This summarizes a student's media magazine project evaluating their process and final product. 1) The student created a music magazine focused on the R&B genre, using the band N-Dubz as inspiration. Models were styled after band members and brick walls were used to represent the genre. 2) The magazine represents a social group of R&B fans through the models' attitudes and expressions on the cover. 3) Distributors like Bauer Media or Holborn Publishing Group would be suitable since they target similar youth audiences and have experience with music magazines. 4) The target audience is teenagers interested in pop and R&B artists that would enjoy interviews and free posters in the magazine.

1. Evaluation

2. 1: In What Ways Does Your Media Product Use, Develop or Challenge Forms and Conventions of Real Media Products?

3. Masthead- For the masthead of my magazine cover I used an ordinary font from Microsoft Word; ‘Gill Sana Ultra Bold Condensed’. Looking at ‘NME’ magazine, they also use a clear bold font with no background, leaving the text to stand alone. I used this for inspiration for my cover by having clear capitalised text. I kept the colour of my magazine white to make it stand out on my background and to keep it simple like the ‘Q’ in ‘Q Magazine’.

5. Written Content- In my contents page I followed the conventions of a normal magazine by having an editor’s note featured. I used more formal language for this so that it is clear and easy for the reader to follow. I wrote it making sure I included what would be in this month’s edition and finished with ‘until next month!...’ hoping that the audience would buy it again. On my double page spread I was much more informal throughout the interview and wrote in the language of the stars being questioned. I did this so that my artists can be seen for who they really are and appeal to my youth audience. I did an introduction for my audience so they knew what was to be expected and to set the scene, making them feel part of it. This is the editors note from the Q Magazine edition I used when analysing a music magazine.

7. For my contents page, I kept it simple with only an image that again linked to the main story from the front cover, which is the months featured article. The only other images were the two free posters to draw the audience in. All the information I included where in set out boxes next to each other which gave it a clear indication of what was what as I headed both boxes with ‘Interviews’ and ‘Inside Monthly’.

9. As you can see from the images above, my magazine is similar to that of social groups on the covers of magazines from ‘Q’. They share the same facial expressions to that of my models and especially from the Russell Brand edition of ‘Q’, the way he is postured and the way he is holding his hand is similar to that of Jack on my front cover. The lighting when you look more closely at my magazine on the blog, you will see that the lighting is brighter around the main artists and the background is darker, much like this ‘Q’ cover whereby they seem to be brighter like they also have a spot light on them. Overall these elements form a type of RnB, largely attitude based social group. They represent a type of different social group in their actions and faces rather than standing completely normal and out of character, they are very much in character.

10. 3: What Kind of Media Institution Might Distribute Your Media Product and Why?

11. I think that a media institution that might distribute my magazine would be a company such as ‘Bauer Media’. This is because they tend to aim their audience around similar ages to what mine is targeted at. They own magazine’s such as ‘Q’ and ‘Kerrang’ and the radio station ‘Kiss’ therefore are well known by the world of media and these magazines are for the younger audiences; the youth much like mine. They have experience in running a brand with over 80 influential brand names covering a diverse range of interests and engaging 19 million consumers every week, so therefore would be able to successfully get ‘Playlist’ into the media world. Another distributer that would be useful is Holborn Publishing Group (IPC) because they had a magazine known as ‘Number 1’ that was based on more pop music like my magazine genre which includes pop along with RnB and was aimed at 13-19 year olds much like my target audience of the teenager stage.

12. 4: Who Would Be The Audience For Your Media Product?

13. The headphones she is wearing imply she is a big music fan. My readers as you can see from the image are teenagers who are also students. Their types of music include pop and RnB and they tend to listen to bands such as N-Dubz, Tinie Tempah, Drake, Lady Gaga and more. The bold colouring of the font on the front would attract them and then inside the mix of bold colours being purple and red with white stand out. They tend to buy CD’s and posters of their preferred artists and would attend a few concerts a year. With my magazine there are interviews which they would look for in a magazine and free posters included that they would normally buy.

14. 5: How Did You Attract/Address Your Audience?

15. Front Cover Clear, bold font with the play button for the ‘a’ gives it an effective catch Snappy catch line Lighting brighter for main artists and brick wall shows the genre more The characters are showing more attitude, appeals to target audience Bold colouring, stands out on page Tells us who else in the magazine, which are popular artists at the moment Snappy catchline

16. Contents The competition may attract my audience especially as the prize is to win a day with an artist Another image of my primary lead giving away a little more on the band The monthly features give the audience lots of things to look at and do, being youth’s they like to be entertained Special features such as interviews with chart artists makes the reader want to find out more A poster for both male and female audience plus they are free

17. Double Page Action images so my audience isn’t bored by posed images but may relate to the fun side of the band Interview written exactly how the band spoke to the interviewer, meaning my youths can understand them easily Quotes from the band stand out so can read these first Gives readers a chance to know general things they want to know about the band they might relate to

18. Audience Feedback Video above presentation

20. From the boys, maybe chose a different colour rather than purple and arranged the double page better so that the images were more dominant than the text. Text made less dominant Aligned text down side

21. 6: What Have You Learnt About Technologies From The Process of Constructing This Product?

22. This is the laptop that constructed alot of my magazine on. The main thing I used was the computer’s at school but all the planning, gaining my pictures and evaluating was done on this. I used my Epson camera to gather all my images on, which some I then went on to edit using the website Picnik. I used a memory stick that helped me transfer the work I had completed to do with my magazine at home’ like my images to transfer to the school computer to put into my magazine.

23. My magazine was completed using Macromedia Fireworks. Here I was able to add on effects, shapes and form my magazine. Slideshare was used to upload my PowerPoint slides I had made onto which then allowed me to put them onto my blog. Picnik is the website I used to edit pictures for my magazine. I used it mainly for making images brighter and clearer.

24. This is Windows Live Movie Maker, where I edited my videos. Blogger is what everything I have done with my media coursework is placed on. All my planning and presenting was done on here. From the technologies I have shown above, I have learnt alot about many of them. Before starting media I didn’t know what Blogger or Slideshare was and I wasn't sure about how to use Fireworks or Movie Maker. I now feel I can use this again in the future without any problems which may help with a future career path.

25. 7:Looking Back At Your Preliminary Task, What Do You Feel You Have Learnt In The Progression From It To Full Product?

26. By looking at both of these, I have learnt alot about using the technology of Fireworks and editing of pictures. For example my music magazine image has a brighter focus on the artists whereas they are much darker in my school magazine. I have spent more time looking at real magazine and doing research for my music magazine; whereby there is an issue number, barcode and price.

27. You can see how much I have learnt from the difference in these contents pages. I have made my music magazine much more complex and especially in the images I have learnt how to use the tool to quickly cut around things. For example the background has been taken away from the band in my music magazine but the images in my school magazine still have their backgrounds which are irrelevant. In both the contents and front cover I have learnt how to get a better shadow and glow to make a greater effect and they have much more complexity unlike the school magazine that I did at the start of my media course which is more simply and plain.