Final Product: Front Cover

Final Product: Contents page

Final Product: Double Page Spread

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?

This is the final evaluation question to consider. Throughout this process I have learnt many things and I have briefly described these in the mind map below.

If I was to look back at my preliminary task, I would be able to see and improvement in my work. Here is my covers next to each other:

In my final product, I have learnt about the conventions magazine covers, so therefore there is things I have deliberately changed.  I have used the same font on all my cover lines. In my preliminary task I used all different fonts. In my finished product all the text apart form the mast head is in the same font. I took a lot of time choosing this font. I liked that it was bold and I deliberately put it in capital letters so catch the attention of my audience.  In my preliminary task, my font is in capital letters but the cover lines are too small. When I made my preliminary task I did not know the importance of making your cover appeal to your audience. I don't think an audience would like my preliminary task cover because it is not  very easy to look at.  My preliminary task cover is very busy. The background I chose is relevant for a school magazine however it made it very hard to put cover lines on because sometimes you could not read them depending on what part of the background it was on. I chose a plainer background. On my final product I have used a limited colour pallet, this is better than my  preliminary task because I have used too many colours. On my preliminary task one of the cover lines is tilted. This makes it so much harder for my audience to read this .  I would say I have improved my main cover line. With my main cover line on my preliminary task you cannot actually tell it is the main cover line. It just looks like a normal cover line .  I have used a combination of two colours in my main cover line on my finished product. In my finished product the main cover line is a lot bigger. You can actually tell it is the main cover line. I would say I improved my editing skills during this process. My model in my preliminary task has been edited and it makes it look quite blurry. I have improved my editing skills because I have made the model a lot more clearer. I have also used harder editing techniques. For example I have used a focal effect to create a focus on my model. When I made my preliminary task I didn't know what editing techniques I could use.   I have used more cover lines on my final product. That is because I now know that the cover lines are an important way to make your audience understand what is in the magazine.  There is some conventions that I used in my preliminary task but didn't in my final product. This was a date and a  price.  Though they are typical conventions of magazines I did not want to use them.  I learnt that dates use go along the side of a magazine. I felt using a price would a be a negative way to advertise my magazine. If I advertised the price on the cover it may prevent people from buying the magazine. On my preliminary task I didn't use a selling line. After research and planning I learnt that this would be an effective convention to use.  I think my final product is definitely an improvement from my preliminary task. Another way to understand what I have learnt from my preliminary task in the progression  to my final product is to looks at my contents pages.

I would say this is where the biggest improvement from my preliminary task can be shown. With my preliminary task contents page it is easy to tell the contents page has just been produced using Microsoft word. I used comic sans which is a very common font. My layout is very simple and the heading of the contents page does not really look like a heading.  My contents page is completely different to this. Firstly I have laid my contents page out in a more interesting way. I have text in different place all over the place. When I made my preliminary task I wasn't too sure what a contents page for a magazine was supposed to look like.  As I progressed throughout this process I learnt is was common for magazine contents pages to put their brand's logo on the contents page as well as the cover.  Therefore I did this on my final product. It provided a better heading than my preliminary task.  I have a better and more effective use of image on my final product .  On the contents page for my preliminary task I have used two images that I repeated. These images are nothing to do with the content of the magazine. They are also found images.  With my final product my image on my contents page is such an improvement. It is of an artist that it featured in the magazine. It is also an image that I took myself.  I edited this image by putting a lighting bolt in the background. I think in general my final product's contents page is more sophisticated.

 The most important thing that through the progression of this coursework is how much work goes into constructing a text to a deadline.  I have learnt it really does take a lot of work to produce a media text to a dead line. 





Evaluation: (Question 6) What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

This is a podcast explaining what I learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product. Please play with sound. 
 

Evaluation: (Question 5) What kind of media institution might distibute your product and why?

My magazine is aimed at a mass audience, therefore I need to find a media publishing house that has a mass audience. My magazine does not have a niche audience it has a mainstream audience.Bauer and Timeinc are popular choices of publishing house. Both publishing houses publish magazines that are similar to my media text. Bauer publishes Q magazine. Q is similar to my media text. It is a similar genre. I have used similar conventions. I would also like to attract a similar audience to Q. I think my target audience is similar to Q's target audience.
Below is some NRS figures taken from Bauer's website.

Here you can see the total readership of Q magazine is 377000. This explains the popularity of Q magazine. I want my magazine to successful and this would a readership total that I would like to have. When looking at the breakdown of what audience is reading Q, this is also similar to what I want to achieve. Q magazine seems to be more popular with younger people. Also people in the ABC1 social group more commonly read this magazine. This would be my ideal demographic. Something that I would hope to be different about my readership is that I would like more females to read my magazine. I find surprising the small 1.4% of 65+ reading Q. This is the idea discussed previously of the Penumbra effect. I would be pleased if my media product attracted a small, unexpected audience. This would show the success of my magazine.
Whilst these NRS figures are credible for Q and Bauer I think I should compare this another publishing house. Timeinc is another successful publishing. A popular music magazine that is published by Timeinc is NME. Timeinc was previously known as IPC media. NME is very similar to my magazine. It is designed in a very same way and it gratifies a similar audience. To find readership figures for NME I went onto the NRS website. 

 So the total readership is 154 00. NME has an even lower female readership.  From these figures it would seem that Bauer is a more profitable publishing house to  choose, it attract a greater audience. I should also consider that Q magazine can still be bought in print form. In order to buy NME you would need to subscribe. Perhaps I should asses the idea that having my magazine published by Time inc could lead to it becoming online only. Despite the readership figures I should also look at what media institution would suit my magazine more. Both publishing houses have magazines similar to mine but I need to consider what publishing house would be a better representative of my magazine. On Bauer's website one on the first things they advertise about themselves: "Bauer Media reaches over 22 million UK adults every week".  This suggest to me that Bauer media are clearly proud of the figures their magazines receive. It tells me this is something they want to maintain this. They also state on their website that  how they achieve these if with "a portfolio of world-class, multi-platform media and entertainment brands. It creates and curates entertaining media content that audiences love whenever, wherever and however they want through a multi-channel strategy and a focus on product excellence and audience insight."  I like that the Bauer media's focus is on the audience and providing a good service and like the idea that this whenever and however. I feel this is suggesting that Bauer a mixture of print form and online. On Timeinc media's website this is something you would find if you clicked the section where they explain about themselves: Over 90 brands. 50 global offices. Millions of loyal consumers. One-of-a-kind experiences. Countless conversations.  I like the idea that Timeinc advertise their loyal consumers. It almost suggests that it doesn't matter what form the magazine is available to  read because its customers are loyal and they will still read it anyway.  The one of a kind experiences is interesting it could possibly convey this would a riskier choice. The numbers used on this website advertise how big the company is, rather than the audience it attracts. 

On Evaluation I think the media institution that would publish my media product is Bauer. Bauer media seems be a successful  media institution. It relies on its popular brands and big audience. I think my magazine would be suitable for Bauer because it is similar to a brand that Bauer all ready successfully publish (Q). I am confident that my magazine would attract a large audience that appreciate music and would take the time to read my magazine. Being published by a well-known and popular media institution would be ideal for the distribution of my magazine. I also believe that having my magazine available in print form is something that is important to me and my magazine.  We live in the computer age. So many things have been made easier by technology. However I believe that you should be able to hold a magazine and keep a collection of magazines. I feel that going in a shop and looking through a magazine and deciding if you want to buy it, is the best way to buy a magazine.  Now I have gone through the process of making a magazine, I have started to appreciate the thought and time that goes into making a front cover. I now realise  how much work goes in to attracting an audience.  This is why I feel for this work to be truly appreciated a reader of a magazine should have a hard copy of the magazine they buy. They should be able to keep it forever. I think I am not the only magazine reader that has this opinion, so I believe Bauer is the right media institution for my media product, because I want the chance for my magazine to be on a stand in shop.

Evaluation: (Question 4) How does your media product represent particular social groups.

Here is a video explaining how I represented particular social groups.