Evaluation

· In what ways does your Media product use,
develop or challenge forms and conventions of
real media products?
When I did my research at the beginning of the task and looked at different magazine front covers it helped me to see different conventions that are used on magazines. My final product includes lots of conventions that would be found on most magazines. I have a masthead, main headline, sub headlines, main photograph, bar code, issue number and date. One thing I did forget to leave off was a price for the magazine. My magazine uses these conventions and helps make my magazine appeal to the audience, for example without the main picture my front cover wouldn’t look appealing. This is why it is important to use conventions such as photographs and main headlines.

· How does your Media product represent
particular social groups?
My magazine is a college magazine so therefore represents college students. It was important to represent students in positive way so that the magazine draws the attention of the right audience. Therefore the model I used is a student herself; she is not a student at Wyke College but a student none the less. The model is dressed in a simple, neutral style so as to not alienate any of the potential audience.

· What kind of Media institution might distribute
your media product and why?
The most likely place to distribute my magazine would be the college, as this is where the potential audience would be so is therefore likely to sell the maximum amount of copies. However the magazine could be offered on the Wyke website as parents of students may also be interested in purchasing a copy.

· How did you attract your audience?
I attracted my audience by making the front cover look as appealing as possible. I turned a very plain, simple photograph into something more interesting. The headline that relates to the picture “In two minds?” is a play on words this makes it more interesting than a normal straight forward headline and shows the magazine is being targeted towards an intelligent audience. I made sure the headlines and articles included would involve the audience and be of some use to them.

· What have you learnt about technologies from
the process of constructing this product?
I have learnt a lot from different technologies when creating my magazine cover. Before I started to construct my product I had never used Photoshop before, but in order to create the picture I wanted I had to use Photoshop to make this possible. I learnt lots of techniques and skills in using this programme though it did take me a while to learn how to use it. I also used Windows publisher to create my contents page and add some finishing touches to my front cover. I had used this programme previously but I extended my knowledge of how to use the programme and found this a lot easier to use than Photoshop. Finally I learned how to use a blogger to post all my work up; this was easy to come to terms with and a very simple way of displaying my work.

· Looking back at the preliminary task, what do
you feel you have learnt in the progression
from it to the full product?
Throughout the progression of my final product I have learnt how to use several different programmes on the computer. Also by doing research on several different magazines I have extended my knowledge of different media conventions and how they are used. Also I have learnt how different aspects of the media use conventions to attract audiences. I have also learned the basic layout of magazines which will help me further when it comes to creating my product for the main task.