Evaluation

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Front Cover
My front cover uses many forms and conventions of real media products. Firstly, I have included a masthead for my magazine. The name of my magazine is “My CHOICE”. I was inspired to create this name by other magazines, such as NME and Smash Hits. Most magazine names are made up of only two or three syllables, so that it can be short, catchy and memorable. ‘My CHOICE’ is all of these things, and so would probably be remembered well by customers. The font of my masthead is “Adamgorry”. I chose this font because it was clear and easy to read by all users. The dots inside the words have connotations of fame, like spotlights. This emphasises how this magazine is theirs, and that they’re the star. Although this sounds quite immature, it would appeal to my target audience of girls aged between 10 and 15 years.
The strapline for my magazine is located above the mast head, in a bright red font. This attracts a lot of attention, and once read, would persuade users to purchase the magazine. The strapline for this magazine reads “The ONLY Pop Magazine Out at the Moment!” This makes users feel that this is the only pop magazine on the market, and so if they want a magazine of this music genre, this is the only one for them.
Another form and convention that I have used are coverlines, kickers and explanatory text. The main cover line reads “Alicia”, and is the name of the model is in the main image. The font I used for this was a decorative font, which looks extremely elegant and sophisticated. Also, because of the curves, it looks extremely feminine, which has connotations that the female artist being promoted aims at women and girls, rather than males. The font colour of this text is yellow, which stands out extremely well. It is also a very bright colour, which shows that ‘Alicia’ is a very upbeat and fun character. The explanatory text is located underneath this cover line, and describes what ‘Alicia’s role is in the music industry.
I have chosen to only use one kicker on my magazine, as I want the main focus of the audience to be on the main cover story, which is ‘Alicia’. I positioned this kicker, which is about the band “ONETO1”, in the left third. The font colour is black, which contrasts well with the white background, making it stand out well. The explanatory text tells readers that this is the band’s first interview, and by putting the word “EVER” in capitals, makes the readers realise this quicker. I feel that I could have, however, had another kicker underneath this one, to give readers more options to choose from to help them decide whether they want to purchase the magazine. This is because if readers are not interested in the main cover story or the story about “ONETO1”, they have nothing else on the page that would make them want to purchase it. Most standard magazine have about six kickers and coverlines, and I only have two, which is definitely not enough. Here, I have therefore challenged a standard convention of real media products.
I have also made clear on the front cover that there is a “HUGE poster inside!” This was a standard convention of 90s pop magazines, and during these times, readers would put these posters up all around their room. I emphasised ‘huge’ by putting it into capitals, so that users are aware that if they buy this magazine, the poster will be of an extremely large size.

Contents
On my contents page, I have used many standard conventions, to make it look professional for the readers. I have included the date and issue number, so that the audience are well informed. I have also included page numbers and given a description of what each page featured will have. This means that it is easier for users to decide wheat they want to read and easily locate it withint the magazine. I have developed the standard form of page number by making the numbers for images bigger. This is sometimes done in other magazines, yet they are not normally this big. I also changed the colour, which is not normally a standard convention.
Another standard form that I have included is the music magazine's website address in the bottom left corner. It is extremely common for the address to be located here, as it means that they are receiving much more advertising, increasing their audience.

Double Page Spread
My double page spread uses many forms and conventions of standard double page spreads. Firstly, there is the use of a slug in the top right corner of the second page. This slug reads “EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW”, and is written in capital letters. This attracts attention, and makes the user aware that this interview is exclusive to ‘My CHOICE’ magazine, which may make them want to read it more. Secondly, there is the use of a pull quote. Pull quotes are meant to make readers want to read the article. I positioned my pull quote in the bottom right corner, as this is where users look when they are about to turn the page. Hopefully, they will read this quite humorous quote, and be persuaded to read the rest of the article. Thirdly, I have taken a photo of ‘Alexa’, and positioned it on the right. This is because this image would attract much more attention, and so by placing it on the right page, users will see it first and would then want to read the article. The model in the photo is smiling, which has connotations that she is kind and friendly. The black and white make the image look extremely professional, which makes the magazine look much more sophisticated. Lastly, I have positioned the byline that reads “Images taken by MediaProductions”. By having this byline of my page, it means that my images are copyright, and no other companies can use them.

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
Front Cover
My front cover targets females of quite a younger age, probably from the years 10-16. The model on the front is a teenager of 18 years, and so she would appeal to this sort of age group. Her pout is extremely stereotypical and strongly represents girls of this age. The language used is extremely exclusive, and would probably appeal to everyone who likes the bands that are being promoted.

Contents
My contents page appeals to a large group of people. There is an image of a young teenager, to appeal to the age group of 13-16 years. There is a guitar to appeal to musicians in bands, and there are images of fake Michael Jackson in the top left corner, which would appeal to anyone interested in this type of music.
The colours used are red and yellow, both appealing to any gender. The fonts used also appeal to all readers, as it is a sans serif font and of a black font colour.

Double Page Spread
My double page spread appeals to young girls, but may also appeal to mothers as well. Not only does the pull quote mention how 'Alexa' is signing autographs for older women, but these mothers may also have children this age, and want to know what another woman's daughter is going through, compared to their own.

3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
This magazine would probably be published by IPC media. This magazine publisher owns many different magazines, which includes music magazines. The three that they own are NME, Guitar and Uncut. These are all very differnt to my magazines, meaning that there is a place in the market for something new and exciting. Also, these music magazines they own range from £2.20-£4.30, meaning that my £2.00 would probably attract more attention and be quite popular (as it is the cheapest out or the magazines that IPC Media own).

4. Who would be the audience for your media product?
The audience of this magazine are females from the ages of 10 to 17 years. This is clear by the use of females for the main cover image and double page spread, and the average age of them, which is 16 years. The font for the main cover line is extremely feminine, and woul dnot appeal to males.

5. How did you attract/address your audience?
Front Cover
My front cover attracts quite a lot of attention from users. This is mainly due to my magazine house colours of red and yellow. These colours are both extremely bright, and when put together, they contrast greatly, therefore attracting a lot of attention from passers by. What also attracts attention is the medium shot of 'Alicia', and her strong eye contact with the readers.

Contents
Attention is attracted to this contents page mainly by the colours. The red and yellow contrast well against the white background, which attracts attention. Also, the main image of "Alexa", because of the size of it, attracts a lot of attention from the audience.

Double Page Spread
What mainly attracts attention my double page spread is the image, heading and pull quote. The image is extremely high quality, and takes up most of the right page. This instantly attracts attention from the user. The heading is in a large size, and the font is extremely unique. This attracts attention as it is not a standard font that people will recognise, making them look twice. Lastly, the pull quote is also in a big font size. Yet the colours are also split in half. This is so that the words can be read easily, and contrast well against the background.

6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
I have learnt many techniques whilst constructing this magazine. The technique that I felt most useful was the magnetic lasso tool on Adobe Photoshop. This tool allowed me to highlight sections of images and delete the background, which came in extremely handy for my front cover when I needed to delete the background of my photo. Also, the clone tool was extremely helpful in deleting unwanted areas. For example, I used this tool to delete the 'Reading' words on Alicia's wristband, and the blemishes on Alexa's face to make her appear even more youthful than she is.

7. Looking back at your task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
I feel that the main thing I have learnt is that it is extremely useful to produce drafts. In my preliminary task, I did not create many drafts, and so my final product probably wasn't as good as it could have been. However, in this project, I made sure that I created at least two drafts of each document, so that it could be an extremely successful final product.