Final Evaluation

My music magazine has used the conventions of a real magazine, such as a masthead, a main image, several cover lines, a barcode and a date which indicates when the magazine was published. I have also consistently used the same font and font colour throughout the front cover and contents page. However, my music magazine has also challenged the conventions of an actual music magazine as usually the background would be one, single, block colour, whereas mine is a blue-ish colour which was the actual background of my photograph for my main image.
My contents page follows the conventions of a real magazine, it shows the features and where they can be found. But it also shows the regular features of my magazine and also where they can be found. I have put a small image that relates to the main feature of my magazine on the contents page also.

My double page spread also follows the conventions of a real magazine, it features a large image of the subject of the feature and then also a text box which contains the actual feature. The title is in a bigger text than the rest of the text on the page and the questions in the interview are larger than the answers.
The brief for this product was to use an image manipulation programme, I have used both Photoshop and Microsoft publisher to do this.

My music magazine represents young people as being friendly and helpful, this is shown in my main feature as the person who is interviewed is happy to help the world and even says they are playing a concert to aid climate change. This is a contrast to how young people are often represented today, as they can be represented in a negative fashion quite often. I also feel that my music magazine represents young people as being polite and not rude and loud as young people are often seen to be.

The institution would be Sound, it could be part of a larger company or could work independently. Larger companies produce lots of different types of media, such as television programmes, radio programmes and magazines. Whereas smaller companies may only produce one type of media but be more focused on the contents of it and would probably not have that much funding put into it so it wouldn’t look as good as some magazines which have more funding. If it was part of a larger company the magazine would benefit from a larger audience and would have more funding put into it’s production, which would mean it would have more advertising and would possibly feature more famous people.

The audience for my music magazine would be young people, this is made obvious by the lack of text on the front cover and in the double page spread as young people don’t want to waste time reading a large amount of text. Also the language used throughout my media product is simple and informal as this appeals more to a young audience. The audience would also probably be female, as the model on the main image is female and seems to be quite fashionable. The text used on my front page is also quite feminine, this would also appeal to a female audience.

Throughout the process of producing my media product, I have learnt how to use Photoshop to correctly edit photos and add text to pages. I also learnt how to produce a page that is the size of two a4 pages together for my double page spread. I also learned how to use Microsoft Publisher to a higher standard to make my contents and front pages. I also learnt how to use a camera to take better quality photos for my media product and then edited them using Photoshop.

For my preliminary task, I produced a front page and a contents page for a new college magazine. Looking back at this, the main image for my front page looks very simple and the image isn’t a very good quality and seems too busy to be on a front page. As part of my final product the image is simpler, a higher quality and bolder as it has a plain background and features a close-up of the model. The font used for the masthead in my preliminary task looks unclear and messy, whereas the font I have used in my final product is simple and clear. Also because of the simpler background, the text is easier to read. Also the barcode I have used looks more realistic and I have also put a date of publication on, which also makes it look more realistic. The contents page I produced as part of my preliminary task was just a mock-up and didn’t contain any actual features, whereas the contents page I have produced for my final piece contains actual information and images.

Double Page Spread

Front Cover & Contents Page

Planning

Magazine Title
Sound
Music Genre
Indie/Rock/Pop
Target Audience
Young people aged 16-25
Price
£1.99

I have chosen this as my magazine title as the word "sound" can be used when speaking about music and isn't specific to any single type of music.
I have chosen this music genre because it can spread over to most kinds of popular music.
I have chosen this target audience because it is quite a large range and appeals to most young people.
I have chose this price so that it is affordable for the younger audience.

Double Page Spread Analysis

Language
The language used in this article is very informal and not very complex which shows that it is aimed at younger people who may not be as intelligent. There are also a lot of images and not much text.

Institution
This magazine is part of a commercial institution this is shown by the magazine logo shown in the top right hand corner which reinforces what magazine you are reading.

Ideology
The ideology behind this magazine article is to review live bands, which is obviously a regular article in this magazine. This is made obvious by the ratings key in the top left hand corner.

Audience
The audience for this magazine is obviously young people who are interested in rock music. This is made obvious by the lack of text and the simple and informal language used and the large amount of images used.

Representation
This magazine is obviously aimed at people who are interested in rock music, this is shown in the images by the band being heavily tattooed and playing electric guitars. They are also blatantly an American band, this is shown by the aviator sunglasses the lead singer is shown to be wearing.

Double Page Spread Analysis

Language
There is only one small column for text which means that the text used is specific and links to the picture. The language in the article is quite formal and uses some complex words. This shows that it may be for people who are older.

Institution
This double page spread is taken from a magazine from a commerical institution although it can't be seen by just this article.

Ideology
This double page spread layout works and links really well with the type of music genre that it is aimed at. Dark colours are used which links in well with the Rock music in which the magazine is mainly about.

Audience
Because the language that has been used is formal and the words are more complex this shows that the magazine which this article has been taken from is aimed at an older audience who are interested in rock music.

Representation
The dark colours used in this article show that it is quite a serious article and the black and white image also shows that it's serious and aimed at an older audience. The artist in the image has lots of tattoos and is fairly young this relates to the genre of rock music which this magazine is about.

Double Page Spread Analysis

Language

As the band shown in this double page spread are called The Teenagers it is presumed that their music is aimed at young people aged 14-18. Becuase of this there isn't too much text within this article as young people aren't usually interested in reading lots of text.

Institution

You can tell that this magazine is part of a commerical institution because of the small advertisement for the NME website at the bottom of the page.

Ideology

Because of the small box on the left titled 'Need To Know' it is shown that the ideology of this double page spread is to introduce this band to the reader and give them information about a band the reader may not of heard of before.

Audience

Because the band is called The Teenagers it is presumed that their music is aimed at young people aged 14-18.

Representation

The blue used over the text is some parts is used to make the text stand out and attract the reader's attention. Also the contrast between the blue and the white on the page looks cool and modern. The band shown in the main image look quite scruffy which relates to the genre of indie and shows that the band is young and appeals to young people.