As media studies evaluation

AS Media Studies:
Coursework Evaluation
Jack Humpherson

IN WHAT WAY DOES YOUR
MEDIA PRODUCT USE,
DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE
FORMS AND CONVENTIONS
OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS?

In what way does your media product
use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?
Here are the six Music
magazine covers I have
chosen to use as my
research for this task and
are acting as my ‘real
media products’. A you
can see all of these music
covers are different from
each other yet all share
some conventions.

Examples of how the products
are similar are because of how
all of the magazine have their
mast head at the top of the page.
This is because the first place
peoples attention is drawn is the
top of the page due to the way
we read (top left to bottom right).
Though all of these mast heads
are all in the same place , they
are all in different styles. This is
so that people can recognise
their unique house style of their
brand from a glance. I wanted a
similar effect

Another similarity between these
magazines is the way all of the
magazines have their main image
being a famous musician. Who is
(with the exception of one) looking
directly into the camera
This is because having a famous
musician on the cover will attract
fans of their music because they
are familiar with the musician. The
use of direct address (looking into
the camera) causes a connection
between the reader and the
magazine. I also wanted this in my
magazine.

This is the magazine I mostly used as a
reference. This is because it was the closest to
the type of magazine I was aiming to create
and probable the magazine of the same genre
as my own (Metal and rock) which I could
emulate effectively.
Let’s look at this example and it’s conventions
that I may have used in more detail….

As you can see the magazine cover has a jagged and
‘cracked’ affect on it’s mast head making it seem angry
and rebellious fitting their demographic.
The house style (including colour and font)is bold and contain
the colours red and black (and white for contrast). These two
colours have association to darkness and anger as does the
social groups who are fans of this music (rock and metal).
The main image is using the direct address look into
camera and is dressed in the stereotypical fashion for
that genre and it’s audience.

These are my finished three
pages of my magazine. Front
cover, contents page and double
page spread. As you can see I
have used a few of the
conventions from the KERRANG
example I have used but I there
also differences from the
magazine which make my
magazine distinctive.
Let’s look at some of the
Similarities and differences
between my own magazine and
the ones researched

Here are the mastheads of the example magazine (KARRANG)
and my magazine's masthead (MUSIC MELTDOWN)
As you can see There is some definite similarities between the
mastheads. Both mastheads are jagged and uneven. This is
because the jagged and uneven style of the mast heads will give a
sense of rebellion which relates to the stereotypical audience of
this type of magazine.
My magazine masthead does differ from the examples however
because unlike KERRANG’s, my magazine has more of a splat
style rather than a cracked style not to mention that my mast head
includes two colours rather than just the one to make it stand out
from the background.
These similarities make my magazine similar to real media
products making it seem professional but also the differences
means that my magazine is unique and so will stand out from
other existing media products.

Here are the two main images from the example magazine and my own.
There are some similarities between the KERRANG magazine’s main
image and the main image of the magazine I created. As you can see
both models are looking directly into the camera towards the audience. I
did this to make my magazine look more conventional. This direct
address from the image creates a bond between the reader and the
person in the image.
However there are some differences between mine and the example
magazine such as the age of the models. My model is obviously
younger. This is because of the limitation of people available to
photograph though this could be beneficial to the magazine because my
model will be in a similar age range to those in the target audience's age
range. Making the magazine more relatable and so more appealing to
the audience.
I think I have also challenged this convention because on almost all the
examples of magazine covers analysed who make their main image
cover a majority of their cover, I have made my cover lines fill just as
much space as the main image.

Though I did use many conventions in order to make my
magazine look like real media products, I also had to
make some changes to my magazine in order to make it
look unique and diverse.
An example of how I have changed my magazine to
make it more diverse was the fact I did not include any
hooks advertising any free gifts such as the one from the
example KERRANG magazine I was using. I did
however use a pug to advertise a competition which
would be in the magazine I didn’t want to have
something like in the example because my magazine
works through the effects and gratifications method
meaning the magazine must be enjoyable to the reader
and I believe that putting advertisements into my
magazine would not be enjoyable for the reader meaning
they would be less likely to buy it.

HOW DOES YOUR MEDIA
PRODUCT REPRESENT
PARTICULAR SOCIAL
GROUPS?

How does your media product
represent particular social groups?
My magazine is based around the music genres of
metal and rock. Specifically genres such as heavy
rock, punk rock , heavy metal, alternative metal
and death metal. And so will be aimed towards the
people who enjoy and are fans of those types of
music.
I have associated these genres with two social
groups and have based my magazine upon their
stereotypes. The two social group I think are
associated with these genres of music are Punks
and Goths.
Lets look at these two stereotypes in more detail.

Goths are one of the subcultures I have aimed my
magazine towards.
There are many stereotypes attached to this
subgroup such as that they always wear black, are
miserable and have connotations with many dark
subject. The fashion of Goth stereotype would be lots
of black clothing which include straps and belts,
black make-up (on men too) and jewellery which
often contain religious symbols. As you can see in
this image, the main model is brandishing a Celtic
seeming cross on their shirt.
I would say that the age that most Goths are in will
be within the range of late teen to early twenties with
some young adult. This is because this stereotype
also has associations with adolescent rebellion.

Here is an example of how I
have tried to replicate the look
of the stereotypical Goth in the
contents page in my
magazine.
Personally I do not think that I
achieved the typical Goth look.
I wish now that I had gone
even further to better show the
social group possible by using
hair dyes or wearing clothes
even more strongly associated
with Goths which is a shame
because I most likely have
such things at my disposal.

represent particular social groups
If this image in my magazine were to be representing a
Goth or similar social group member I think it would show
them as aggressive and dark. This is because of the facial
expression and eye contact to the camera. The use of a
high angled shot also makes the person in the image
seem more moody.
I think that this type of image would attract members of the
group because they may relate to this image however, for
people outside of the group it may show the social group in
a negative way and people will associate more negative
stereotype meaning Goths will be affiliated with even
tropes such as being aggressive and hateful. I think this is
a shame because it would be good if this magazine could
change the opinion people have for this social group

Punks are another subculture which I have aimed
my magazine towards.
Similar to the Goth social group there are many
stereotypes attached to punks, not all positive.
Some of the connotations attached to punks could
include being aggressive, angry and having a
disregard to thing and other people outside of the
subculture. The fashion associated with punks
would be ripped clothing, piercing, pins and
extreme hair style with will include dying hair.
I would guess that the average age of members of
the punk community would be aged teenager to
adults. Similar to Goths I think in younger
members of this group, it is fuelled by a sense of
adolescent rebellion.

This is an example of the
type of music and a music
video I’d imagine these
groups to listen to.
I have tried to incorporate
aspects of this music video
into my magazine to appeal
to the two social groups.
An example of how I have
tried to mimic it is with the
use of low saturation colours
in the magazine.

Here’s an example of how I
have tried to create a punk
style look in magazine (this
particular image was not used
but very similar were).
I think I represented the punk
quite well for the most part. I
think the person I used fit the
image with her piercing and
dyed hair however I do not
think that the clothing of her is
particular ‘punk’ so takes
away from the image
somewhat. This could have
bee improved with some
darker and more ragged
clothing.

I think that if this magazine were to be
representing punks it would show them in a
similar light as it has shown Goths and for
similar reasons too.
The blank facial expression and intimidating
stance makes them look intimidating which
like the Goth image will appeal to members of
the social group but repel those not in the
group. I think Maybe there could have been a
way in which I could have appealed to my
target audience and give the social group a
better image to those outside the group.
I have given these group a better image in
later parts of the magazine, however.

The double page spread of my magazine
includes an interview with a member of a
fictional band I have crated for the magazine.
I believe this interview may represent the
social groups more positively than the
images.
During this interview the band member being
interviewed is polite, he may be passionate
about his music butt when he is talking he
speaks in correct English and never use any
bad language. The band member also is
respectful and appreciative to the band’s fans
by giving bonuses in their ‘new album’ as a
thanks for their fans’ support.

WHAT KIND OF MEDIA
INSTITUTION MIGHT
DISTRIBUTE YOUR MEDIA
PRODUCT AND WHY?

What kind of media institution might
distribute your media product and
why?
A publishing company is
responsible for allowing
the magazine to be sold
and become commercially
available.
An example of this type of
company is Bauer Media.
I believe that Bauer media
will be the best publishing
company for my
magazine. This is for
many reasons.
The Bauer media website can be visited through
this link:
http://www.bauermedia.co.uk/

why?
Firstly I believe that my magazine will be best
published by Bauer media because Bauer media is
already a well established publishing company
meaning that it already has an established audience.
The fact that this publishing company already has a
well established audience means that my magazine
will be more likely to be purchased by someone who
is familiar with the brand of the publishing company
than someone who does not know the publishing
company. Not to mention that the company is
experience meaning my magazine will benefit from
skills they have develop over time. This basically
means that being published by Bauer media will
increase the chance that my magazine will become
successful.

why?
This infographic from Bauer Media’s
webpage shows the type of
audiences that the similar magazine
KERRANG has.
All bits of this will benefit my
magazine. The fact the audiences
gender is about even means that my
own magazine’s target audience will
not be limited by gender, broadening
it’s audience. The table at the lower
section show that a large section of
their audience is between the age
range of 15-24. My target audience
of my magazine falls within this age
range meaning that my magazine
could have a similar success to
KERRANG

why?
Another reason why my magazine would be best published
by Bauer Media would be because the publishing company
already publishes magazine s similar to my own.
As mentioned before my magazine is based on the
magazine KERANG as I have used similar colours hems
and conventions. This magazine is published by Bauer
Media and is one of their more popular magazines. This
shows that buyers of magazines published by Bauer media
clearly have an interest in a magazine based on rock and
metal genre music which is the focus of my own magazine.
If Bauer Media has an audience which is interested in that
style and topic of magazine then it means that fans of their
other magazines such as KERRANG will also be fans of
my own, and so increasing the chance of my magazine
being purchased.

why?
A third reason as to why I would want my
magazine to be published by Bauer Media is
that their magazines are available through
variety of mediums. If my magazine were to
be published by Bauer Media it can be
accessed through physical copies bought in
any magazine selling shop, through Mobile
phones, and tablets. This means that it can
easily accessed by the public no matter what
which hopefully will cause purchases of my
magazine. If my magazine is available
digitally wit will mean that it can be sold
abroad in any English speaking country,
further broadening the magazine’s audience
and increasing the amount of possible sales.

WHO IS THE INTENDED
AUDIENCE FOR YOUR MEDIA
PRODUCT?

Who is the intended audience for your
media product?
Media – Demographic Questionnaire
Jack Humpherson
Question One: What Age Are You?
Less than 10 11-15 16-20 21-25 Older than 25
Question Two: What Gender Are You?
Male – Female – Other
Question Three: What Social Class Would You Best Describe
Yourself As?
A B C1 C2 D E
Question Four: What Genre Of Music Do You Enjoy The Most?
Rock – Electronic – County – Metal – Jazz – Classical – other
Please Specify ‘Other’ if selected:
Question Five: Why do you like the genre of Music you listen
too?
Question Six: Why Do You Read a Magazine?
Question Seven: What/Who is your favourite band/Music artist?
Question Eight: Why is it that they are your favourites?
Question Nine: Are you subscribes to any magazines Music or
otherwise?
Question ten: Why are you or why aren’t you subscribed to any
music magazine?
In order to find out which magazine
would be most popular and to find my
magazine’s target audience I created a
questionnaire.
The results from this questionnaire will
then allow me to know the age, gender
and enjoyments of a selection of the
public who read music magazines upon
which I can base my own magazine’s
design.
A majority of the results were expected
but some were a surprise. Let’s look at
some of the results and how I
incorporated it into my magazine and
how they affected my decisions.

media product?
The result to the first question showed that the
age of the average person who would buy and
read a music magazine were between the ages
of 16 and 20 years old meaning they were
ranging from teenager to young adult.
I think this is one of the most important answers
from the questionnaire because people’s
interests and attitude can change dramatically
with age. Now that I know that this is the age
range of the average music magazine reading
audience member I will make changes to my
magazine by using colloquial language and
having less amounts of text from one which is
targeted for an older audience.

media product?
Another important answer was to question two
which asked the person’s gender. From the
twelve copies of the questionnaire I handed out
that there was an equal amount of both men and
women who read rock and metal magazines.
This was not a surprise though I did not expect it
to be perfectly even.
I have incorporated this information into my
magazine by trying not to focus on one gender
because this mould mean there would not be
much to appeal to the other gender, cutting off a
section of the target audience. An example of
how I have tried to appeal to both genders is by
including images of both men and women.

media product?
Another question which was vital to the design of the
magazine was question four. Question four asked
people which genre of music was their favourite. The
answer to this question was mostly that people were
unsure or did not have one. And for those who did
have answer, chose either metal or rock. This was a
surprise because I though that less would be
ambivalent towards music.
I di not take into account those who did not have a
favourite music genre and so only took into account
rock and metal as an answer. From this answer I have
obviously aimed my magazine towards metal and rock
fans and the social groups within as mentioned in
previous questions.

HOW DID YOU
ATTRACT/ADDRESS YOUR
AUDIENCE?

How Did You Attract/Address Your
Audience?
In order for my magazine to be appealing to my
audience I decided to follow the ‘Uses And
Gratification Theory.’ This is the theory that for any
piece of media to successfully convey information to
the audience, the media must be enjoyable as
oppose to purely informative. That alternative is
named the hypodermic needle theory which I don’t
believe would be as effective which is why I chose
to make my magazine enjoyable for the reader.
I did this in a number of ways. Lets look at some
example of how I attempted to make my magazine
enjoyable and appealing so that the information
would be conveyed to the audience.

Audience?
One aspect of how I tried to make my magazine
more appealing to the audience is through It’s cover
lines.
I have made it so that all of the cover lines are
attention grabbing and interesting this way the
audience is more likely to find it appealing and
purchase it. For example; The cover line ‘Sex
Scandal With Project Jays?’ will grab the attention
of the audience because the rhetorical question will
create a sense of curiosity as the reader want the
question to be answered. Also the idea of a sex
scandal will intrigue the reader because as they say,
‘sex sells’.

Audience?
Another way in which I have tried
to make my magazine more
appealing to my audience is
through the use of images.
Images attract the attention of the
audience because they are
aesthetically appealing plus the
pictures I have used try to match
style of the social groups who
would read this magazine. Images
don’t need much thought to enjoy
so can be used fro when people
relax adhering the uses and
gratification theory.

Audience?
I have used the colours of the magazine
to make it more appealing to the
audience too. I have tried to use colours
which connotations would appeal to the
social groups who are in the audience to
this magazine.
The three main colours of this magazine
are red and black (with white for
contrast). I have used the colour red
because it has connotations of anger
which the punks with their rebellious
lifestyle would enjoy. I have used black
because it will appeal to Goth social
groups because as mentioned before,
Goths are fond of black.

Audience?
The interview on the magazine’s
double page spread will also appeal to
the target audience too because I tried
to make it relatable to the target
audience.
For example, I tried to make the
fictional band member in the interview
passionate about the music. This way
readers who share this passion for
this genre of music will relate to and
find the interview interesting.

WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNT
ABOUT TECHNOLOGIES
FROM THE PROCESS OF
CONSTRUCTING THE
PRODUCT?

WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNT ABOUT
TECHNOLOGIES FROM THE PROCESS OF
CONSTRUCTING THE PRODUCT?
Throughout the construction of my
three pages I have to learn new
skills when using a variety of
software's and improve on already
existing software's.
Lets look of examples of how skills
have been gained and improved
during the making of this
magazine.

The main software that I have created my magazine pages on are on the publishing
software, Microsoft Publisher. I used it because it allowed me to easily move part of the
magazine so that making new drafts was easy. Publisher also allowed me to have the
same word processing style as in Microsoft Word meaning writing the articles and
cover lines was also easy. One new skill I have learnt while using this software is how
to change the brightness and contrast of the images in the software allowing me to
easily change the look of the image in order to better suit the page.

Another technology used during the creation of the magazine was the use of a blog. The blog I used
was named; Google Blogger. The Google blog allowed me to keep a portfolio of all work and research
done for this task from the preliminary task to the final versions of the three pages. I had never used a
blog before let alone one using Google Blog meaning I had to learn all of the skills needed to create a
digital portfolio. The kind of skills I learnt we how to create a blog account, how to edit images so that
they can be posted onto a blog and how to create post for the blog. Personal I would have preferred
the blog to be using another software because at times posting documents is difficult and unintuitive

A third technology I had to use during the creation of my magazine was the graphics software named
Serif Draw Plus X3. I used this software to create the logo for the magazine and it’s variants during
the planning for the magazines logo’s design. I used this software because it was easy to draw and
create the shapes needed for the design and easy to change the colours involved in the logo which
would allow me to see which colours suit the magazine better. Though I have used serif and many of
it’s tools for a long time I am not familiar with all of it’s tools. In order to create this magazine I have to
look online to find out how to save the logo as a PDF so that the logo could look more professional.

Another software that I am familiar with is the image manipulating software named
GIMP (GNU Image manipulating software). I used this software instead of more
professionally used software's such as Photoshop because I am simply far more
familiar with GIMP. I used this software to remove the background of the images I had
taken in order to make them look more professional when used on my cover or double
page spread. I order to do this I had to learn in my own time how to remove
backgrounds from images using this software in order to do this I had to take
advantage of the threshold editor and the colour select tool.

LOOKING BACK AT YOUR
PRELIMINARY TASK, WHAT
DO YOU FEEL YOU HAVE
LEARNT IN THE
PROGRESSION FROM IT TO
THE FULL PRODUCT?

LOOKING BACK AT YOUR PRELIMINARY TASK,
WHAT DO YOU FEEL YOU HAVE LEARNT IN THE
PROGRESSION FROM IT TO THE FULL PRODUCT?
Before we were given the task of creating a
music magazine, the first task was to create
a magazine based on the Bramcote College.
My magazine was named BCM (Bramcote
College Magazine) and was aimed at
students of he college and discussed thing
such as gossip.
From this Preliminary task I believe that I
learnt I learnt many skills which were used in
the creation of my final piece. Lets have a
look at how this task may have affected my
final piece.

Immediately simply by comparing the two magazines there is a striking similarity in layout. This
is because that I though that the layout and design of my preliminary task could easily be
applied to my music magazine. An example of how these two magazines are similar is the
position and style of the cover lines with them being on the right half of the cover and having
coloured headlines and white descriptions. I think that this show that I have learnt from the
preliminary task how conventional magazines are structured. I have mimicked this layout
making my magazine look like a decently convincing product.

Here is an example of I have
learned from my mistakes. On the
cover of my preliminary college
magazine, the model in the main
image is not looking into the
camera whereas in the main music
magazine she is looking directly
into the camera.
I have made this change because
from the preliminary task I learnt
that when the model is looking
directly into the camera , the direct
address crates a bond to the
audience causing them to become
interested in the magazine.

Another improvement I have made form the
preliminary task to the main music magazine
is the use of ears on the magazine. On the
first magazine the ear is an advertisement for
a free offer with each magazine whereas on
the second it is an alert to an interview in the
magazine.
I decided to make this change because I felt
that the audience would respond better to an
interview than an advertisement and since
my magazine needs to be enjoyable to the
audience (because of the uses and
gratification theory) I thought it would be
more appealing. I also changed it because
this is obviously aimed t a different audience
with a different theme so the offer of a Panini
would not be relevant

Another clear difference between to two magazines is who the target audience is. For the
preliminary task the target audience was students of the college whereas for the main task the
target audience was people who were fans of rock and metal music . This means that my style
would have to be changed to only focus on a certain area of those people. To do this I tried to
attract social groups who would be fans on this music though colour connotations and images
mimicking the social group’s style.

In conclusion I believe that my magazine is a
good final piece which could make a
convincing magazine.
I think that this magazine convincing because
it follows the convention of published
magazines and follows the ways in which sold
magazines use them. For example, the layout
of my magazine follows the layouts used by
similar magazines and my magazine attracts
the target audience of metal ands rock fan by
making relatable and appealing images and
colour schemes as well as using cover lines
which attract the indented audience.

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