Media Evaluation

1. AS MEDIA STUDIES
EVALUATION
Hannah Hogan

2. When creating my magazine I had to look at
other magazines before to create ideas in my
head on what I want. I analysed some of the
music magazines and there conventions. The
link below shows the analysis of conventions
used:
http://hannahhoganx.blogspot.co.uk/search?u
pdated-max=2013-10-10T09:04:00-07:00&max-
results=7&start=28&by-date=false
I then after analysing the magazine, used
all the conventions to then make my own
covers.
http://hannahhoganx.blogspot.co.uk/search?
updated-max=2013-11-28T08:37:00-
08:00&max-results=7&start=14&by-
date=false
Question 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge
forms and conventions of real media products?

3. Magazines such as Billboard helped me to decide on what my final magazine was going to look like. From these two
magazines you can see that I have looked closely to the layout to get ideas for my magazine. There are a few
similarities with both of them, you can see that first of all they both have simple font. I did not want to do more than
2+ fonts as not many magazines have many because having loads would make it look messy / trashy.
Another similarity is that with
both main headlines there is one
letter that is capital. This attracts
the audience into the main story. I
have done this on my magazine
but used it on the word 'Smashed'
as it creates effect that my main
star is.
Also the way that there is not many
headlines in the front cover, I liked this
as it seems simple and does not take
too much off the main headline. I have
made it like the top right cover with
'NYE' in bold and 'WIN' however I have
put it on the right side like the bottom
magazine so it is not too near to the
main headline.
With this third magazine also by Billboard it shows how simple it is again with the
basic fonts and colours. It shows how the main star used direct address to engage
her audience whilst also making a connection with them.

4. There was not many contents pages that inspired me to do
certain things in my magazine. There was one from Billboard
magazine again, the things that gave me ideas was having
short headlines with not much explanation.
I didn't find many things that influenced my final magazine
contents page I tried to make it fit in with the whole theme of
my magazine as I did say on my BlogSpot how I wanted the
theme to run throughout my magazine.
I used the same colours that was on my front page as I thought
if I used different it would not go all together and look as
professional. I used the same fonts to not make it look trashy.
With the Billboard contents page there was three pictures and I
think that with this I thought 3 would be enough as it is on
there giving you an insight to the magazine but not all of it.

5. I got my idea for the right side of my double page spread from various magazines.
http://hannahhoganx.blogspot.co.uk/search?updated-max=2013-11-28T08:37:00-08:00&max-
results=7&start=14&by-date=false
The idea I had with the one letter in the back ground carried on from my original plan, however the colour
changed as I wanted it to be black and white. However mentioned on my blog I wanted the left picture to overlap
onto the right side. However researching on google double page spread for ideas I come across a four pictured
one. I really like this idea so when forward with having it but having one photo in four different effects and not
four different photos.
I thought having the
interview in columns helps
people to read it easier.
With all the magazine
double page spreads I
looked at they was all on
columns so I did it like that
but put the interview
questions in bold to then
make it easier for people to
read.
http://hannahhoga
nx.blogspot.co.uk/2
013/10/in-this-
double-page-
spread-katy-
perry.html

6. Question 2: How does your media product represent particular social
groups?
I feel like for my main cover star all my influences
came from young teenage girls which is why I
chose to have a girl for my cover star. I feel like it
suits who I wanted to be my target audience as well
which was young people. The pictures below where
the type of stylish girls I wanted my main star to be
which is why then I chose who it was.
http://hannahhoganx.blogspot.co.uk/search?updat
ed-max=2013-10-21T09:05:00-07:00&max-
results=7&start=21&by-date=false
I wanted to go for the stylish look as the
magazine audience I aimed for was
indie/pop. So I think these inspired me as
they suit the type of people that I wanted

7. I have 2 supporting acts with the kind of same fashionable
style as my main cover star. They suit the magazine as
they fit in with the whole indie / pop theme. I chose to
have one boy and one girl because I didn't want my
magazine just to be based on girls as that is not what my
magazine target audience is. I wanted the issue to just be
about the main one which is a girl just how billboard does
it (focuses on and around the main star). I tried to make
them how they are in today's society so people would look
to them as inspiration.

8. Question 3: What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and
why?
I think a good institution for my
product would be Prometheus Media
Group who distribute Billboard
magazine in USA. My magazine is
very similar to Billboard as elements
of it focus on the music
industry/business and it doesn’t just
focus on one genre, it focuses on
what is popular and current.
Therefore I think this institution
would be good as they already
distribute a similar product so
would have the right contacts and be
able to reach the right audience.
However my magazine is going to be
based in the UK and only Billboards
distributer does it for the US.

9. However because Billboard distributers
only distribute there magazines in the
US I had to find someone other
distributer who would distribute my
magazine.
As I have been influenced by Q magazine
a couple of times for my final piece as
you can see on my blog:
http://hannahhoganx.blogspot.co.uk/sea
rch?updated-max=2014-01-14T02:34:00-
08:00&max-results=7&start=7&by-
date=false
http://hannahhoganx.blogspot.co.uk/sea
rch?updated-max=2014-01-14T02:34:00-
08:00&max-results=7&start=7&by-
date=false
I think that I should use their distributer
as they do it around the UK which is
Frontline distribution. They do use some
of the same conventions that I have used
in my magazine so I feel like I can relate.

10. Question 4: Who would be the audience for your media product?
My target audience for my magazine 'Arena' is going to
be for both female and male. I want the ages to be from
15-21. I think that my certain magazine looks based
towards females rather than males however I think that
there are still a few male attractions on there that they
would be interested in.
I did a questionnaire to both females and males about
what they would most likely find in an interview in a
music magazine to find out what sort of questions
would make the readers interested.
Doing this I think helped me come up with my final
interview questions and answers, it helped me define my
target audience and what I need to include to interest
them. Things about their personal life and tour dates
etc. was the most important thing to include. With this I
then drafted a questions I could ask from this:
http://hannahhoganx.blogspot.co.uk/search?updated-
max=2014-01-17T04:12:00-08:00&max-
results=7&start=7&by-date=false
I think having Billboard magazine as
the magazine that influenced me made
me not want to have just one type of
gender target audience but both. As you
can see every issue of Billboard is
different and all is aiming towards
females and males even if the front
cover star is the opposite sex around
them as you know the magazine is
about what the charts are right now
which with the charts right now include
both genders.

11. Question 5: How did you attract or address your audience?
I think that my colour scheme was simple with purple,
white and black. I think having a colour scheme
throughout the magazine and not making it all different
and colourful on each page makes the magazine seem
more professional and real. I used the colour black in my
work to make sure that it was understandable for the
other colours to then be read off. It's very dark and bold
making it a good background colour for others to stand
out but then when it's on a white background it then itself
is also very bold. I used the colour lilac as it goes well on
the colour black and stands out as pointed out. It's a
simple colour but also has different terms like deep lilac
and rich lilac, they could both relate to the magazine.
The mast headline is the colour in purple. I chose it to be
in purple as then it goes with what is on the double paged
spread, the big letter E showing the connection between
the front cover and double page spread.
The other headline is white as I did not want to put
another colour because it wouldn't of went with the whole
theme and would of looked odd. Using white meant that it
just went with everything with the white back ground on
double paged spread. Couldn’t of used the colour lilac as it
wouldn’t of seemed like the main headline was as special
I used Puffs and ‘WIN’ headline to attract
the audience as they feel by the ‘FREE’
that they are getting more for the money
and free stuff. It makes them want to
buy it more and as its at the top from
previous analysing I found out if you put
it there it will be the first thing they will
see on the shelf which is why I done it.

12. Question 6: What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing the
product?
The strengths of each programme:
Paint. Net
-Was easy to follow.
-You can cut out background of the image easy.
-You can add things such as shapes and texts etc.
Microsoft Publisher
-You can organise everything into places and easily put things behind each other ‘send to back’
-You can use a range of texts such as Word art.
-Spell check is on there.
PagePlus
-There are templates you can use to show you where to put certain things.
-Good cropping tools that let you cut out the background.
-There are a range of different effects that you can use like blur.

13. Weaknesses of each programme:
Paint.Net
-The images get blurred when you want to add them in if they are too little.
-You get complicated with all the layers.
Microsoft publisher
-You can not get templates for it so you have to start from scratch.
-The images will be blurred.
-When you place things in places they may move when putting other things on there.
PagePlus
-When you put a picture on there if you want to minimize it, it becomes blurry so you cant see it.
-Some of the photos don’t crop well with the same coloured background.
Using blogger has been really easy because it keeps all my
work in order, it makes the work I have done more
organised as it can not be lost. You can upload, change
and edit things on there if you need to add or take away
un needed stuff. Its very simple to use and you can access
it from places like home which is good as you can get
more things done.

14. Question 7: Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel that you have learnt
in the progression from it to the full product?
The first preliminary task that I did I did not include all the conventions that was
needed, there was no price so it then did not look like a professional magazine.
The main headline and smaller headline under, you cannot tell that they are different
ones so I would have to move it from there.
Like my final product I have used puffs and pugs to make sure that people look in the
magazine.
Preliminary task Final product

15. Preliminary task Final product
My contents page for my preliminary task is very boring, there is no pictures on there making it
plain and not interesting so it don’t give you an insight to the magazine. I have improved this
with my final product as there are three photos on there making it look exciting. I also made the
mistake of only have 7 pages and not even a page number on the contents page, with my final
task I then made sure that my magazine looked realistic with up to page 57. I made sure that
when making the contents page I wouldn’t do any of these errors.

16. Question 8: How successful do you feel your end product is in fulfilling the task? How
well does it fit the brief?
Overall I am happy with my magazine as I think that I have tried to create the pop / indie style to
it. I have tried to do this with influences from magazines mainly Billboard has been the most that
I have looked at for inspiration on my magazine. I have kept a colour scheme all the way
throughout it as I said I would do from the start as I thought it would look more professional. I
also tried to appeal to my target audience as much as I could by using people who are stylish and
who people aim to be like. So I thought using the colours and models I did made it more for the
young adults rather then people above 30. I feel that the most thing I am impressed with is my
double page spread. I feel like I am mostly impressed with this because I have had the idea from
the start so as I knew exactly what I was doing it has worked out fine, also fitting in with my other
pages with the colour scheme.