9. Evaluation

My final magazine
I have tried to upload my images via google documents but had problems with uploading and the uploaded magazine appeared fualty, so I have uploaded JPEGs straight on Blogger.










Overall I am very pleased with the final outcome of my magazine. I fell that I have matched it well to the my target audience that I specified at the begginging (see Audeince). Below I will analyse and evaluate my magazine finding the good points of my work, but also spotting what I could change to make it better next time.

Title
I have chosen "Black" as my title becuase it is the most comonly used/worn colour among the rock audience as it connotes rebeliance and death, two major themes within rock. Instantly when you say "rock" you associate the work black with it. This will help the audeince to associate themselves with the magazine.
I Have chosen my title to be in a bold black font that looks like it has been worn down and torn. This is to represent the "tough-guy", anti society lifestyle that many rockers lead or aspire to lead. Other popular magazines with the same genre have similar titles to mine.





Images
The image I have chosen for my front cover is of a teenage boy playing a guitar. This is becuase guitars are most probably the best known and recognised instrument in rock and it will give the audience security as it signifies that it is a rock magazine. The teenage boy himself connotes the age range of the magazine and tells the audeince that it is a magazine for modern young rockers. I have made my model raise his knee and look down towards is guitar as this gives him a "cooler" look. The fact that I have used a medium/long shot is becuase both of the 2 magazines (Kerrang and NME)use medium/long shots in their front covers. Also i think that a medium/longshot is good becuase it shows the artist close enough so that they can be quickly recognised by the audeince, but also shows enough of the artist to show them with thier insrument.



However, I feel that my main image is slightly rough around the edges and would look better if it was smoother. The reason for this is becuause the image wasnt taken on a highly contrasting background as i took it at one of my friends gigs, I had to work with the background I was given. Next time I will arange enough time after thier gig to asure i can get a picture of them with their instruments with a clear background behind them.

Also on my front page I have included a picture of another young rocker playing a drum kit. Again, drums are a signifier of rock and suggest that it is of the rock genre, whilst the drums offer variety rather than just guitars. This is important, as in the analysis of NME above I had established that NME offers a variety of Sub Genres in rock ranging from hard rock, to pop rock. The different instrument within the pictures that I have included such as guitars and drums suggest that my magazine is more diverse and will apeall to a wider audience.




On my contents page I have included images of bands playing at gigs. Each of the images relates to the text that is paralell with it. I have done this becuase it helps promote the given stories within the contents page. Also I have chosen a range of different shots with in the contents page, ranging from midshot, long shot, to extreme longshot. This again connotes that the magazine is diverse and makes it appeal to a wider audeince.




Language
I feel that that is a very large part of my magazine, especialy on the front cover. For instance I have chosen to use aliteration in my main sell "Battle of the bands". This is becuase it will help catch the readers eye and differenciate it from other magazines. Also the word "Battle" connotes the competitiveness of the music industry. Along with this I have used the group of three rule "Who you like. Who you hate. Who will you vote for?" to show that this competitiveness is controlled by the fans, as they have the power to decide which bands make it and which bands fail. Also I have ended that quote in with a rhetorical question to make the reader think and therefore intice them in my magazine. Similar magazines like Kerrang use techniques like this; having thier main sell to attract the reader, then having a sentence underneath to further thier sell.





Another example of my use of language on the front cover is " The best bands, Thebest music, The best magazine!" I have used the word "Best" as it connotes my magazine as the number one rock magazine out there, and therefore people are more likley to buy it. Kerrang uses the same method as seen in the cover I have previously analysed, with "The Ultimate Review".






On my contents page I have advertised a subscription to my magazine. I have used the sentence "Subscribe and get your first issue free". I chose "Subscribe becuase it is an imperative verb and demands the reader to subscribe to the magazine.






Colour
As my title connotes, my magazine denotes mostly black. I have chosen the colour black (as I have mentioned before) becuase it is the most associated colour with rock due to its significations of satent and death. Kerrang, which has a similar genre to my magazine also uses black as its predominant colour as it is the most appealing to our vague shared target audience of rock.

I have also used alot of red and orange within my text and numbers. This is becuase red connotes blood and danger which relates to many of my target audience's extreme lifestyles where they are often adrenaline junkies and live dangerously. NME uses lots of red within thier magazine, especialy the front cover. However they use it for a different reason, to connote passion for the music and sexiness amoung the often model like artists that appear on the front cover.

Lastly, my magazine also contains alot of white within it. I have done this so it is in complete contrast with the black and makes the magazine stand out. Also white is a symbolic colour in the gothic rock sub-genre. The contrast between the white and the black connotes how my target audeince are clearly independant from the rest.

Fonts
My magazine contains about 4 fonts overall. I have chosen them all specifically to match thier purpose. For example my main sell "Battle of the bands" is in a sans serif font to make it look modern and appeal to my young audience. The font also has a messy edge to its letters which give it the look of being wet paint that has been "messed up" by loud music from an amplifier.



I have used another font for my sells; this is also sans serif, but I chose to use this font becuase it is a little less bold than the one above so it doesn't draw the readers attention away from the main sell, but is bold enough to catch the readers eye after they have looked at the main sell. Also I think that this font has the effect of worn leather; which is very relivant to my rock audience as black leather is a very popular clothing choice among rockers. Kerrang use a font like this for thier double page spread.







Layout
For my magazine I have chosen to have a layout that looks quite messy. An example is where I have tilted one of the images on the front page. This gives the magazine a messy look which connotes how the rock audience dont like to live their life to any set routine or structure.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
I fell that I have created my magazine so that it is similar to other popular magazines of the same genre such as NME and especialy Kerrang. For instance I have placed my masthead at the top, which is the same for both of Kerrang and NME aswell. This is becuase our eyes naturally read from top to bottom so it will be one of the first things the reader spots.
Another way in which my magazine is similar is the way in which i have listed some of the key content on the front, listed and separated by foward slashes. Kerrang uses a very similar technique in the same part of the page, just with dots saparating the words instead. I have included this section that denotes all of the key content in the magazine becuase it summarises the magazine and intices the reader to buy it.
Also, i have chosen for my models head to apear partial blocking the title. I have done this becuase it shows that my magazine is well establish, well known, and that the whole title doesnt need to be seen for the magazine to be recognised. Both kerrang and NME do this so i realised that it was a very popular technique.





However, my magazine also differs from other from a similar genre such as Kerrang and NME. One way is that I have only included one model on my front cover, whereas Kerrang and NME both use atleast 2 or more. The reason that I have only chosen one model is to show that this magazine supports smaller indie artists aswell as the big known ones. The single figure on the front page signifies smaller/less known artists. This is important as one of the key aspects in music is its development and change; many people want to see fresh new artists that arnt well known yet but are becoming popular. It also puts more of the readers concentration on that one figure so that the image will have more effect on the reader, and they are therefore more likely to buy it.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?
I want my magazine to appeal to my target audeince as much as possible(see audeince). Therefore I have made it appeal to the social groups that my audeince fall into. Rockers is one group that my audeince fall into, the way that my model is holding his guitar suggests that it is a weapon. This connotes agression which shows that my rocker audience like to mosh heavily to the music.
Also, the fact that my magazine is called "black" and contains lots of the colour black connotes that my rocker audience that wear alot of black are very fashionable seeing as the colour is highly promoted within the modern magazine.
Throughout my magazine most of my images are of male teeens. I have chosen to do this as it represents that most of the people in the genre that my magazine is aimed at are teen males. This will help the teen/early 20s male readers to relate to the magazine as many of the artists will be their gender and age, and also alot of the content is written to agree with thier views. For instance, one of my articles starts "Sex, drugs, rock n roll." This shows that the rockers that follow my magazine like to lead this extreme lifestyle.


What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
I think that my magazine could be distributed in many of the highstreet retailers such as WH Smiths, Tescos, Sainsburys and many other big names. The reason i think this is becuase my magazine is very diverse and it doesn't specify too much within the rock genre. For instance there are many elements to my magazine that suggest it is heavy rock, such as the name "Black". However there are many other signifiers that the magazine also appeals to a punk audience aswell, such as the teen boy artists. I think it is this diversity that means all rock fans can enjoy my magazine, and therefore giving it a large market enabling ti to be solf in major retailers.

Who would be the audience for your media product?
As I have just mentioned above, my magazine has a very diverse audience within the rock genre. I have already stated my target audience in blog 3 giving an example of the specific individual who may read my magazine(see audeince). However, using psychographics I can get a more detailed profile of the target audeince for my magazine. By looking at psychographics I can now see that my target audeince are individualist-YAKS. The individualist part suggest how the readers for my magazine separate themselves from the rest and want to show the world that they are different. YAKS stands for Young, Adventurous, Keen, and Single. This back ups what I have said in blog 2 about my target audeince being young males that like to live adventurous and adrenaline filled lifestyles. The fact that they choose to dress in predominantly black to represent anarchy and supports that they are individualists that choose not to follow the crowd.

How did you attract/address your audience?
I have answered most of this question in the first part of my evaluation where I have analysed the different parts of my magazine and stated why it appeals to my audeince with pictures. However, I will analyse further explaining anything I feel that I have left out. One important aspect that I feel I haven't mentioned above is the mode of address. I have designed my magazine so that it has an informal mode of adress so that the audeince can see it as a way of relaxing and escaping from eveyday life. This way they will look foward to reading the magazine and will want to buy it. I have done this by envolving many questions on my front cover; this creates a personal link between the reader and the magazine as the questions are directed straight at the reader. An example is "will they attack the charts?"
Also, much of the colloquial language I have used on the front page makes the magazine very direct to the reader; it is as if they are having a chat with the magazine. For example it says "Who you like. who you hate, your vote" The use of personal pronouns such as the word "you" informs the reader that they are activly envolved with this magazine and its content.




What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
Adobe indesign and Adobe photoshop have been extrememly helpfull in creating my magazine. Indesign was very helpfull by enabling me to easily construct my magazine. The software enabled me to move, rotate, and resize imported pictures aswell as creating text that can be typed in many different imported fonts. All of these features helped to make sure that I could create a magazine that was a good standard.
Photoshop was the other program that i used alot within the production of my magazine. For example, on my double page spread I used photoshop to create the emerged image of a disc and the Limewire symbol. With a photographs I had taken of a CD, and another of a Limwire symbol i was able to cut them both in half and then merge them back together as one circular image. This was usefull in accompanying my article about record sales dropping due to Limewire.
However, there was one restriction to photoshop which mean that that I couldnt include my artist wearing a shark tooth necklace. My idea was to take a picture of a shark tooth necklace and photoshop it onto my artist to match the "Shark tooth: will they attack the charts?" text on my cover. On the other hand It is less of a restricition in the software and more a restriction in my ability to do a complicated task to a good standard within that software. So overall I am very pleased with the software that I used and can find little fault with it.

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
By looking at my preliminary work I can see that my finished magazine is a vast improvement. This is due to many factors such as having a greater understanding of magazine conventions of that specific genre. The fact that I have a greater understanding means that I can apply this knowledge and add features that weren't on my preliminary such as specific fonts from external sources such as www.dafont.com.
Also looking back on my preliminary work I learnt not to use too many colours on the fornt cover of my magazine as it makes it look unprofessional and childish (not my target audeince). I realised that I used to many on my preliminary, so on my final magazine I limited it to 4 colours which i feel has made it better suited to my 16-24 year old audience.