The document summarizes the technologies used to construct a magazine media product. InDesign was used to layout the magazine, including columns, spreads, and fonts. Photoshop was utilized to edit photos and lighting. Illustrator helped create puffs and small additions. Word was employed for writing drafts and research. Blogger hosted research updates, though regular updates proved challenging. Overall, the technologies demonstrated the work involved in creating realistic media products.

1. MEDIA EVALUATION
Samantha Rothery

2. Question 1. In what ways does your product use,
develop or challenge forms and conventions of real
media products?
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3. Front Cover
When planning to make my magazine I knew from the start that I wanted to make it look
as sleek and professional as possible, to do this I looked at the structure of some big
magazines such as NME and Rolling Stone, and tried to find out the small things they
did to make their magazines stand out from the others I took ideas from many different
parts of the magazine such as the layout, the fonts, their cover photos and their
coverlines.
Similarities Differences
• Female cover photos. • Both magazines have different colours for
• Name of featured artists in big letters to stand out their title.
from everything else. • I have used a puff on my magazine whereas
• Rolling stone and my magazine stick to the theme the other two have their advertisements just
of white writing. with the rest of the storylines.
• Direct address to the camera from the cover • I have used a more dramatic pose for my
artists. cover photo.
• Rolling stone and my magazine has writing all • NME have used 3 different colours for their
down one side. font.
• NME and my magazine both feature a pull quote • I have slightly more writing in my coverlines
taken from the interview. than the other two magazines do.
• All magazines have lists of artists down one side. • Other magazines have more daring
coverlines.

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5. Double Page Spread
When planning for my double page spread I also looked at other magazines, to get an idea of how I
wanted mine to be layed out. Due to the kind of magazine that I was trying to create I knew that I
was going to use a photo across the whole of my double page spread I did this as I think it looks
more professional than simply having random photos and colours. I did get a lot of my inspiration
for my magazine from fashion magazines such as ‘Look’ and ‘Vogue’ this is because the target
audience I have continuously had in mind is more female focused. I noticed that with the
magazines I did my research looking at that when their picture was across two sides I felt much
more compelled to read them as they looked more interesting and their wasn't to much to look at at
once.
Similarities Differences
• All of the magazines start their writing • The other magazines have a small
with a large letter. introduction for their celebrity before they
• My magazine and the one with go into the interview.
Florence on the front have plain writing • The NME magazine hasn't used a picture
on one side whereas the other has cut across their double page spread it is only
out pictures. over one side.
• The magazine that has Florence on has • I have taken a close up shot of my model
the color of their background whereas these magazines have used
underneath the interview the same way further away and in one case a full body
that mine does. shot.
• Mine Is the only magazine which carries
onto another side.
• My interview title is the only one to feature
a pull quote from the interview.

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7. Contents Page
When planning for my contents page I again took my inspiration from fashion
magazines as it was clear females were becoming my target audience, I noticed
something about the way all of the magazines contents pages were –they were all
different. Even if the magazine was of a similar genre no magazines seem to stick to
a particular rule with their contents page and everyone does it differently. I Like to
think that this helps mine to look as realistic as possible as I have taken my own
twist on it and tried to make it suit everything about the rest of my magazine.
Similarities Differences
• All of the contents pages shown have white
backgrounds. I think that this is because the
• My magazine is the only one which
contents page is something which is usually features an editors note and picture of
skipped over so less time is taken on perfecting the editor.
it.
• All magazine contents pages seem to have a
• Both other magazines have the contents
similar theme of black and red writing on a white across the whole page and nothing else.
background. • All magazines have different ways of
• Small photos shown on each giving an insight to
the inside of the magazine.
laying out their page numbers and
• All magazines say contents somewhere along the contents.
top although in different sizes. • I am the only magazine who has chosen
• My magazine and vogue both have magazine
names as a large feature at the top.
to put the photos together in a bunch.
• My magazine and NME both feature photos of • The photos are larger on the other
different musicians doing different things. magazines.

8. Overall I think that my magazine very much conforms to the style and conventions
of other media products, it does this in having a similar style, theme and target
audience. A lot more thought would have gone into the creation of a real media
product such as would the pictures be offensive? And would everything that is
said have been acceptable. The image used would also have been a lot more
edited on Photoshop to make the models look different to how they look in real life
often giving unrealistic ideas to others about how they should look. My magazine
challenges the convention of real media products in this way, I have not changed
anything about my model to help keep her as real and relatable to the public as
possible the only difference to the original pictures is that I have changed the
overall colours to make them blend in more/ stand out more and to make the
background more discreet.

9. Question 2. How does your media product represent
particular social groups?
My media product has been directly made to represent young music enthusiasts. I
have targeted it at one particular social group that are above the middle on the
socio economic scale, I wanted to make a magazine to represent this group of
younger people because most of the magazines now days are based on the top 40
and these suit people lower down because they are not as bothered or interested to
find new music and well known artists, I wanted to use my magazine to show case
newer artists and to preview exclusive music events.
The mise-en-scene of my front cover shows an up and coming singer, she is
dressed remotely smartly in a blazer with an eye catching earing, this outfit would
represent a wealthy social group.
Other social groups they belong to I will go into further detail in the target audience
section.

10. Question 3. What kind of media institution might
distribute your media product and why?
The media institution that I would ideally imagine distributing my
magazine is Condé Nast.
Condé Nast, a division of Advance Publications,
is a magazine publisher. In the U.S.,
it produces 18 consumer magazines,
as well as four business-to-business publications,
27 websites, and more than 50 apps for mobile
and tablet devices.
The company's headquarters reside in New York City.
Condé Nast was founded in 1909 by Condé Montrose Nast
and has been owned by the Newhouse family since 1959.

11. S.I. Newhouse Jr. is the chairman and CEO of Advance Publications, Charles H. Townsend is
Condé Nast’s chief executive officer and Robert A. Sauerberg is Condé Nast’s president.
•Vogue
• Teen Vogue
•Glamour
•Vanity Fair
•GQ
•Conde Nast traveller
•Bon Appetit
•Golf World
•Wired

12. I think that my magazine would suit this institution because of the Look
I have given it, and because the social group I have given it of wealthier
buyers, this social group also suits Conde Nast and the other
magazines which they distribute. I think that this distribution company
have a large gap in their portfolio for a music magazine especially one
such as mine as they do not currently distribute any music magazines,
by distributing my magazine they would be attracting a whole different
audience specifically including younger people and music fans. The
magazine would be able to offering them a magazine with the newest
music exclusive parties.

13. Question 4. Who would be the audience for your media
product?
A Typical audience member for my magazine would be between 18-30 I have
chosen these ages because I want my magazine to attract its audience by offering
passes and invites and to exclusive parties which would not be appealing to a
younger audience.
My magazine has unintentionally drifted towards being more female orientated I
think this is because I took a lot of my inspiration from fashion magazines which I
personally read.
Other interests that a reader of my magazine would have would be fashion,
socialising, new music, attending small gigs, and reading books in their spare time.
Other kinds of media that a reader of my magazine would consume would be the
radio (radio 1, capital fm), the type of television that they would be into wold be
reality TV programmes.
A typical member of my target audience would be interested in beauty and take
care of their appearance possibly with long hair and fake eyelashes but not to the
extend where they look fake meaning that these things have been expensively
done. They would be quite dressy and often wear dresses out and things that are in
with the latest fashion they would shop in places such as Topshop, Urban Outfitters,
Zara, Mango etc. They would fit into an indie but classy social group.

14. Question 5. How did you attract/address your
audience?
Female cover photo,
direct address to
audience.
Cover girls name in I chose this pastel
big letter. Attracting blue color for my puff
Female readers. because my target
audience will know
that pastels are in
trend at the moment
Coverlines to attract this colour stands out
female readers when on and suits the time of
shelf. the month.
Eye catching silver earing, Pink-orange filter
females interested in colors, feminine
jewellery. colors soft lighting
effect.
Wearing a blazer to Lipgloss and makeup addressing
attract my target social my audience- females who take
group. pride in their appearance.

15. I think that my double page spread helps attract/address my target audience because it is a
powerful picture and I would like my magazine to attract powerful women! The interview will help
my audience to relate to her she is a small town girl who came from somewhere in the country side
which not many people may have heard of in the past. This is the story of lots of girls life, the
country side is also a prime place where my social group and target audience would be situated.
The title attracts females as it looks pretty and inviting hopefully it gives an insight into the interview
being worth reading.
There is a lot of writing and this address's my target audience because I have chosen them to be
higher up the socio-scale meaning they would be more interested in education. And so would not
be put of by all the writing in the interview they would be interested and excited to find out more
about this singer.

16. I have chosen to put and Pictures of two men
editors note in to make my
magazine seem friendly which would
and to give readers an stereotypically attract
insight into what they can female readers. Also
look forward to. By putting
this in I think the magazine an insight into the
would attract more readers stories which will be
as they would feel that inside.
they slightly are getting to
know the editor more and
more.
The picture I have chosen
to use the editor is wearing
fur this would attract the
target audience for my
magazine. Readers are
Cover stories used
also able to see that the to attract female
writer is a female just like readers situations,
themselves.
stories and events
that they would be
interested in.

17. I attracted/ addressed my audience by including
things on my magazine that I thought they would
be interested in and would want to see and hear
about. I attracted them by using pictures of
females, interesting coverlines, typography –fonts,
colours and layout.

18. Question 6. What have you learnt about technologies
from the process of constructing this product?
In the process of creating my magazine I
used various different programmes
and websites to create the product,
such as InDesign which is the
programme that I used to put the
whole thing together and to edit my
fonts and all of my writing on, this is
also how I made my double page
spread and how I created the columns
for my interview. I found InDesign to be
the most useful technology. I also
learnt that InDesign can do almost
anything you want it to when you have
the right skill. It has made me realize
how much work goes into real
magazines.

19. The programme that I used to edit all
of my photos on was Photoshop. I
used this programme to change all of
the lighting on my pictures so that it
was able to suit the mood of my
magazine. Using Photoshop on the
photos makes them have a much
more sleek and professional edge I
especially found this with my double
page spread. The things that you can
do on photoshop are limitless and I
didn’t want to take the editing of my
model to far like some of the
published magazines do.

20. Two other programmes that I used but not for as
much as I used the other two were, Adobe
Illustrator and Word.
I used adobe Illustrator for making the Puffs
shown on my music magazine I then transferred
the puff over to InDesign I found Illustrator very
helpful for creating small editions to the magazine
such as the puff you are able to make them look
exactly as you want.
I used word to write my interview shown on the
double page spread into. By writing it into here
first I was able to spell check it and move it all
around to find which bits were best where before
I put it on the actual InDesign version it was very
helpful for putting draft versions into.
I also used word to copy and paste my research
from other magazines into and then to post on
Blogger.

21. The final technology I used in the
construction of my media product
is blogger.
I used Blogger to post all of my
research and the different steps of
editing into so that is ready for the
examiner I found using Blogger
on a regular basis quite a
challenge and you will find that I
was not the best as updating it as
I worked I am quite regretful as
this as not all of my hard work is
shown however I do think blogger
is a very useful way of sharing
work and ideas.