Katie Emin: 2016

Magazine Evaluation- preliminary task

1. Who would be the target audience for your media product?

My target audience for my media product would be female students aged 11-14 who are in year 7-9 and go to Plumstead manor school so they would be living in the area of London most specifically Woolwich, Plumstead and Thamesmead.

They would be interested in hearing about school events which is clear from my survey results meaning that the students would like to stay updated with their school as my media product is a secondary school magazine so it is important that the students get what they need from the magazine.

2. In what ways does your media product use the forms and conventions of a real media product?

My magazine uses many forms and conventions of a real media product as there is a barcode which means that it can be bought from a shop like a real magazine. It also has the date so that readers can keep up to date with future issues and remember to get them and not miss out. I also used many photos that fit the theme of my magazine so that the target audience is clearer and more affected and enticed to read the magazine, the images I took also fit with the articles inside the magazine.

For example the magazine I annotated was for a primary school but gave me many ideas to use such as adding puff stories on the cover of the magazine to inform the reader of articles inside, also to make the mast head of the magazine a bigger size and a different font to the other pieces of text on the cover and throughout the magazine so that the brand of the magazine is remembered.

In real magazines there is many links to the brand of the magazines social media so that the reader can stay connected to magazine via their popular social networks such as Twitter, Facebook or Instagram as many people use social networking websites in the age range of my target audience, so it is easier for them to connect and share the things they enjoy about the magazine.

3. How does your media product represent the interests if your target audience?

My media product represents the interests of my target audience because the colours I have chosen feed the theme of Plumstead Manor School because the colours I used are also the school colours so they fit perfectly this was a key decision because it had to make the target audience interested so it was a main question on my survey and the results were quite clear that the colours chosen were navy blue and red.

I also added social networks that the readers could follow the magazines on, the most popular social network was Twitter and Instagram for my age range which was based on my results of my survey. The articles in my magazine were based on the interest of the target audience such as events in school and a pop artist coming to the school which was the student’s favourite genre of music which I knew by my survey results.

The pictures used on the cover and contents of the magazine are photos from around the school so that the target audience can familiarise themselves with the pictures as some of the target audience will be new to the school so it would be cool for them to see pictures of their school and help them learn about it more.

The language used would be extremely appropriate as the students in my target audience would be young and so the language has to be clean. The articles chosen are new and up to date also I used current terminology and current crazes to keep the reader interested.

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

For this product I had to learn how to use a DSLR camera which was very important for me to take my own original images, I was taught how to use the camera by Mr Locke who was a technician at our school he told us the basics he also told us what parts of the camera affect the image such as ESO which affects the brightness, we then got the chance to test our newly learned camera skills by taking pictures of our own which meant that we could play around with the effects of the camera and learn for ourselves.

We also had to learn how to use the software to create our media product such as Adobe Photoshop and InDesign. We had to learn how to use Photoshop so that we could apply affects to our image to make them eye catching, again our teacher Mr Locke told us the basics, we then selected an image of our own and played around with the many affects that we could get our hands on to make the most extravagant photo by increasing or decreasing the contrast or posturizing. We then needed to know how to use InDesign as this would be where we would piece together our final product of our magazine so learning how to use InDesign was a key thing we needed to learn Mr Locke told us a few things but most of the things in my magazine I learned by myself by trying things out and testing various things such as adding pictures and placing text on them or cropping photos and changing colours or making text larger.

The computers I used to make my media product was Apple Macs these computers are very different to the ones I am used to using normally, it was hard to get used to at first but the more I used them more and more it became easier I can now use them like a pro, if I ever got stuck I could ask my teacher or work it out for myself which I did most of the time.

We also learned about camera shots and angles to make the picture look better and more effective, the angles we learned about was portrait, landscape and loads more.

5. Which aspects of your product do you feel are successful and why?

The masthead of my magazine which is “Too cool 4 school” I feel is very successful as it is a memorable title which the target audience will remember it also fits the criteria of its use.

I feel that the images chosen are successful because they are taken in parts of the school where the target audience attend so they will feel familiar with their surroundings of the pictures, it also looks very professional and practical and appropriate for the age range it will be used for.

I also feel that the articles that I wrote are successful because they are current and it is something that the target audience will feel excited to read and feel enjoyment out of by reading them, I also used articles based on my survey results that I knew that students would look forward to reading and have an interest in reading.

6. What aspects of your planning and product could be improved and why?

The aspects of my media product that I would improve would be adding more shapes to the cover of the magazine so that it is not just all the same bring shapes and intrigue the reader, I would also improve the font of my magazine to make them look more appealing to the reader and fit the theme of the school.

The aspects of planning for my media product that I would improve would be having more students take my survey so I could’ve had a wider range of results so I could understand what the target audience would enjoy more. Another aspect of planning I would improve would be having more time on researching ideas for my magazine and the typical theme for magazines.