Kate evaluation

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


                                                                      Front cover

                                                                           DPS

Contents

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

http://www.slideshare.net/kateparkinson/media-presentation-of-representations-16097882

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

In the research we did before making our magazine we looked into media institution IPC Media, the UK's leading consumer magazine, they already distribute NME magazine which is very similar to mine and has the same target audience of around 17-21 year old. NME magazine sales was 66% down at 23, 924 in the second half of 2011 than the 2003 sales of 72, 442. As this magazine institution is already distributing a magazine similar to mine with the same target audience and the sales are down I won't use these.

There was also Prometheus Global Media who are based in New York. They are active to over 40 different countries worldwide. Overall I believe this would be a great way to distribute my magazine as they go to a lot of places and don't distribute magazines that would be in competition with mine, unlike IPC. 

Who would be the audience for your media product?

How did you attract/address your audience?

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

When starting to develop my music magazine I had to take and choose my pictures for the front cover, DPS and contents page. The camera I used was a Cannon PowerShot A720. The depth of field(how much of the image is in focus) for my photo's was F10 and a low ISO(sensitivity to light) of 100-200. All my pictures were taking outside, in a natural environment, therefor no flash was needed and all the lighting was natural. I used a shutter speed of 1400th. Instead of adjusting the shutter speed to get a clear image you could use a flat surface or a tripod.

Whilst designing and making the magazine I used Adobe photoshop elements on an imac. Using this I cropped images, filled in gaps. I used the selection tools well to erase parts of images I didn't want and then fill them with colours that I did want. I also had to use the crop tool to cut out cars, posts, bushes, etc that were in the background of my images that I didn't want. The screen shot at the side shows the layout of Adobe and the tools I learnt how to use for the development such as the rubber, the colour changes, etc.

All the images of the pages I did for my magazine were saved as JPEG's as the are the right size to attach to the blog as an image.

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

When looking back at my preliminary task and also at the progress I'v made to my music magazine I believe I have learnt a lot and the improvement is big.

In my preliminary task there is a lot of background distractions in the images and there is quite a bit of blank space. Also the fonts and the masthead are very dull and unattractive, in the prelim task I used basic san serif fonts and I didn't know how to use Adobe to be able to cut out the background distractions. Also I didn't know how to adjust the ISO or depth of field on a camera for the images for the preliminary task are slightly darker than I intended them to be.

I believe my music magazine front cover is a lot more improved. There is a lot of detail on the front. I have used banners, flashes and cover stories. There are different colours on my music front cover that I used through Adobe which I didn't know how to do before. The image used on my music magazine front cover is also cropped, edited and filled in, however I couldn't have done this in the prelim task as I didn't know how. I have filled in all the blank space on the front cover whereas I left a lot of spare space on the prelim magazine which made it look boring. Adding basic detail to the music magazine such as the price and bar code make it look a lot more professional which I was able to do through my Adobe skills.

Before putting any initial idea's towards my music magazine production I made a questionnaire to give out asking my target audience of 16-21 year old's what music they like, what prices they'd buy magazines at and what they'd like to see on a magazine such as freebies, posters, etc. This also helped me develop my music magazine into a much more improved one.
Overall, I am happy with the progress I made from the prelim task with learning the technologies on a camera and also the tools used in Adobe to get the perfect images and help with text and shapes. I believe there was a great deal of improvement because of learning to use the tools. If I were to do the magazine again or could change I would ask my target audience the colours they prefer so the magazine would stand out to them on a shelf full of competition. Also I may have done the images on a plain background or in a studio, I liked the idea of having a natural foliage in my background, however, when it came to putting the image on I had to rub out the background as it looked untidy and the colour didn't suit the magazine.