Stacey McGowan

Evaluation
Excellent understanding of issues around audience, institution, technology, representation, forms and conventions in relation to production.Excellent ability to refer to the choices made and outcomes.Excellent understanding of their development from preliminary to full task.Excellent ability to communicate.Excellent skill in the use of digital technology or ICT in the evaluation
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
My magazine was a product in which I managed to use the same conventions that a normal magazine would have as it includes basic things that a normal magazine would, for example; a barcode, a front cover, contents page, double-page spreads. I managed to develop my magazine in which I used the same conventions that a magazine would use in ways to layout my magazine, as I used the simple rule of the ‘grid system’ to structure it. This included sticking to columns and grid lines to keep everything in place and in order to look professional. I think that I managed to challenge the conventions of a real magazine by using language that was aimed at a younger target audience of late teens, young adults to direct this, however this may of led to a lack of understanding as the magazine could be seen as challenging the conventions of a real magazine.
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
To represent different social groups, I gathered young teenagers to inspire me to create a music magazine, by this; I took opinions from friends and people that were interested in music magazines to help me with my outcome in representing my magazine to a certain social group; i.e. indie/rock from the ages of 16-30. My music magazine is represented to show a new, up-to-date magazine, aimed at youth and new indie/rock music. I tried to direct my magazine at youth who listen to indie music and are interested in a different style of gigs and new bands, which I have included latest music news and gigs to inform the audience, as well as introducing them to new updates in that particular genre of music which I think is important in the convention of any magazine as it keeps my target audience interested in the magazine through the use of having people in the same age group and genre in my magazine. To really catch that particular social group, I used a bold front cover in which I used teenagers on the front cover to represent this image, and used simple, conversational language throughout my magazine to do so.
What kind of media intuition might distribute your media product and why?
Who makes the print, similar magazine, house styles,
Who would be the audience for your media product?
My target audience was aimed for 16-30 because after looking into research before starting my magazine, I found that this was the most popular target audience. I produced my magazine to have interest in the style of music that this age group would have and included conversational language to inform the target audience which I thought worked well through not using formal language.
How did you attract/address your audience?
I mainly attracted my audience through the bold and energizing front cover as I think that making the front cover as appealing as you can to an audience is what attracts more of the target audience. Therefore, I used a simple picture of the age group of two people in which were of the same age group within my target audience to use as my main attraction. I also used bold headlines and pictures on the front cover of the magazine (teasers) to get my audience to want to buy the product and want to read about the bands or news that they wish to read. I think worked well s feedback from my magazine was said that it was ‘interestingly eye-catching because it was so simple’.
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
I have learnt a lot about how to really change and edit an image in Photoshop CS2, as to begin with I was not quite producing professional looking front covers and images as proven from my preliminary exercise in which it was a really simple, unstructured page that did not look as good as my final product. I also learnt how to use Indesign in which I struggled to use at first, but with patience I managed to produce my final product- a music magazine (ISM). Within making my magazine, I learnt how to structure a page using grid systems and learnt about different layouts.
Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have in the progression from it to the full product?
My preliminary task was really basic and did not include half of the things that I have managed to produce in the final product because I was still getting to grips with the basics of Photoshop, and did not have Indesgin then. However, I think that I know how to use Indesign and Photoshop with a level of confidence to produce a fairly good final product that attracts a target audience that I intended to attract, even if it did take time and patience to get to grips with the basics of the new technologies, but I got there in the end.