A brief note to the Moderator

Dear Moderator,

This is my AS Media Blog. It's an account of my journey since starting this course in September. I have tried to make it clear when I change sections from my planning, construction and evaluation. With some extra posts along the way. I hope you enjoy it :) 

Evaluation question 1 - Forms and Conventions.

prezi on forms and conventions

Evaluation question 2 - Social Groups.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Front Cover

My front cover represents an older teenage magazine from the image used, my model is of a similar age and her outfit and pose suggest it is for a pop magazine rather than a rock one. The pugs and puffs I have added onto my front cover link to a particular social group because it is targeted at young adults who enjoy going to gigs and reading about popular singers and celebrities. I think the hairstyle links to my research and planning, and I also think it is quite casual, this is to show the audience that 'Kate Buckley' is just a normal teenager. If I were to re-shoot I would try show the orangey/red dress a bit more to show more colour. I tried to link my red on the housestyle to the outfit of my model. 

Contents Page

My magazine is mainly based around females apart from a few artists who are featured in my magazine. Although all of my images are of females, my magazine will appeal to males as well because of the artists featured. 

Double Page Spread
My dps also suits my target audience as the image on my front cover and my dps are of the same person, however in a different outfit. I think the car/garage theme on my double page spread will appeal to people interested in cars - not the male. My dps includes a lot of questions which my target audience wanted. Also I think the pull quotes will appeal them.


Overall if I were to make this magazine again I would keep the same locations, however I would have another change of outfit. and possibly change the colour of my housestyle.

Evaluation question 3 - Institutions.

Evaluation question 4 - Audience.

Target audience

When I first started planning my media product I decided that I would make it to appeal to college and university students aged 16–21, from both; males and females. When I made my questionnaire I asked a several students aged between my T.A age range and mixture of both genders. I asked several questions to help me create a target audience.

        First question I asked was; ‘What draws your attention to a music magazine?’ Most people I asked said that the main image was most important to them, so when creating my magazine I made the main image my main focus. The second most popular answer I got was, the Masthead, so I made them two features my main priority. I think my finished product meets this as I focused on my main image. And I changed my Masthead several times to meet my target audience’s needs. Therefore I think my front cover meets the requirements of the TA.

        Then I asked ‘What would you tend to read about in a music magazine?’ most the people I asked said they’d prefer to read about upcoming gigs and festivals, then the next popular answer was the featured celebrities and then interviews, so when planning my contents page I included this features. When I was planning my dps I made sure I that included the tour date of my artist as this is something my target audience wanted to see.

        When I asked ‘What colours do you associate with pop?’, the main answer I got was pink, however when Becka and I were planning our magazine, we decided that she would do the November issue and I would do the December issue. At first I wanted to use Christmas related colours, green, red etc.. When it came to constructing the magazine I tried these colours but when I looked at my similar product research I noticed that existing magazines don’t represent the December issue through Christmas colours. So then I changed the colours I was going to use to red and a bluey/purple so the magazine appealed to both genders and didn’t fall towards females. However looking back at my work now I can see that my magazine pages have fallen mainly towards females, however it still could appeal to males.

        I asked my target audience ‘How often they buy a music magazine?’ And more than half said they buy a music magazine monthly, so when I planning and constructing my magazine I took this into consideration as it was what my target audience wanted, and this is why myself and Becka made monthly issues, Becka made the November issue an I made the December issue.

        The next thing I asked my target audience was ‘If you were to buy a music magazine, why would you read it?’ I had various answers from this question; the main response I got was to read about gossip, then to find out about gigs, festivals and tours, and also to read about your favourite artists, because this is what my audience wanted I tried to include these features. I also had one person say they would like to receive freebies with ‘LYRIC mag’ but looking at my similar product research, I noticed that freebies are generally given to young target audiences.

        The final question I asked was ’Do you use social network sites, if so which ones?’. I asked this as it would be a way to advertise my and Becka’s mag to students and other people of my target audience age range. The people I wanted to buy my magazine are my kind of generation, and I know that most people in my generation use social networking sites. So I used Twitter, and Facebook to ask people questions about my magazine, to help me plan it. By having a Twitter and Facebook link on my magazine front cover I think this helps to appeal to the target audience I was aiming for.
        I think I could have stuck to my target audience research a bit better, looking at my finished magazine pages, I think I fell towards females over males. But I feel my magazine definitely represents student life.

Evaluation question 5 - Attracting my audience.

Storybird of how I attracted and Addressed my audience.

Evaluation question 6 - Technologies.

I made this evaluation question as a powerpoint. However the firewall in my college wouldn't allow me to upload it. So I had to screenshot the slides (shift, cmd, 4).