Evaluation (Questions 1-3)

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

For this whole project, I had to create 2 print magazines; a school's magazine and one that would be promoting and be based around music. I chose to revolve it around rock/alternative music. For this whole project, I had to do a lot of research and analysis on the generic conventions of these types of magazines and finally designed my own. I had to have a professional look to it as well and include all the pieces that a real magazine would have; barcodes, price, issue dates etc.

Below, I wrote an analysis/evaluation for each of the pieces/pages.

Click or open them in a new tab to view them in readable quality.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My product was set to represent a young audience and their interest in music. I didn't make it completely obvious that I was trying to represent the stereotypical features of the target group I aimed for, but I did make sure everything matched up and things would appeal to people of my target audience.


Colour was a big part of my magazine as the colour scheme could really change the appeal the magazine had to my audience. As my audience didn't have a specific gender, I could use any colour I wished as long as I didn't choice a stereotypical fully blue or pink/purple palette. This would have created an undesirable, bias response from genders. It was also essential to use the colour black in my work, as it helped keep the magazine looking organised, non clashing and is typically used for products of the alternative'rock style.
I also had to consider the 'loud' idea of alternative and rock music, meaning I had to use colours that were bold and contrasting rather pastel and soft. The loud colour palette would advertise my product right.


The models on my magazine also had to suit the theme I was going for too. The models (from Warning) were teenage, well built boys wearing typically alternative styled clothing. These were perfect for my magazine luckily, however I did still have to consider other people on the magazine and make sure everyone fit comfortably in the images. For example, I could use an image of someone wearing tracksuit bottoms and not t shirt with a 'dog tag' necklace. This would have been completely different to what you would usually associate with a rock magazine and would match a more rap or hip-hop orientated magazine.


With the class aspect, I had to mainly focus on the idea that it can't look to stuck up. Rock music tends to vary from middle class people to lower class. Higher class are more known for hating the music as it is seen as noise and not comfortable to listen to. So, for this aspect, I had to make sure the price wasn't too high, the bands and articles I featured weren't too 'stuck up' and that everything had a certain sense of mess or imperfection to it. If everything was clean and perfect, my audience would have been highly put off and think that my magazine was just trying to promote a perfect look or way of life, rather than focusing on the fun of the music and how connected people are over the music rather than looks.


Another thing that I worked on was the actual language I used for the writing of the magazine. In a lot of music magazines, they use informal writing with correct spelling and not too much abbreviations (although they are used for words such as 'LOL - laugh out loud'). The reason they use this is to appeal to younger audiences and give off a modern, fun and relaxed attitude to their readers. Some even go to the extent of using explicit language/swearing in their magazines to give people the naughty feeling, however I felt this would have been a little too much for my magazine. I also, spelling wise, made sure everything was spelt 'the British way' so there wouldn't be any mistakes which is just common sense. (E.g. Colour, not color)

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

I have put my response to this question into a PowerPoint presentation.