Final Post-my media AS coursework experience

From this experience of planning, making, and evaluating my music magazine and creating my preliminary task, it has taught me many things. The best part of this task is when I actually made the magazine on Indesign and how I used Photoshop to edit all my pictures. I  also enjoyed taking the photo's and coming up with the articles to add in. This is because it is creative and gave me a responsibility to make it look as professional and like the magazines you would buy in a shop. The thing I least enjoyed was evaluating all of my work, mainly because I saw where my weaknesses were and how I could of improved it further when at the time it was too late to go back and edit. 

I am glad that we done the preliminary task because it was like a trial for the music magazine for using the programmes and getting experience on how to use it. From creating the preliminary task it taught me the things not to do when making my music magazine and also which features to use and carry forward to make my music magazine look professional and grown up. 

By using blogger to help record all of my work it kept me organised and efficient when updating it. I could customise it to suit me and label my blog entries to make them more organised and neat.

Overall, I really enjoyed the experience of the tasks and using blogger to record them on and from it, have learnt many creative and technical skills.

What I have used from using blogger

Since making my preliminary task and music magazine, I have been using blogger which allows me to post different entrys which shows my progress through the tasks I am set. On it i have posted essays, improvements i have made, used technology such as slideshare and prezi which present my research and evaluation in a clearer way. By using different technology and programmes it organised my work so it can easily be read compared to clicking on links. Blogger has helped keep my work together and in a formal way so nothing can be confused. I added labels onto my posts so my entrys are seperated into the right catagory.

Audience Feedback for music magazine

Evaluation question 6- looking back at your preliminary task, what have you learnt in the progression to your full product?

Evaluation question 5- How does your media product represent social groups

Interview analysis of my music magazine

Evaluation question 4- Who would be the audience for your media product? How did you address/attract your audience?

From my Prezi and also pictures of the pages from my magazine, you can see how my target reader; Helena Bates is attracted to my magazine. Other things that can make Helena attracted to my magazine are;

• The use of bright colours that stand out and make the pages look happy and friendly
• The captions below pictures and added information so it is easy to understand
• Pictures of people that are 'well known' and recognisable
• Chance to win competitions (easy to do for teenagers)
• Bold headings that highlight the reason for being on the page
• Clear and easy to understand text

Evaluation question 3- What have you learnt about technology from constructing your product?

 

This slideshare was made for my to evaluate the technology that I used during the process of making my magazine. For each slide I have named a different technology that contributed towards the making of my magazine, explained what I learnt from it and how it helped me. 

Evaluation question 2- What kind of media institutions might distribute your product and why?

After completing all of my magazine, I am now at the part of having to evaluate my work, and compare it. After looking over my magazine, trying to decide which media institution best suits my piece, i have decided that the media institution that would best suit my magazine is BBC. This is because the magazine that i created, aims at a similar audience.I have chosen this media institution to compare to because, just like 'Gardeners world', 'Easy cook', 'Radio times' and 'Wildlife' (which is produced by BBC), it uses the same kind of layout as my magazine. The closest example to my magazine, is 'Top Of The Pops'. This is because they tend to stick with one main picture on the front cover, and text all around, just like mine. Also there is a banner of text along the top, as well as a bold and big title that goes across the width of the page.  You can see this below;

Also, the contents pages are quite similar between 'Top of the pops' and my one which is called 'Tuned in'. As you can see below, both magazines include a few pictures, and also have sections of where the articles are found. For example, my magazine has got 'exclusive pics!' section, and on Top Of The Pops it has 'Celebs & gossip'. This has been done to make it easier for the audience to navigate through the magazine. They have chosen the word 'celeb' instead of 'celebrity' to make it look informal and friendly. 

 

I dont think that my magazine would suit other institutions, because institutions such as Future Publishing publishes their magazines monthly, where my magazine that i created is published fortnightly. Also, BBC 'Top Of The Pops' magazine is a supplementary magazine from the TV programme.  Also it would not be a suitable match for my magazine because another example institution such as Conde Nast produces 18 consumer magazine, whereas i produce more than 18 which proves that the BBC institution is similar to mine. Also the country of origin of Conde Nast is America and mine is in England, just like the BBC. Another thing that makes my magazine not suitable because Conde Nast focus' on travel, food, home culture and other interests rather than music, which is the main theme for my magazine.

The double page spread of BBC 'Top Of The Pops' magazine again is also similar to mine. As you can see, there is a full page that is mainly taken up with a big image of a famous singer/musician with a bit of text that backs up the picture. On the other page, there is a article that shows an informal interview with 'Leona Lewis' and also has a few pictures in between the text. This is similar to my magazine because as you can see above on the left, i have produced an article which is an interview of a member of a band, and on the right is a poster/ bigger picture of them. This is a good example of why BBC is a good and suitable media institution for my magazine, compared to others.Overall, the best suited media institution for my magazine, is BBC. The main reason is because they are trying to build a personal relationships with engaged readers and listeners. They chose subjects to speak about that they know the audience will enjoy, which is what my magazine aims to do. 

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

Final magazine double page spread article

Music celeb Sophie Jones confesses what she has been

bottling up for months..

Everybody ‘s soft spot’ celebrity Sophie Jones speak up about her and her 

former band member Rachel Fewell

They might seem like good friends on camera and whilst performing, but current ‘Girls Are Loud’ singer confesses her long term hate for Rachel Fewell, ever since Rachel was caught

flirting with Sophies current boyfriend and member of ‘The Needed’ Charlie Enright.’ Since the

incident between Rachel and Charlie early this year, Sophie has had a problem with Rachel and her music. Sophie’s tweet that was posted yesterday afternoon explains the situation..

Sophie, was that tweet you wrote
directed at Rachel? Or to your fans?
 It may of seem directed at Rachel,
but it was just a general tweet about
how im feeling about the situation.  I think she
knows we’re not bestfriends since the Charlie
situation but none of that was my fault. 

                                                                                  
What does Charlie think about yours and  
Rachel’s friendship?                                              
Err i dont really know, i dont think they                  
speak for obvious reasons but even if                    
we was bestbuds i dont think it would                  
bother him. We’re in the same band so                
spend alot of time together which isnt easy.
          
Does Rachel know how much you            
dislike her?                                                          
Yes i think she does. She doesnt let it                      

affect her though, in a way she would              
be wrong to ever have anything against            
me, but some of the things i say to her                
and about her are kinda childish, oh well.            

Do you think you and Rachel could ever
go back to how you was before?
Umm thats a hard one. She really hurt me
when she tried it with Charlie behind my
back and when I see her, Thats the first thing
that comes to mine. Maybe in time we can sort
it out.

When you say you dislike Rachel's music, 
is it true or is it just to annoy her and wind
her up?
Well we're in the same band and have similar voices
but because she isn't contributing to all of us, its just
getting on my nerves, even if she has to talk and give
her own ideas. 

Comparing my old logo and new logo together

This is my old Logo that was on the first draft of my magazine. I took it off for the second draft because I thought it looked tacky and unprofessional. Things that I done wrong when I made this logo is that I left white space between the letters, making the quality look bad. Also because it has a grey murky background, it means that it doesn't blend in with the current white background of my magazine. By having 'TUNED IN' written across the music note is also unneeded because the readers can already see the name of my magazine.


After my second draft, I decided that my magazine looked bare and boring without a logo on it. I made a new one (below) to make my magazine recognisable and look more professional. 

I think that this logo is much better than the one before. It is more simple which is good because if it was really detailed, it would look seem too busy and less focus would be on the magazine. Also it is unique because the music notes symbolises the reason of this magazine (music) so even if it is not clear what type of magazine it is, the logo should give it away to the audience. Lastly, by using two bright colours it makes the logo stand out but not too much that it takes over the pages. It is also recognisable to have on the front page and contents page.

My friends opinion on my music magazine

This is another video by my friend telling me what she likes and dislikes about my music magazine.

Other peoples opinion on my music magazine

This video is my sister speaking about what she likes about my music magazine, and what she would maybe do differently in her opinion.