evaluation

1. MY MUSIC MAGAZINE
EVALUATION
By Holly Bidgood

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

3. My magazine both follows and goes against the conventions of of popular music magazines. it does this in
many ways, throughout the pages that I have created, this includes the front cover, contents page and double
page spread.
Starting with the front cover, I decided to follow the conventions of having my masthead at the top my
magazine, this was because during the product research; analysing the different covers made me want to
follow the generic conventions as this was what seemed to look professional and stylish.
By having a three colour principle, I feel that it helps connect the pages of my magazine and creates a theme
throughout it. Furthermore, as I wanted to dress my model in a certain way, I thought that by recreating the
colour of her clothes in the text throughout my magazine, it would make the aesthetics pleasing to the target
audience.
I went against convention by the mode of address of the model. Conventionally, the model would look directly
into the lens of the camera, examples of this would be in Billboard magazine and Kerrang. I chose to go
against this convention because I think that it puts across my genre (Indie) in a more artistic way.
I decided not to use any other images on my front cover as I thought that it made it look very cluttered and
unprofessional. Moreover, I felt that the simplicity fitted with the genre also. It made it feel laid back non
complicate and like no other. Additionally, I found out in my audience research that more people preferred to
only have one image.
When looking at my contents page, I followed conventions by having the header at the top of my page, this
then tells the reader immediately what is going to be on this page. The other magazines that I researched
also has the header at the top, I felt that this made my page have an order to it so that it still looks formal.
I also kept a simple background in order to keep the focus of the reader on the text itself. Furthermore, if there
was a more complex background, it would be hard to read the font, as the range of colours would clash.
Whilst creating my contents page, I wanted this to be different from the other magazines that I had analysed.
this is because I felt that my genre is all about being different, so I wanted to incorporate this into my double
page spread. Firstly, rather that having the left page dedicated to the artist (an image of them) I had text on
both of the pages. This was a detailed article about my artist, Alesi Blurr. This is because when reading other
magazines articles, i felt the lack of detail made me want to read more, which was not possible and no further
information was given in the magazine.

4. How does your
media product
represent
particular social

5. My magazine is aimed at an audience with the age range of
15-26. This is because with the information inside and the
quantity of it, I feel that younger reader would get bored and
uninterested in my product.
In addition to this, the front cover has cover lines of bands that
are aimed at older people rather than pre-teens and the older
generation. On my front cover I mention the Reading festival,
this is popular with people ages 16+, meaning that teens eager
to see the line-up would be interested in reading my
magazine.
With the introduction of a lesser know artist (Alesi Blurr) people
will become interested and wanting to know more about her,
the look of her is around 18-20 drawing in the slightly older

6. Who would be the
audience for your media
product and how are
you
attracting/addressing
your audience?

7. My audience would be both males and females between the
ages of 15-26. I address this by including both male and female
artists in my magazine, this means that there is a balance in the
articles that take place within the magazine. By including recent
and upcoming events, this attracts the people who
are interested in them; for example the chance to with tickets to
a new artist. As the artist is in her late teens, this is the age as to
who it would appeal to. Bright colours are used as this fits in
with my Indie genre and the age range that I have chosen. The
colours rage and therefore appeal to both genders. The use
of language is formal with no slang incorporated into it, I think
that the use of slang would be inappropriate towards my
target audience as it this magazine is aimed at older people.

8. What are you learning
about technologies
from the process of
constructing this
product?

9. Whilst creating my magazine, I found that the main program that I
used was Photoshop. This meant that I had to learn from scratch as I
have had no previous usage of the program. I learnt how to use
Photoshop which at first was hard. By using tutorials on it I quickly
learnt how to adapt the photos that I took in order to make them look
more professional and polished. One of the main tools that I used on
Photoshop was the spot healing tool. It meant that I could remove
impurities on the photos that i felt made it look less professional.
Additionally, I learnt how to select photos and place them on different
background, this came in useful when creating my front cover.
Furthermore I learnt how to create links and upload
Prezi presentations onto my blog in order to make it more interesting.