Main Task

Evaluation

 There are many forms and conventions of real media displayed throughout my music magazine. For example on of my models on the cover is looking directly at the audience making the readers feel as though they are being addressed directly by the magazine. I have the date and price of the magazine situated on the front of the magazine which is found on almost every conventional magazine. My magazine models are roughly the same age group as the target audience which will appeal to the audience because they will feel that the topics inside the magazine are relevant to them personally. They are both dressed in the ‘indie’ style, the same way many of my target audience dress which also helps to make the reader feel that they have a connection with the magazine.

 My magazine also challenges some of the conventions of real media. For example the images I have used have not been edited to change the models appearance in any way e.g. the use of spot removal, touching up dark patches of skin/hair etc. Most magazines use edited pictures to complement their cover model in a way that makes the magazine appeal to their audience. But I have refrained from doing this because it gives my magazine the ‘rough, un touched indie’ feel that most readers would want to obtain from reading the magazine.

 My media product is aimed at teenagers both male and female between the age of 16 and 21. This social group- especially teenage male’s has extremely bad press within the media and I wanted to try and change that. I tried to represent teenagers within my magazine as positive role models e.g. my cover feature ‘twins on tour’ was about two teenage twins in a successful band writing music and touring up and down the country. They don’t take drugs or cause havoc like the stereotypical image of rock bands. This could be seen as an inspiring image for teenagers reading my magazine.

 Bauer Media is Europe’s largest privately owned publishing Group. The Group offers over 300 magazines in 15 countries, as well as online, TV and radio stations. The Group employs 6,400 people and had a turnover of 2.08 billion Euros in 2008. The group started in 1953 when it acquired Angling Times magazine which is still being published today.

I chose Bauer Media as my publisher because they have been around for a long time and have a lot of experience of publishing magazines and also have the resources necessary to start distributing and advertising my magazine. Because it is such a big company it is able to broadcast and advertise my magazine in many different ways- TV, radio, posters etc. A quote from the company’s website says that ‘Bauer Media reaches over nineteen million UK adults across multiple media channels.’ This would help my magazine become available to the largest possible audience and therefore maximise the profit I would hope to receive from sales.

 I attracted my target audience by including relevant articles advertised on the front cover. Because the front cover is the first thing a prospective buyer see’s it is important that it grabs their attention and interest and inspires them to read on. I also used a teenage model on the front cover because it will make the buyer feel that they can relate to the stories and music inside the magazine because they are around the same age as the bands featured. The main portion of my target readers would be male so another method I used was to include a blue font which is more masculine and as a result would appeal more to them without being too male inclined as blue is a colour that can appeal to females as well.

 Looking back over the project I can clearly see what benefits I have gathered from using technology to edit and construct my product. I have gained the knowledge of using Photoshop- something I had never used before- and whilst at first I struggled to grasp how to use the program, (which was reflected in the quality of my preliminary task) After a while I became confident at using all the different tools and features and in my opinion, this is shown in the quality of my final task. I have also learnt how to take a photo that is of good enough quality to be on a magazine front cover. This was again something I was new to at the beginning of the project and struggled with at first, but again after a while I became confident at using a camera to take photos.

 The preliminary task was an important introduction to the AS media course because it taught me how to use the software like Photoshop which I hadn’t used before, and other key techniques such as the preliminary evaluation of magazines to get an insight on features and technicalities such as magazine language (i.e. the terms used to describe different parts of a magazine- e.g. Masthead, cover line, dead space.)

 If I were to undertake the task again there were several aspects of my preliminary task that I would change. For example the editing around the head of my model is very rough where I didn’t manage to use the eraser tool very effectively. I could rectify this error by using the zoon function to highlight certain areas and edit them out more effectively. As it was the first time I had used Photoshop I was not surprised that the editing was a bit rough as I took several lessons to get the hang of all the different tools and their effects. After doing the preliminary task I now have a greater understanding of all the features needed on a magazine front cover and contents and thanks to this I was able to use them on my final task to get the highest grade possible.