My Evaluation

My Evaluation on my Media product

At the beginning of this project, I started researching the different kinds of magazines from within the music industry. I looked at ‘Kerrang’ magazine and also ‘Q’ to try and understand what mode of address in producing a weekly magazine for their target audience. I researched Front Covers, Contents pages and DPS’s. When researching these magazines I looked at their cover lines, captions and strap lines used. The cover lines were used to tempt and draw the reader in. e.g. “EXCLUSIVE…” which makes your target audience want to read more. The captions used, can also draw the reader in as it is a statement from within an interview or article within the magazine. And straplines are usually based above the masthead because it is trying to entice the audience to open and read. This shows a personal identity within the magazine. By looking at the Niche and Mass Audience, I began to understand that the public like different styles and different genres of music. Also, images, texts and advertisements within a magazine can affect the prospects of selling that magazine every week. If an advert doesn’t necessarily link in with your magazine, you might get negative feed back from your audience. My media product develops upon existing music magazines which cater upon the niche market. The genre of my magazine is rock and heavy metal.
This led me to making a questionnaire to find out from my target audience, from the ages of 10 to 25, who prefer reading a music magazine to a gossip magazine. I asked questions such as, what types of music are you interested in and what kind of information do you expect to find in a music magazine? By doing this I was able to collect my results and see what my feedback was.
I decided to produce a rock / heavy metal music magazine because from my test results, I was able to evaluate that rock was not favoured but it was not un-popular. I wanted to create an unusual rock magazine to appeal to both sexes. As this is my type of genre I have tried to reflect my music onto my front cover image, making it bold and different to other rock magazines. My main image and cover line would be used as a lure for the audience to make them want to read more of the magazine.My editorial profile for my magazine called “SPLINTA” would consist of the following; “BIG, BAD and BOLD rock music of today’s society. Moving you another step closer to your ultimate rock legends. Also including exclusive interviews, the latest news, ‘bad-ass’ reviews and killer give a way’s!” And for my target readership I have put, “From teens to an age of 25, there is time for you all in this magazine. If you’re into the oldies rock then take a peak, you will see examples of new rock on your way backwards in time”. The images I have used to produce my magazine are clean and un-offensive. Even though looking at a few magazines in the shops, they set a bad example on the young audience with rude, unnecessary images and language used. However, this can occasionally lure the audience into wanting to read further. For my front cover, I used a clean and friendly image to make my magazine seem appealing rather than iconic for my target audience. My brand identity can be easily recognised as it is bold, colourful and unique, so my target audience would find it easy to search for in shops. It would have the same logo every week creating a House Style. However, the colour of the logo could change every year of when it was produced. So, after a year of the magazine being sold, the colour could change to green for a year, and so on and so on.
My product would represent any social group. In particular, a group who enjoy listening to rock and heavy metal music would be intrigued by my magazine, because they are interested in the rock music industry, and probably like to listen and maybe produce rock music themselves. Any audience can enjoy rock music, whether it is old or new, my magazine would cover it all in an issue every week.
If my product could be produced and distributed, I would have my magazine sold in a large and diverse outlet such as WHSmiths because my magazine is aimed at a Niche audience and this outlet sells a wide range off magazines from ‘Kerrang’ to ‘Nuts’ to ‘OK’. I would prefer my magazine to be sold in a large outlet, rather then a newsagents as they are small outlets and only sell mainstream magazines such as ‘Hello’, ‘Heat’ and ‘Closer’. I would also advertise my magazine online. Putting advertisements on social networks such as ‘Bebo’ and ‘Facebook’. This would lure the audience into reading the online version or buying the actual magazine itself. This would also give the readers the chance to read the latest news on rock! By doing this my sale figures would increase, making my magazine more successful and be in competition with other leading brands.
My product is aimed at a target audience from an age of 15 to 25 year olds. My magazine is also fairly inexpensive unlike other magazines, so it falls into my audience’s price range. My target audience are young and by buying my magazine they can be up to date on the latest news and technology around.
My mode of address, to connect with the audience would be through my use of imagery. By looking at my images you can understand what my magazine is about. Also, my masthead relates to the photos. The word “SPLINTA” could connote pain and darkness, so you could link this with rock as that too can be quite dark and shadowed.
I have learnt many new technologies over the process of producing this product. I realise that cover lines and captions are to draw you in, and make you want to read the magazine. I also understand that the brand identity is what the reader recognises you as. It’s what your magazine is called every day, week, month, and year. I have learnt that too much information on the Front Cover, Contents or DPS can ruin the sense of enigma for the audience. You want to lure the audience in and get them to buy, read and figure out ‘the hidden code’ within your magazine. Looking back on all my work now, it seems so long ago that the task was set. And to realise my progression with the Macs, astounds me and makes me realise that I can do it. When constructing this product, I had a few challenges to overcome. I wasn’t very skilled with using the Macs but when I did have the opportunity to produce more of my magazine, I started to understand and be able to use them in many ways. I am now more confident when using them. I learnt how to edit an image by adjusting the brightness or changing the colour to a certain way. I also learnt how to emboss and make a light colour stand out by putting a glow around it. This can be seen on my Front Cover and DPS. But I think most of all, I have learnt that it is not easy to produce a magazine, let alone produce one in a week. I am very happy with the product I have produce and believe, if made, it would succeed. :-)