AS MEDIA STUDIESG321

FOUNDATION PORTFOLIOEVALUATION

By Claire Walsh

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

1.

Towards the start of creating my product, I analysed a magazine in order to ascertain the basic codes and conventions I needed to involve in my own

work. http://clairewalshx.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/magazine-analysis.html

The front cover of my magazine uses the forms and conventions of a real product rather than challenge them; this is shown through the use of direct mode of address, the masthead and the features etc. I chose not to challenge them as I thought it may look less realistic and also having analysed magazines with a genre similar to mine, I found that very few challenged the conventions.I got the idea for my front cover off ‘Blender’ magazine;

I liked the way the star was in the middle of the page and the way she was blocking out part of the masthead. I felt this made the star look more dominant and made the magazine seem as though it was popular because not all of the masthead had to be shown. Most of the features on the front cover of the ‘Blender’ magazine were around the star; this is another thing I involved in my own piece.

My contents uses the conventions involved in a magazines contents page; it includes the magazines masthead to link the front page and contents together, pictures and features are included also. I got the idea for the layout of my magazine off sugar magazine, where there is a main picture in the right hand corner of the page and features around it; this is also shown in another contents page I looked at http://clairewalshx.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/front-page-contents-and-dps-link-q.html . I liked this layout as I feel it made the contents look full and exciting, which is what would make my target audience want to read it. However, as my magazine is an R’n’B magazine I wanted to include something that made it look like an R’n’B contents page, so I decided to include a picture that had ‘attitude’ in it to keep in line with my genre.

Similar to my front cover and contents page, my double page spread also uses the forms and conventions of a real life magazine and does not challenge them. My double page spread includes the basic things needed like a title for the page, the article and an image. I got the idea for my double page spread off two magazines; Q magazine and Vibe magazine. I did some research on double page spread’s in magazines and came across the one in Q magazine and found I really liked the way it looked. I especially liked the large red letter covering one page and the fact there was writing on one page and an image on the other; this is something I used in my own double page spread.

Vibe is a magazine with a genre similar to mine, so throughout creating my product it was a magazine I would constantly refer to. When doing research for contents pages, I looked at Vibe contents pages and found an image on the contents page really caught my eye; as it caught my eye I thought it only made sense to use the same sort of pose in my own magazine-however, my image with that pose was used in my double page spread rather than my contents.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?2.

The social group my magazine is aimed at is teenagers to adolescents of both male and female who enjoy listening to R’n’B music and perhaps a bit of rap. This type of social group is represented in my magazine through my images used. The images I have included of the star ‘Ava Costella’ portray her to be an attractive, confident woman with slight attitude; representing a stereotypical R’n’B/Rap social group. This could also be said for my image of the star ‘Jay Roman’; adding to this, the star is a black afro-carribbean man therefore would represent a stereotypical ‘Rap’ musician. The colours used in my magazine may also represent the social group I am portraying in my product; in the early stages of creating my product I created a questionnaire and one of my questions was ‘What colours would you associate with R’n’B’, this is the answer I got - http://clairewalshx.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/draft-contents.html By using the colours I was told in the answer to my question shows I am giving my demographic audience what they want and it helps me to make sure the colours used in my product are colours that would relate to R’n’B.

What kind of institution might distribute your media product and why?

3.

Echo would be distributed by Bauer Media; the largest privately owned publishing group in Europe, that puts most of its work and effort into magazines and radios.www.bauermedia.co.uk/

I feel Bauer Media would be the best institution to distribute my magazine, as some of the magazines it has already distributed are magazines that have popular stars on there cover or featured in some way, therefore would be targeting an audience that is a similar age to my own; adding to this, some of the stars featured are R’n’B musicians, so having Bauer distribute my magazine seems a good decision to make.Bauer Media is also seen as a big distributor and I feel Echo would be a magazine that would sell a lot as it has a mass audience.

Who would be the audience for your media product?4.

My magazine is aimed at a mass audience of males and females aged 16+ who enjoy listening to R’n’B music. I came to this decision in the early stages of creating my product;http://clairewalshx.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/draft-contents_25.htmlMy magazine includes information on new R’n’B music and old R’n’B music, therefore it would suite both teenagers and adolescents. Also as the genre of my magazine is the same as the genre for Vibe Magazine, I researched the demographic audience for that and found it was similar to mine.

How did you attract/address your audience?5.

Images;The images included in my magazine would have a major influence on how easily my audience are attracted to my product. On the front page I made sure I had an image that stood out; as my star has some skin showing, bright red lips and a face with attitude, it would automatically cause my audience to be attracted to the magazine due to the fact they are attracted to the picture. The pictures included in my contents would not only attract my audience due tothe fact they look nice, but they may also make my audience feel as though they are being addressed directly; the main image in my contents is of the star ‘Ava’ who is slightly turned yet still has direct mode of address which could perhaps make my audience feel they are being looked at and almost grasped in.PUGS&PUFFS;I have both a pug and a puff on the front page of my magazine; my puff being the ‘exclusive interview’ and my pug being the ‘free downloads’.Both of these items would make my readers feel as though they are getting information and stuff for free, therefore attracting them to the magazine and perhaps making them want to carry on buying it.

Language;My magazine entails both formal and informal language. On my front cover I have alliteration ‘Digs Deep’; although many people would not notice the alliteration, it still automatically brings my audience in more than it would if alliteration was not there, due to the fact it helps the sentence to flow more therefore the language would seem easier for my audience and they may be attracted to my product further. A question is included in my contents ‘who sung it best?’ – having a question would make my audience feel involved in what is happening in the magazine, almost as if there forced to read it as they have a question to answer.Colour Scheme;My background colour for my magazine is a grey colour going from light to dark; this colour may not attract my audience as it is not very noticeable. However, as my background colour is quite subtle, it allows the other colours I include in my magazine to stand out; e.g. The red used in the masthead and my stars lips. The colour red connoted to danger which would automatically grab attention, then as you actually look at the magazine you may be attracted to the bright red lips of the star.

This is also the same for my double page spread as the big letter and my stars lips are both red – drawing my readers in. The yellow used behind the word ‘Exclusive’ on my front cover may be seen as a way of addressing my audience; putting yellow behind it makes it more bold therefore conveying to the audience that I want them to read it

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing the product?

6.

I used Paint.Net for any editing and for the actual construction of my product.

I found that Paint.Net was great when editing pictures as there was a variety of editing techniques; adding to that I liked how layers could be removed from the page for a while whilst you wanted to edit something by itself.However there were some difficulties when using paint.net; I felt that trying to cut around a picture without it having jagged edges was quite hard even when using effects to alter it. Also the pace of the program was not the quickest which could sometimes take up time needed to do something else.My phone was another technology I used to edit photos; I liked working with photos on my phone as I was more comfortable with how to use it exactly and what editing techniques are good etc. However a downfall of this was the size of the screen and the fact I then had to email myself the images to then get them on the computer – similar to paint.net it was rather time consuming.

This is the editing I did on my phone; I wanted the star on the front cover to have blemished skin as that is what stars normally look like on the covers of real magazines. I felt it would fit in with her confidence and attitude and perhaps make my audience become more attracted to her.

This is editing I did on paint.net whereby I am simply changing the brightness and contrast of the image placed at the bottom of the page; I did this to get the lighting the same for each photo on the page otherwise it would look odd.

These are also two images are me editing my pictures on paint.net; in the first one I am cutting out the background around the number as the number did not stand out like I wanted it to due to the fact the picture was too overwhelming with its bright red colour. In the second image I am colouring in my stars lips with red paint so she looks more intriguing as a person and so there was a nice colour scheme on my front cover with her lips and the masthead.

Looking back to your preliminary task, what do you feel that you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

7.

Towards the beginning of making my product, there was a preliminary task where I had to make a front cover and a contents page for a school magazine;

I can see from looking at both of them together that I have made progress and learnt how to make a more real life magazine. The picture in my preliminary task is over-edited unlike the one on my music magazine which is more professional looking. The background on the school magazine also looks very empty whereas my music product is much more full as more features have been added. Adding to this, the mastheads have very different impacts – the masthead on the school magazine is not that noticeable, compared to the music magazine where it is dominant on the page.

Looking at both of the contents pages I can see that I prefer the layout of my music one much more as it looks less cramped and has more colour and style. Also, in my music magazine I included the masthead in the contents which i liked as it linked them both, however for the preliminary task I did not do this so the contents does not look as though it links with the front page.

Overall, I am happy with my final piece. I feel the research and the time spent on this product has developed my skills when it comes to producing magazines. I would say my strongest aspect is my front cover, and my weakest aspect is my contents page. However, I am pleased with how I have shown my genre through my work.

By Claire Walsh