1. Media Evaluation Katy Kyle

3. Front Cover After getting feedback from my target audience, they said that my front cover seemed plain, that parts of it did not seem in the right place and that the font was quite dark for a pop magazine which is stereotypically known to be bright and bubbly. After these comments, I experimented with the layout of my magazine and how I had arranged the text on the cover and also changed my font to a brighter colour, which I think improved my cover, because the brighter colours stood out more.

4. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? I looked at current pop magazines to get an idea of the conventions of the genre. Most of these magazines are targeted at females and generally females in their teens. While keeping some of these conventions such as using bright fonts and included stories that will mainly draw young females . I kept with the same conventions, because even though I wanted to make my music magazine different compared to other pop magazines, I still wanted my target audience to understand and relate to my genre. I decided to challenge the conventions of a stereotypical pop magazine by including articles that maybe a female in their early twenties may enjoy, doing this I thought would widen my target audience, making my magazine more popular to people of different ages. I used a feminine colour for the masthead as this represents my target audience. This places them firmly as ‘girly girls’ Both have used a banner at the bottom of our magazines giving readers ideas of what is going to be in the magazine. Readers expect this and it is effective because even though you have used very little text, they still know what is going to be in the magazine, which makes them want to buy it. For the background of my cover I tried to be different compared to other pop magazines, where they usually just have a plain background. I used a fountain for my background as I thought it was quite a feminine setting, which also had a sense of romance, which relates to my target audience: an older teen female interested in pop music. Front cover

5. I chose this photo for my front cover, because her pose is quite innocent and she is smiling showing the unserious attitudes of the genre. I chose a model of white orientation, because pop artists are more stereotypically known to be white, whereas in RnB and hip-hop the artists are stereotypically known to be black. My Front Cover Photo This photo represents the target audience, because she is a young female, who is pretty and happy and she is giving the audience eye contact, which is someone generally known to be on the cover of a pop magazine. So when the audience see the cover, they may be able to relate to her and feel that they have a connection with her.

6. Double-Page Spread Both of the double page spreads have a main photo that covers one side of the page, but also consist of mini photos as well. They both have fairly short articles, which represent the target audiences as traditional girly girls, as this shows that they are expecting to read this in short breaks. I chose this font because it has connotations of comic books, making the article seem less serious and once again could attract a younger target audience. They both also include a lot of photos, which could show that the readers viewing it may be more interested in looking at the photos than reading the articles.

7. Contents Page In other music magazines, they are just about music. However, in pop magazines like the one above also consist of other topics as well, such as clothing, about the readers and games. I also added this to my magazine, because I believe it helped us interact with the readers more. Both magazines have a letter from the editor, which basically explains what the editor has chosen to talk about in this issue and why it is an important topic. We both coloured our subheadings with coloured panels, but where they have used a variety of colours, I stuck with a theme of just one colour. Both have numbered our pictures, showing clear instructions on where each article is in the magazine.

8. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? I think my magazine would suit the company "Bauer Media". I think this because they already have a wide range of music magazines, which mainly consist of pop and indie magazines. As my magazine is also a pop magazine, I thought it would fit perfectly in this company. I also thought this, because having my magazine in their company could help them possibly gain a wider audience as my magazine is different to what they already have, as mine is not aimed at younger pop fans, but more for young women as well. I also think mine would be suitable, because Bauer Media have a lot of successful magazines like heat, closer, Kerrang and Q and has a gap in their company for a new pop magazine.

9. Who are your target audience and how did you attract them? The target audience for my pop music magazine were females who’s age ranged from 16 to 24. For a magazine to be suitable for this target audience, my magazine had to have a variety of things that would attract a teenager, but could also attract the interest of an adult. To attract my target audience, I thought of ways to create my magazines that would connect with a female reader, so I experimented with the theme colour and how I could use the colours such as purple, which is known to be a quite feminine colour, so you would know that magazine would be more suitable for a female. I also included a wide range of stories that would fit everybody in my target audience from winning The Wanted tickets to how to steal Cheryl Coles style.

10. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product? From creating my product, I have learnt how to use Photoshop, which helped me learn how to construct a magazine cover, double page spread and contents page. I learnt how to use the Photoshop tools like crop and lasso to improve my work and make it look like a finished product .

11. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product? After completing my final product, looking back at my Negus magazine. I can see how much I have learnt throughout it. My Negus magazine was created on publisher and had a limited amount of tools I could use. Whereas with my final product we used Photoshop, which had a wide range of tools and helped us create our final piece. From doing my final product, not only did I learn how to use Photoshop, but have learnt how to use it to plan and construct a magazine. Very plain and not constructed very well. The colours I have used are quite dull and do not really show my whole audience, which were students, both male and female and the colours I have used are quite feminine. My final product looks much more clear and professional, showing clearly who it is targeted at, by my use of colour coordination and based on what the magazine is about and what it consists of.