Evaluation Question 7 - Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

There are many things that differentiate between my two products; the preliminary task and my final front cover for my music magazine, the first being that I have learnt not to only use one text for the whole front cover, as I did for my preliminary task. This time, I have used 3 main texts along with 1 or 2 subtexts, which means that my music magazine looks more professional and more attractive towards my target audience; it does not look bland. As well as this, I have also learnt to have my feature artist looking directly at the camera, as it makes the audience feel as if they are more involved with the magazine itself, as well as making the artist look like they are involved with the magazine. I have developed this magazine so that it looks more professional than my preliminary task, and so it appeals to my target audience more. I have done this by doing a questionnaire for my target audience to fill in after the product was finished, as seen on the evaluation question 5, as well as, before creating my product, doing a focus group so that I got to know what it was my target customer liked and didn't like, and then I reflected their needs within my product. When it came to my preliminary task, I didn't do a focus group, and in some ways I believe that this is why my preliminary product doesn't correlate to my target customer's needs as well as my magazine does. If I were to do this product again, I would change the era in which I based my magazine on; I may still include the artists that featured on my product again, however I would definitely make it a more modern style product. This is because I found it incredibly hard to find colour schemes and fonts/colours that fitted particularly and specifically with my theme, and also when it cames to editing my pictures, I didn't know, even with planning and research, if I needed to add an effect on or not and why. I found carrying out the preliminary task useful as I found myself understanding how each application worked and how to create my magazine; I believe that if I went straight into my music magazine without doing the preliminary task, then I wouldn not have had as much knowledge on the connotations and what an audience wants and doesn't want etc. In order to produce my music magazine, I found that I learnt a lot about the typical connotations of a music magazine, and what an audience wants in order to buy and re buy a magazine. I also found that I learnt a lot more about the music industry, and how a music magazine is made and what research goes into it all, as well as finidng out the best ways to get a photo and in what areas etc. I found out many key definitions, like for example, what a niche audience is (a small proportion of a population that are most likely to read/listen to etc. indie products), and where to put things like a mast head, skyline, plug and why etc.

Evaluation Question 6 - What have you leanrt about technologies from the process of construvting this product?

Evaluation Question 5 - How did you attract/address your audience?

Not only this but, as stated in the question below, to attract my target audience, I firstly thought about what appealed to me, considering I was part of my target audience when it came to age. I looked at a variety of different music magazines and articles, as well as features that came with each m#part, for examples the colours used, text chosen and what makeup was used on any artists. I noticed that I was drawn to bold colours and images, hence the final colour scheme that I chose was yellow, black and white. I also noted that plainer fonts were easier to read than fancy, handwriting style ones. They also caught my eye much quicker. I also found that I liked double page spreads that featured artists being interviewed, and information on upcoming tours caught my eye etc. However, my most favourite articles on artists, in particular with double page spreads, were artists that talked about how they got to where they are now, hence my final decision to include an interview with my featured artist and also information on their background and why they decided to go into music etc. Because of the fact that I liked clear, bright photos of artists when I was researching about what I found attractive when it came to looking at magazines, I ultimately used a large, bright photo of my artist wearing a yellow dress, so as to catch my audiences eye. As my magazine is mainly focused on the mod/indie rock genre, I w#have attended many local gigs around my area that play new artists, at places such as pubs near where I live, and also places like Fruit and Adelphi in Hull. I would do this so, if I decided upon featuring that artist, I would give a first hand explanation of what I liked about the artist and if they were worth going to see, which would then make my readers feel as if they wanted to go to a gig that I enjoyed.

Evaluation Question 4 - Who would be the audience for your media product?

The audience that I chose were, in particular, teenagers aged 14-around about the age of 30; so quite a wide range. This meant that I had to cater to a teenagers and an adults needs, which meant that I had to think carefully about what mise-en-scene/text formats I used. I decided upon this age range for my target audience as I believed that they would be the sort of people who would read a sixties magazine; many teenagers in this generation are choosing to listen to older, more vintage style music, and this could possibly through personal choice or through the music their parents listen to, hence why adults are also my target audience. A while back, I created a reader profile. In this, I included many aspects of mise-en-scene that I thought related to my target audience, and this is pictures, colours and text, however I decided to change the typical Mod colour scheme of red, white and blue to yellow, white and black due to the colours my artist was wearing. Some aspects of mise-en-scene that I included were things like Lambrettas, mod artists and models like Twiggy, Paul Weller etc, as well as some famous places where mod artists have performed, like Hyde Park. I included these so that those who like those things in particular would be attracted to my magazine, and would want to buy it purely because it included things like that. My focus group that I talked about on my blog also helped me with the choosing of what colours/themes/things to put into and on my magazine, and how to distribute it etc. One of the main things that I picked up on in my focus group, which I represented in my final product, was that many people, my age in particular (16-17 years), prefer to listen to much more indie/indie rock music other than pop artists, like Kelly Clarkson, Katy Perry, etc. This helped me choose what to theme my magazine on, meaning that I decided upon a more vintage style for my magazine as I believed that it would attract the target audience that I was aiming my magazine at much better. I also took the price into account; I chose to price my magazine at £2.50, as many people in my focus group said that they would not want to pay more than £3 for a magazine. Showing my target audience my finished product/s, they all agreed that it fulfilled the criteria of an established music magazine. This is because it included all the aspects of a music magazine, like a colour scheme, relevant lettering and fonts and the way things were laid out. The females in particular commented on the makeup that my artist was wearing, saying that it was almost identical to the 1960s model Twiggy, however, before that, they did not know that I had based it on that makeup style. Many of the males that I showed my magazine to stated that they particularly liked the artists that I had used in my magazine, and sad that because of this, they would be attracted to the magazine and would buy it. Both liked the colour scheme that I had used, showing that it is attractive to both genders. Overall, I believe that I have chosen a good target audience to distribute my final product to, due to the fact that there is a relatively wide range between ages. This wide range will be positive as it means that I can include many different artists in my magazine, meaning that a lot of new artists will get exposure. Not only this, but because my magazine is including a wide selection of artists from the indie rock genre, it is highly likely that my audience will find an artists and section that suits them. i.e. I have catered to younger teenagers by including prizes to win an iTunes voucher, have catered to older teenagers/young adults buy allowing them to win tickets to upcoming gigs from new and old artists on the scene, and have finally catered to adults who will read my magazine by writing backgrounds on artists such as Arctic Monkeys and The Stone Roses etc, something that I believe will catch their eye.

Evaluation Question 3 - What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Evaluation Question 2 - How does your media product represent particular social groups?

] The target audience for my music magazine is 14-30 years old. Both my friends and I fall into this category, so I talked to them about their opinions on indie rock music, in particular mod music. This can be found in my audience research. This age group is typically represented in the Social economic table as category C1, C2, D and E. On the whole, it is likely that people in this group will have little to no income, therefore the magazine will remain at a low price of around £2. This is appropriate as it is not too high a price, and at the same time not too low a price, meaning that my audience knows that they are paying for quality as well as quantity. When speaking to my audience, most of them wanted to know about new album releases and upcoming tours etc, so featured stories reviewing new albums and dates of specific tours were included in my magazine so that it was more appealing to my target audience. Not only this, but my audience answered that they would like a section of the magazine to be dedicated to an artists or group each week, so, I conformed to their wishes by selecting a few pages to write about Arctic Monkeys. This sort of age group are also more likely to use digital services, meaning that it would be important to allow an electronic version of my magazine to be published. This, in general, is relatively cheap to set up and will allow me to include any extras necessary, such as streaming of my main artists live performances or any interviews that want to be shown. I would also add link sot pages and apps such as Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Instagram so my audience can feel personally involved with the artists. I would feature artists in my magazine that have a similar age range to that of my target audience, and these artists, as stated before, will be new. This means that it is likely that they will want more interaction with the audience through exposure, in particular web chats and having the audience ask them questions etc. I would also include information and tickets and tours, meaning that any artists I feature will be able to promote themselves even more. I have also, on the front cover, included prizes such as winning tickets to see artists and the offer to get a £5 iTunes voucher so as to attract a target audience of my age range, as iTunes appeal to teenagers and younger adults. This therefore means that my magazine would appeal to more people, gaining not only me more profit but also any new artists more profit, particularly due to the fact that the audience will be likely wanting to know more about them.

Evaluation Question 1 - In what ways does your media product use, challenge or develop forms and conventions of real media products?

In conclusion, my media product follows the conventions of a typical magazine format in general. After doing some research and analyzing recent music magazines on the market, I looked at, in particular, what appealed to me as a teenager (young person). I researched some sales figures on music magazines such as 'NME' so that I could get a better idea of where they were distributed and what age range purchased them in general etc. From my research, I found that, in 2013, over quadruple the amount of paper magazines were sold in the UK than in digital formats, for example reading via a laptop, mobile or tablet. However, when doing specific research on NME, a music magazine with a similar target audience to my own, I found that NME had an 85% growth in people accessing it's mobile website to read specific articles in 2014. Of the audience that were reading online, only 60% of those also bought a paper copy of an NME magazine. This therefore means that my audience are more likely to want to read my magazine online, especially due to the increased growth in digitization. To encourage my target audience to actually purchase an online version of my magazine, I would include conventions that attract my target audience, for example, bright colours and pictures of new and upcoming artists whose music videos can be watched through the online version. I would also include a copyright logo so that my work cannot be copied. I would conform to existing music magazines so that it would be likely that my audience would be attracted to the magazine as it looks professional, therefore increasing appeal and, ultimately, increasing profit. When it came to font usage and colour schemes, I chose to use the same font and colouring throughout my magazine, creating continuity. This means that my readers will be able to clearly identify my product where it is being distributed, meaning more of my audience are likely to buy the magazine more than once if they recognize it. Continuity was maintained throughout my product in the colour scheme. I used white, yellow and black, purely because they connote the indie rock genre well. Not only this, but they match the colours of the main image and text portrayed on the front of my magazine, from the outline of the text to the colour dress my artist is wearing. There are images of my main artist on all pages, however I decided to use different camera angles and shot types so as to mix up how to artist was portrayed, for example, using close ups to show the makeup she had on, medium close ups to see her look, and then a long shot to show her playing an instrument etc. Each of these images showed her appeal. The front cover itself contains a masthead, feature stories, plug, bar code, price, date, footer and main image, again showing that my music magazine conforms to that of a typical music magazine. On my contents page, I have included features such as feature stories, posters, offers etc. The contents page in itself highlights the features of a typical music magazine, and page numbers have been used next to my feature stories. This, again, shows that I have conformed to an existing music magazine.