1. MEDIA EVALUATION
KATE CARTER

2. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge
forms and conventions of real media products?
• I have used similar conventions as to those on existing music magazines on my front cover. For example my masthead is big
and bold at the top of the page like on every other music magazine, this makes the name of my magazine more memorable
as it would be the first thing people notice about the magazine. I put the masthead behind the main image as this is a
convention that a lot of music magazines have, it makes the image the main focus of the page but you can still read the
masthead and it still stands out. I used five different fonts on my front cover to make the page look more interesting and
have more variety, all music magazines have a range of fonts, usually of around five. I used the word ‘you’ to relate
specifically to the reader in hope of drawing them in to buy the magazine. I included anchorage by having a quote from the
interview inside the magazine with the cover star on the front cover of the magazine so the reader will have a look in at
what the magazine is going to include. I have a barcode on my front cover and the price in small print. Another convention of
magazine front covers I have used is a medium close up image of the person I am doing an interview with where she is
looking into the camera, this is a convention that the majority of music magazines have. I kept to a colour scheme of 5
colours, red, black, white, blue and yellow, to keep it looking professional yet interesting at the same time, all music
magazines stick to around 5 colours in their colour scheme.
• The background of my front cover is a Union Jack flag therefore this challenges conventions of music magazines as the
majority of music magazines have a plain background. I made the Union Jack myself on Photoshop to keep my work
original, however I changed the opacity of it so the writing on the front cover could still stand out and be seen.

3. • I used conventions of existing magazine contents pages for my magazine. The writing on my contents page is in columns
which keeps it looking tidy and easy to read. I also continued with the colour scheme from the front page to make it look
more professional. I also included an editors note on my contents page which not many music magazines have, this makes
my magazine stand out more as it has something different to all other music magazines. I set the pictures out together and
the text separately so the page doesn’t look too busy with pictures and text and so it looks clearer.
• For my double page spread I used conventions of existing magazines such as I have one large image on one side of the page
and the writing on the other. I also put a quote in bigger writing than the article to make it stand out and draw people into
reading the article, the majority of existing music magazines follow this convention. Another convention I followed was that I
used a drop capital at the start of the article as many music magazines do this and I wrote the rest of the article in columns
and in small writing. I continued the colour scheme from the front cover and contents page to brand the page as part of my
magazine and to keep it looking professional.

4. TOP THING TO SUM UP WHAT THE MAGAZINE IS ABOUT,
DIFFERENT COLOUR TO THE MASTHEAD SO IT STILL
STANDS OUT EVEN THOUGH IT IS A LOT SMALLER THAN
THE REST OF THE FONT ON THE PAGE.
MENTIONED KNOWN BOLD, PLAIN MASTHEAD TO STAND
ALTERNATIVE ARTISTS SUCH AS OUT AND DRAW ATTENTION.
FLORENCE WELCH AND DARWIN SIMPLE NAME SO EASY TO
DEEZ TO LURE IN THE READER. REMEMBER, REPRESENTS MUSIC.
THE COLOUR BLACK FITS IN WITH
THE COLOUR SCHEME.
COVER IMAGE IS THE MAIN FOCUS
COVERLINES IN BOLD, SIMPLE OF THE PAGE, I TRIED TO MAKE IT
FONT SO EASY TO READ BUT THE MAIN FOCUS BY EDITING THE
STILL STAND OUT. GIVE THE BRIGHTNESS AND CONTRAST SO IT
READER AN INSIGHT TO WHAT WILL STAND OUT FROM THE REST
THE MAGAZINE WILL INCLUDE OF THE PAGE EVEN THOUGH THE
BUT NOT ENOUGH REST OF THE PAGE IS COLOURFUL
INFORMATION SO THEY WONT AND EYE CATCHING. I HAD HER
NEED TO READ IT. LOOKING STRAIGHT INTO THE
CAMERA TO ESTABLISH A
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN HER AND
THE READER AS IT IS AS IF SHE IS
LOOKING RIGHT AT THEM.
USE OF THE WORD ‘YOU!’
TO DIRECTLY ADDRESS THE BARCODE AS ALL
READER AND LURE THEM IN. PROFESSIONAL
MAGAZINES HAVE
ONE OF THESE.

5. COLOUR SCHEME CONTINUED
FROM THE FRONT COVER.
WRITING IN COLUMNS
TO KEEP IT LOOKING
PROFESSIONAL AND LIKE
EDITORS NOTE TO EXISTING MAGAZINES
INTRODUCE THE MAGAZINE,
CONVENTION OF MAGAZINE
CONTENTS PAGES.
SIGNATURE WRITTEN BY ME
IN PAINT.

6. COLOUR SCHEME AGAIN
CONTINUED FROM THE
FRONT COVER AND
QUOTE FROM REVIEW CONTENTS
PAGE.
DROP CAPITAL AT
THE START OF THE
REVIEW, CONVENTION
LARGE IMAGE ON OF EXISTING MAGAZINES.
ONE SIDE OF THE PAGE,
THIS IS A CONVENTION
OF EXISTING MUSIC MAGAZINE ‘THE TONE’ IN ITALICS
DOUBLE PAGE SPREADS. AND YELLOW TO STAND
OUT.
WRITING IN COLUMNS LIKE
EXISTING MAGAZINES, LOOKS
PROFESSIONAL.

7. How does your media product
represent particular social groups?
My media product represents anybody from teenage years to their twenties who have an interest
in alternative music. I wanted to represent these people as quirky and different, therefore
throughout my magazine there are various images of people these ages looking quirky and
individual. On my front cover there is a picture of a 16 year old girl which fits into my target
audience, therefore this helps appeal to the audience as they can relate to the person on the
front cover. The cover girl represents teenage girls who have an interest in alternative music
as the way her make up and hair is done is similar as to how these people would wear theirs,
for example the red lipstick and wavy hair .
The acts mentioned on the front cover and contents page, Darwin Deez, Florence Welch, Bon
Iver, The Drums etc, also represent the social group as they are alternative artists/bands and
these are what this group of people tend to listen to. My magazine would represent different
Ethnicities to appeal to a wider audience, for example have pictures of people from different
ethnicities to show equality and that these people are part of British alternative music even
though they may not be white .

8. What kind of media institution might
distribute your media product and
why? are Immediate Media, Bauer
• Three of the most popular media institutions
and IPC media. Bauer publishes Q and Kerrang and IPC media publishes
NME therefore I decided that neither of these would be appropriate to
distribute my magazine as these are all popular music magazines which
are similar to my magazine.
• I think Immediate Media could distribute my media product as the only
music magazines it currently publishes are BBC music and Top of the Pops
and these magazine only include little, if any, information about British
alternative music and this is what my magazine focuses on therefore there
is a gap in the market for my media product. Also, as my target audience
varies from young to middle age this is different to what TOTP and BBC
music aims for as TOTP is for younger people and BBC music is for older
people. Immediate Media produces lots of popular magazines of different
genres such as Gardeners World, Hair Ideas and Match of the Day.
Immediate Media is a new media institution which has combined former
media institutions as one therefore it is a big company which would make
my media product well known.

9. Who would be the audience for your
media product?
• The audience for my media product would be men and women
aged 13 to 30 who are interested in alternative/indie music. I chose
this audience as the information included would appeal to them as
it focuses on alternative/indie music and the language used in the
magazine may be slightly complex or unsuitable for people under
the age of 13. Also, the cover image is more than likely to be in
their late teen years or twenties therefore the target audience
would relate to this.
• For my magazine front cover I dressed my model in a fringed top
and a bright, long skirt, this is because it is quite a
quirky, alternative outfit therefore it attracts my target audience as
the girls are likely to dress in a similar way to this. However, to fit in
with the convention of medium close up images on the front cover I
had to crop out the outfit but the red lipstick I put on the model put
across the alternative image I was looking for.

10. How did you attract/address your
audience?
I attracted my target audience by having a member of my target audience as my
cover star, in this case it was a ‘alternative’ teenage girl. Having her as my
cover star would attract my target audience as they could relate to the person.
Another way I attracted my target audience was to mention alternative acts on
the front cover and in the contents page, this would attract my target
audience as they would want to read about bands/artists that they are a fan
of. I also used words such as ‘latest’ to attract my audience as readers will
want to have up to date news.
• When interviewing people about my magazine they said they were attracted
by the bright colour scheme on the front cover as it was eye catching. They
also said the Union Jack flag in the background made it more interesting and
unique therefore attracts them towards it. The males I interviewed said the
picture also attracted them as they thought she was attractive therefore
wanted to read about her, the females said the picture attracted them as they
liked her style and could relate to her as she is similar to them. The audience
said the acts mentioned on the front cover and contents page attracted them,
as I intended to, as they are interested in the type of music the acts make.

11. What have you learnt about
technologies from the process of
•
constructing this product? which I
I used many new forms of technology when creating my magazine
have never used before such as Photoshop, Quark and Blogger.
• I used Photoshop for my front cover and I found it slightly difficult to use
at first but eventually my skills developed and I could use it. It came in
handy for editing my picture to make it better quality such as getting rid of
the red eye and cropping the background from the image to make it more
professional. Photoshop made my front cover look a lot more professional
than if I was to use Microsoft Word or Publisher.
• I used Quark for my contents page and double page spread and I found
this very difficult to use and I didn’t like it, however it did make the pages
look professional.
• I used digital cameras to capture all of the images I used for my magazine
and some of them are high quality however the main one I used for my
double page spread turned out to be very blurry when I stretched it to full
size, I think this is due to the conditions I took the photo in when I was at
the gig as there were lots of flashing lights and a smoke machine which
will have interfered with my picture quality.

12. Looking back on your preliminary task, what do you feel
you have learnt in the progression from it to the full
product?
We were set a preliminary task which was to create a front cover and contents page for a college magazine. The task was set
to get us used to using Photoshop and Quark.
My college magazine front cover is extremely simple compared to my music magazine, this is because I didn’t properly
understand how to use Photoshop and I hadn’t done much research into existing magazines. The colour scheme on my
college front cover is dull and only consists of 3 colours therefore looks boring and doesn’t attract attention. The
masthead is relatively small and isn’t much bigger than the cover lines therefore doesn’t stand out. The image looks
messy and the edges haven’t been blurred therefore they look sharp and unprofessional, this is due to my lack of
knowledge of Photoshop tools. There are only four cover lines on my front cover so it looks empty.
My contents page is a lot better than my front cover as it is laid out more professionally and the majority of the space is
filled. However, it still is not up to the standard of my music magazine contents page. Compared to my college
magazine my music magazine is a lot more professional and eye catching. I have learnt many skills using Photoshop and
Quark in the making of my magazine.
Overall, I am happy with the outcome of my music magazine and it shows that I have improved a lot since making my
college magazine.
College magazine Music magazine