My Final Products.

Front Cover

Contents

Double Page Spread

Evaluation Question 7.

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
My preliminary task:                                                                My music magazine cover:

Overall I am generally pleased with how my magazine pages turned out although during the process of making it I did have to ask for help from the people around me while editing and creating which was very helpful as it meant I could have other peoples creative input while on the magazine and also comments on what I could do to improve from my peers. If I was not sufficient or successful in finding out how to do something on either photoshop or on blogger I did find it useful to google it to try and find out for myself. This was useful when I had to try and embed my prezis and youtube videos into my blog posts as I had never done it before. This made me complete my work more efficiently as it helped me develop my technological skills and also allowed me to finish my work to a high standard.

However, from looking at both my preliminary task and my music magazine I think something I could possibly improve on is on including more images on my magazine which could attract a wider audience. This was also something that was picked up on in my audience feedback on my final products so it also shows how useful the information collected was.

Evaluation Question 6.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
The following prezi presentation will show all the different technologies I have used throughout this project and whether I found them useful and also how I used them. Most of the technologies I have discussed were new to me so I had no previous experience of using them which was quite hard and challenging at the beginning.

Evaluation Question 5.

How did you attract/address your audience?
The main way I attracted my audience was through researching what well known artists and groups my target audience would be interested in to try and have them included somewhere throughout the pages of the magazine that I created. This was done by using websites like these-

• CMT
• last.fm
• Rolling Stone

When I completed my products I went and asked 15 people who were originally part of my market research (out of 24) to see whether they would buy my magazine if it were in a shop. These are the results-

As you can see 12 out of the 15 people I asked said they would buy the magazine. This shows me I was quite successful with targeting my audience as the majority were happy with paying £3.99 for it.

Audience feedback

I also asked someone in my target audience to take part in a feedback questionnaire and asked them 7 questions which were-

1. What genre of music does this magazine display?

2. Does this magazine attract you?

3. What parts of the magazine attract you?

4. What age group would you say this magazine is aimed at?

5. Which part of the product stands out to you?

6. How could I improve it?

Here is a video showing the answers my participant gave-

This video is useful as it describes exactly what this member of my target audience thought of my product and also how it could be improved. This was useful as it directly showed me how my product could be improved for next time and also the parts that were successful about it.


As a way of attracting my audience through the colour scheme I decided to go with the colours blue, red and yellow. These are conventionally seen as stand out colours on magazines as the yellow would draw the eye of the reader, the blue tones matched the clothes that the model was wearing so showed continuity again with the red nail varnish. I wanted the cover to look distinctly country so my audience would be able to recognise it as 'CW' and country without having to look at the masthead. This is why I went with hay as a setting with cowboy boots, denim and plaid shirt which are all stereotypically country items. I think this helped solidify the genre as it means it can immediately be identified as country.

Overall I think I was successful in attracting the right audience as all my audience research shows that it was appealing to the right type of market especially with the plug as Taylor Swift is one of the most successful country/pop singers therefore I thought it was important for her to be included as that plug of winning the free concert tickets would appeal to a wide range of people and the majority of my target audience.

Evaluation Question 4.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

Evaluation Question 3.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
For this question I had to look for an institution that didn't already print a music magazine based around the genre of country style music and aimed at the younger generation. This was quite easy as there are not many magazines sold in the UK with this target audience and genre meaning there was a gap in the market for it with although probably with a niche audience. To start with I began researching some of the major media institutions-

Bauer Media Group:

• Publishes over 80 well known magazines (in total 570 magazines, over 300 digital products, and 50 radio and TV stations reach millions of people) with a variety of styles and genres including Kerrang!, Empire and Grazia.
• 42 radio channels we are the second largest private radio provider in the UK with a market share of over 30 percent.
• Has a large audience with 19 million readers across the UK.
• Mainly brands music magazines of the punk/rock genre.
• Has been a very successful company with large profits so would be a good choice of institution.

A reason why Bauer could be a good choice for an institution as it is a well respected company with a good reputation also I know that they don't currently publish a music magazine similar to mine therefore it would be able to add more variety across the institution and also perhaps bring them a larger audience.

TimeInc UK:

• One of the UK's most popular media institutions although relatively new to the market after taking over from ICP.
• Produces a wide range of music magazines from many different genres including NME.
• Large portfolio selling over 350 million copies of magazines a year in the UK alone.

I think out of these two popular choices I would choose Bauer Media as I feel as it has a wider range of magazines already being published by them that it shows that they would be more prepared to have diversity amongst their product portfolio therefore maybe this institution is better suited to the style of my magazine. As this institution is already a well respected name it would mean that the distribution process would be easier as large supermarkets would be my ideal selling place (Tescos, Asda, Morrisons etc.) and as Bauer already represent Kerrang! which is one of the UK's best selling magazines I think it would be a benefit towards my magazine to be associated with this name. As well as the fact that Bauer have 30% of the market share in the UK radio industry therefore it would be a good way for my magazine to be promoted.
Also for the distribution process I think that having it on the internet/mobile app would be appropriate as it would mean that it would be more accessible to the younger generation who I am targeting for my magazine audience as most teenagers have a phone so if there was an app or well made and easy to navigate website it would drastically increase the success and popularity of the magazine as it is some thing this institution has already begun with their existing magazines. Also the fact that Bauer has a section of the website dedicated to it's social media shows that it is up to date with the best ways to reach an audience which again solidifies the reason why I think it would be best to also have Bauer to distribute my magazine.
Since the publisher was created they have steadily and successfully been able to increase range of magazines and is now sold and managed worldwide in a variety of different languages.

Evaluation Question 2.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The following prezi presentation will show how I interpreted my results into showing what my target audience should be and also try to describe how these choices came across in my magazine so they would attract the right audience.

Evaluation Question 1.

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

Throughout my pages that I created you can see that I tried to follow many of the magazine
conventions and try to also make sure that my magazine had a lot of continuity and flow by
using the same style of image, fonts, featured artists and colour schemes. This is all shown
in my prezi presentation:

Creating My Evaluation.

While writing my final evaluation I thought it was important to use different media formats as a way of answering questions.
This will involve me using both prezi and video to show my evaluation.
As I have never used prezi it will be an example of me developing my skills.

My Evaluation Guidelines.

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

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
(Find a company who does not publish a similar magazine to yours)

Who would be the audience for your media product?

How did you attract/address your audience?

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

• Write the answer below the question.
• Use data/information you have already collected.
• Look back at preliminary task, how have you developed your skills.
• Don't write an essay, use bullet points, pictures and possibly a video.

Must be completed by Easter.

Targeting My Audience for My Written Article.

From my survey that I created and collected results for it showed that most of my respondents were of the younger teenage age which means that for my article I will have to be able to try to write for this type of audience. This will be able to help me organize my layout as I will know what to try and create for to attract the correct audiences attention.

Making My Double Page Spread.

My Contents Page.

This is my finished contents page and I am quite pleased with how it turned out. It was good because it involved me using different tools that I hadn't really used before so I felt it helped me to develop my skills.
Next I need to move onto my double page spread.

Making My Contents Page.

Here is the step by step of making my contents page. I began with choosing the image and then realising that I should try and edit the image and airbrush the person featured in it to try and develop my skills and also get rid of anything that obstructed the image. This meant airbrushing under the eyes to get rid of the darker circles and brightening the hair and lips to make them stand out more. I did have some trouble trying to get it to look realistic but in the end it turned out okay. This was useful as it got me using some tools that I hadn't used yet such as the contrast/brightness and the airbrush.

At this point I began creating other areas of the contents page that wasn't the main image. This involved a little picture of the month box in the corner. I also began highlighting areas of the model's face to make them stand out more. This page also gave me a chance to use some of the other pictures I took.

At this point I began to add in the text for the articles/pages that would be in this magazine issue. This was hard as sometimes difficult to get the colours right so that they could be read easily.

This is when I decided to change the colour of my text to black as the pale yellow on the pale grey made it hard to read and this solved it and now the text is readable.

 This is my finished contents page.

How to Achieve Higher Grades.

• Be critical- rework the designs, retake photos etc...
• Show you development of your work. Accompany screenshots and images with comments.
• Frequent posts! Sometimes short and snappy is better than an extended essay.
• Use a broad range of media- Prezi, mobile video, slideshow, production shots, Goanimate.

Notes for Double Page Spread.

Both the double page spread and contents page are due on the 14th February.
The double page spread is A3 landscape.
All photographs and graphics are produced in Adobe Photoshop.
The body text is designed in Microsoft Publisher.

My Contents and Double Page Spread.

After looking at the pictures I originally took for my front cover I have decided that I will have to take some more as mine are not suitable for what I want to have.
I noticed this while trying to align my pictures on my contents page so I have organised for some more pictures to be taken with the same model at the same location.

What to include on my contents?

• Must feature content from the front cover
• Number of pages (Monthly 140-160 or Weekly 70-80)
• Panel (subscription or letter from the editor)
• Pictures
• Themes for Front Cover, Contents Pages and Double Page Spread to be the same.