1. MEDIA EVALUATION
Question 1:
‘In what ways does your media product use,
develop or challenge forms and conventions
of real media products?’

2. Answer
The media product that I have created is a music magazine.
The title of the magazine that I have created to use in my
media product is directly linked to the music industry, I named
it ‘Stereo’ as this has connotations to music and it is short; this
means that it is easy to read and direct to the reader. I
designed a colour scheme of black, white and grey, this helps
bring out the modern appeal of the magazine- I discovered
that during my market research, people wanted a modern
magazine. I have kept the overall appeal of the magazine as
clear and concise as possible in order to simplify what the
target audience reads. A sans serif font was used for my main
text as this also related to the modern texture that I was after,
this helped the magazine become easily readable.

3. For the media product that I have created, I
have used the Guttenberg Design Principle
and a professional house style to give the
effect of a well-made magazine. To use the
Guttenberg Design Principle I placed my
most important text- being my masthead in
the top left hand corner of the page, this is
so it strikes the reader instantly. Therefore,
in the bottom right hand corner, I have
inserted the barcode. As important as this is
to complete the overall look of a real
magazine, it isn’t important to the
magazines main content for the reader.
Once again, this was all typed in a sans serif
font. The house style of my music magazine
uses a modern triage of colours being black,
white and grey incorporated into a gradient
across the page. I found these types of
colours during my market research, in other
music magazines such as NME that uses Image Demonstrating the Guttenberg Design Principle
these types of colours to reflect on their
target audience.

4. I professionally took photos in a
photography studio to give me a high
grade of good quality photos. Using the
rule of thirds technique, I made sure
that my photos were well balanced and
that the entire main points of interest
were included. The photos of the
person being photographed were given
props selected by me such as a
wooden guitar that helped me gain the
most out of the photos. I discovered
that during my market research, these
types of props would have been used
in a band image; this is along with the
use of the rule of thirds which I found to
be used in many of the magazines I
looked at. After looking at previous
examples of music magazines such as
NME and Q I discovered that many of
their artists used props in their images.

5. The image editing that I have used
on my images are things such as the
colour replacement tool and the
sport removal tool. I firstly used the
colour replacement tool in order to
change the colour of the clothing on
the person I photographed. I
changed the colour of his jumper
from a red to grey; this was done so
it would match my main house style
colours of black, white and grey. This
also helped me to encompass the
sleek and modern look of my
magazine as preferred during my
market research. I finally used the
sport removal tool to remove any
blemishes or spots to give the image
a much cleaner and professional
look.

6. Overall, I feel that I have been successful in developing many of
the conventions used in my media product and that I have been
able to learn a lot from developing a magazine through the
creating and market research that I conducted in order to create a
successful media product.

7. QUESTION 2
‘How does your media product
represent particular social
groups?’

8. Answer
For the media product that I have created, I wanted to create a
magazine that was aimed at a target audience of teenagers to
young adults as I discovered during my market research that this
is what was most wanted by participants. I also wanted the
magazine to be aimed at these particular social groups as this is
who would be most likely to listen and be interested in the genre
of Indie-Rock; the type of magazine I was creating. I would say
that this music magazine is preferably aimed at men; I believe
that this gender would gain the most out of the magazine. To
help me create this music magazine, I used a young person to
take my photos of. This was the focal point of creating my main
piece for my magazine. Furthermore, I used a young male to
take photos of; this helped me create a music magazine aimed
at a young target audience for men.