Evaluation Questions 1-3

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

From looking at real media products, such as music magazines, I was able to understand the construction and the techniques that were used. I was then able to apply this to my own music magazine, on my front cover, contents page and double page spread. I looked very closely at the layout of other magazines and I tried to transfer this into my own. As you can see in this example of Billboard magazine, they have used the artist’s head to cover up part of the word, I found this was very common with a number of other magazines, and saw that it was an effective layout tool. However, I felt that it took the focus away from the words around the face, as the face became the main thing on the page. Although I wanted my image to stand out I did not want any focus to be taken away from the Masthead (name of the magazine) and the cover lines around. You can see here by the circled masthead that I have not used the conventions of real media and found that for my situation doing it this way is much more effective.

Here I saw that Billboard used larger writing in a different font to the rest to make the reader see the artist’s name clearly, this is a type of lure and I felt that it was an appropriate way to attract the reader’s attention. I also looked at a number of other magazine front covers and felt that they too used lures in a number of different ways. I decided that using different shapes to attract the public’s attention enabled different parts of the magazine to stand out, as you can see from the red arrow.

The blue arrow is pointing to the barcode, issue number, website and price; this does conform with real media conventions as it shows that the magazine is professional and it is something that magazines do.

The green arrow demonstrates real media conventions as it is proving the form of cover lines within the media product. It is showing that just as real media products, my magazine is also enticing and would help to grab the reader's attention.

To eliminate the complexity of choosing an appropriate mise en scene, I used green screen technology to remove the background and insert colour rather than an actual background, this follows forms and conventions as it is similar to the Billboard magazine. I also used a lure type approach on my front cover which I found was also common on many other magazines such as ‘Q’.

 

2.    How does your media product represent particular social groups?

As my music artist is said to be 22, and had a number of years in the music industry, I feel that my media product represents teenagers who feel they wish to aspire to their idols. I feel that my product shows character and this will be noticed by the group of people. It also represents both boys and girls who are interested in either fulfilling any dream or a musical one like my magazine shows It also represents people who could be interested in trends and being able to express themselves. I feel this goes for the majority of teenagers, as many of them have an idol who they would like to become like one day.

My product follows the hyperdermic syringe theory as it is injecting information and facts about the artists within my magazine as it is an inspirational story and will make the readers feel good from reading articles within.  This represents the social group of young children deciding what they want to do in their future lives.

As my magazine is a pop magazine it is likely to be discussed between young social groups, this is likely to be young children just discovering the music industry and teenagers who are beginning to spend more time out with friends and possibly older teenagers who are in clubs listening to the music. The music and media industry will therefore be a large discussion between social groups; this is called a two- step-flow as it will therefore be spread by word of mouth to other friends and therefore my magazine would be spread to other social groups.

3.    What kind of media institution might distribute your media products and why?

I looked into a number of different media institutions and found that ‘Bauer Media’ would be the most likely magazine institution to distribute my magazine is they already distribute magazines such as Q, Kerrang and Pop. This is because the audience for my magazine is similar to those who would read these magazines. The genre and  style of my magazine is also similar to these magazines, especially when I got my colour scheme inspiration from Q.

Larger and more obvious distributors would be some such as Tesco, Asda and Sainsbury’s as they supply and distribute all types of books and magazines, another large distributer is WHSmiths, this would attract a large audience, including people who would be likely to buy my magazine.