1. Music Magazine Evaluation

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups? My magazine represents to a particular social group who like to listen to hip-hop and R&B. The category this is aimed at is ‘chav’ like people who are aged between 13 and 19 years old. The article about ‘LockStaarrr’ is suppose to come across as a role model for young people, as the article is saying about how ‘LockStaarrr’ become famous. I feel this article was aimed at the young in a positive manner, as my main image shows how young teenagers would be (having their hood up), and also the language I used in my article such as words like ‘Woah’. Also my magazine is showing if you put your mind to what you like doing, you can make something of your life. This effects the representation of my audience, as I am trying to sell my product to teenagers. I am to sell my magazine at teenagers as they are more likely to buy a magazine of this category rather than older people.

3. How did you attract/ address your audience? I attracted my audience with my magazine masthead by making it quite bold, large and stand out on my magazine so the audience can easily see it. Also the name was unique and different, which would attract the audience as ‘Pulse’ would be like a fast heartbeat, which could be meaning people cannot wait to read up on new gossip, and find out what is going on in the world of hip-hop/ R&B. I kept my colour scheme quite simple using three colours which were white, black and red. But the masthead was quite large which stood out so it would attract the audience. Also I think the main image of ‘LockStaarr’ with the quote next to her photo saying ‘how I became famous’ attracted the audience, as they wanted to know more, and read about her success into fame. Masthead

4. Who would be the audience for your media project? The audience for my magazine media project is aimed at 13 to 19 year olds. Both males and females, who are into R&B and Hip-Hop music. I have aimed it at an audience for quite young people such as teenagers, because I thought they are more interested in the new up-to-date music, and would like to know what is going on in the music industry of today. Also I think that the main article in my magazine about ‘how I became famous’ by LockStaarr would be a good inspiration towards young teenagers, as it is an article telling you all about how LockStaarr became famous, and how she could be an inspiration to others, helping them understand you have got to work for what you want in life. Also young people like to enter competitions and receive free gifts, so every month there are ‘monthly awards’. Also my magazine has more images than text, other than the article about LockStaarr, as young people would rather look at images than read text.

5. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? I think Bauer Media would distribute my media magazine. I think this because my media magazine relates to their brands the distribute such as ‘kiss’ as they are similar in how they both relate to Hip-Hop and R&B, have interesting stories about the famous people in the sports industry, which people would want to read more about if they saw it on the front cover like on my media product in how LockStaarr because famous. I would consider to distributing my magazine online, but if I have free things with my magazine, such as a free poster, more people would by the magazine rather than pay to look at it online as they would get the free poster. If I distribute my magazine online for free I would get a idea of how many people would actually read my magazine, which therefore after I have found this out, I could charge a small price to the public.

6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing the product? The technologies I used to construct my product were, publisher to create my magazine, and to edit my images I used a process called macromedia fireworks. I learnt how to crop an image out, so I just have the image I want to use without the background and anything else in the photograph. Without the fireworks processer, my magazine would all have block images and wouldn’t look as professional. I had to use a digital camera to take my images, and to upload them on to the webpage for my work to be viewed, I had to upload them to imageshack, then onto the ‘elymediastudies.com’ . Edited, without background Background

7. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? When making my magazine, I compared it to other magazines such as ‘Kerrang’ and ‘RWD’. I placed my main image over my masthead, so you could not see the whole name of my magazine ‘Pulse’. I did this because people who would normally buy my magazine would know what it is/ and look like, therefore would not have to see the whole of the masthead to know what it says. I overlapped my images, and placed writing over the top of them. Doing this made my magazine look like a real media product, as it wasn’t all just in block images with writing next to it. By putting a free poster in my magazine, some people might chose to buy the magazine, as they get the poster, if nothing was free inside the magazine, they might not want to buy it. Kerrang My Magazine

8. By putting ‘Free Live Poster’ on the front of my magazine in a clear view so the audience of my magazine can see it could attract more people into buying my magazine. Comparing my magazine to ‘Kerrang’ my main article in my magazine is about ‘LockStaarr’. To attract the readers, I put what my article was about ‘How I became famous’ which hoping this would attract the readers to want to read about how she became famous. I placed a few smaller images to the left, and below my main image, I did this to show my audience what else is included in my magazine, also I showed a smaller image of the free poster that was inside my magazine. Also in my contents I put an ‘Every Months’ contents just like other magazines such as ‘Kerrang’. This is what my magazine would have in every month. Also in my contents I put some of the important things that people would want to look at and read. This compares my magazine to a real media product as they put in the contents what they think their target audience would want to read about. Around my contents I also put images which would make the audience want to read/ see more images about the band/ musician. My main article image on my contents page stands out from the rest, as it is a larger image, as this is the main article in my magazine and what I want people to read about. As like other magazines I have my masthead on my contents page with the date it was issued. My magazine contents page

9. 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 my preliminary task, I feel I have learnt a lot in my progression to my full product. In my preliminary task on my front cover on my magazine I have a background on my main image, and the person is not looking at the camera, which then I felt that this would not connect to the audience. So in my final product, I cut the background out of my image, and chose a photo of ‘LockStaarrr’ that is looking straight at the camera, therefore this would catch the audiences eye. Also in my prliminary task my images were quite dull, which people would want a magazine with contrasted and clear images, so in my final magazine I edited my images so they were more bold and contrasted. Preliminary Task Full Product

10. To make my final magazine look like a real product, I placed my main image over part of the masthead as this is what a real music magazine would do. the audience who I target my magazine for would want to know the price of the magazine before buying, so I put the price of my magazine on the front of my final product, above the barcode. After making my contents for my preliminary task I realised it did not look professional as the images were faded behind the writing, and was not very clear. When coming to make my final product contents, I used block images beside my writing on my contents and used a large image for what my main article is about in my magazine. Also I added an ‘Every Month’ part to my magazine which has competitions, monthly awards and more. This made my magazine look more professional and like a real magazine. As on a real magazine on the contents they always have the name of their magazine, for example ‘Pulse’ which is my magazine, so I added this on the top of my contents page, along with the date it was issued. From my preliminary task I think I have learnt a lot and transformed my magazine into looking like a professional product. Final Product Preliminary Task