AS Media Studies Coursework Evaluation

1. AS Media Studies Coursework Evaluation By Letitia Rackett

2. In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? • For my music magazine I decided to use the normal forms and conventions of a music magazine as when doing my research I found out that all of the other music magazines follow the forms and conventions so I gathered this helps make them so successful. • For example: name as a masthead at the top of the page, barcode, date, price and website at the bottom right hand corner, picture in the middle of the page. • For my final front cover, contents page and double page spread I stuck to the colours: red, black, white, yellow and grey. I used these colours as I found that when I researched existing magazines such as Q and Kerrang they used these colours. I think this is due to them being bold and eye catching which draws the readers attention to the magazine.

3. Bold masthead, with a scratchy texture in red which is almost metaphoric for a heart as the lines represent veins, acting as though its pulsing due to the adrenalin of the music. The texture of the masthead also signifies attitude. The masthead is similar to the magazine ‘Kerrang’ as this magazine influenced me. Main Headline- Anchorage, the headline goes with the main image. A badge, advertising this summers festivals The use of four colours; Red ,Black ,yellow and white, which are typical colours used on music magazines The barcode positioned directly in the right hand bottom corner like most other music magazines I have analysed, with the date ,magazines website, the issue number and the price of the magazine Cover line A plug/menu showing what else features in the magazine

4. After analysing these magazines I got ideas on how I wanted my front cover of my music magazine to look like. I found both these magazines very influential for when I produced my front cover and I incorporated some of their features on my front page. I really liked the masthead on Kerrang, with its name/logo spreading across the top of page acting as a banner. I also liked its textured effect which I felt gave it attitude, representing the music inside. So i decided to make my name/logo spread across as a banner and also give it a textured effect as I thought this would help portray the music inside. Another feature from the Kerrang magazine that I chose to incorporate on my front page was the plug/ menu, stating what else will feature in the magazine that is across the bottom of the page, I felt this made it clear for people to see what else the magazine has to offer. However I decided to keep my front cover rather minimalistic like the Q magazine front cover does, making it less chaotic than the front page of Kerrang and looking more sophisticated. Like the example of Q below i only really put a main headline on my page, anchorage with a medium close up shot picture placed in the middle fo the page and a badge advertising festivals with just one other cover line. I chose to use a bold colour for my background (black) like the grey one used on the Q magazine. I done this as i felt it made the main headline and picture stand out making the audience focus on the main headline and would enhance the attention that it would receive. Bold headline A bold, block coloured background Medium close up shot, placed in middle of the page A plug/menu

5. Analysing and Comparing Contents page Picture of the magazines front page Heading of what the magazine features A picture that gives you an insight and preview of a coverline inside Use of different colours (red and black) makes it clear to read The page number of the cover line in bold number, makes readers want to view page Informal language used I got most of my influence for my contents page from this Q magazines contents page Picture of editor and information about the magazine ,makes the audience feel more included, gives it a personal touch Advertising to subscribe to the magazine, gives you an offer, may encourage more people to buy magazine Date, page number and ‘pulse’ logo

6. Tour dates-acts as an advertising source, makes the page more interesting to look at, meaning it will catch the audiences eye Headline in black ,bold writing with a white background making it stand out Analysing and comparing my double page spread Interview- with the questions being in a red font and the answers in black it makes the interview clear and easy to read The white outline of each picture draws attention to each picture Pictures-by having a few pictures makes you get a insight of her lifestyle Date, page number and the magazine name/logo Lined background making it look like it’s a diary/scrapbook which makes it look personal Pull quote-draws the audience in to read the rest of the interview

7. When producing my double page spread I got my main influence from this double page spread in a Kerrang magazine. I wouldn’t to produce something similar to this as I found it was very eye catching with the different pictures and the lined background making it look like it was a diary, scrapbook.

8. How does your media product represent particular social groups? A young person, with a indie fashion • My magazine represents young people from about 15-20 I have shown this by the casual and informal language used throughout and there being a young person on the front cover. • By using the powerful colours: yellow, red, black and grey they create a Energetic and youthful look to the magazine. • My title ‘Pulse’ is very energetic, young which represents youth, with the font of the title it almost acts as a metaphor for a heart, with veins pulsing from the adrenalin and excitement of the music. it is also catchy and also relates to music well. • It represents both male and female, which is why I kept the colours of my magazine neutral to allow the magazine to appeal to both genders. • My magazine represents middle class people which is reflected in the price of the magazine (£2.50) and in the content of the magazine. Energetic and powerful colours

9. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? • Pulse is a mainstream magazine that will have a mass audience as Indie music is very popular which came clear through my questionnaire results, so therefore I would choose a main publisher to publish my magazine. There are three main publishers which I have researched, these are: Bauer, who publish the music magazines: Kerrang, Q, Mojo and Empire. IPC who publish NME and Natmags who don’t currently publish any music magazines. • I decided on publishing my music magazine with Natmags as after carrying out my research about the publishers I realised that Natmags don’t currently publish a music magazine therefore there is a space for one in there market, with no other competition within the company so hopefully my magazine would be more successful. • My magazine would be distributed in newsagents and supermarkets so that a wide range of people would see and know about my music magazine. • By it being a magazine for a mass audience it would have its own website like the other music magazines that I researched into have such as NME, this would enable my audience to subscribe to the magazine and also be able to receive a online version of the magazine, this is becoming rather popular due to the advance in technology especially with young people, therefore this would suit my target audience.

10. Who would be the audience for your media product? • The age of my audience would be from 15-20, as I feel that the music that will be included in my magazine will suit all ages of this age group. • As my audience is going to be teenagers/young adults I will include advertisements about music colleges in my magazine. • My magazine will be aimed at both genders which is why I have kept my colors neutral. • My magazine will be aimed at a middle class, who have a social class of B and C1/2. • My audience will have a keen interest in music especially ‘Indie’ music, they would attend gigs and music events.

11. Audience Profiles From researching magazines I found that they produced audience profile pages. I decided to produce my own audience profile. The audience profile shows what the readers of my magazine think The publishers name/logo and contact information Figures of selling figures Key Statistics

12. How did you attract/address your audience? • I Carried out a questionnaire to allow me to see what attracts people to music magazines so it allowed me to know what kind of things I should include in my magazines such as cover lines • I asked 25 people to decide on the name of the magazine they liked the best out of a few that I selected. • I used rhetorical questions such as: ‘what festivals should you be attending this summer?' which made the magazine more personal and addressed the audience to a greater extent. • I also made sure the cover lines were about artists that I thought my target audience would be interested in such as Jamie T and the Libertine as they fit the genre and age range that I am focusing on. A graph from my questionnaire results to show what attracts people to music magazine

13. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product? • I have learnt how to use Photoshop to a much higher standard. I have learnt how to crop photos, change the background, use blur tool, change/highlight the colour of the picture, add text to the photo and add auto shapes to the photo. • By using a digital camera to take my photos with ,it has allowed me to know the appropriate time to use the flash and also to pick a setting that is suitable for my picture for example portrait, movement. I also found out how to take photos of every movement on the option ‘burst’ this allowed me to get some natural shots. • I have also learnt how to find different fonts rather than the fonts from Word art on word and publisher, I found them from the website dafont and put them into a document by ‘print screening’ so I could then crop it down to the right size. This is how I got the font for the name of my magazine. Print screening my title from the website dafont.

14. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product? • In my preliminary task I mainly used publisher and only used Photoshop at a very basic level , I used the quick selection tool to allow me to change the background to a different colour, but it was poorly done and did not look neat or very good, so overall my magazine didn't look very professional. • When I did my music magazine I used Photoshop a lot more and to a higher level so I began to become confident with using the program. I learnt how to use different tools such as the magic wand, lasso tool, blur tool, brightness and contrast tool. • The quality of my photo was to a much higher standard when doing my music magazine as I learnt how to use the different settings on the digital camera. • Overall there was a clear difference between the standard of my school magazine and my music magazine due to taking better photos and learning how to edit a photo effectively. The picture for my preliminary task to the left has not been cut out very neatly and the edges look very scruffy as I couldn’t use the quick selection tool very well whereas the picture for my music magazine below is rather neat because I learnt how to use the quick selection tool properly

15. What other people and myself thought of my media production • ‘I love the name ‘pulse’ it is energetic and catchy’ • ‘Having a few pictures on the double page spread made it very eye appealing’ • ‘The bold colours used makes it stand out’ • ‘I like the way the magazine appeals to both genders’ • ‘I love the modern feel the magazine brings across’ • ‘I'm pleased with the professional look of my magazine and with how much I have improved from the preliminary task’