My Final Products

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Evaluation question 7: Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Another thing I maybe could have changed in my final product was the colour scheme. I think it would have been helpful to sell my product more as the audience would have enjoyed the look. I think sometimes the grey, yellow and red colour can be a bit dreary or dissapointing, so maybe if I used brighter/lighter colours, it would have helped my magazine to sell more. This also could have made it look a bit more professional as normally magazines don't use dreary or dark colours. 

Evaluation question 6: What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

During the course, I learned how to use different technologies to present my work. This includes media formats such as Prezi, SlideShare, videos and GIFS, I feel very confident now in using these means to present my work, and I especially enjoy using SlideShare as it allows you to present a simple Powerpoint in a very sophisticated way. I have also learned how to embed these said media formats to present them in my blog. Learning this has allowed me to be able to present my work in a way that is different than just typing it up in a blog post.

Throughout the course, I also learned how to use Blogger, the means of showing my planning, making, and evaluation of my media product. At the beginning I didn't know to do things like embed videos, media formats or even include an image. Through using this and getting advice from my teachers and class mates, I have learned how to do this and can now use Blogger very efficiently.

The presentation shows what I have learned whilst using Photoshop. During the making of my whole media product, I used Photoshop to make the products. It shows how I now know how to go about making certain products and that I am very confident with making them now. This is a massive improvement on how I felt using Photoshop before at the beginning of the course.

I have also learned how to safely share my products and my files. I have done this by using an external hard drive and a USB. This helped me to make sure that my files were saved in multiple places to ensure that I would never lose the files and be stuck with having to do it all over again. This will also help me in ensuring that my final products are available to me at any time. 

Evaluation question 5: How did you attract/address your audience?

Ensuring that you attract and address your audience is an aspect of your media product which is very important. Addressing and attracting your audience will allow for your product to have more fans, more people purchasing it, and more people being informed about the indie/alternative genre. In conclusion, me looking at my reader profile and including thing within my product that will appeal to my audience will help me sell more of my product and make it more relatable for my readers. Using specific iconography associated with my genre of music will also make my readers feel like they belong to this type of magazine, further making them purchase my product.

I used my reader profile to allow me to have more information on the kind of audience that would be purchasing my product. This allowed me to know what the audience would want, and include it into my product. This will attract my audience as they will understand what is included in my product, and will see things that they enjoy or like, which will also attract them.

Evaluation question 4: Who would be the audience for your media product?

Mostly, the majority of people who would be my audience and the readers of my product would be people who listen to the indie/alternative genre. This is because I will be talking about artists and bands regarding that genre of music, so people who listen to that specifically will be more inclined to read my magazine. 

Evaluation question 3: What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

I think my magazine would be distributed by someone such as Time Inc UK (formerly IPC Media) or Bauer. I feel this would be because magazines such as NME, which was my main inspiration for my media product, is distributed by IPC Media yet I feel as if they wouldn't possibly want to distribute another magazine of this type as they already have two music magazines within this type of genre.

So, I think I would most likely want my media product being distributed by Bauer Media. This is because I feel like they would most be interested in distributing a product within the indie rock genre as they have more different music genre magazines than IPC Media distributes. Even though they distribute Mojo and Kerrang!, those magazines deal more heavily with rock/alternative music than my product does, making it different and a new idea.
With having a distributor and producer such as Bauer Media, my product will be directed at more of a mass audience than it would if my product was distributed by an independent publishing company such as TeamRock. Bauer Media directs more at a mass audience because it also produces products such as Heat, Q and Yours. Being directed at a mass audience, I can expect to sell more of my products. Also, as Bauer Media sells to more a mass audience, I can expect for it to reach my target audience easily as Bauer Media already sells to that audience, making it very accessible for them.
However, Bauer Media also produces quite niche and artistic magazines such as Empire, Practical Photography, and even Bird Watching.

This wide range of magazine types shows to me that they care and cater for the different interests of their customers, which I enjoy the ideology of. I would enjoy knowing that the distributor of my product cares about their customers and caters to their needs and interests.
The wide range of magazine types also shows Bauer Media's wide range of customers. This indicates to me that there could be people who are looking for an indie rock magazine, and Bauer Media would be more willing to distribute a magazine of my type as they already know they have a wide range of customers.

I think that I will make my product available for people to purchase in stores and also on their iPad or iPhone/Android. I will allow them to purchase it on their tablets/phones as the audience that I have directed my product at use their phone/tablets quite a lot. This will allow them to easily access my product as they will be able to go onto their phone and easily go and read the magazine. However, I am selling it in stores as well, because some of the audience might be older and would want to have a physical copy, or they might not understand how to purchase it online.

Evaluation question 2: How does my media product represent particular social groups?

Obviously a genre is not a social group, yet I feel like in this modern time, people can portray a certain type of 'music genre' with what they wear and so forth. In that way, I aimed to have my media product portray this genre as a style throughout my magazine. As the genre of my media product was indie/rock, I created it in a way that would appeal to a range of fans. I did this by including artists from different sub-genres of the indie rock genre. As my most listened to genre of music, I generally stuck with the main genre of indie rock. I chose this because a lot of popular magazines are of this genre, such as NME, Indie, and sometimes Q magazine. I felt like there wasn't a magazine that was within the indie/rock genre that was for the age/social groups that I am (young adults and students).
To come up with what the artist on the cover would be wearing, I looked at what they wore within that genre for men, and also what the men in that particular social group wore.
I have highlighted the tartan shirt, which is what my subject wore in the main photo. A lot of them also wore hats/beanies, which is something that my subject wears in some of the photos.

I have also chosen for my subject to have his whole torso on show in the image. The photos above show how indie artists (Alex Turner, Ed Sheeran and Ezra Koeing) all have photos in this similar style. This will further help to represent this genre as my artist looks similar to these.

I have stereotyped the artists included within my genre somewhat. I did this by including the big 'indie' artists such as Arctic Monkeys, Black Keys and The Vaccines. I did this as it would appeal to my target audience more if I used the 'stereotypical indie bands'. I did this because they are more well known within that genre and are what people think about when asked about the 'indie rock' genre.