Evaluation: in What Ways Does Your Media Product Use, Develop or Challenge Forms and Conventions of Real Media Products?
Evaluation: in What Ways Does Your Media Product Use, Develop or Challenge Forms and Conventions of Real Media Products?
Evaluation: in What Ways Does Your Media Product Use, Develop or Challenge Forms and Conventions of Real Media Products?
1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?
Throughout my music magazine - front cover, contents and double page spread - I
have used many conventions.
For my front cover image I decided to use a mid-shot of my model, looking directly
into the camera, as this is a convention used by many music magazines. Having the
model look directly into the camera when taking the photo, gives the illusion that
the model is looking out of the magazine, at the audience, helping the magazine to
connect on a more personal level with the target audience. For this reason, this type
of cover image is often used by similar magazines. The title of my magazine is
positioned horizontally at the top of the page, as are most magazine titles. The front
cover image overlaps with it slightly which is also a convention of magazines, as it
makes the model stand out further to the reader and gives the page a sense of
depth. Also, my magazine cover contains a pug, as well as a barcode, date, price and
issue number. These are all features of a conventional magazine. Another
conventional trait that my front cover has is that the left-hand third of the page
contains the most information. The majority of the cover-lines are listed down this
third, the reason for this being that this is the section of the cover that will be visible
from a shop shelf. If the audience is able to clearly see what the magazine has to
offer when on a shop shelf, they are more likely to be drawn towards it. I have
chosen to use conventions rather than challenge them, as it is clear that
conventional magazines are very successful, although the content of my magazine is
unconventional with the aim to attract a wider target audience. I decided to run a
strapline across the bottom of the page. I think that in this case, challenging this
convention has been successful, as I think the strapline running across the bottom of
the page fits the page well.
My contents page also uses many conventions. To start with I have followed the same
colour scheme that I had used for the front cover. This is often seen in magazines as it helps
the magazine to flow from page to page. The title of the magazine, LOUD, is also repeated
on the contents, however on a much smaller scale. This is again a convention and helps the
magazine to flow. As well as this the issue number is also shown as is commonly seen on a
conventional magazine. The arrangement of my contents page has been mainly influenced
by the VIBE contents page that I had analysed previous to production. The pages are listed
under 4 headings - ' INTERVEWS’, 'FEATURES' ,’LOUDS USUAL’ and ‘COMPETITIONS’ -
resembling a VIBE magazine contents page but with a lot of original content . Grouping the
page listings under separate headings is conventional and makes the page clear and easy to
use. Also, under each main heading there are sub-headings in boxes, positioned next to the
relevant page number. These are conventional features that make the page easier for the
reader to navigate from. I have also included a smaller image of the double page spread,
along with a smaller image of the front cover, as I had seen this done on many magazine
contents pages.
My double page spread is slightly unconventional. I have again used the same colour
scheme as the other pages so that the magazine flows throughout. The page is also
numbered in the bottom corner which is nearly always the case in any magazine. I have
used 8 separate images that have been edited and cut out across the double page spread
after researching certain magazines in the past. I feel that this is interesting to the reader.
The text on the page is arranged in equal columns and there is a brief summary/caption
above, spreading across the width of 2 columns. This arrangement is conventional and
makes the page appear professional. I have also made sure that the arrangement prevents
the fold down the centre of the double page from interrupting any text. This is definitely an
important magazine convention.
2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
The representation of different social groups, such as, age, gender, ethnicity, sexuality and
social class, can be both negative and positive. I think that it is important that my media
product is not in anyway biased towards particular social groups. My music magazine clearly
represents the R&B genre of music and is in many ways similar to other music magazines
that focus on this genre. The models are all of a young age (mostly late teens), as this
represents my target audience that are aged, late teens - adults in their 20's. Also, models
on other similar R&B magazines tend to be within this age range. My main model Jazz (who I
have used on the front cover) is very pretty and so men are likely to be drawn in as they will
find her physically attractive, whilst woman may be attracted as they aspire to be like her.
Attractive people are often put on the covers of similar magazines for this reason. This can
however make some people feel inferior in comparison, which is why using mainly attractive
people can often cause controversy. I do not think that this will be such an issue with my
magazine as it is aimed at a relatively young audience. I think that it may have been more of
a problem if the magazine was aimed at an older audience, who would probably rather see
ordinary looking people photographed. There appears to be more girls than boys
photographed in my magazine, which was mainly due to the fact that the stories I was going
to photograph in my magazine were about female artists. I did however consider using more
girls/women so that the magazine was more likely to appeal to the male members of my
audience. I would usually however want my magazine to have an even spread of both
genders
3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
The audience I am aiming my media product at is young people, aged late teens-adults in
their 20's, who have a particular interest in indie/rock music. The 'Target Audience' post on
my blog includes 2 target audience profiles, as well as a brief explanation as to who my
music magazine would be aimed at and why it would be suitable for the 2 boys/young men I
have written profiles for.
The main technology that has been vital during the whole production process is the
Photoshop software. I first used this software when completing my preliminary task. To
begin with I found it extremely difficult to use. There were so many different settings and
tools that made the software just bewildering for someone like me who had never used it
before. One tool that I found particularly hard to use was the magnetic lasso tool. I
remember using this in both my preliminary task and my main coursework production. I
used the tool to cut out people from images and it was a very frustrating process. You
needed a very steady hand and lots of patience to be able to cut out the images neatly. I
didn't seem to really have a problem with any of the other tools once I had familiarised
myself with their functions. One thing that was an issue though, was that Photoshop tended
to crash quite frequently when I was using it on the Mac computers. One time when
working from my memory stick, on my preliminary task, Photoshop crashed and deleted the
whole document off of my memory stick. This was unbelievably frustrating and meant that I
had to produce the whole task from scratch, as I didn't have the work saved anywhere other
than my memory stick. I learnt from this and made sure that from that moment on I saved
work in several places, in case this was to happen again. I don't know why the software kept
crashing but it never happened with the Photoshop that I used on my computer at home,
which is why much of my production was completed at home in my own time. As I used
photoshop more and more I found there were so many interesting effects I could add to my
pages. I used the inner and outer shadows on much of my text as well as many of my images
to give the page more depth. I also used the software to adjust the hue and brightness of
images. I would spend ages exploring and experimenting using all of the different editing
tools and features. My magazine title, QUAKE, in particular to me a long time to create. As
the front cover was the first page I produced, much of Photoshop was still completely new
to me and so it took me a while to find the desired effects I wanted to add to my title. I used
the effects column that runs down the right-hand side, combining effects until I was happy
with the overall look of my title. Another very useful tool was the scale option on the move
tool. This allowed me to re-size any images without stretching or altering the proportion of
the image. The eyedropper tool also came in handy, as it allowed me to take a colour from
one section of the page and use it for another section or feature on the page. I frequently
used it to select the shade of red used for the title, so that I could use it elsewhere on the
page, helping to keep with the colour scheme of the page.
Before I could even begin to use Photoshop, I firstly need to take my images for my
magazine. To do this I used my sony, 12 mega pixels camera. My main photo shoot was
done in my house in the day which meant that lighting was very poor. My camera managed
pretty well in these conditions, I had to use the brightest flash available and luckily still
managed to get a few amazing photos. I was extremely pleased with the pictures until I
uploaded them onto the computer and found that unfortunately many of them looked
grainy and not as sharp as I had hoped.
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 so much in the progression from my preliminary task to my full product. When
completing my preliminary task I had carried out no real research into how a school
magazine should look and what it should contain. Little planning went into producing both
the front cover and contents page. The images that I used were taken quickly and with no
real thought going into certain vital aspects such as costume and location. At the time I
didn't realise just how important it was to have good, strong images for my magazine. To
take many of the photos I had used my 5 mega pixels camera on my phone, which is why
the images were so poor in comparison to the images I used for my full product. The main
image on the front cover of my school magazine is especially poor, the image is blurry and
the model looks distracted. I can see now that is not at all suitable as the main cover image.
For my full product (music magazine) I put a huge amount of thought into how and where
the photos should be taken. I had done my research and after analysing several other music
magazines, I could make informed decisions on what sort of images would best appeal to
my target audience. I also used a professional camera that was double the mega pixels of
my phone camera, so that my images would come out much clearer and look more
professional. I took a wide variety of images to make sure that I had lots to choose from
when it came to picking the best ones to use for my magazine. I took very few for the
preliminary task and so limited the amount of choice I had.
My Photoshop skills have also improved dramatically. My school magazine cover and
contents (preliminary task) look very cheap and amateurish. I had used the magnetic lasso
tool to cut out my main cover model, which I found extremely difficult. The edges around
her head look rough and the image stands out like a sore thumb - not at all as it should. At
the time my Photoshop skills were very basic and looking back now I should have atleast
tried to soften the edges using the eraser tool. The cover's blue background looks very basic
and the shade of blue I have used clashes badly with the bright red. The contents page looks
slightly better in comparison to the cover, however it is still very basic. All in all I have learnt
a great deal in the progression to my full product. During production my Photoshop skills
improved very quickly, enabling me to produce a much more professional looking magazine,
that would be better suited to the audience I was aiming it at.