EVALUATION QUESTION 6

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this media product?

From construction of my media product I have learnt that using technology is not as easy as it seems, especially because I had to utilise a camera to take the images I used in my magazine. I used the canon 700d because it takes high quality pictures and I wanted my magazine to look high quality and professional so a good company can distribute my magazine. It was not easy using this specific equipment because I had to make sure the lens was perfect each time I wanted to take the picture to make sure the pictures come out as good as I wanted them to look. Also I had to make sure that the camera was focused in order for my images to be clear and appealing for my audience. I utilised a camera instead of a phone because the pixels of an image coming from a phone was too small for my magazine whereas the camera pixels were perfect.

The second tool I used to create my music magazine is Photoshop, I used photoshop to put my magazine together. I started by importing the imgaes from my camera to photoshop in order to include them into my magazine and I cropped out what I didn’t need. Using photoshop was quite difficult because different layers kept  appearing each time I did something wrong. However getting rid of the layers were not difficult but the difficult part for me was the fact I constantly had to get rid of the layers. Photoshop was really helpful in putting my magazine together as it has all ther tools needed to create the perfect maqgzine, e.g. the colours, the fonts, etc. 

EVALUATION QUESTION 5

How did you attract your target audience?

I attracted my target audience through the colours used in my magazine as well as the artists featured in my music magazine. The main colours in my magazine consists of green

and yellow. The reason why I chose these two colour is because they are not usually found in other magazines and I knew it would attract young people, as it is something different and new. I was certain that my magazine would attract young people because I conducted a questionnaire that I gave to a bunch of young people and the feedback i received are what I tried to include in my magazine. This has helped me to understand the perspectives and preferences of my targeted audience. The main thing I included in my magazine was an interview with one of my featured artists and I did this because I know how much young people like to know all the gossip and although this interview was not a gossip, it was information that nobody knew about the featured artist (Lecrae). I included this interview in order to make it interesting for my audience. Also, I made sure that the headlines on the cover of my magazine were interesting enough for young people in order to attract them into purchasing my magazine, which could increase the level of demands.

EVALUATION QUESTION 4

Who would be the audience for your media product?

The target audience for my media product consists of all young people specifically young adults/ teenagers aged 16-22, appealing to a wide range of audience categories, from low class to high class. The colours in my music magazine will look more appealing to a younger audience instead of an older audience and this is because they are bright colours that can be spotted from a far distance, the colours I used are red and yellow. My music magazine is suitable for both males and females as it is a mixture of gospel pop and gospel rap, I know this because the artists that are featured in my music magazine are Lecrae, Tasha Cobbs and Nicole C Mullen. They are all very different artist that share only one thing in common which the fact that they are gospel artists. I chose a younger group of people to be the target audience for my music magazine because I wanted them to be more involved in the gospel society and I wanted them to understand that you don’t need to be old or a Christian to listen to music as most gospel songs focus more on inspiring people especially young people. As a young black female I know that gospel is something other young people will enjoy as it is very inspiring and it’s interesting because of the variety of different artists and messages that are expressed throughout the music.

FINAL MAGAZINE PRODUCT

The use of bright toned colors makes my magazine look exciting and vibrant, which will attract the audience. In addition, the colours used reinforce the genre of my magazine which is gospel. This is because gospel music is an inspirational and cheerful genre. Through the headlines on my cover, the audience will immediately infer that it is a gospel magazine. It is important because the audience expects to figure out the genre of the magazine by looking at the cover. The layout of the writing is very straight forward, which portrays that the magazine is formal. Moreover, the main image is a medium close up, which represents the importance of the magazine. This will therefore attract my target audience to purchase my magazine. 

By viewing the contents page of my magazine, the audience will know that it is a gospel magazine. This is because the piano pattern going into the clouds may be interpreted as a path to heaven. The clouds emphasize the genre as it looks godly, peaceful and inspirational and the piano pattern emphasizes that it is a music magazine. This will intrigue the audience to find out more about my magazine because the contents page looks interesting and consistent. The idea of a long shot image epitomizes the relationship between the gospel genre and the costume. This enhances the formality of the magazine as the model is dressed in a respectable and appropriate way.

The background highlights the image as it conveys the model's body language and facial expression. This enhances the idea that the gospel genre is joyful and festive. The text is spread out and follows the shape of the model's body, which illustrates a sense of organisation. The contrast between the black background and the white text make the text look clear and visible, which will motivate the audience to read.

DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD ANALYSIS

Double page spread analysis from eunice_kusonika

EVALUATION QUESTION 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Representation of specific artists are important because it is a way to include the audience in the magazine as they may feel that they have something in common with the artists.

Before creating my music magazine, I decided that I wanted everyone to be able to enjoy my magazine especially teenagers/young adults, so I did not choose a specific social group. However, my music magazine is a gospel magazine, many people automatically think that gospel music is only suitable for Christians but anyone can listen to it, just as anyone can listen to rock or pop music, it is just a music genre. In addition, my magazine is not just any type of music magazine, it is a modern music magazine and through the colours (red and yellow) I used in my magazine, people will be more attracted to it as it is something different. According to the house style of my magazine, most of the people that will be purchasing my magazine are young people (aged 16-22). This is because my magazine stands out and I used colours such as yellow and red because they are the colours that appeal to my audience because they are bright and cheerful which will draw the audience’s attention. In addition, the main artist featured in my magazine is Lecrae and he is a young gospel rapper, which will attract more young people because this will reassure them that there is many different sides to gospel music and it is not just the typical type of gospel music, which is enjoyed by the older generation. also, one of the main reasons why I chose Lecrae to be featured in my magazine is because I did some research and most young people believe that gospel music is dull. This suggests only older people can enjoy gospel music. However, Lecrae’s gospel music is not portrayed as tedious music. However, because I wanted everyone to read my music magazine and I know how much young people like gossip, I included a section in my music magazine where the reader finds out more about the secrets about his success. Lecrae represents my target audience because he’s a young rapper and most young adults/ teenagers like rap music and the only difference between Lecrae’s music and another rapper is that Lecrea’s music has a great message that motivate people whereas other rap artists promote gang, violence. From my research, I found out that males would be more interested to my magazines than females as Lecrea is a male.

EVALUATION QUESTION 1

In what ways does your media product, use, develop or challenge forms and conventions?

For my media product, i had to create a magazine of my chosen genre. My music magazine genre is a gospel; I chose to do a gospel music magazine because there is not many gospel music magazines that has been distributed in the magazine industry. I think this is because magazine distribution companies feel that not many people will purchase gospel magazines because of the norm, which is that gospel music is for older people but not many older people read magazines.Throughout my magazine production, I made sure that my magazine's conventions relate to the genre. There are three modern gospel artists featured in my music magazine, I did this because I wanted to demonstrate that there are many different styles of music within the gospel world. The images in my magazine also relate to its genre. Through the costume worn by the model in my magazine, the audience will be able to infer that the genre is gospel as she is wearing clothes that look elegant and not so revealing. In addition, through reading the masthead on the cover page of my magazine, my target audience is likely to infer that it is a gospel magazine as it says, “The living word”. I tried to give as many hints as possible for the audience to insinuate that it is a gospel magazine as soon as they view it.

 I chose to do a modern gospel magazine because I knew that it would attract and appeal to a younger adult/ teenage audience. My music magazine challenged the forms of conventions as I used colours (yellow, green and red) that are not usually utilised on magazines. I did this is because I wanted my magazine to stand out from all the other magazines but also look appealing. Moreover, I wanted to challenge the forms of conventions because I felt that magazine distributions want to publish something new and different which will stand out as many more people will purchase it and my magazine does not follow the norm of other magazines e.g. my masthead is on the side of the front cover instead of the top centre.