Stockley Magazine Evaluation.

Georgia Wheeler

 

Stockley Magazine Evaluation

1)      In which ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

In my magazine I have tried to fit conventions while also trying to create a unique product. I have stuck to a conventional magazine as I thought it would appeal to more people. I have used conventions in each of my final products (front page, contents and double page spread). For example the title for the front cover is on the left hand side and the barcode, price and issue number are positioned on the bottom right hand side. My double page also follows conventions as it has an editor’s note so readers can connect with the editor’s views about the magazine. My analysis of existing products has helped me when creating a conventional product as I have looked at existing products for inspiration.

2)      How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My media product represents the social group of teenagers who attend school who are passionate about looking good. I think I have achieved this through the images, layout and language I have used. I think I have met all of the aspects of a teenage fashion magazine and have represented the particular social group well. My media product also divides social groups through gender and age. For example the images I have used throughout the product are of the same age as my target audience and the same gender. If I had used an older person on the front cover I may not have attracted the audience I was aiming for or represented their social group. I have aimed my product at females as I wanted to attract a specific target audience. As I have used a young female on the front rather than a male to attract the gender. In order to represent the target audience I looked at existing products and did research on the internet of recent fashion trends. I noticed that there was a very stereotypical view on student fashion so I have represented fashion in society today in my magazine through what the people were wearing in my images rather than meeting stereotypes.

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

I think that the following institutions are most likely to distribute my product:
-Social networking sites such as Facebook and Instagram, digital publishers so students can open the magazine on their phones and fashion stores such as New Look.
I believe that fashion stores are the most likely to distribute my product as it would target my particular target market better as the genre of magazine is fashion and my target audience would visit them stores. Digital publishers are also a good way of targeting my social group of female students as their mobile phone is where the social group is more likely to socialise. Digital publishing is now becoming more popular with 17% of magazines now available online; therefore this would enable my product to be distributed on a larger scale if this method was used.

4)      Who would be the audience for your media product?

The target audience for my media product is teenagers and young female adults both aged from 16-18. I have chosen this age group as my target audience as they are more likely to pick up school fashion magazines and be interested in recent trends. To choose my target audience, I did research to find out if there was a gap in the market of fashion magazines. I found that there weren’t many magazines aimed particularly at the social group of students so I decided to focus my magazine on this genre. I am also a student myself so I felt this would be give me more ideas for my product and allow me to relate with my target audience.

5)      How did you attract/address your audience?

I feel I have attracted my audience in a variety of ways. For example on my front page I have used an image which fills the majority of the page to grab my audiences’ attention. I have used the image of Shannon as she’s 16 so it fits in the age group I have targeted my magazine at. In each of the images I have used I took into consideration what the people were wearing as I wanted the audience to relate to the magazine for example people with the same style in clothes. I have used conventions in order to attract my target audience. For example a conventional layout which I felt would attract my audience. The fonts I have used are also conventional and are bold to attract the audience’s attention. I feel the colour scheme I have used also addresses’ my target audience as I have used a bright stereotypical colour such as pink.

6)      What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Throughout the project I have extended my knowledge on software such as InDesign. I have learnt about lots of new editing skills such as overlapping text, bringing text in front and brightening images. Learning how to edit images has proved very useful in this project and it will also help me in the future as well as learning to edit images or constructing a magazine. Looking at existing products helped with this and I feel confident that in the future I would be able to create another magazine from the knowledge I have gained.

7)      Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt?

Looking back on my progress from my preliminary product, I feel that my preliminary product will help me in many ways when creating my final product. One major factor that my preliminary product helped me with was planning my time, for example when organising when to take my images to allow enough time to edit them. However I had difficulty with some of the images I had taken as they were hard to edit due to the background and hard to find a font colour that was noticeable. When taking images for my final product I will look at background of the images in able to create more unique shots throughout my final product. Although my preliminary product helped with the planning of my time I have also had to learn new things which weren’t covered in the preliminary products. For example as the magazine was a school magazine I was only able to use 3 main colours to create a conventional magazine whereas my final music magazine I will able to be a lot more creative and pacifically target my audience. Overall I think my final product would be significantly better since my preliminary product helped me gain more knowledge in the software used.