AS Media Evaluation

AS MEDIA STUDIES
EVALUATION
By Megan Do

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

Question 1: Use, develop or challenge forms
and conventions.
FRONT COVER
Whilst making my final magazine I have taken into consideration
all of the conventions of a typical magazine. I learnt these
conventions at the start of year 12 and analysed Mojo magazine
to show where each convention is placed.
Shortly after analysing various magazine covers and their
conventions I used an already half made magazine to add my
own conventions such as the main cover line, cover lines,
barcode and date, etc. Both of these tasks helped to boost my
knowledge of codes and conventions so
that when I created my final magazine
cover I knew exactly what codes and
conventions needed to be featured on
there.

and conventions.
CHANGES AND DEVELOPMENTS
When it came to making a draft for an
already existing magazine, I chose NME
and used my own photography, cover
lines, main cover lines, pugs, etc, that I had
learnt from previous tasks.
Since this task and just before it I decided to go
against typical conventions of NME magazine and
other magazines like Q and Kerrang. In most of these
magazines on the front cover there are secondary
images which I decided not to include because it
made my work look more sophisticated. By only
using one image that I have taken I have challenged
typical codes and conventions of Indie/Rock
magazines. I have continued to challenge the codes
and conventions on my final draft magazine.

and conventions.
FINAL COVER (Codes & Conventions)
On my final magazine I have used a typical convention of a left third
for my masthead which shows the start of the magazine name so that
when shown on shop shelves can be easily viewable. My masthead
is placed behind my cover star as this is a typical way that magazines
place their cover stars (in magazines such as Q, NME)
I have used one image that I have taken and challenged codes and
conventions by not including any secondary images. All of my cover
lines are simple, all featuring the same colour scheme so that it is
consistent throughout. My cover star is modelled after Lana Del Rey
and Courtney Love so I looked at the style of both artists in depth to
get the look I wanted.
I also featured a 'PLUS' so that readers know who else is available in
the magazine. My main cover lines is in huge red writing so that it is
clear that it is the main story.
I also featured a pug where readers can win tickets to a festival, by
doing this it will attract readers to that direct page in the magazine
and festivals are also highly popular for young adults.
Finally, I featured typical codes and conventions needed for every
magazine, a bar code, price and date so that readers can easily see
the price and this also let's the reader know that this is a weekly
magazine.

and conventions.
INFLUENCES
For my magazine I had a couple of influences, particularly Q magazine and NME magazine. Both of
these magazine helped me to design a layout for my magazine and both of these magazines also
fit with my genre of music for my magazine, Indie/Rock.
Although both of these were my main influences I challenged them in the way that my masthead is
in a completely different colour (black) and I have used a font that I feel looks like it would be on an
Indie/Rock magazine. I didn't want my masthead to be too bold or it would distract the reader from
the cover star, which is one reason why I hid it behind my cover star. NME and Q both have short
mast heads and I challenged them both as I had a slightly longer one.
I photographed my main cover star in front of a white wall as both NME and Q do not use
backgrounds outside, they mainly use close ups, or plain background colours behind their cover
stars.
My cover lines positions were mainly inspired by Q as they are simply placed and all together on
the right hand side. From both magazines I learnt that direct mode of address is the best way to go
because it entices the reader and the cover star is then looking directly at the reader.

and conventions.
CONTENTS PAGE
The layout of my contents was heavily inspired by Q magazine. I like how in the corner
the pages numbers are clear and each story in the magazine is also very clear and are
underlined by red lines to emphasise where each story is. I took inspiration from this and
used my own red lines underneath each feature in the magazine. I also got the idea of
a 'Features' box from Q magazine and then incorporated into my own magazine.
My contents page continues to be inspired mainly by Q's contents page as
the colour scheme is consistently black, red and white which I am really fond of as it is
simple but effective.
I found that other magazines, as well as Q, such as NME use more images in their
contents pages by certain features. I took more of my own images and used two of the
ones I liked and placed them on my contents, each labelled with the number page that
they are on.
In Q magazine on the contents header there is no image used which I didn't really like
and felt like something more should be there.

and conventions.
CONTENTS
On my magazine I have placed the word 'contents'
over an image of my cover star which makes it look
like my cover star is looking at my header and makes
the header more exciting.
I have also challenged any typical contents page by
having three sections dedicated to singles reviews,
upcoming gigs and albums reviews and by doing this
I think any reader would find it easier to look for these
certain aspects rather than having to go to a particular
page, a reader can just flip to the contents to see
these things.
I have continued to use the colour scheme of red,
black and white exactly like Q magazine does which
makes the contents seem simple and not too in a
readers face.
In Q magazine there is a double page contents which
I didn't really like so I made one page instead of two
and instead of using several images, I stuck to two so
that everything fit.

and conventions.
DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD
For my double page spread, I continued to
take inspiration from Q magazine,
particularly one that featured Lana Del
Rey. On this double page spread I adored
the text in columns and the image on the
left side and text on the right but whilst
adoring this I completely went against it.
Instead, I focused on NME magazine for
my double page spread and found a
particularly good one featuring Lily Allen.
On this NME double page spread I was
fond of how Lily Allen was mainly on the
right side but floated over the left too, with
the text in columns on the left hand side.
I didn't really like the huge quote on the Lily
Allen double page spread and on the Q
one there was a lack of pull quotes so I
completely went against some aspects of
these double page spreads.

and conventions.
DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD
When it came to my own magazine I kept Q and NME in
mind for my double page spread.
I kept the idea from NME of my cover star/artist floating of
the page and instead of columns of writing, my text fits
neatly around my cover star making it look like she is
swooping the text across.
I used a pull out quote like in NME, but not as big. I placed it
in the middle of my questions so that is was clear but subtle
at the same time. I feel like a pull out quote is good in any
magazine as the reader can see what the most important
thing or a big topic is that the artist said.
I continued using the colour scheme of red, white and black
which is featured throughout my magazine so that a reader
would be comfortable with the simple colours rather than
overwhelmed. I included the typical feature of page numbers
and introduction to the article.
On my double page spread I have used an effect which is
not typically used at all on double page spreads, except for
one Q double page spread of Lana Del Rey. My inspiration
of this effect comes from this image of Lana Del Rey and I
felt that it looked so pretty that I needed to incorporate the
idea into my own work.

Question 2:
How does your media
product represent particular
social groups?

Question 2: Representing particular social
groups.
My magazine was aimed at teenagers, young adults and
generally people between 14 - 28, who are lovers of
Indie/Rock music. I studied both Q and NME magazine
carefully to help me make sure I had the correct features
in my magazine to appeal to my desired target
audience.
COVER STAR
The cover star, 'Isabella', lead singer of 'The Lionhearts' is
modelled of the artist's Lana Del Rey and Courtney Love.
The cover star does not give a lot away about herself and
has a very straight face which links to my double page
spread article. My cover star keeps her straight face to let
the readers know that she is serious and in the article based
on her there are some serious subjects, such as how she
battled depression and how she uses music as an escape
from everything else., which many teenagers can relate to.

Question 2: Representing particular social
groups.
OTHER ARTISTS
Teenagers are commonly represented as rude, rebellious and
cheeky and others as teenagers who are moody and keep their
issues to themselves.
I tried to incorporate both of these representations into my
magazine through the use of secondary images on my contents
page.
In my first image I have made my band 'Tempest' look as moody as
possible to emphasise how some teenagers typically are
represented. Many teenagers who like indie/rock music may
typically be stereotyped as looking like this and looking constantly
grumpy so I made sure I had an artist who represented this in my
magazine. 'Tempest' are a device I have used in the form of a band
to appeal to all teenagers who are moody or are care - free.
In my second image I made my artist 'Katelyn' look cheeky and she
challenges the typical representation of an Indie/Rock artist as she
claims to be and Indie Rock artist but she looks and acts like a Pop
artist. She is not a typical representation of the Indie/Rock style and
I decided to use her to challenge all typical representations and to
show that people may express themselves in other ways. The idea
of 'Katelyn' pouting is associated more with Pop artists and young
girly teenagers so by placing her in my magazine I aim to widen my
target audience.

Question 3:
What kind of media institution
might distribute your media
product and why?

Question 3: Media Institution
INDi magazine has a similar audience and genre to Q
and NME, leaning more towards Q, which are both
major distribution companies. I feel that INDi would
work well as a major distribution company and as it is
similar to Q it would be a best seller - just like Q.
I researched into one distribution company, Bauer
Media Group.
Many popular magazines have been produced by
them such as Mojo and Kerrang, as well as Q. Bauer
also distributes women magazine's such as women's
weekly and is therefore open to a lot
of different perspectives of a magazine.
Bauer have also been involved with other types of
media such as TV and film, radio, internet, etc.

Question 3: Media Institution
I have chosen Bauer Media Group as my magazine distributor.
I chose them as they supply a range of magazines such as Q which is my main
inspiration for my magazine.
Bauer Media is a multi-platform media Group which has many companies that
focus on two things - Magazines and Radio. I felt like this was suitable for my
magazine as the magazine is so similar to Q and therefore all music involved with
the magazine would feature on radios.
Bauer also distribute Kerrang magazine as well as Q and I think this would be
good for my magazine as the genre of my magazine is Indie/Rock which
fits Kerrang and Q.
Bauer also distribute Empire magazine, a TV and Film magazine which I think is
also key for my magazine as my magazine has a few pages dedicated to listings
of films.

Question 4:
Who would be the audience for
your media product?

Question 4: Media Product Audience
My magazine, INDi, is aimed at teenagers and young adults between the
ages of 14 - 29 featuring some aspects for the older generation.
I created a survey using Survey Monkey with 6 questions that people could
answer so that I got a clearer idea of my target audience.
This helped me find out what each individual liked about certain magazines
and how old they were. This also helped my find out what I needed to
include in my magazine so that it was relevant in my magazine and for my
target audience.
Both Q and NME have a similar target audience to mine so I analysed them
and thought about what it was in their magazines that appealed so much to
that particular target audience. By looking at Q I learned a lot about layouts
and text which I incorporated into my own magazine.

Question 5:
How did you attract/address
your audience?

Question 5: Attract/address your audience
COLOURS
I knew before I even created my magazine
that my colour scheme would be red, white
and black. It is primarily these
three colours as I closely studied NME and
Q and all of these three colours are used
frequently throughout both of those
magazines.
These three colours were most favoured in
my survey as well as being the three
main colours of magazines I have studied,
so I chose them. I like these
three colours as they are simple and are
not too bright for the Indie/Rock style I am
going for.
These three give a nice base colour for my
magazine and are nice on a reader's eyes,
so they are easy to look at and do not
distract from anything in the magazine,
such as the main story.
Readers that like NME and Q would be
attracted to INDi as it has the
same colours and is not too busy.

MASTHEAD
My magazine is called ‘INDi’
because it is a play on the word of
Indie/Independent which I love. I
chose this word because I wanted
my magazine to be ‘indie’ like a
unique individual.
I used black instead of red or
white, like NME and Q do because
I wanted to go against the typical
colours of a magazine masthead
and make it stand out in my own
way. I also used black because I
wanted a simple . ‘INDi’ has some
capitals and one letter not to
emphasise the uniqueness.
IMAGES
The image used for my front cover shows
the cover star making direct eye contact
with the reader (direct mode of address).
This would draw a reader in as the cover
star is looking directly at them. The image
doesn’t reveal a lot about the cover star
and a reader would be intrigued to know
more about the cover star. The cover
star’s dull facial expression also doesn’t
reveal anything and links with the story on
the double page spread.

COVERLINES
By changing some of the colours of the words
on the cover lines, such as ‘Lana Del Rey’
and other artists it gives them emphasis and
they stand out to a reader. I kept all of the
cover lines the same font size, but in capitals
so that they are clearly readable but are not
too big to distract from the main cover line
and story.
Having the word ‘free’ in red emphasises that
there are free things in the magazine, which
would also attract a reader who likes the band
who have free posters in the magazine.
By having a range of cover lines, the reader
will be attracted to the magazine as they know
it is full of content.
As well as having cover lines with more detail
such as ‘Noel Gallagher discusses his future’
there is also the feature of a ‘Plus’ on the side
showing that there is more content in the
magazine.

Question 6:
What have you learnt about
technologies from the process
of constructing the product?

Question 6: The technology from the processes
During the process of creating my product, I used a variety
of different technologies . Here are the strengths of those.
Page Plus Paint.net Publisher
An easier version of
things like Photoshop –
very easy to use and
accessible.
Full of different fonts and
colours.
Very very easy to use.
Has a range of fonts and
colours available.
Has an easily accessible
tool box on the left side
which is full of useful and
easy tools.
Easy to add fonts and re-
size images (crop, etc).
Has a cut-out studio and
a photo lab full of effects
to change images and
edit them.
Allows many layers which
can be removed and
added when I please and
also helps with where
certain images go.
Documents are easily
saved quickly as JPEG’s
when needed and as
publisher files.
Easy to save files as
JPEG’s and PDF files.
Canvas size can be
changed so that it is a
more realistic size for
magazine.
I was already familiar with
Publisher so could get
straight into doing my
work.

Question 6: The technology from the processes
Here are the weaknesses of each technology and
software I used.
Page Plus Paint.net Publisher
Sometime the cut-out
studio would not work
completely or cut-out
the correct parts.
The magic wand was
difficult to use and it
was hard to not make
images look like turtles
had eaten them.
There is a lack of tools
compared to other
software's so Publisher
is sometimes not
necessary to use.
On Page Plus, images
looked lower quality
than they do on the
computers/cameras.
Sometimes the layers
would not go over
each other or even
add.
Basic tools, etc, makes
work look less
professional.
Had to erase some
parts of the image
because the magic
wand didn’t do it fully.

Question 6: The technology from the
processes
Whilst creating my final magazine, I faced a few
difficulties.
One was that, on my front cover, I had no idea how to get
my cover star In front of the masthead and it took me
about 5 tries to get it right.
On my contents page, it took me ages to get the red lines
underneath all of my page features but eventually I did it
after about 3 hours.
Another was on my double page spread. I could not get
the text to fit around my cover star until I learnt that I
needed two copies of my cover star, one full image and
one cut-out so that the text fit around her.
Again on my double page spread, I had an issue with the
amount of text I had because not all of it would fit around
my cover star but eventually I fixed it.

processes
PHOTOGRAPHIC CHOICES
From the very start before I started
created my magazine I knew that I
wanted my cover star to have a similar
style to Lana Del Rey. I also wanted her
to have a similar style to Kristen Stewart,
an actress so I looked at different poses
she did.
I previously used someone else other
than my cover star but after some careful
consideration, my original cover star
didn’t look like she fit the style of an
Indie/Rock artist so I used her for a part
of the contents page instead.
I feel like I managed to accomplish this
look when choosing my final images of
my new cover star.
1st choice 2nd choice

processes
BLOGGER
Blogger is an easier way to manage
all of my media work that leads up to
my coursework, it’s much better than
carrying around a folder.
I think that from the very beginning I
found blogger quite easy to use as I
have used blogging websites before.
It was so easy to queue posts and
make sure that everything you need
was online whereas if it was on paper
it might get lost.
By all of my work being on blogger it
made it easier for me and my teacher
to view my posts and work quickly. It
was also really easy to log into.

Question 7:
Looking back to your preliminary
task, what do you feel that you
have learnt in the progression of it
to the full product?

Question 7: Looking back to the preliminary
task
In my preliminary task my background was considerably dull and my cover lines
were placed haphazardly around the cover star and they looked very messy.
They were also too small. My cover lines also did not all fit on one line and some
of the words had dashes to separate them between lines. My main cover line was
far too small.
I feel I have made a huge improvement since my preliminary task as my cover
lines fit neatly around my cover star and they also fill negative spaces. I have a
clear, bold main cover line and my pugs are noticeable. I also made sure
everything looked professional and made sure it looked like a real magazine.
PRELIMINARY TASK FINAL TASK

Question 7: Looking back to the preliminary
task
Looking back on my preliminary task contents, it is awful. There
are not enough page numbers for a weekly magazine and the
layout is poor. Everything about it is rubbish.
Looking at my final task I have made a huge leap of
improvement. I used Q magazine as a basis for a layout and
made everything look neat. I included secondary images more
neatly, added features and I added the correct amount of page
numbers for a weekly magazine. I am glad to say that my final
one is much better than my preliminary.
PRELIMINARY TASK FINAL TASK

Question 8:
How successful do you feel your
end product is in fulfilling the task?
How well does it fit the brief?

Question 8: How well does it fit the brief?
Overall, I am happy how my three elements have turned out. At
the start, I did not think they would look any better than my
preliminary task. I followed all of the codes and conventions of a
typical magazine similar to mine (Q and NME) as well as
challenges some conventions too. Through research I think I
have managed to make a magazine that appeals to my target
audience of 14 – 29 year olds. I have also gained experience
through using programmes such as Page Plus and in the future
I will be able to use them more swiftly and easily. I feel as
though I have made a professional Indie/Rock magazine that
fits the brief.

AS Media Evaluation

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