Evaluation Pt 7

What do you feel you have learned about the following?

Creativity: whilst making my media product I learned that having a great deal of creativity aids in the making of magazines, due to the creative impact on designing and placement.

Originality:  when making a magazine it is essential that it is unique and original as well as specific to the magazine that you are creating.

Technology: As mentioned earlier, having knowledge on the software used and what technology goes into making a magazine would greatly improve the quality of a magazine.

Photography: Having a clear idea and plan for what pictures will be used in a magazine is key to the success of a magazine, although it is possible to take good photo’s without planning for them, all the best photo’s are very well planned out.

Layout: I learned that the layout of the magazine is really important. This is because it has to be visually appealing to an audience/reader and without a good layout, this is not possible.

Colours:  the colours in a magazine are very important as it all adds up to the appeal of the magazine and how the magazine is to reach and reflect the target audience.

Fonts:  I learned that choosing and keeping to a font style is essential In a magazine as it gives the magazine a more professional look and it allows for a ‘clean’ look on a magazine and strays away from a sloppy or trashy finish

Writing Articles: In doing this task I had to learn how to write an effective article. This is easier said than done. I learned that a lot goes into writing articles and when writing one, there is much to consider. How I will draw in my reader, how to keep the reader and also the language used has to be appropriate and preferred by my target audience.

Evaluation Pt 6

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

 During the making of my magazine, I learned that in order to efficiently use the technologies to create a decent magazine, as mentioned earlier knowledge of the technology being used would have helped dramatically.  I used PowerPoint and fireworks to make my magazine, and in not having the knowledge

Evaluation Pt 5

How did you attract/address your target audience?

The first thing that I thought about when making my magazine was the name, how would I make a name that would be recognisable and attract my ideal target audience. The name ‘the common room’ in my opinion addresses my target audience as being sixth formers and ‘hanging out’ in the common room is what they do, you can immediately associate the magazine with the sixth form. When deciding on font, I sought something that was cool and stylish to make sure it attracted my audience. I also had to take colouring into account and I chose a popular colouring (red).

Evaluation Pt 4

Who would be the ideal target audience for your media product?

My magazine is a ‘Student’ magazine, so the age range for my magazine would be 16 – 18 as I am looking to target college or ‘sixth form’ students. My magazine is meant to be a unisex magazine but does have parts that appeal more to a male audience such as my feature article. The ‘class’ that my magazine is intended for working class people  as I do not think that middle class or upper class people would have much/any interest in my magazine as there is nothing in the magazine that is target at them or could appeal to them. People that read my magazine would have to have an interest in what is going on around the sixth form and also in opinions and updates.

Evaluation Pt 3

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why

I envisage my magazine to be independent, this is because it is a very small magazine intended for only my sixth form, so further and wider marketing would not be appropriate. Because of this, no third party distributors will be needed just small internal distribution is necessary. As stated earlier my magazine is intended for my sixth form, therefore will appear in my sixth form common room, as my magazine is called ‘the common room’. It will reach my target audience as all of the sixth form go into the common room and only sixth formers go into the common room.

Evaluation Pt 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My magazine represents young people as being more independent and interested in doing things for themselves. It shows how society has changed over time and that young individuals are becoming more independent, this is shown as the feature is about students seeking there own personal transportation, doing it for themselves, without any ones input. This challenges Media’s portrayal of young people as young people are often represented as being dependant on adults.

Evaluation Pt 1

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products.

In making my magazine I failed to use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products. When analysing another magazine such as ‘the student magazine’ I was able to pick out the key conventions and features that worked well as well as what stuck out to me as a reader. I believe that I failed to recreate these conventions and features due to my lack of technical expertise and time I spent in making the magazine. Not knowing how to use the different software required making a good magazine really pulled me back, it is not possible to make a good magazine with little/no experience in using the required software. If I had known how to properly use the software, I could have been able to use some of the conventions in my magazine, but in the end I came out with something that I see as a really low grade attempt at a magazine. Along with the lack of time spent on the magazine, I felt that it was really being rushed and that because of that, I was unable to learn how to use the software, create a good design and complete   the magazine to a good standard.

Preliminary Task