Media Evaluation

1. Evaluation
Declan Cook

2. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?
My front cover challenges the conventions of a regular magazine by not
having one solid colour as the background. This can be done on Photoshop
by selecting the main focus head and cropping them onto a blank project
and changing the layers behind it into a solid colour. To make it more
professional the colour can be faded and shaded accordingly.
Another way my front cover challenges convention is by having the cover
lines all in one corner of the magazine instead of around the figure head and
layered separately so it is around the whole cover. I did this because the
colour of the background one not a solid fill so no matter what font and
colour used some was unreadable.
By having the establishing statement I am following the convention of
magazine covers as it allows my readers to know something special about
the magazine compared to others. Its what I show to let people know my
magazine is something unique.
Again by having the splash with a special offer price or just the price in
general I am again following the conventions of a magazine. By having it
there it gives my readers either extra incentive to buy or a reason to buy
the magazine. For example the magazine is only 25p so it gives them a
reason to purchase.
I chose to add the date to my magazine front cover so readers know
when it came out and whether its worth buying due to its printing date.
I also have the date and issue number on my contents page so when
readers turn the page they are again reminded of what date the
magazine was released. This is identical to most magazines.
The mast head is in a unique font so readers are aware can make a connection
between this product and my others if I choose to produce more.

3. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?
• By having smaller version/picture of my front cover on the inside of my
contents page it follows and develops that convention as it remind the
reader what issue they are reading and if they have read it before in a
glance rather than looking at the date and issue number.
• I have used the date and issue number on my contents page as a
secondary reminder to the readers what issue it is. This is both
simultaneously challenging and developing the conventions as you
normally have one or the other as well as the front cover however I have
all three.
• Having the main three images challenges the convention of having one
main image for you large feature article. However I used three images
from a smaller article as the pictures are relevant to the magazines issue
more so than having a singular larger image.
• I am challenging the conventions of medias typography by having more
than three fonts. This will likely be changed in the final design as it makes
the page look messy and hard to read.
• I have followed and developed the conventions of the layout of a
magazine by having three varied columns with different headlines and
page numbers relating to various articles.

4. How did you use new media technologies in
the construction of your media product ?
Screen Shots from Photoshop & Quark
I used two media technologies, Photoshop & Quark, in the
construction of my media product. I used photoshop to
create the front cover by taking a picture of my person and
then using things such as the text tool, create a shape tool,
the freeform tool and the colour tool with blending options.
I used these as it created a semi-professional magazine
cover with room for improvement.
I used Quark to create my contents page. I used techniques
such as free form, rotating and resizing, text tools an the
ability to add images and manipulate them to how they
would look good on the page. There are obvious errors in
my contents from the lack of colour in the background, the
excess of white/blank space and the complete lack of layout
design mainly aimed towards the centred three images
making the contents look amateur.

5. What are the strengths and weaknesses of both
the product and your use of new media
technologies?
Strengths:
• My main strength when using
Photoshop was knowing how to
centre and change the colour of
certain layers/objects to make
everything line up.
• A strength with my product is that
it includes many conventions of
popular magazines if not all that
are applicable.
• My contents page has had a clear
attempt at a layout with three
columns showing understanding of
positioning.
• The main images are all in focus
with correct shadows and lighting.
Weaknesses:
• The big weakness was using quark
and not understanding how the
programme worked. This meant
that it looks unprofessional.
• The weakness on my front cover
would be how the background
clashes with almost every font and
colour of the cover lines meaning I
had to add a coloured box
effectively making it look amateur.
• Whilst using Photoshop I could not
make the coloured box look less
garish therefore reducing the
quality of the front cover.
• The images used on the contents
page were too similar and if not
told otherwise you would think
they were the same images..