Evaluation

Question 1 –

http://www.slideshare.net/KateParsons/media-evaluation-1-11990962

How does your media product represent particular social

groups?

Representation - The description or portrayal of someone or something in a particular way or as being of a certain

nature.

Who is being represented?Whilst constructing my magazine I kept in mind who my target audience were, and

how I would represent them within each page of my magazine. I ensured that I

didn’t just use stereotypes but instead I used a wide range of representations so

that they would apply to a wide variety of people. • Gender – When planning and designing my product I did some research on the type of

customer that I was aiming to reach. I came to the conclusion that because my genre is pop, this doesn’t tend to appeal to the male audience. I have therefore, created my magazine so that it represents more of a female side than a male side. This doesn’t mean that my magazine will only appeal to females as some males may want to read this magazine, but it does mean I have a smaller demographic.

• Race – My magazine is not aimed at one particular race, therefore it should appeal to a multicultural audience.

• Age – My chosen age group is 14-20. This is however, just a rough outline as I hope that my magazine will appeal to a wide range of ages.

• Class – My magazine is a feasible price which is competitive but fair. This means that I am making it available for anyone of any class. I have also ensured that it applies to all people from any walk of life.

• Clothing – I have ensured that all clothing used in all of my images relates to the genre and the style of dress that is typically worn by my target audience this will make the viewer feel involved and as if this is the perfect magazine for them to purchase.

What kind of institution might distribute your media product and

why?

The production process.

This is the production process that I used to create my magazine.

• Ideas – I began by brainstorming ideas and thinking about the type of demographic I would be aiming to reach as well as what genre I would represent.

• Research – I did wide range of research. I looked at existing media products, created a questionnaire and found videos, photos and drawings of things that gave me inspiration for my product.

• Flat plans – I created these flat plans so that I could completely plan how my final piece would be. They were rough sketches that could be changed, but the initial ideas would stay pretty much the same.

• Making – Whilst making my product I followed my flat plans closely, but did make some minor changes. • Distribution – Now that my magazine is created it would usually be published and distributed my a publishing

company. This would mean that my magazine could be bought in many shops perhaps worldwide.

• COMAG is one of the largest newsstand distributors in the UK.

• The largest exporter of English magazines• They supply magazines to over 80 countries around the

world. • It was formed in 1977 • It’s owned by two major magazine publishers - The

National Magazine Company and Conde Nast Publications. These publishing companies produce well-known brands including Cosmopolitan, Vogue, Men’s Health, Glamour, Reveal and GQ.

• COMAG distribute a large range of magazines, partworks and sticker and trading card collections to news retailers

Why would COMAG distribute ‘Iconic’?

COMAG tend to distribute fashion magazines such as Vogue, Cosmopolitan and

Glamour. Therefore, you could argue, why would they want to add ‘Iconic’ to their

list of published magazines? The answer is simple –

• USP - Iconic would have a unique selling point, which the other magazines don’t have. This is music. The majority of the other magazines may have a page or two of charts or music related news, but Iconic has a magazine full of this. Iconic is very similar to the other magazine too as it does include some pages on fashion.

• TA – Iconic’s target audience is very similar to the that of the magazines named above. This would mean that the publishing companies demographic wouldn’t have to change so therefore, their ways of distribution wouldn’t have to be altered. This would be a good thing for Iconic as it would mean that it had well skilled publishers which would get it the publicity that it needed.

• Reputation – COMAG has a brilliant reputation, this is obvious due to the fact that they have these ‘big name’ magazines under their roof. This would be very important to the magazine producers as they would want to ensure that their magazine would be well publicised to create as much revenue as possible. The reputation would also then be extended to the magazine and would therefore perhaps make it more popular.

How would my magazine be advertised and where?

My magazine is very mainstream being pop. Therefore, I believe that it could be

advertised in any store as well as on the internet. As I have chosen to study the

magazine publishers, COMAG I’m going to look at how they would advertise and

distribute my magazine Iconic.

• Where? – COMAG only distribute their magazines by using newsstands. This could pose a problem with my magazine as it would need to be widely available all over the world with easy access to each issue for consumers.

• Others – There are many other magazines that are very similar to my own. They seem to advertise themselves in many different ways. Such as, on the internet (some you can even view on there without buying the actual magazine), newsstands, subscription and many others. All of these advertising possibilities are ones that I would have to weigh up if I was publishing my magazine.

• My magazine – If I had the choice I would advertise my magazine in many different ways. I would allow my consumers to pay to access it online as well as signing up to a monthly subscription or just simply purchasing it on newsstands or news agents.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

Who would be the audience for my product and how would I

attract/address them?

While planning my magazine I decided who my target audience would be, and what

I could include in my magazine that would appeal to them.

• My genre is pop, therefore my target audience is very broad. I aimed to target both males and females but mainly females. I achieved this by having a house style that would appeal directly to this target audience.

• Whilst creating my magazine I did some customer research so that I could ensure that the final product would appeal to my target audience. I created a questionnaire and distributed it to 20 people to see what their views on my ideas were. Below is a link to my questionnaire on slideshare, this can also be viewed on my blog.

http://www.slideshare.net/KateParsons/music-magazine-questionnaire-results-10373173

• I also went on to create a customer profile which outlined the type of person that might fit into my target audience. This helped me to understand how I could create my magazine to appeal directly to this person. Below is a link to my customer profile on my blog.

http://katemediablog.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/customer-profile.html

• I addressed my audience directly when I created my editoral profile. Below is a link to this on my blog.

http://katemediablog.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/hey-guys-im-kate-blonde-one-im-editor.html

Comparing my initial plans to my final products…

Overall I am very happy with how my front cover final piece has come

out. It is however, quite different to my initial plan in that –

• Masthead – I’ve used the same name and quite similar font, I did however leave the logo out as I felt that it didn’t have a place on the page and that the masthead was iconic enough for the magazine.

• Image – My initial image was of Jessie J just because I found that this depicted how I thought mine would turn out. Whilst taking my front cover pictures I found it hard finding one that was eye catching enough. Therefore the image that I have chosen is different to the one planned but still has the direct eye contact with the customer just like my initial plan.

• Lure – My lure on both my plan and my final piece is similar. I wanted it to run along the bottom where is was clear to read and would appeal to the possible buyer. On my initial plan I had intended to have a microphone running along the bottom of the page which would both draw the attention to the lure and also connote music but this didn’t appeal to me whilst making my final piece.

• Coverlines – I have stuck to the location of my cover lines pretty closely on my final piece.

Comparing my initial plans to my final products…

Overall I am very happy with how my contents page has come out.

It is however, quite different to my initial plan in that –

• Heading – The headings are both in a similar location on this page, the font however is slightly different.

• Image – My initial images were intended to be individual and I wasn’t planning on having a main image. I did find however, that whilst making my final piece I found that a main image was more eye catching especially as my image has direct eye contact with the viewer. This did however mean that my magazine had the same person photographed throughout so I decided to put a small image in the corner of this page which links to another article in the magazine.

• Text – On my initial plan I didn’t really have much text planned out, so this meant that I could decide what text I wanted as I went along. I did however make sure that the pages show on the contents page correspond to the cover lines shown on the front cover.

• Layout – The layout is relatively similar. The text, pictures and title are all pretty much in the exact place as the ones shown on my initial plan.

Comparing my initial plans to my final products…

Overall I am very happy with how my double page

spread has come out. It is however, quite different

to my initial plan in that –

• Quote – I initially planned to locate my quote in the middle of the text which is a typical convention of a pop magazines double page spread. I did initially create the page with that layout but when I did my peer assessment this was highlighted as something which needed to be changed. Therefore, I moved the quote to the top of the page so that it acts as a head to the interview.

• Text – The text is exactly how I’d planned it. The questions and answers are easily recognisable and the layout makes it easy to read.

• Image – My initial plan was to just have the image on one side of the double page spread. Therefore, I carried this idea on through to my final piece and I believe that this was a good idea because if the image was in the middle it would be on the crease which wouldn’t look very professional therefore my image is both iconic and a good size on the page.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this

product?

Whilst creating my final piece I mostly just used

three pieces of technology. These were:

• My camera – This is a Fujifilm camera and it helped me to produce high quality, professional looking images which were iconic enough to use throughout my magazine.

• Apple Mac – This enabled me to use Adobe Photoshop which was the product that I used to create all three of my magazine pages. I did find it quite hard to use as I’m not used to the way that Apple Mac’s work. It was also hard to create powerpoints on as the images would not load on a normal windows computer and Slideshare wouldn’t allow me to upload my slides on a Mac.

• My own Windows laptop – I installed a 30 day trial of Adobe Photoshop onto this which enabled me to create my pages at home and make any changes that were needed outside of lesson time.

Below are some print screens of 4 different programmes that I have used a lot during the process of making my magazine. These include – Photobucket,

Slideshare, Pixton and Bubbl.

What have I learnt from the production of my magazine?

Here is a mind map that I made using www.bubbl.us to show what I have learnt during this process.