The document summarizes what the student learned from creating a magazine cover media product. They learned how to use Photoshop to emphasize images and colors. They also learned how to use a blog to share work. Finally, they learned technologies help create successful final pieces and will help them in the future. Comparing their preliminary work to a real magazine helped them improve techniques like using the rule of thirds and Guttenberg diagram in their final cover design.

1. Media Evaluation James Wright

3. I used the Guttenberg diagram in my front cover by creating a sense left to right. The principle of thirds is used in my picture and this is a convention in all magazines.

4. The colours in my magazine cover are very sharp however not very bright. The use of yellow I believe makes the text stand out and gives my magazine an edge.

6. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? Harris Publications Is a magazine distributor in New York which has the big Hip Hop magazine XXL under its franchise. However the company is not mainly aimed at music as it has other magazines that it distributes. The source magazine distributes its own magazine and again it is based in New York. It is in direct competition with XXL magazine which is gaining a larger market share due to feuds between artists. The source has released its new magazine Hip Hop Weekly which is doing well and has won awards. I think somebody such as Harris Publications would distribute a magazine such as mine to challenge the weekly publication of the Hip Hop Weekly Magazine. If they had another magazine doing as well as XXL under there publication list they will gain a good reputation and will be approached more often.

7. Who would be the audience for your media product? The audience of my magazine would be generally male orientated however not too much to discourage the female reader. The reason for this is language, which is relaxed and swearing may be in the text. The age of the reader depends on interest because in my magazine there will be features that are including new artists, which encourages younger readers and there will be features about older artists which will encourage an older reader. This was all made clear in my questionnaire because the younger the audience were the more interested they seemed in the newer artists. Finally the readers will have to be interested in the hip hop culture because my genre is based around this and the genre reflects information that is given inside the magazine.

8. How did you attract and address your audience? I looked at some of the big stars that are doing well at the moment and based my magazine around these, the smaller stars are getting featured but inside the cover. This is because the more popular artists will be on the front attracting the buyers and then the smaller, newer, less known artists will be inside giving the audience information. I also attracted the audience by putting quotations such as, “new” and “free” on the front. This gives the audience a connotation that the magazine is good value and the fact you get something free attracts them even more. I address them in an informal manor making the language more relaxed and making the magazine appeal more to my target audience of younger readers. The interviews also encourage a relaxed atmosphere because the questions are informal and they interest the audience.

9. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product? I have learnt that processing images can emphasis the subject and make it look a lot better than it actually is. Learning to use Photoshop helped me create pictures which looked studio quality. The use of colours in the pictures can be made to look better and more realistic. The use of Photoshop has given me the technical skills of how to create an image which is poor at the start but looks amazing when finished. I also have learnt how to use a blog, this is were I could put all my work and the teacher could view it easily and efficiently. My putting publisher documents into JPEG files I was able to show pictures of my analysed work on the blog. Finally I learnt these technologies to help me create my final piece. These were crucial to making my work a success and I will be able to use these skills in the future.

10. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product? In my preliminary task I have looked at and used a lot of different techniques in making my final product a lot better. Even though I did use some techniques of a magazine front cover, a lot of other things were needed to make it a success. In my first draft my preliminary project was used a lot, however I looked at the differences of mine and that of a modern magazine such as The Source. On my blog I had a lot of images which I had analysed and this gave me help in producing a better final piece. There was many mistakes such as I didn’t use the principal of thirds well and that I didn’t use the Guttenberg Diagram, however I did look at thee and incorporated them into my final piece. I learnt from the mistakes and I believe this helped me produce a better final piece of work.