Audience Feedback

This is one of the questionnaires I had handed out and the results I got back were very pleasing and positive about my Magazine: 

This questionnaire gives back positive points, improvements that could be made and also bad points about my Magazine. I was hoping for this as it showed me that I could improve my product if I was able to do it again. 
One of the bad points I received was that I didn't use a wide range of fonts, this helped me in my evaluation as I would choose different fonts and more fonts next time if I was to do this project again in the future. 

This is another one of my questionnaires that was filled in by another person from my target audience. Many of the questions I asked got a positive response but on some of my questions, there was improvements to be made. This questionnaire gave me information about how I could improve my contents page and that the picture on my double page spread needs to be changed as it is hard to read the interview. If I was to do this magazine again then I would follow the advice my target audience has given back to me as they know what they would like and my changing my magazine a bit, it would attract more audiences.


Overall, the feedback I got from my audience clearly showed me that my product has been very well made and the different use of fonts, colours, pictures and text has all contribute to me getting many positive questionnaires back from my target audience. 

Evaluation

Introduction

My project was a music magazine hybrid with a celebrity magazine. I created a music magazine because I prefer working with a group than working with a group. My target audience is 13-18 and my genre is pop.

As my magazines genre is Pop, I have used different music videos that will compliment my magazine and that my audience will be enticed to read my magazine.  The videos that influenced me when creating my magazine and when I did the photo shoot for my girl band are the biggest bands and solo artists at this moment in time in the Pop genre. From my audience feedback, I got a positive response on using the most popular artists that this time as some of of answers told me that this would encourage audiences to buy my magazine. 

I chose this Pop video when I did my research as JLS are very popular at the moment and my young and older audience both like JLS and would be enticed into my magazine if they were featured in it.

I also chose this video because The Saturdays are inspiration to young girls and also inspire older audience’s how to dress so by having The Saturdays in my magazine appealed to many audiences.

I have used Lady Gaga - Bad Romance, as part of my research in the early stages of creating my magazine as she is very well known at the moment and very inspirational is younger and older audiences like my target audience. I have also used Lady Gaga in my magazine as I knew it would entice my audiences to read my magazine as everyone wants to know what Lady Gaga is doing.

I have included Cheryl Cole in my magazine as she is a ideal to my target audience and I found out from my audience feedback that many people picked up my magazine because Cheryl Cole was included in my magazine so if I was to do my research again, I would include Cheryl's Cole's video.



2) How does your media 
product represent particular social groups?

In my magazine I have represented female music artists by choosing my artist to be a girl band. I think I represented my group well by using lots of things such as colours I have used different types of coloursbut mainly I have dressed my girl group differently to show the individuality in my group.

I think the costumes I have used for the formal photo shoot show the indiviuality of my girl group. These types of colours and design of dresses are really in fashion and they appeal to my young audience. These pictures also really suited the social group my girl band belong to. My first costumes were dresses and they are the colours that a girl group likes.

 

In the second photo shoot, I thinkagain the clothes showed the individualities of my girl group but yet they blended together well and it showed the social group well again. In my feature article I think I represented the typical girl band well and I made my artists personality fun and made them talk about things like their music, their inspirations and their ideals of a typical female artist. In my pictures I have used bright eye shadow and lots of eye liner, it is simple make up but effective at the same time. The colours I have used for the eye shadows are purple, blue and pink which represents the girly theme of my magazine. I have also used fresh-faced makeup which is typical of a female artist especially in a girl band. The poses that my girl band use are simple but shows the relationship between them. The poses are elegant which I think represents the social group and also other girl bands have elegant pictures making them look good. Also in all my pictures you can see the relationship that has developed between my artists as you can tell that they feel comfortable around each other. Through my interview and pictures you can see the typical fun between my girl group as in my feature article I mention how they giggle after some answers.

Whilst my girl group is representing this social group, I think my artists are very stereotyping. I choose to represent this social group as I think this would sell more magazines. As people like famillarity and through my audience testing I found that most people knew what genre my music magazine was, it was 'pop', this was mostly because of the girl band theme.

Overall I think the representation of this social group was suitable for my target audience of female teenagers and I think this is what you would expect from a girl band.

3) What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

I researched plenty of magazines when I was deciding what sort of magazine I wanted to produce. I researched magazines such as Look and Now and they are similar to my magazine. They feature new releases, the latest gossip and the newest much colaberations. My magazine is aimed at young audiences and the company that publishes Look and Now has a space in the market for a young magazine like mine. IPC Media which publishes Look and Now would also publish my magazine.

 

These are the types of magazines that IPC Media produces weekly for audiences at the top end of my target audience.

I think my magazine would be a good one to produce as there are not many Music/Gossip magazines in the market at this moment in time and there are only a couple of magazines that are aimed at my target audience such as Smash Hits. My magazine would easily sell as it is unique and I believe it stands out from any other magazines like mine.

My magazine is very different to any magazine that IPC Media publishes and my magazine not only offers the latest gossip but also the latest music reviews and concert.

IPC Media publishers print over 85 brands of magazines from all areas of the media. IPC only publishes 1 music magazine which means there is a gap in my market for a magazine like mine, one reason is that my magazine is aimed at 13-18 year olds and the second would be because of the magazine included Gossip.

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

Throughout my product I have learnt how to use many different techniques and without these I wouldn't have been able to achieve the high quality of my product.

BLOG: Firsty I created a blog to record all my research, planning and steps of the making of my magazine. I did this using www.blogger.com I made several posts several times a week on my own blog so I could develop my ideas which would enable me to make the best magazine. Blogger is very useful as I could access it from any computer anywhere and where I could store many photos and access them later to use them or write about them. However, blogger hasn't been completely useful as at one stage I couldn't upload any pictures or post any information which made it hard for me to complete my product in time, also when posting graphs on my blog they couldn't be read which has caused problems for me.

INTERNET: I used the internet throughout my project but mainly for my research at the start of my product. I needed to research front covers, content pages and double page spreads to gather information and ideas for my own magazine. Many websites such as, www.google.com, www.dafont.com and www.youtube.com opened the range of research I could find and use. 

This screenshot of www.dafont.com shows how it is easy to choose a type of font you want to download for your magazine. There are many different styles and they are split into sections which make it easy to search for a font you want. I chose four fonts from www.dafont.com and they were easy to find and download. 

However, sometimes the internet was unpredictable and I found it hard to find some of the information I was looking for such as, a graph to show how magazines are selling at this moment. Also, through using the internet it helped me make my magazine look more professional and if I was to produce a magazine again I would defiantly use the internet again to help my process.

DIGITAL CAMERA: To take the pictures for my magazine, I used a digital camera. 

This is the digital camera I used when taking the pictures for my magazine:

When I was taking the pictures for my magazine I was worried how the quality of my pictures would be as I wasn't using a professional digital camera but before I did my photo shoot and during my photo shoot, I over came this problem. I found that using good lighting and bright colours made my pictures look more professional and I was able to produce some good pictures. My pictures were easy to take and I used different angles and sizes to not limit the images so my magazine doesn't have many of the same pictures. When I uploaded my pictures from the camera to my computer that I was using, it was very easy, it took minutes and they were uploaded. Some of my pictures were slightly blurred so I couldn't use them. Overall I was happy with my pictures and I would use a digital camera again if I was to produce another magazine but I would find a digital camera with better quality.

INDESIGN: Indesign was the programme I used to put my magazine together. Indesign is a very professional programme which at first I found difficult to use but after I produced my contents page, I understood how to use Indesign for my front cover and double page spread. By using Indesign, my pages look very professional and I don't think I would find another programme that would make my pages look as professional as Indesign has. I could do everything I needed to on this programme and I could do things like fading my pictures to go behind my information.

This is the logo for Indesign:

This is a screenshot of using InDesign and how you export a file to become a JPG:

This screenshot shows how you, when you click 'Export..." the film is automatically saved as a JPG so it can be used on other computers, not just MACS and also show it then can be uploaded to sites such as, www.blogger.com

PHOTOSHOP: Once my picture had been taken, I went into photo shop to sharpen them, crop them, cut them out to make them more professional. Photo shop is a programme for editing and enhancing pictures, I used photo shop on most of my pictures and some pictures more than offers have need more done to them. I found Photo shop more complicated then Indesign and even after using it regualy, I still found it hard to use but it did what I needed it to do. I would use Photo shop again but I wouldn't know how to use it to its full potential as I simply don't know how to. Overall, this programme was effective and very useful for my pictures.

This is the logo for photo shop:

This is a screenshot of Photoshop:

This screenshot shows the layout of Photoshop. Photoshop is very accurate and good at correcting an image or making an image less pixilated and adding colour to make the picture stand out. Photoshop was very useful when I was making my magazine and I used it many times.

Through using many different programmes and learning how to use them, my product was more professional then it would have been if I hadn't used these programmes. I would have liked to have learnt how to use these programmes earlier so I could have used them to their full potential and that would of made my magazine more professional than it is now.

MACS: Throughout making my magazine, I have used the MAC computer as it is the best computer to use for making my magazine and it has the neccessory programmes I needed to produce my magazine.

I found the mac really easy to use as I have already had experience using them and we also were trained how to use them. I would use the mac again if I was to produce another magazine and I will also use it for other projects.

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

From creating my preliminary task to the finishing my final product, I have learnt many different techniques has made my final product look better and more professional, this is what I expected.

When I created my preliminary task, at the beginning I was very happy with it but when I look at it know I can find many faults that I have corrected on my final product. I used the same programmes and techniques on both of them but as you can expect, my techniques have improved which shows in my final product.

The first thing I notice when I look at my preliminary test is that a magazine cover can make or break a magazine. The text, pictures and colours are very important and they have to be eye-catching in order for the front cover to appeal to audiences. Also, I have learnt that the picture of the front page doesn't just have to be a profile shot, it can be anything and it also doesn't have to be direct address, the more interesting the better when it comes to the front cover image.

From looking at my prelim task I have also noticed that one of the big changes is the use of different fonts, more exciting fonts. Fonts are very important and it can make the front cover look professional but if the wrong font is used then the front cover can look very unprofessional. In my prelim task, I stuck to a colour pallet and I did the same thing in my final product. This proved very successful as my audience feedback said that they liked the colour pallet and how it all ran through the pages.

I have also used shorter but bolder headings on my final product by making them more catchy which allowed me to get more on my front cover than my prelim cover.

My final product is better edited than my prelim task. Using Indesign and Photo shop many times helped make my magazine look very professional, clearer and easier to see than my prelim task. I have also been able to move things around to position them exactly where I wanted them and if I didn't want them at all in the end.

Overall, the quality of the overall professional look from my prelim task to my final product has improved lots.

Conclusion

Overall, I am very happy with how my final product has turned out. The colours, fonts and images I think work really well with my final product and the girly theme as it looks very professional. The pages of my layout I think look good and I am very happy with them. I think through the structure of my pages, my product looks more professional than it would have done with just boxes and pictures, using the structure also makes my pages look unique.

I am very pleased with my final product, my favourite and the page I think looks the most professional is my feature article as I like how it is structured and how the fonts, colours and pictures blend very well. Indesign and Photoshop have helped make my pages look professional as I have used them to a very high standard. From my preliminary task to my final product, I feel I have learnt lots of techniques and used them together to make a higher quality product than my preliminary task.

The only weaknesses of my final product are the fonts that I used, I found myself sticking to certain fonts such as, Times Roman and Ariel and I think this shows and makes my pages not look as professional as they could. Also, I think my front cover needs a background colour as it looks plain and not as professional as the contents page and feature article.

Even though I cannot change these weaknesses I am overall very happy with my final product and have enjoyed learning new techniques and programmes and if I was to create another magazine I would do things differently but as I am happy with how my final product turned out, I would not too much different if I was to do this again. The main thing that I would do differently is putting a background colour on my front cover as I think this lets the magazine down and I have been told this by my audience feedback.