Evaluation questions

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

Before creating my student magazine i looked at many different, already around student magazines. I focused mainly on the front cover and contents page of the magazines as that is what i was designing. I picked out good and bad ideas from these magazines and used some of the good ideas within my own magazine. For example, i used a photo for the background of my front cover. Also the layout of my contents page is in columns, which many of the contents pages are like.

Usually, the front cover of a student magazine, uses vibrant colours to attract your eye, and many pictures, which has the same effect. The contents page are always very packed with information and are very structured and in columns, which is what i have tried to achieve with my own student magazine contents page.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The target audience that i decided to make this magazine for was college students ( 16-18). I tried to put a wide range of topics within the magazine so many different people would be attracted to it; it was meant to be for all types of people. The pictures i have used within my magazine are all relevant to the text they are attached to, also i tried to use pictures that people would be able to relate to, such as realtionships and college work.

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

I feel that a company would like to distribute my magazine because it has a very wide audience as it is full of mnay different topics; all topics that the target audience would find interesting. Also, it has a very original layout, with a full picture on the front page, giving it a very different twist to its opposition. Furthermore, this will make it stand out to the audience.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

The audience for my student magazine will be college students, age 16-18, and it will be a uni-sex magazine so it will be for both male and female readers.

How did you attract/address your audience?

By having a full picture as the front cover, it makes the magazine stand out and will draw the customers attention to it. Also, the coverlines show some of the things that are within the magazine; the customer may then see these and want to read on. I used coverlines such as "realtionship advice" and "new music", this is because these are very "hot" topics within college students and many studnents will relate to them. Also, on the contents page, i have written up a a short paragraph form the publisher, just saying how they strive to write about things that will be helpful to students. This makes the magazine seem genuine and will make the reader feel that the publisher has taken time to research appropriate topics.

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

I have learnt that you can quite effectively create a magazine fornt cover and contents page by using microsoft publisher. Also, you can find much more interesting and eye catching fonts from on the internet, which yopu can then add onto your publisher page. Another piece of software that i have used is Adobe Photoshop to edit my pictures. I used this to mainly change the lighting within the image and the brightness contrast. As well as this i used the magic wand tool to hide any blemishes that where on the skin.

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 i have learnt how to make a project look proffesional and good enough for it to be sold as an actual product that people will buy. I have also learnt that research is the key to having a successful product as it enables you to evaluate already existing products and highlight the good and bad points about them.