Evaluation Tasks
The final contents page that I have produced has a variety of used and challenged conventions of contents pages in real music magazines. For the research section of this coursework, I analysed contents pages from real magazines, and I found that popular rock/indie music magazines had red, white and black colour schemes for their contents pages. Therefore, I have decided to carry on this convention and use the same colours for my contents page. However I decided not keep the whole background white, which seems to be the norm, I have split the background into half black and half white. I have chosen to do so because I have extended the black background down from the logo of my magazine. This is a way of developing conventions, as most music magazines have a logo of the masthead on their contents page, yet I have decided to the background of mine to the length of the page.
Instead of following norms and conventions, I decided not to use cross heads to split up my table of contents. Instead I have decided to use drop capitals to emphasise each feature. Unlike the contents page that I analysed in my research, I decided to include a note from the editor on my contents page. I have done so because I feel that it gives a more personal touch to the magazine and the readers develop trust in the magazine. Another convention that I have developed is the position of the table of contents. The majority of contents pages within music magazines have all of the text on one side of the page, yet I have decided to split my contents page up and position half of the text on the left, and half of the text on the right, to fit around the images on the page.
In terms of using, developing or challenging forms and conventions I feel that my final double page spread has definitely used and developed conventions. I have used forms and conventions by placing the article in equal columns, and by positioning the text on the right hand side page. From the analysis that I carried out into double page spreads, I found that a large majority of double page spreads position their text on the right hand side, with the image of the artist(s) on the left. However, I have placed some text on the right hand page; a quote and the name of the featured artists. I have also included ‘the lead’ within my double page spread, to give the reader a taste of what they are going to be reading.
I have developed conventions by continuing on the colour scheme from my final front cover and double page spread. Again, I have found from my research that the colour scheme used on the front cover of real music magazines does not continue on in the rest of the magazine. The position of the image used on my double page spread follows conventions, as I have placed it on the left hand side page. However I have carried on the background of the image, to cover the rest of the spread, including the right hand side page. This challenges conventions as I can tell from my research that most images on double page spreads only cover the left page.
Those people who would read my magazine will also generally still be living at home with their parents/families, and so will not yet be burdened by life’s big responsibilities. Therefore their biggest stressors will be school work, and social pressures. As my magazine is aimed at 15-17 year olds, the type of music included will be from younger artists, and so the reader will be able to aspire to be like the featured artist and form a personal identity, and escape from their life stressors.
The main gender that is represented in my magazine is female; however my aim was not to single out specific genders. The models that I have used in my original images contribute to how my magazine represents particular social groups. I have included features which will appeal to the male audience, and I have also included an image of a male ‘artist’ on my final contents page. The colour scheme that I have used is unisex, so both genders will feel that they can read my magazine. The fact that I am female myself, plays a huge part in the target gender of my audience because I will be biased towards females.
A publishing company that I would not like to distribute my final artefact would be Bauer Media due to the fact that the only women’s music magazines that they publish are in the genre of pop, and all the rest of the genres are classed as men’s entertainment. Therefore Bauer Media are stereotypical and suggesting that the only genre of music suited to women is pop, and because of the genre of my magazine (indie rock) I feel that if Bauer media were to publish my magazine, it would be placed in the men’s entertainment section. Therefore the placement of my magazines on shop shelves may influence prospective female readers to not buy my magazine, and so I will not be reaching my target audience. I have aimed to target my magazine at both genres for the reason that most music magazines do not, and so I would not want a publishing company to deny a specific gender from reading my magazine.
The main way in which I would like my magazine to be distributed is obviously within shops and local newsagents. However I feel that IPC media could also successfully distribute my magazine as a subscription, either online or via post.
As mentioned above, once my audience surveys had been completed I created an audience profile detailing the target audience etc. for my final artefact. In my audience profile I stated the target age and gender and most importantly, decided on the genre of my final artefact. I decided on my genre from statistics on the most popular genre and the most popular music magazine. From my results I chose to have NME magazine as the inspiration for my magazine, and for indie rock to be the genre. I then decided the purpose of my magazine, and how it would fit into Blumler and Katz Four Needs Theory. I also found out that the most popular colours used on music magazine were red, white and black, and so I decided to go along with the majority and use the colours as my colour scheme.
Without the use of technological resources, I could not have completed this coursework to the same standard that I have done. For the basis of this coursework I used blogger (www.blogger.com), an online blog site which allows me to keep all of my work in an ordered place. The difficulties that I found with blogger were that the text box is only a certain size and so to view all of my work I had to keep scrolling up and down, which was quite tedious. Another hindrance of blogger is that the uploading process takes a long time, as some files take longer to upload. Therefore a lot of my time was spent converting files and uploading them on to my blog. However, what I do like about blogger is that it is easily organised. I created different sections for each part of my coursework; home, preliminary task, research, planning, final artefact and evaluation. Blogger also lets your personalise your space, you can name it what you wish and choose your own background. Without this, each blog would look the same, there would be no variety and people would not be able to express themselves. Another advantage of blogger is that it allows you to save your work as a draft, before publishing it, so if any corrections/alterations needed to be made they can be done before the final piece of work is published online for everyone to see.
As well as blogger, I used a variety of different computer programs; Microsoft word, Serif PagePlus, Serif DrawPlus, Serif PhotoPlus and www.picnik.com. By using all of the different programs I have learnt a variety of new skills in how to present work, edit photos etc. I used Microsoft word to draft out the theory side of the project, so I could check for spelling and grammatical errors. I then copy and pasted the text onto the blog. I also used Microsoft word as a way of editing print screens, which I then converted into an image and uploaded onto my blog. Converting files into different formats was an extremely useful skill to learn, because before I did not know that word document files could be converted into an image. Microsoft word also came in useful when I was analysing real front covers, contents paged and double page spreads. I used www.picnik.com to edit the pictures used on my front cover and double page spread. Before doing this coursework I had used picnik before, however because the site is closing down the entire premium effect section was free to use, so I used tools that I never had before. Picnik is a really useful and effective website for editing pictures, as it allows you to remove redeye, change the colour effect, turn up the image saturation etc. I have learnt a lot about how to edit photos, and what looks good or not by using picnik. Serif PhotoPlus also had some of the same tools I used on picnik; however I found it more difficult to understand than picnik, so I only edited one image using Serif PhotoPlus.
Before I began this coursework, I had only briefly used Serif for a smaller project completed in lower school. When it came to using the program again I had no idea how to use it, so it was really useful to learn how to properly use it. Out of the 5 Serif programs available to me I only used PhotoPlus, PagePlus, and DrawPlus to complete certain parts of my coursework. I used the Serif programs in order to design and create my masthead, edit my contents page image, and to actually create my final artefacts. I only used PhotoPlus to edit one of my chosen images because, as previously stated, I found it difficult to understand how to use, and picnik had more effects. I used DrawPlus to create the first and second drafts of my magazine masthead. At first I found it a difficult program to use, however as I used it more I became more comfortable with it. The Serif program that I used the most frequently was PagePlus. As I have used it so much, I am extremely comfortable in using it and I now know what the majority of tools are used for. The most useful tool in the whole program is the Image Cutout Studio, which allows you to cut out certain parts of an image and so I found this extremely useful for the image on my contents page. All of my final artefacts were created using Serif PagePlus X4, as this was the best program available.
I have learnt that a colour scheme must be decided on, and should be kept the same the whole way throughout. The colour scheme should only consist of two to three colours; otherwise the magazine will look unprofessional. I have learnt that the left side third is a vital convention used on front covers, as that is where the human eye looks first. Therefore the most important features should be placed on the left hand side. The front cover that I created for my preliminary task had text positioned on the left hand side, but that was only because I did not want it to interfere with the text on my background image. When I created my preliminary task, I did not know about the left side third, but know I understand why magazines follow this particular convention.
I now know that the background image of a front cover should be taken into a lot of consideration and a lot of planning should be carried out. The image used for my preliminary task was not planned; it was just a random image I had taken of the school sixth form entrance. I have also learned that when magazines are produced, a variety of forms and conventions are taken into consideration, something that I did not know about or do, whilst putting together my preliminary task. Certain music magazines may choose to not follow conventions, yet the majority do, and so they gain the readers trust.
The main thing that I have learnt from the progression of my preliminary task to my final artifact is that planning and organisation is vital to a professional looking magazine. I did not plan my preliminary task, as I thought that ideas would just come to me, as I was creating it. However, that is definitely not the case. If I had not planned my final artefact in as much detail as I did, I would not have been as organised and careful with my work. Of course, I did not always stick to my plan, but at least I had a clear idea of the layout and positioning of front cover, contents page and double page spread.
In what ways does your media product use, develop, or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
The final media product that I have chosen to create is a music magazine and so for my final artifacts that I have created a front cover, contents page, and double page spread. Whilst creating these final products I have challenged, used and developed different forms and conventions of music magazines. As I discuss how I have done so, I will talk separately about my front cover, double page spread and contents page.
The final front cover that I have produced features a vast majority of the forms and conventions used on the front covers of real music magazines. I have chosen to mainly follow conventions because otherwise I feel my front cover would look obviously fake and I wanted to make it look as professional as possible. If I had chosen to challenge conventions so, for example placing the masthead in a different position rather than typically at the top of the cover, I would be jeopardising my chances of securing potential readers. Readers place trust in magazines, and having the masthead in the top hand corner is such a deep rooted norm, it would be odd and risky to position it anywhere else. I have followed a majority of other conventions such as using a colour scheme which consists of only three colours, the use of the left side third and the use of plugs. The three colours which I have chosen to use throughout my entire final artefact are red, white and black. I have only chosen three colours because otherwise my magazine would look unprofessional and too cluttered with colour. Red, white and black are my chosen colours because the results from my audience survey show they were the most popular colours that readers like to see on music magazines. All three of these colours also work well in conjunction with the genre of my magazine and my logo.
I have also taken advantage of the left side third of the front cover. The most important features that are designed to attract readers are placed on the left hand side vertical third of the front cover. This is because the human eye tends to read from the top left hand corner, to the right, and then back to the vertical left hand side. Therefore I have employed this technique, as it will attract more possible readers to my final artifacts. An example of how I have challenged conventions is that I have placed a banner at the bottom of my front cover. Generally, most music magazines place a strap line at the top of the magazine; however I did not want it to interfere with my image and logo, so I placed a banner at the bottom.
I have also taken advantage of the left side third of the front cover. The most important features that are designed to attract readers are placed on the left hand side vertical third of the front cover. This is because the human eye tends to read from the top left hand corner, to the right, and then back to the vertical left hand side. Therefore I have employed this technique, as it will attract more possible readers to my final artifacts. An example of how I have challenged conventions is that I have placed a banner at the bottom of my front cover. Generally, most music magazines place a strap line at the top of the magazine; however I did not want it to interfere with my image and logo, so I placed a banner at the bottom.
The final contents page that I have produced has a variety of used and challenged conventions of contents pages in real music magazines. For the research section of this coursework, I analysed contents pages from real magazines, and I found that popular rock/indie music magazines had red, white and black colour schemes for their contents pages. Therefore, I have decided to carry on this convention and use the same colours for my contents page. However I decided not keep the whole background white, which seems to be the norm, I have split the background into half black and half white. I have chosen to do so because I have extended the black background down from the logo of my magazine. This is a way of developing conventions, as most music magazines have a logo of the masthead on their contents page, yet I have decided to the background of mine to the length of the page.
Instead of following norms and conventions, I decided not to use cross heads to split up my table of contents. Instead I have decided to use drop capitals to emphasise each feature. Unlike the contents page that I analysed in my research, I decided to include a note from the editor on my contents page. I have done so because I feel that it gives a more personal touch to the magazine and the readers develop trust in the magazine. Another convention that I have developed is the position of the table of contents. The majority of contents pages within music magazines have all of the text on one side of the page, yet I have decided to split my contents page up and position half of the text on the left, and half of the text on the right, to fit around the images on the page.
In terms of using, developing or challenging forms and conventions I feel that my final double page spread has definitely used and developed conventions. I have used forms and conventions by placing the article in equal columns, and by positioning the text on the right hand side page. From the analysis that I carried out into double page spreads, I found that a large majority of double page spreads position their text on the right hand side, with the image of the artist(s) on the left. However, I have placed some text on the right hand page; a quote and the name of the featured artists. I have also included ‘the lead’ within my double page spread, to give the reader a taste of what they are going to be reading.
I have developed conventions by continuing on the colour scheme from my final front cover and double page spread. Again, I have found from my research that the colour scheme used on the front cover of real music magazines does not continue on in the rest of the magazine. The position of the image used on my double page spread follows conventions, as I have placed it on the left hand side page. However I have carried on the background of the image, to cover the rest of the spread, including the right hand side page. This challenges conventions as I can tell from my research that most images on double page spreads only cover the left page.
How does your media product represent particular groups?
The main group that my music magazine represents are teenagers who enjoy listening to indie rock music. My music magazine represents students, who are possibly in a part time job, and either considering, or are currently in further education. These people are likely to be looking for a form of escapism and I feel that my music magazine provides that. Even though indie rock isn’t as heavy as rock music, it still has similar connotations and emotions. Those people who are listening to indie rock probably are not looking for as heavy an escape as those who listen to rock, but may still wish to distract themselves from certain parts of their lives. I feel that the final music magazine I have produced clearly represents the type of music that can provide this escape.
Those people who would read my magazine will also generally still be living at home with their parents/families, and so will not yet be burdened by life’s big responsibilities. Therefore their biggest stressors will be school work, and social pressures. As my magazine is aimed at 15-17 year olds, the type of music included will be from younger artists, and so the reader will be able to aspire to be like the featured artist and form a personal identity, and escape from their life stressors.
The main gender that is represented in my magazine is female; however my aim was not to single out specific genders. The models that I have used in my original images contribute to how my magazine represents particular social groups. I have included features which will appeal to the male audience, and I have also included an image of a male ‘artist’ on my final contents page. The colour scheme that I have used is unisex, so both genders will feel that they can read my magazine. The fact that I am female myself, plays a huge part in the target gender of my audience because I will be biased towards females.
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product?
From the research that I have conducted into the different media publishers available I have come to the conclusion that International Publishing Company (IPC) media might distribute my music magazine. IPC media is the UK’S leading consumer magazine publishers and so I feel that they would be successful in selling my magazine. Similarly to other media publishers, IPC have a variety of categories in which the magazines that they publish fall into. Out of the five categories, I would like my magazine to be published in the Inspire category, as it deals with specialist magazines, and I feel that my music magazine specialises in the genre of indie rock. Most music magazines that are published tend to be placed in the men’s section, which is extremely sexist. I would like my magazine to be distributed into the Inspire section because it is not sexist; it deals with all specialist magazines. Another reason why I feel that IPC media might distribute my magazine is because of the genre. The main music magazines that are published by IPC are NME, Guitar and Bass. Due to the fact that the inspiration for my final artefact was NME, I feel that IPC media would be a suitable publishing company, as the genres and the artists featured are similar. Therefore IPC media would be safe in knowing that they are not losing readers, they are in fact gaining them, as interest in the genre of indie rock continues to grow.
A publishing company that I would not like to distribute my final artefact would be Bauer Media due to the fact that the only women’s music magazines that they publish are in the genre of pop, and all the rest of the genres are classed as men’s entertainment. Therefore Bauer Media are stereotypical and suggesting that the only genre of music suited to women is pop, and because of the genre of my magazine (indie rock) I feel that if Bauer media were to publish my magazine, it would be placed in the men’s entertainment section. Therefore the placement of my magazines on shop shelves may influence prospective female readers to not buy my magazine, and so I will not be reaching my target audience. I have aimed to target my magazine at both genres for the reason that most music magazines do not, and so I would not want a publishing company to deny a specific gender from reading my magazine.
The main way in which I would like my magazine to be distributed is obviously within shops and local newsagents. However I feel that IPC media could also successfully distribute my magazine as a subscription, either online or via post.
Who would be the audience for your media product?
To decide on the target audience for my music magazine, I used the audience profile that I compiled from my survey results. The target gender for my magazine is predominantly female, as I feel that there are not enough music magazines in the market that are aimed at females. However I want my magazine to appeal to the male population as well so I have included features which would attract male readers. My target age is 15-17 year olds, because from completing my research I realised that the only magazines available for teenagers are Kerrang! Which is predominantly aimed at males. So, seeing a gap in the market for a music magazine aimed at both male and female teenagers, I decided that they would be my target demographics.
I also decided on the audience for my media product based on other influencing media. Within my audience survey, I included a question asking about what other media people were influenced by. The most popular response was the internet at 66.7%. Nowadays, teenagers spend more of their time online, than watching television or listening to the radio. Teenagers now communicate via social networking sites, and that is how they receive their news and information. So, the audience for my magazine would be people who are interested in information and surveillance (Blumler and Katz Four Need Theory). The inspiration for my magazine was mainly NME magazine, and so therefore I can define my audience as similar to that of NME, except the target age has been decreased.
How did you attract/address your audience for your media product?
In order to attract an audience for my final artifact music magazine I created an audience survey. I used the free online survey maker: www.surveymonkey.com, which allowed me a limit of 10 questions to help me obtain results to create an audience profile. The survey that I created was sent to 18 people, all of whom successfully completed the survey. I sent the survey to an even number of people so that the percentages would appear more even. Here is a link to my survey: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/PWFYNWY . The type of questions that I included in my survey took a lot of consideration because there was a limit of 10, so I created questions which would obtain meaningful answers. I felt that questions like ‘how much would you normally pay for a music magazine?’ were irrelevant because that it is not a huge component of this coursework. Questions such as ‘what do you think the purpose of a music magazine is?’ and ‘what is your favourite genre of rock?’ are far more useful because they will obtain answers that are vital to my coursework.
Once I had created my survey I needed to ask participants to complete it. In order to obtain answers, I sent the survey to my peers via my school account on www.itslearning.com . However this site is not commonly used, and so I did not receive many completed surveys. I then decided to spread the word about my survey by posting the link to it on Facebook, one of the world’s most popular social networking sites. I chose to do this because the vast majority of my peers have a Facebook account and so would see the link. By doing this, I found a significant number of people completed my survey. I also used word of mouth to make people aware of my audience survey.
Once I had created my survey I needed to ask participants to complete it. In order to obtain answers, I sent the survey to my peers via my school account on www.itslearning.com . However this site is not commonly used, and so I did not receive many completed surveys. I then decided to spread the word about my survey by posting the link to it on Facebook, one of the world’s most popular social networking sites. I chose to do this because the vast majority of my peers have a Facebook account and so would see the link. By doing this, I found a significant number of people completed my survey. I also used word of mouth to make people aware of my audience survey.
As mentioned above, once my audience surveys had been completed I created an audience profile detailing the target audience etc. for my final artefact. In my audience profile I stated the target age and gender and most importantly, decided on the genre of my final artefact. I decided on my genre from statistics on the most popular genre and the most popular music magazine. From my results I chose to have NME magazine as the inspiration for my magazine, and for indie rock to be the genre. I then decided the purpose of my magazine, and how it would fit into Blumler and Katz Four Needs Theory. I also found out that the most popular colours used on music magazine were red, white and black, and so I decided to go along with the majority and use the colours as my colour scheme.
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this project?
From the process of constructing this coursework I have learnt that the internet has an extremely important role in all of our lives. The majority of my coursework has been constructed with the use of a computer, the internet and computer programs. Without the use of a computer and the internet, we would be lost and would not know what to do and how to do things. Society has come to rely on technology incredibly, as I found out during the course of this coursework. The internet is an instant source of answers, information, current affairs, communication and programs needed to create such projects.
Without the use of technological resources, I could not have completed this coursework to the same standard that I have done. For the basis of this coursework I used blogger (www.blogger.com), an online blog site which allows me to keep all of my work in an ordered place. The difficulties that I found with blogger were that the text box is only a certain size and so to view all of my work I had to keep scrolling up and down, which was quite tedious. Another hindrance of blogger is that the uploading process takes a long time, as some files take longer to upload. Therefore a lot of my time was spent converting files and uploading them on to my blog. However, what I do like about blogger is that it is easily organised. I created different sections for each part of my coursework; home, preliminary task, research, planning, final artefact and evaluation. Blogger also lets your personalise your space, you can name it what you wish and choose your own background. Without this, each blog would look the same, there would be no variety and people would not be able to express themselves. Another advantage of blogger is that it allows you to save your work as a draft, before publishing it, so if any corrections/alterations needed to be made they can be done before the final piece of work is published online for everyone to see.
As well as blogger, I used a variety of different computer programs; Microsoft word, Serif PagePlus, Serif DrawPlus, Serif PhotoPlus and www.picnik.com. By using all of the different programs I have learnt a variety of new skills in how to present work, edit photos etc. I used Microsoft word to draft out the theory side of the project, so I could check for spelling and grammatical errors. I then copy and pasted the text onto the blog. I also used Microsoft word as a way of editing print screens, which I then converted into an image and uploaded onto my blog. Converting files into different formats was an extremely useful skill to learn, because before I did not know that word document files could be converted into an image. Microsoft word also came in useful when I was analysing real front covers, contents paged and double page spreads. I used www.picnik.com to edit the pictures used on my front cover and double page spread. Before doing this coursework I had used picnik before, however because the site is closing down the entire premium effect section was free to use, so I used tools that I never had before. Picnik is a really useful and effective website for editing pictures, as it allows you to remove redeye, change the colour effect, turn up the image saturation etc. I have learnt a lot about how to edit photos, and what looks good or not by using picnik. Serif PhotoPlus also had some of the same tools I used on picnik; however I found it more difficult to understand than picnik, so I only edited one image using Serif PhotoPlus.
Before I began this coursework, I had only briefly used Serif for a smaller project completed in lower school. When it came to using the program again I had no idea how to use it, so it was really useful to learn how to properly use it. Out of the 5 Serif programs available to me I only used PhotoPlus, PagePlus, and DrawPlus to complete certain parts of my coursework. I used the Serif programs in order to design and create my masthead, edit my contents page image, and to actually create my final artefacts. I only used PhotoPlus to edit one of my chosen images because, as previously stated, I found it difficult to understand how to use, and picnik had more effects. I used DrawPlus to create the first and second drafts of my magazine masthead. At first I found it a difficult program to use, however as I used it more I became more comfortable with it. The Serif program that I used the most frequently was PagePlus. As I have used it so much, I am extremely comfortable in using it and I now know what the majority of tools are used for. The most useful tool in the whole program is the Image Cutout Studio, which allows you to cut out certain parts of an image and so I found this extremely useful for the image on my contents page. All of my final artefacts were created using Serif PagePlus X4, as this was the best program available.
So, by completing this coursework I can successfully say that I have learnt how to use a variety of different programs, and which are best suited for certain tasks.
Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
The first that task that I was set for this coursework was a preliminary task; I had to create a front cover and contents page for a school magazine. As I had never been set a task like this before, I was unsure of what programs, tools and techniques to use. I used Microsoft word to create the preliminary task, and looking back at it now, it doesn’t compare to my final artifacts. Since I have created my preliminary task, I have also carried out extensive research and planning so I have become aware of the different forms and conventions used within music magazines.
I have learnt that a colour scheme must be decided on, and should be kept the same the whole way throughout. The colour scheme should only consist of two to three colours; otherwise the magazine will look unprofessional. I have learnt that the left side third is a vital convention used on front covers, as that is where the human eye looks first. Therefore the most important features should be placed on the left hand side. The front cover that I created for my preliminary task had text positioned on the left hand side, but that was only because I did not want it to interfere with the text on my background image. When I created my preliminary task, I did not know about the left side third, but know I understand why magazines follow this particular convention.
I now know that the background image of a front cover should be taken into a lot of consideration and a lot of planning should be carried out. The image used for my preliminary task was not planned; it was just a random image I had taken of the school sixth form entrance. I have also learned that when magazines are produced, a variety of forms and conventions are taken into consideration, something that I did not know about or do, whilst putting together my preliminary task. Certain music magazines may choose to not follow conventions, yet the majority do, and so they gain the readers trust.
The main thing that I have learnt from the progression of my preliminary task to my final artifact is that planning and organisation is vital to a professional looking magazine. I did not plan my preliminary task, as I thought that ideas would just come to me, as I was creating it. However, that is definitely not the case. If I had not planned my final artefact in as much detail as I did, I would not have been as organised and careful with my work. Of course, I did not always stick to my plan, but at least I had a clear idea of the layout and positioning of front cover, contents page and double page spread.
