly engage
them into buying and reading my
magazine.
This is my audience profile, which shows
the main views and interests of my
target audience

10. How did you attract/address your audience?
To attract my target audience I used a lot of images with faded quality, which
had a more vintage feel, and would take the reader straight back in time to when
these cameras were common place.
The articles advertised were also mainly about past bands which had had their
most success in the 70's and 80's. Most of the articles were somehow related to
the previous few decades, as this is when New Wave was most popular.
I digitally altered/enhanced many of the images to
simulate an 80's look, in order to appeal to my
target audience. As well as this, I also got my
model to dress in typical 80's fashion during the
photo shoot to emulate an authentic 80's feel
Lots of the imagery used in the magazine is either in black and white, or faded quality, to
simulate an authentic 80's camera. This would attract my target audience who spent their
youth listening to music in the 70's and 80's

11. What have you learnt about technologies from the
process of constructing this magazine?
From the process of constructing my magazine I have learnt a lot about different
technologies. In order to successfully create my magazine accurately, I had to
use different technologies that I had never used before. It was vital for the
aesthetic look of my magazine, and successful marketing, that I learnt how to
use these technologies properly.
Technologies I used whilst constructing my magazine:
●
Photoshop
●
Gimp
●
Facebook
●
Survey Monkey

12. Photoshop
In order to create my magazine to a high standard, I used Photoshop. I used
Photoshop as this is what is used by professional editors in the music magazine
industry. This meant that Photoshop would help me to make my products as
higher quality as I could.
In the initial stages of development I did not know how to use Photoshop
consistently. I did not want to go straight into development of my magazine with
a weak grasp of the features of photoshop as this could compromise the quality
of my design work. In order to further learn Photshop's capabilities, I did some
mock design work of creating a music magazine 'pop splash'. Most of the
techniques I used to construct my final magazine were based on practices that I
gained throughout the constructing of my pop splash magazine.

13. Survey Monkey
Another important technology that I had to learn to use for the construction
of my magazine was Survey Monkey. I created various surveys to acquire
knowledge from my target audience, about my magazine. From the
responses that I analysed, I was able to make suitable changes to my
magazine so I could better cater for the needs and expectations of my
target audience

14. Looking back at you preliminary task what do you
feel you have learnt from the progression of it to the
full product?
During the progression from my college magazine to my music magazine, I learnt a lot about content
placement and creating a magazine with a specific target audience in mind
This is my initial college magazine that I constructed. The layout
is very basic, which I think worked well, and so I used it as a
template for my music magazine. I am also happy with the model.
She has the right expression and dress sense to accurately tie in
with the lead line, so I decided to keep this similar in my music
magazine. The only thing that I thought could have been
improved with the model, was if the image was larger, in order to
have a more immediate effect on the audience. I improved this on
my music magazine cover.
The main thing that I thought needed improving was the amount
of white space that my magazine cover included. Although this
gives it a clean look, I tried to avoid this in my music magazine
cover, as I thought it would make the cover appear empty

15. Again, I was fairly happy with the clear and consistent layout
of my contents page. I think the colour scheme really builds
on the magazine's house style.
One thing that I wanted to improve on this was adding more
features that I saw in other music magazines. By adding
these, and conforming to these conventions, I thought that it
would give my music magazine a more realistic look
Things I added to conform to
common conventions
●
Lead Image
●
Page number
●
Contact details
●
Pre-order deal
●
Editors note