Evaluation Question 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Evaluation Question 2 :How does your product represent different social groups?

How does your product represent different social groups?

My product is aimed at young people who are likely to be very liberal and open in their ideas and views about gender and gender identity. This is reflected and represented by the image of the artist on the front cover, Jamie harper. Although she is a cis woman she dresses very androgynously. She has very short and messy hair and little make up apart from a bit of black eyeliner under each eye. On the dps image the artist is also wearing a masculine shaped blazer. This combination of elements gives her an androgynous, gender-neutral look; and represents both women men and gender-neutral people, as she does not conform to the feminine end of the gender binary. This would not be a conventional look for a mainstream female pop artist, as they would be presented as fair more feminine. As well as this female artists are often presented in a way that adheres to the male gaze however it is conventional for an indie magazine to challenge this stereotype. Adhering to the male gaze would not be appropriate for this magazine as many of the readers are likely to be feminists and believe in gender equality and believe the male gaze to be sexist and old fashioned.

 Double page spread image showing the androgyny of the model.

My product would also represent young students in the C D and E socio economic groups through my double page spread article. The artist Jamie harper is presented as friend of the audience through the colloquial and informal tone of the copy created by the uses of phrases such as "its totally mental." She is made to seen relatable and she does things that the C D and E target audience would do for example to go to Greggs to get a sausage roll. This is also shows how this artist is representing the lower classes rather than the upper and middle classes. She is represented as successful but still down to earth which would appeal to the target audience who will like to see that some one just like them can be at the top their game but remember their humble roots instead of an artist whom people aspire to be like such as Beyoncé. Jamie harper is of a similar age to the target audience and she has more of a messy student look and vibe rather than a clean cut and put together look that most mainstream artist such as Rihanna or Beyoncé.

Disability is represented through the depression that Jamie Harper has struggled with and how that has affected her life and music. Depression is a mental illness that is currently being brought out of the shadows by celebrities opening up about their personal battles. 

Age has been represented through a number of elements as many artists of all ages are featured in the magazine, form older artist such as new order and the smiths in the contents page and front cover, to younger artist such as the Horrors. The magazine I aimed at younger digitally native generation and this can e seen though the use of website and twitter links on the front cover and contents page.

  The Horrors and Blossoms albums that are featured.

There are also many regional identities represented through different artist such as the Stone Roses from Manchester, Florence Welch is from north London and Jamie harper is from Essex. I have not however, represented different ethnicities well as all of the artists featured are white, however this is a problem with the indie music genre in general.  

Evaluation question 3: what kind of media institution would distribute your magazine ?

If this does not work click here 

evaluation question 4: Who would the audience be for your product?

Who would the audience be for your product?

My likely audience would be Young people aged 16-25 who are likely to be in the C2, D and E socio economic group and be in the explorer psychographic group.  To confirm that this was correct I created a online questionnaire, click here to view the results. These people would consider themselves to be part of the “indie” youth subculture. Before creating my magazine I researched further and wrote about the Indie subculture to better understand the interests of my target subculture. Click here for my research into the indie subculture. My target audience for my product will be particularly interested in art music and film and regard themselves as having good taste. The minimalism of my front cover would not appeal to most audiences as is focuses more on the image rather than multitudes of text. This is because the target audience would appreciate the photography, as it would be something that they are interested in. 
I have created an audience profile in order to help me visualise the products that my target audience would like and the interests that they would have. Click here for a link to my audience profile.

My target audience would be very interested in new and upcoming artists and which artist are a “must see” because they like to be ahead of the crowd and the first to be on a new trend. This is displayed by the cover lines on my front cover and contents pages with cover lines such as “who to see live 2017” and “ones to watch”. This want to be on trend is also reflected by my images for all three pages. In the images I have used neon and coloured lighting which is very fashionable and on trend at the moment, with the increased popularity of 80s culture music and art. I have created a mood board to focus the aesthetic for my magazine. Click here to see it.

 Who to see live cover line.

My potential audience would be interested in music above all else, and would probably have a wide knowledge of both new and old music. They would also be particular about who they listen to.  This can quite clearly be seen through the cover lines on both the contents page and the front cover as they contain newer artist such as Bombay Bicycle club and artists from the 80s such as New Order and the Stone Roses. My double page spread copy also includes references to both new and old indie bands such as the Horrors and the Smiths. My target audience would also be digitally native and this can be seen through the use of a website address on the front cover and a twitter icon and tweet at the bottom of the contents page.  The target audience is also likely to spend much of their disposable income on albums, gigs and music merchandise. I discovered this with the help of my focus group as this is what they spent their money on. This is why the magazine advertises Jamie Harpers album. I have also made the price of my magazine £2.99 rather than £4.99, like magazine such as mojo. This will help accommodate for the younger audience and their student budget.

 Price of magazine.       Jamie's album and price.

The readers of my magazine would spend a portion of their disposable income on gig tickets and music. I have tried to show this through the pricing of Jamie Harpers album in my double page and the article headline “ who to see live in 2017”.

My target audience would also be digitally native and very active on social media this is why I have included a website address and on the front cover and a tweet on the contents page as this would appeal to the younger audience.

 Tweet featured on the double page spread. 

Evaluation Question 5: how did your magazine attract your target audience ?

Evaluation question 6: what have you learnt about technologies the in the process of constructing this products ?

Digital technology media evaluation from katiefaint

Evaluation question 7: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 your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Preliminary sixth form front cover and Contents page 

Music magazine front cover, double page spread and Contents page 

In the preliminary task I felt that my product was genre appropriate but I had not fully explored how to use the editing applications or been very adventurous with my photography. For example the product that I created only used one font, which makes the cover appear very monotone and boring. In my real product I have used a number of different fonts in order to make the magazine more engaging, however I have still made sure that the fonts work well together.

In the preliminary task I used Photoshop for both my contents page and front cover however after researching into the program InDesign I decided that this program would be a better option for more word publications such as my contents page and double page spread. InDesign helped to make my contents page look far more professional than my preliminary task.

click here for research into different editing programs. 

 In the prelim task the masthead of the product is also much too small and does not stand out against the cover lines however in my real product I have made sure that my masthead Is much larger I think this has also helped create a better sense of brand identity and would make the name of the magazine become important and a name that people will automatically know such as NME.



My prelim masthead vs my real masthead.

The photography in my preliminary product was very simple and basic and not very engaging, it did use the rule of thirds and it was genre appropriate but it did not stand out from the crowd in anyway. In my music magazine I tried to rectify this by making my photography much more interesting and engaging for the audience whilst keeping it genre appropriate I felt that I was a lot more adventurous the second time round and I think that this paid off and helped to produce a much more striking image. As well as this, to help me focus the aesthetic of my music magazine, I made a mood board. This aided me in establishing a clear style for my photography.

Click here for a link to my mood board.

I felt that my music magazine contents page was far superior to my preliminary contents page. My prelim contents page did not have a good sense of cohesion and did not adhere to many of the conventions of real magazine contents pages. For example there was no short description under some of the article headlines, there was only one two images used on the page and there was little brand identity created between the contents page and front cover. Where as my music magazine contents page used several different images, all of which worked together well and helped to create a stronger brand identity and helped attract the target audience.


Prelim contents page without descriptions vs real contents with descriptions and more engaging colours.

In the preliminary task I had also forgot small but crucial elements such as a barcode, price and byline. As well as this is did not include a website on the contents page. I remembered to include all of these components in my music magazine and they helped to contribute to making my magazine seem as real as possible as these are all conventions of real magazines.

      Byline and and price and barcode from my real product which add to the verisimilitude of my magazine.

During the creation of my music magazine I learnt about the institutions behind the magazines and how important they were and how they would help my magazine become as realistic as possible. i did this by looking into the different distributors of magazines and looking at magazine media packs. By learning about different institutions I was able to understand how specific language and lexicon of words was used by the institution to create a brand identity and tone.

Click here for the media pack for Q 
Click here for the media pack for Clash 

In the process of creating my real product I researched into my target audience and made a focus group so that I had a better understanding the people that my magazine would be targeting. As well as this I made an audience profile. This helped me to create a magazine that appealed to my target audience more and a product that was similar to the other products that they would buy. I did not do this level of audience research for my sixth form magazine and so I did not know (in detail) who my target audience were and what sort magazines they would buy. 

Click here for a link to my focus group.
Click here for a link to my audience profile.

I also utilised the digital technology available to me and created an online questionaire on google docs. This helped me to interact with my audience and understand how they saw the magazine and what they though was good and bad about it. This meant that I was able to refine my magazine accordingly. 

Click here for a link to my google docs results. 

Before I  created my music magazine I also looked into the genre of music and and at different subcultures before focusing the "indie" subculture and music.

click here for information on the indie subculture

In conclusion I learnt many skills and details about the magazine industry from the production process of my preliminary task to my final task and I think that it helped me greatly.