Evaluation Questions Notes

1.   In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? My media product uses forms and conventions of real media products by focusing on what the majority of magazines use, for example, Mastheads, taglines and images. From my research, I looked at all the conventions of real media products and used them on my own. An example of this is by placing my Masthead, which includes the name of my magazine and logo at the top of my page. I challenged forms and conventions of real media products from the layout of my magazine. I re-searched the way most layouts were on magazines and I challenged them by changing my layout to be different from the majority.

2.   How does your media product represent particular social groups? My media product represents social groups, through the layout of my magazine, for example the Masthead will attract the social group who enjoy listening to the type of music and are attracted to the colours. The types of conventions used on the front cover will attract specifically the working class, if you look at it through a Marxist perspective. This is because, the type of magazine I am focusing and working on, uses variety of different colours and informal text.  

3.   What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? The main way of distributing my magazine would be newsagents, such as Post Office’s, and food retail shops, for example Sainsbury’s, Tesco and The Cooperative (Co-op). This is because they are the main industries that distribute these types of media, for example, you wouldn’t sell my media product in a clothes shop. These types of shops are the ones that many people go into, therefore a lot of people will notice them more, so it would be the best way to get my media product notice and distributed.

4.   Who would be the audience for your media product? The audience I am aiming for, which I have decided through my research & planning and the production of magazine, is 16-21 year olds. However, because of the genre of my magazine being POP music, the magazine would also attract a younger audience, for example 13 year olds. My magazine is planned to target both male and females, however through the research carried out, the magazine will most likely attract more females than males, as studies show they like this genre more than males.

5.   How did you attract/address your audience? I attracted my audience through the layout of my magazine and the colours used, the colours were much more subtle than those used in most POP magazine, however the colours still aimed at attracted the audience I was aiming for. As well as this, I addressed them using informal language as its aimed at a young generation and is a magazine that isn’t able serious situations, for example its not a newspaper or political magazine, so there isn’t a norm to speak formal.

6.   What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product? Technology is a great way to get across different media, although all types of media may not be positive for some, it is a great way to spread new news and information. As well as this, it allows you to do clear research that can save it all in one place. Using the blog when constructing my media product was useful as I was able to look at computer images of how my media product may look and it was also a much easier way to construct my magazine, rather than using hand to make it, which would make it look less realistic.

7.   Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product? I have learnt how to construct different ideas built up from research, which is a necessary when undergoing a media product. Researching is an important need to get as much different ideas and plans as you can to make sure you’re meeting conventions and making your product realistic. I have also learnt that building a media product isn’t as easy as first thought, it takes a lot of time, research and planning to complete. It’s easy to build an idea in your head but can be much harder when trying to produce it on the computer. As well as having to use everything original, for example taking professional images.