Evaluation of media

Product
By Matthew Pickhaver
 In what ways does your media product use, develop or
challenge forms and conventions of real media products
My media Product has many forms and conventions that are similar to real media products. The location of my title is in the top right
hand corner of the front page, which is where many other popular magazine have there's ( like Q, Vibe and NME ). This keeps it familiar
to readers making it simpler. They normally use just black text and occasionally a white background. The font I have also used it
different to other media products as it has a more teenage fell to it, who are my target audience. Many hip-hop media products have just
a main picture on there front page and descriptions of the other stories in the magazine on the sides. I have got a similar design except I
also have a picture to go along with one of the other cover lines on the right-hand side. The colour scheme I have used challenges
conventions of real media products because they are not colours that you would usually see in a music magazine. Normally magazines
use the colour black for there magazines, but for my contents page and my double page spread I have used a black box and the write
other it in green. Magazines also use smarter fonts for they’re text, but for my front page and contents page I have used the font aaaiight
for my cover lines on my front page and then on my contents page when writing the stories and the page numbers. My reason for using
this font is due to the fact that it makes the magazine look more fun while also having a street feel to it, making it more appealing to the
audience. With my barcode I have used conventions from real media products and placed it within one of the bottom corners of the
front page. I have also wrote the date of release and the price of the magazine next to it which some magazines choose to do. I have
however used my colour theme with it by writing the date in green and then writing the price of the magazine in black. I have also used
effects on the photos in my magazine. The effect i used for my double page image is Fresco, which has made it look slightly like a
sketch while also keeping like a realistic photo. I have also used an effect on the main image to make it black and white. Many real media
products don’t tend to use effects of their imagery, especially on their front page images, making my magazine different to theirs. My
magazine also has a theme within it which is a cartoon man hold a can of paint and spraying. Although some magazines may have a
theme, I have had mine being associated with another thing on the page. I have made it look like the cartoon man is spraying on the
page number in the bottom right hand corner of the page. I had to make the page number look like a piece of graffiti due to this effect
and so I used the font Graffonti and coloured in the inside of the number green (going along with the colour scheme of my magazine). I
therefore challenged a real media product convention and I feel has paid off well.
How does your media product represent particular
social groups?
 The genre of my magazine is Hip-hop/R&B so I had to try and get my magazine to focus on the target
audience of this genre. The audience I targeted was between 13 to 25 and mainly male so I had to use
conventions that have be suitable for them. The first thing I did was choose a suitable colour scheme.
From my questionnaire results I found that black was liked in all of the colour schemes, meaning that
this was popular among my target audience. The two most popular colour schemes were black/red and
black/blue but I decided to go with black/green as I thought it would suit the genre better, with it still
being popular with my target audience. Also with the colour green it makes it stand out more, making it
more eye catching to people. The next thing I had to do was choose the right models and have them
wearing the right clothing. I made sure that my models were of a similar age to my target audience so
that they could fell more connected to the story. The clothing that my models wore were of jeans, a
hoodie and a long sleeved t-shirt. This is clothing that my target audience tend to wear. I priced my
media product at £1.99 as it is a price that is quite expensive but I feel that it represents my target
audience well as most of them will be working at this age so they would be willing to spend this much on
a magazine. For my main story I had a young male artist who had made it big time in the music industry.
This would be more suitable for my target audience as it they would have more of a connection to the
artist than someone who is female or older or both.
What kind of media institution might distribute your
media product and why?
 A good media institution to distribute my music magazine would be WWMD (Worldwide Media
distribution Ltd). WWMD distribute many genres of music magazines, including my genre Hip-hop/R&B,
making it a well know and well trusted media institution. They do all magazines possible so they would
like to take on another magazine, especially of which that would be aimed across a wide arrange of the
population. It is also a media institution that has experience in distribution, and also do there fair share
of Hip-hop magazine distribution.
Who would be the audience for your media product?
 The target audience for my music magazine have be teenagers and young adults, mainly between the
ages of 13 and 25 and of the male gender. My target audience would fit under the classification of D in
the NRS system. My reason for choosing this is because these people tend to be part of the working
class with lower paid jobs. This tends to aim at the younger age groups, which is within my target
audience range.
How did you attract/address your audience?
 The first thing I did to try and attract my audience was to have colours that have make it stand out from
others. I chose green as it is a bright colour but also makes the magazine have its Hip-hop feel to it
mixed with the black. With these colours it makes it much more eye catching to the audience, with them
likely to come to my magazine first. The next thing I did was have a story in which the audience have be
interested in. My main story I’ve decided to go with the Hip-hop star bringing in a new young star. The
fact that there is a young star involved, who it within my target audience range, gets them more
interested as they have like to read a story about someone who is of a similar age to them. The next
story I had was a rivalry between two artists. This is a big news story that readers would like to find out
more about it. It is also a story that doesn’t seem to feature in magazines often so having it in mine
would make it much more interesting than to other magazines. I also had my fonts have a connection to
the genre of the magazine with them having a street feel to them yet also making it more fun. There are
no music magazines with the same font of which I use and my font is more teenage friendly so they are
likely to choose my magazine before they go looking for another one. It have also have the reader know
what genre the magazine is straight away, without them having the need to go looking for it and possibly
finding another magazine. My main image on the front page is in black and white, making it different
from other magazines. Most magazines tend to be in colour so with mine being in black and white it have
make it stand out more than others.
What have you learnt about technologies from the
process of constructing your product?
 I have learnt to use many new technologies while constructing my media product, such as Scribd and
Photoshop. I have also learn more about my blog as well and finding out more things I can do with it.
Scribd I had never heard of before the start of all this, but throughout the course of constructing my
media product I have learnt what it is and how to use it to put documents onto my blog. It has made it
much easier for me to download my work straight to my blog, allowing me to spend more time on
constructing my product. I have learnt to use this in the future if I ever need tio upload a document up
onto my blog in the future now that I know how to use it. Before I started my project I was aware of
Photoshop and had used it before, but my knowledge was very limited. As I went along however, I was
able to learn new skills such as the use of effects you can use on imagery and text. I have learnt that
there are effects that can make pictures look like it had been hand drawn and all effects that can make
images look slightly like paintings. I also now know that there are layers of which there are different
images and text and that when you want to put layers together you are able to do this via the merge
option. Blogspot I have already knew how to use before the start of this media project but I have learnt
out more about during the course of my work. I have no learnt that I am able to add lots of things to my
blog such as polls, which then people who come to visit the site can vote on. Another site I learnt about
and learnt how to use during the construction of my media product is a website called dafont.com. On
this site there are many different fonts that aren't already available on your computer. You are able to
just download a font off this site and onto your computer with ease and has shown me I can go looking
for font on this site if I am not happy with what is already available to me.
Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you
feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the
full product?
 From looking back at my preliminary task I can see that I have learnt a lot in the progress into making my
final product. The first thing I can see that I have learnt is what I have learnt from the research about
magazines in the way they are set out. I have seen that you have to set out you magazine in the ways to
attract your audience in order to catch their eye. Colour schemes and fonts are an important factor to
attracting your audience, and you cant just keep it simple so that they are familiar with it. You need to
make your different to others and make it suit them as much as you can, by making it as unique as you
can. This shows that you need to put in the time and effort to plan your magazine. I spent much more
time planning my full product than I did in my preliminary task and the difference in the end has shown
how important this is. When constructing my front page and contents page for my full product I learnt to
make use different layers for everything and then when I was happy with certain things I would merge
the layers together. An example of when I did this was with my pug, I placed the shape where I wanted it
to be first and then wrote the text after and then when I was happy with them I merged both of the layers
together. This makes it much easier to move them later on if I am unhappy with where they are. Another
thing I have learnt is using effects on images to make them how you want. I used an effect on my
contents page with the one of the images to make it look more like a painting made by a spray can,
going along with the genre of my magazine.