Extra's onto Evaluation

Who would be the audience for you're media product?

Music Magazine EVALUATION

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

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

^^^^Overall I feel that Bauer Media is of a similar ideology and concept to my brand 'Hip' as they both support the promotion of dominant figures within society and give off the ideology that its good to be different and have a unique identity. Also both 'Hip' and Bauer Media use media's to display and support talented and beautiful people of all appearances and backgrounds, therefore I feel my music magazine brand 'Hip' will fit in with and complement the Bauer Media brands and work with this distributor well as they both have similar ideologies and visions.

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

These next three Prezi's demonstrate and highlight the construction of my music magazine media product 'Hip'. They demonstrate the development of my product and explain some details of what I have learned  about technologies from the process of constructing this product....

^^^^Above Shows several examples of how I have used Photo manipulation in Photoshop to experiment with editing and improving the appearance of different types of images from my Photo Shoot's. When creating and constructing my music magazine media product I chose to experiment with the different effects and tools in Photoshop to see how I could alter and improve several different images appearance's so that I could create images that looked effective, attractive, professional and complemented the designs and house styles of my Front Cover, Contents Page and Double Page Spread drafts. I feel that by doing this it enabled me to develop my skills and my understanding of how to use the media technology Photoshop to edit and improve images to its full potential. After experimenting with editing a few images I was able to experiment with using my most effective ones to help construct my Front Cover, Contents Page and Double Page Spread drafts to see how the images would work within the layouts and designs and what would work best and most effectively within my drafts overall. To place just the image of models/artists onto my Media Product of a music magazine, without their backgrounds, I used the different types of harsh eraser tools, lasso tools and auto select tools to remove the majority of the images backgrounds and then zoomed in and used a fine soft/faded eraser tool to smooth out the edges in order to make the Artist look as realistic and connected as possible when placed onto their new backgrounds.

I feel that from the process of constructing my music magazine media product I have learned a lot about using media technologies like Photoshop and Publisher. When I started this media course I knew nothing about how to use media technologies like Publisher or Photoshop as I had never used them before but now I have learned to use them to a great extent as I have managed to use them to successfully to construct an effective media product of a Front Cover, Contents Page and Double Page Spread of a music magazine. From experimenting with using Photoshop and Publisher throughout the construction of my media product, such as experimenting with editing and manipulating some of my Photo Shoot Images above, I have learned to use many tools in Photoshop such as the quick auto selection tool, the blur tool, transform scale / rotation, use of character for font and layout related issues, spot fix/healing tools, red eye removal, layer style, Gaussian blur, liquidify, eraser, Lasso and many more Photoshop tools, as mentioned and demonstrated using throughout the process of creating and constructing each of the Front Cover, Contents Page and Double Page Spread drafts of my music magazine.

Here are some examples demonstrating what I have learned about technologies from the process of constructing my music magazine media product:

  ON THIS NEXT PREZI: How does your media product represent particular social groups? +
 How did you attract/address your audience?


 How did you attract/address your audience?
This is the Questionnaire I have created in order to get Audience Feedback on my final Music Magazine Product to give an accurate answer and representation on how well my music magazine media product attracted and addressed my chosen target audience:

This is the Results of my Audience Feedback Questionnaire to help me accurately and evidently establish how well my music magazine media product attracted and addressed my chosen target audience:

Who would be the audience for your media product?

The audience for my music magazine media product would be people aged 15-25 who love music and are predominantly interested in the MAINSTREAM music genre of 'modern-pop and indie-pop, new music & top chart hits' . 

The reason I have chosen to target this audience with my music magazine is because I felt that this is an age/social group who love music but don't predominantly buy music magazines. I found that the main reason this audience/social group don't usually buy music magazines was because they are predominantly low demographically rated (E-C1) and therefore can't afford to buy music magazines as current ones like NME and Q are too expensive and it’s much easier to find out gossip and music information online. I therefore felt there was a gap in the media market and I wanted to make music magazines accessible and desirable to this particular audience by creating a music magazine brand that's cheap, affordable, full of the Artists they love, full of exclusive gossip, freebies competitions and information they can’t find anywhere else and full of features that directly attracts/ addresses this particular audience. 

           The type of genre I have chosen for my music magazine is also predominantly popular with this audience/social group, helping my brand to target and attract them directly. I also felt that by choosing to make my music magazine target a large and wide mainstream genre, that has lots of fans of its artists, would therefore help my brand to target and reach a larger target audience of people, a mass market. This means that a larger group of people are more likely to buy my music magazine as it will be of interest to many more people. I also felt this would help make my music magazine brand 'Hip' become popular, globalized   renowned and lucrative as a brand/business.

           

           In order to understand my target audience as specifically as possible I conducted Research in the form of a focus group where I asked people of my target audience social group 20 questions in order to determine my specific target audience and to ensure my final music magazine product would attracts and address them accurately in order to make my brand successful within the media industry. From this Focus group my main findings about my target audience were:

 -Literally everyone in the focus group still are in education and most people in this age group don’t have a job or if they do it’s a part time low skilled job. This places them C1-E demographically which suggests they don’t have as much money to spend.

         

             -A lot of people in this focus group don’t buy music magazines because they cost too much and a lot wouldn't pay more than £2 for a music magazine, this suggests I should keep my prices low in order to persuade them to buy it.

         

             -A lot of these people would be interested in buying a music magazine if it covered a larger range of artists or had free things in it like posters included. In my magazine I could include free posters advertised on the front cover and make sure my magazine covers a range of artists within my genre.

       

             -A lot of people would like to buy a weekly magazine to keep up with the recent gossip however a lot of people are put of the idea due to its cost. To cater this age group I produced weekly magazines at a cheaper cost that others like ‘NME’ in order to persuade them to buy 'Hip'.

       

             -A lot of people who are into my genre of music magazine - mainstream pop, love artists including- Marcus Collins, Paloma Faith, Florence + the machine, Marina and the diamonds, the lovable rogues, Olly Murs, Plan B, Amelia Lilly, Maroon 5, Scouting for Girls and Cold Play. These are all artists I included within my music magazine to directing attract my target audience and a mass market.

         

              - I also found that a lot of people who are interested in modern and indie mainstream pop are also interested in Reality Shows - Especially the X-factor and BGT.( In 'Hip' also made reference to what’s happening to the new up and coming artists in these reality shows like X-Factor, even after the shows finished in order to make my magazine more appealing to my target audience.)

       

              -Most people in this age group/social group use social networking sights too - especially Facebook and Twitter.

             

             -The majority of my audience’s favourite radio station is Capital FM.

                 

             -When determining the typical interests of my target audience, I found that a lot of people in this age group who enjoyed mainstream modern and indie pop mainly also enjoy comedies rom-coms, action films and animated films too. 

 -They also predominantly enjoy American Comedies, Reality Shows and TV Dramas.

 -The majority of my target audience’s interests include sports, Arts, Partying, having fun and most dominantly Music!

             

             ^^^^My Focus Group therefore helped me to specify the exact audience for my music magazine and the types of people who are most likely to buy it as well as allowing me to create a product that addressed my target audience’s needs, traits, personalities, likes and wants in order to attract my audience into wanting to buy my music magazine which also helped me to determine who the exact audience for my music magazine would be. The information I gained from this focus group then helped me to create a Reader Profile which stereotypes who the specific audience for my music magazine 'Hip' are.

                     

I did research on my chosen targeted audience of my music magazine and managed to stereotype people of this social group/audience and be specific with the type of people who are most likely to buy my music magazine 'Hip' and will be its predominant audience. I then created a Reader Profile which demonstrates who the audience for my music magazine would specifically be: 

^^My Reader Profile I created clearly specific’s exactly who the audience of my music magazine media product are and are most likely to be. This Reader Profile also helped me to ensure that my final music magazine product directly targeted and addressed my specific and stereotyped audience of 15-25  years Old’s into the MAINSTREAM music genre of 'modern-pop and indie-pop, new music & top chart hits' . When creating this Reader Profile I tried to re-create a realistic yet stereotyped modern day 15-25 year old audience who are most likely to buy a music magazine like mine. When making the decisions over what to put in my reader profile I split it into several sections that sum up the main features of a modern day person's life (some included in other real music magazine reader profiles, like NME)- TV & Film, Appearance, Price/money, Fashion, Gadgets, In the know/knowledge, Music, education & status, food & drink, Social Networking Sites/Internet, sex, age, occupation, speech and life in general. I then used my research, focus groups, research on other reader profiles and researched media products who targeted a similar target audience to mine (NME, Facebook, YouTube, I-tunes) as well as considering the features I wanted to include within my final music magazine product in order to produce an accurate reader profile with a clear overview of my music magazines precise target audience.

From looking at my Research and my Final Music Magazine Product I can come to the conclusion about who 'Hip's audience are and are most likely to specifically be, here are some of the main points (stereotypes):

-Students, not much money.

-Predominantly female.

-Have a Hipster Style and fashion sense.

-Obsessed about their appearance.

-Love Rom Coms, Comedies and Action Films.

-Favourite TV programs are reality shows like the X-Factor and BGT.

-Have Fashionable yet unique, up to date style.

-Predominantly watch the TV comedies Miranda Heart, Benidorm and Gavin and Stacy.

-Love a high street shopping bargain.

-Most female readers have previously dyed their hair.

-The average age of Hips readers is 19.

-Most are up to date with the latest Gadgets.

-Own an I-pod, I-pad or I-phone.

-Love coffee or tea, chocolate and Starbucks.

-Go to McDonald's, eating fast food at least twice a week.

-Like Roller-coasters, cinemas, shopping and Ice-skating.

-There Favourite restaurants are Nando's and Pizza Hut.

-Constantly up to date with the latest music, celebs and fashion gossip.

-Female Readers Love Red Lipstick.

-Own a pair of vans or converse or both.

-Addicted to Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

           -Have busy and hectic lives.

           -Listen to Capital FM over other radio stations.

           -Love visiting music festivals.

           -Absolutely obsessed with music.

         

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

I feel that from my college magazine to my music magazine I have improved an awful lot. When I first started the course I didn't know much about Photoshop as I have never used it before but now I have managed to create an attractive, successful, conventional, eye- catching, professional dominant, effective, believable, attention grabbing Front Cover, Contents Page and Double Page Spread of a music magazine. From the Front Cover of my college magazine to the Front cover of my music magazine it can clearly be seen that I have made many major improvements. The Front Cover of my college magazine is unprofessional and unconventional with many of the key features like price, contact details and sell line missing. The writing is hard to read against its background, the image is unattractive and doesn't give of any major positive representations or ideologies, the background is irrelevant dull, unattractive and boring, there are no clear house styles and the whole page is disjointed and not eye-catching, it doesn't look like a proper, professional, real, sell able magazine (an audience wouldn't want to buy it). However on the Front Cover of my music magazine, it’s clear to see that all these negative points have been improved upon. It looks professional and conventional with every little detail like the web address, price, bar code, positioning, photo editing effects and boxes as accurate as they can be. There are clear house styles that give my brand an identity an audience can familiarize with that also complement my magazines genre and my Artist styles and personality. All the colours work well to complement each other and contrast well enough to be seen and stand out from their backgrounds with the whole layout being seamlessly connected, eye-catching and easy to read and understand, making it a realistic and believable music magazine that an audience (my target audience) would want to buy.

 I feel than during this project I have worked really hard, creating lots of drafts and doing lots of research in order to create the best and most effective final music magazine product I possibly can. I feel this coursework has enabled me to progress and develop my understanding of media as much as I possibly can and that I now have a great and wide understanding of technologies, terminologies and of the general media industry. I feel that it the last few months I have improved from knowing nothing to knowing more than I ever felt possible and I feel have managed to progress and develop a lot through working hard which has helped me to create an effective and successful final media product and blog.

From my Preliminary Task to my Final Music Magazine I feel that overall I have learned  how to develop and create a successful, effective, attractive, believable, sell-able  realistic, eye catching and attention grabbing media product magazine. I feel that I have developed my skills of using media technologies, such as Photoshop and Publisher, through experimentation and my development in making the best final music magazine product I could. Other skills that I feel I have developed and learned through this coursework are the conventional and unconventional features that work together to create a successful media product, how to take and use images in an effective way and high quality using lighting and different framing to give different effects, the concept of using house styles to give a brand an identity for familiarity with set ideologies and representations that directly attract a specific target audience to make them feel a part of the scene, how to promote a media brand and Artists in an effective way using bold and positive connotations and how developing a product in the media industry works from creating, promoting, advertising, branding, distributing and selling.

I feel that carrying out the preliminary task was a very useful and important step in the creation of my final media product and base of my coursework. This is because I feel it helped me learn and gain the skills I needed to make my main task of the music magazine as effective and successful as possible. By doing the preliminary task first it gave me a taste of what I would need to produce in the main task, allowing me to understand all the different elements of what it takes to create a magazine by using conventions, media technologies, research and evaluating. Before I started this course I had never done media before and didn't know how to use media technologies like Photoshop and Publisher and knew nothing about how the industry works or all the different research and conventions it takes to make a media product. Therefore the preliminary task helped me to develop these skills to a reasonable standard which then gave me the knowledge, understanding and confidence I needed to produce the main music magazine media product task. It allowed me to learn from my mistakes and understand how I could improve upon them in the next task successfully so I wouldn't make the same mistakes again. Overall I feel that doing the preliminary task of a college magazine first helped me to know, understand and develop the skills of research, conventions, taking images, using media technologies, framings, understanding the industry, evaluating, creating a media product, promoting, branding, using house styles, continuity and using research which gave me the basis of skills I needed to produce the main music magazine task to a high standard by clearly pointing me in the right direction.

If I were to do this main task of coursework all over again then there would be some things I would change. I feel that my contents page is the weakest part of my overall music magazine media product as it looks slightly disjointed from the styles of the Front Cover and Double Page Spread as its overcrowded and clustered with lots of information on it which in essence gives it a sense of information overload. This makes it harder for an audience to take in information, which goes against the point of a contents page which is to help an audience find the articles they want to read easily. I would therefore make the contents page less clustered, busy and overloaded by removing some unnecessary elements like the arrow pointing to the next page and 'Win X-Factor tickets' feature which is sprawled across the lower centre of the page, which I feel would make it less complex, busy and hard to understand, giving the page clearer focus points to draw an audience’s attention towards the page effectively persuading them to want to read the rest of my music magazine. I would also reduce the amount of writing on the page, making the features shorter and snappier and using more images (like on some of NME's more successful contents page) and simpler trigger words that automatically establish to an audience what an article is about, as soon as they look at the contents page, making it much easier for them to find the information and features they want to read without getting bored and frustrated from looking though lots and lots of unnecessary information like on my current contents page. I feel that all the ideas of features and design elements that I included on my contents page were good and effective ideas that helped to directly target my audience, however it was just too much information to take in and understand for one page. If my music magazine was a real brand It would be creating an issue each week (weekly branded music magazine) which would allow me to spread these different effective design elements and features onto different issues contents pages which would make my music magazine contents pages not as overloaded and hard to understand but with effective, attractive and unique different features and design elements on it every week, making my music magazine 'Hip' more memorable, fresh, desirable, attractive and effective as a music magazine targeting my audience of 15-25 year olds directly.

Another thing I would probably change about my current music magazine product, if I were to do it again, are the images on each of them. I feel that the concepts and ideas behind the images on my Front Cover, Contents Page and Double Page Spread are good with positive representations and good use on photo manipulation on Photoshop however I struggled with making the images look of a high, professional quality and my Front Cover and Contents Page's predominantly not looking Bright or Bold enough to complement the bold and dominant house styles of my music magazine or to stand out from the page/there backgrounds to full effect. I also feel that on the front cover my models style and pose doesn't really give of the positive, confident, attractive, stylish and dominant ideologies of the brand 'Hip' as my artist/model looks slightly miserable, not confident or dominant/bold and doesn't really look like a typical indie-pop Artist as the image doesn't show of his personality to full potential. Therefore If I were to do this media coursework again I would probably take my images/photos predominantly in a studio, with a white screen behind my model/Artist, using a better quality digital/bridge camera and experimenting with using brighter/different types of lighting effects which is how most photos in real music magazines are taken. This would ensure all my images were of a better, more professional quality as well as making all the images brighter, bolder and more dominant to complement the bold and dominant house styles and stand of their backgrounds to make them as effective and attractive looking as possible. If I were to take some of my photos on location, to complement my artists of the edge style and personality, I would still make sure I was using a higher quality, more professional bridge/digital camera in order to make the photo as effective, attractive, professional and high quality as possible like in a professional, real music magazines  If it was a dull day I would also use lights to make the images brighter and bolder in order to make them look as clear, noticeable, attractive, effective, bold and stand of the page as possible and if it was a bright day I would use an umbrella, reflector or large sheet of card to block the light/sun from distorting the picture or making my model/Artists eyes squint ineffectively/unattractively (like they did in several of my images/photo shoots). On my Front Cover I would also use a completely different image (as my current one is slightly ineffective) were my Artist/Model was doing something unusual, like a facial expression or an action, to show off his personality more in order to make the image look more attractive, confident noticeable,  eye-catching and attention grabbing. I would also dress my Artist/Model in something more edgy and up to date fashion wise to suit my music magazines dominant, stylish and confident ideologies and house styles and also to attract the attention of my style loving, fashion conscious target audience directly and effectively.

Overall I feel that I have learned a lot through the progression from my preliminary task of a college magazine to my main task of a music magazine. I feel that I have learned and developed many skills such as taking and using images, researching, evaluating, learning from mistakes, targeting a specific audience, using media technologies successfully to their full potential like Photoshop and Publisher, using conventions, promoting, advertising, branding, distributing media products as well as what it takes to make an effective and successful media product. The preliminary task gave me the basis of skills I needed in order to understand and progress as much as I could on the main task. I feel that it can be clearly seen when looking at the preliminary task and the main task I have improved and learned an awful lot about the media industry, media technologies and the process of creating a media product. Throughout this coursework I have learned from my mistakes and feel that through working hard I have managed to progress, produce and create an attractive, effective, eye-catching, bold, dominant, successful, conventional, unique, realistic and attractive Final Media Product of a Music Magazine.