Evaluation.

In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

I have structured my magazine to make it look professional; I tried to make it simple with just the main information. I done this by using 2-3 main colours so that each page looks similar, I’ve seen some magazines before that have multiple different colours and it just doesn’t go well together. Also I have tried to maintain 2 fonts so that the magazine looks clean.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The group I chose for my magazine is teenagers. The main reason is that I think this is the biggest group that listen/read about music. By putting the likes of Jay-Z, Kanye West and Eminem in my magazine instantly rules out most children and adults. I also think if a teenage rap music magazine is successful then it will have a better chance of getting noticed that having a magazine mainly for adults due to the use of the internet and how information about new things can get around.

Who would be the target audience for your products?

The age range I went for is 15-21. The majority of people that like rap are teenagers and as I’m a teenager and like rap, I thought it’d be best for me to do a rap magazine as I know a lot about what people like. Also teenagers have more time in their life do sit around listening to music/reading magazines so this was another reason for my choice.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

I think my magazine would most likely be showed on 4music, MTV and VIVA as they show a lot new songs that are big hit and a lot of rap songs from well-known people, so this is ideal for my magazine to be shown to teenagers. I also think that American people might have a chance of seeing it due to Jazy-Z and Eminem being on the cover. They’re 2 of the biggest rappers in the world so everyone knows who they are.

 

How have you learnt about technologies?

I had to use blogger when posting the work so I was unsure on how to use this site; I never used it so I had to slowly learn on what to do. For the first week I couldn’t post work or just get the grip of what I was doing but slowly I learned how to post my blog and move pictures from Word to Blogger. Photoshop was another thing I was unsure about. I had heard about it before but never tried it. When using it I didn’t know how to crop, blur or even smooth out the edges of my pictures to make it look clean. This also took a few lessons on learning the basics. After getting help I can now Crop out backgrounds and smooth out the edges so I just have a plain picture with no background. In the last few weeks I have progressed a lot of technologies.

What do you feel you have learnt in the progression in the 2 tasks?

What I have learnt is taking a good photo with a background that fits the picture, before I just took a random picture when I wasn’t ready and most of the time the picture was blurry. I have also learnt how important the person getting the photo taken needs to be involved, looking directly into the camera and looking like a professional. If someone is looking away and giggling as if they’re not ready then the magazine doesn’t have any visual impact on the person that’s looking at the front cover. I have learnt about colours and I thought the more colours the better as it stands out on the shelf from the rest but I gradually learnt some magazines are better with a plain background and the photo being the main thing about the cover. The person in the photo needs to fit the pattern correctly so they fit together, I.e. Having a picture of someone just standing there with no expressions wouldn’t fit any magazine, they have to have correct clothing and look like they listen to the genre you’re working on. I think I have also learnt how to plan on producing my work. I.e research other similar magazines and see how they structure there layourt and certain colours they use to make images/fonts stand out. Before I would use multiple fonts and colours and it would just be a mess that I haven't planned out, but now I am confident of what colours go well together and how to make images stand out.