Evaluation

For my evaluation I will analyse my media product and explain why I have used particular techniques, styles and conventions within the creation of my music magazine so that it fits in with the chosen demographic that I am appealing to. I will also some up what I have learnt within the creation of my music magazine and whether I could have improved on what I have already done.

My media product uses many of the forms and conventions needed to attract a target audience, to do this I wanted my magazine to look similar to others that has my chosen genre too, this made it easier for me to because then I had ideas to base my magazine on. Firstly, the magazine title ZED, is simple, short and has certain connotations that may associate it towards a male, teenaged target audience. The font used for my title is also a style that would appeal to my target audience, the colour used for the title is dark red which is also used throughout. Black and white are also colours that have been used. These things are important because it creates an impression to the reader at first glance, so they are attracted towards the magazine, especially because of the colour red used for some of the front cover. Many music magazines in general mostly use pictures, especially on the front cover. So on my front cover, the 'star' shown covers much of the page and actually overlaps the masthead showing the his importance and could also suggest that he could be bigger than the magazine itself, this would seem more atractive towards the reader. Magazines also have an added incentive towards the reader, persuading them further to read this magazine, this is called a 'puff', in this case it is advertising a chance to win tickets to an event which is linked to the magazine as it is what the target audience would prefer as a prize. Something else which I have notice is that not just in indie magazines but in music magazines in general is that the font is consistant throughout, this is why I have applied it within my magazine. The colours red, black and white are also used throughout, this is so that people can associate my magazine with these colours, and also the conventions that come with these colours. Music magazines also normally contain interviews with high profile figures which the target audience would want to know about, this is why I have included this in my double page spread.

In my magazine I have tried to represent the chosen demographic in the most conventional and most likely way. . All the pictures within the magazine show a type of musical instrument within it, despite already knowing that it is a music magazine it is still rienforcing the idea that music is very important to people of a younger age and is popular throughout society.The front cover shows someone who is dressed up in clothes which would be assiociated with my particular demographic. This is so that the target audience can appeal towards this type of dress code and that others will have a good idea of what younger people are like. These clothes go against the conventional style of what the majority of people within a society would wear meaning that 'indie' has it's own style of dress code in which people of that particular demographic can appeal to. This also shows that this type of music is popular otherwise other magazines would not have been created in the first place. Because of the magazine appealing to a younger audience, the characteristics will also be transferred from the people within this magazine towards the people reading it meaning older people will associate particular things with younger audience. The style shown by the people within the magazine would reflect the style shown by the target audience and vice versa, meaning they both have a huge influence on each other. Theis style is consistant throughout, this could suggest that there is some sort of 'social status' between people within this demographic, they do this to show their personality, create a statement of fashion or music, or show that they appreciate a certain genre of music. Younger people within this magazine are also represented as modest and ambitious, within the interview with the band members they say "we will keep going untill we become the best". This shows a positive side towards people in the music industry or younger people in general. It shows that despite their success, they can keep going and achieve more.

The target audience for my demographic would be towards males from between 13 and 25 years old approximately, this is because 13 is the most common age where boys are normally interested in music and mature enough to understand th importance of music. The maximum age would be approximately 25 because this is the age were they are normally uninterested as they would have grown out of music in general. A male target audience would have been preferred because most of the people who are interested in indie music are this gender. It would be harder to create an indie magazine that would be appealing to girls because the criterion needed for the magazine would be quite obscure because it is not widely known that women are interested in this type of music. Creating one that would appeal to both genders because then you would have a mixture of both genders having an influence which may not please both. It is important to have a target audience so that the magazine can require particular codes and conventions that may appeal and attract the desired demographic.

There were many ways in which I attracted my target audience, one was to use a certain style throughout so that the target audience can get the desired impression of the magazine. This would include the font, house colours, house style, pictures, puffs, pugs and content. Firstly, the house colour was important because depending on the type of colour, it can give a particular impression about the magazine with only a single glance at it. This would not work if you used colours such as pink and yellow, people would instantly think that it would be targeting a female audience, this is why colour is important. Consistancy is also important because because the colour(s) being used would rienforce this impression. The colours I have used are red, black and white. These colours would be associated with a male audience. The house style does a similar job but is used for the stucture and design of the magazine as apposed to information. They also have to reinforce the impression that the magazine is trying to create. The images are also important, younger people judge the further information by the quality of the picture because they are the first thing that they look at (if not the headline) when they see a page, they will then judge whether they want to read on based on the headline/story. The images need to be large and need to show what is happening. The images for this particular magazine needed to show correct dress code  to appeal to the desired demographic, a musical instrument so that they can associate a person with a certain job within a bad or their talent, this can also appeal to people. The picture I have used have been reduced of colour, they have been reduced to black and white or sepia, this is because it retains the style of the rest of the magazine because there is not much colour throughout the magazine keeping consistancy.

I have learnt that the technologies used in the construction of my magazine have enabled me to create my desired design.
The program helped me change different aspects of the magazine that I had created earlier in the process so that I could improve my magazine step by step resulting in the final copy. Every small detail has been made so that the design targets the specific audience from the font to the pictures. The program was extremely flexible and easy to use so that my design looked unique and proper. I was able to make my magazine as much like a real magazine as I could. I learnt that I could put photos that I had taken onto the magazine easily and could be able cancel out everything on the image apart from one specific thing that I wanted e.g. a band member, I did this using the 'magic wand' tool. I was also able to get rid of any colour in an image, replacing it with black and white or sepia. This creates my desired effect to keep the consistancy with the rest of the magazine.

In this project I learnt that there was much more to the creation of a magazine than just the picture and the masthead, but everything that surrounds that as well, such as pug and puffs, the significance of the name of the magazine, font and the house colours. For a music magazine to look authentic it needs to be very consistant and I have learnt that this is very significant to the look. The mise en scene within an image is important as it needs to portray a certain impression toward the target audience. I have learnt that by using the program, and analysing real copies of music magazines I can create something that looks just like a real magazine.

Double page spread

Contents page

Front cover

Mag pictures

Photoshop Practice

Here is an image that I used to test my photoshop skills, one is taken before I edited it, on the next one is after I used photoshop.

                                              

                                                           BEFORE:                                                            

AFTER:

 

Semiotics

Semiotics was a theory created by Ferdinand De Saussre and it is the study of signs and how we produce a meaning of our own instead of the meaning itself. They study the effects of how we interpret things such as corlours, which produce connotations of that colour without any added information, it suggests that certain events would trigger particular emotions or negative thoughts e.g. the rain, this would result in people becoming bored or unhappy. This procces is: sign, signifier,signified. The sign is the first stage, a word or visual image produces a reaction that recognises this with the signifier, and the reaction in terms of the emotion or thought produced has beed signified.

 Saussre argues that the only real meaning of anything is all comes from the way we interpret it for example a house does not mean anything, it is just 5 letters put together, however the meaning we create in our head and the certain connotations that come within this word do mean something. Semiotics is all about how someone responds to a symbol, it can be used within the media to provoke certain reactions or ideas within a persons head. Moreover, this is not just used within the media it can be used in everyday life e.g. red=danger for the use of road signs.