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?
In my preliminary task I used a very basic camera compared to the camera I used for my finished front cover, I originally used the Olympus SP-720UZ X4 which was fairly standard compared to the one I used for my final piece which was a Cannon 1200d, there was a clear difference of quality which meant that I could make my product look more professional. I have learnt that the image of a magazine is crucial to the sale of the magazine; if the picture isn’t high enough quality then the potential buyer may decide against buying it, this is why I have learnt to always make your image look professional and make it a good enough quality. The quality of the image can have an effect on the rest of the page.
I have also learnt to make my feature stories relevant to the target audience not so much the genre of the magazine, what I mean by this is that there’s no point in talking about something that your specific target audience won’t care about. I have also learnt that to make your magazine successful you need to make the advertisements relevant again to your specific target audience and not so much the genre on a whole, on my preliminary task I had barely any advertisements and competitions because I knew hardly anything about target audiences which is another thing I have learnt, I have learnt that you need a target audience and you need to research is with detail to ensure the information you’re displaying in your magazine is of interest to your audience.
Another thing is have learnt is that I need to make sure the model for the pictures is dressed in some type of clothing which is related to the magazine main topic, not only this but the model should normally be the person who is being featured in the story, for example in a music magazine if the feature story is about a music artist then the model featured on the front cover probably should be the artist that is being featured because it can help to sell the magazine. If someone’s favourite artist is on the front cover of a magazine then they’re more likely to buy it because they’re interested to read about them.
I have learnt about making a magazine easier to understand, what I mean by this is for example my contents page originally wasn’t very organised and for a reader its very unattractive to look at a contents page and not understand how its organised, I altered this slightly and made the boxes hold categorises of pages within my magazine, if I was to do it again I would definitely add more boxes so there is a wider range that the reader can choose from.
If I was to do this whole magazine again then there are a lot of changes I would have made, one being that I changed the genre all together, I found it hard to do Reggae because there are very little options of magazines to collect conventions off, what I mean by this is that there aren’t many magazines out there where I can research conventions of the Reggae genre, one benefit of this is that I could create my own conventions but it was made a lot harder by the fact there are limited Reggae resources on the market in the UK.  

Evaluation question 6

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

Photoshop

I have learnt how to use Photoshop effectively and in a professional way. One tool I have learnt about is the spot healing tool; the spot healing tool is best used as removing spots, you draw over the spots and it replaces the spot with the colour of skin around the spot itself, you can choose which direction you want the spot to be patched over with which gives you extra customisation. This can also be used if there is for example a shade of a top which you want replaced with another shade in the surrounding area. Another tool I have learnt how to use is the colour replacement tool; this is used to change the colour of an item or an object, it can be used to turn the colour of someone clothing, it can also be used to change eye colour. All of these skills that I’ve learnt mean that I can now use Photoshop to a higher standard; these skills could be very useful in the future.

Blogger

One other skill I have learnt is how to use blogger, I now know how to use blogger which could be a good skill for later life, I think it has helped me develop better writing skills. I had never used Blogger before so it was new to me at the beginning of the year, at first it was quite difficult to get the hang of but once I started to use the online feature on a regular basis it became easier and simpler to use, it can change the dates of posts which makes it easier to organise your posts and you can add videos as well as Prezi’s which are basically slide shows to display your notes in a more creative way, this helps make your blog more creative and interesting.. I think Blogger is a useful tool and probably the best blogging site out there, as well as being used by colleges its main purpose is for people to create their own blogs; it helps to make your work more professional and makes it easier for you to present your work more effectively.

Cameras

The first camera I used at the beginning of the year was the Olympus SP-720UZ X4, this was used at the beginning of the year when I posted on my blog about camera angles, this is a basic camera compared to the other cameras and when compared there is a huge difference in quality. This was the basic camera and it lead to me using Photoshop and learning about the different camera angles and beginning to understand how to take a decent photograph and learning about camera angles. When I created my Google Mock-up it was clear I needed to upgrade the quality of my photos so I had to change the camera, the camera I chose was the Cannon 1200d, the first time I used this it was a bit complicated but in the end it was fairly easy to get the hang of, not only did I have to learn about how to use the camera I now had to learn about lighting and use the green screen, the green screen made my pictures look more professional and made it better quality. the difference between the two cameras is obvious and ultimately the change of camera led to my work becoming more professional.

USB stick

Throughout this course I have learnt that a USB stick is vital because there are a lot of things that can go wrong but knowing you have it stored on a USB stick means that I can control my time more effectively. The amount of storage each Photoshop file takes up is huge so having a USB stick was important so I could save my work without using up space on my computer.

SD card

It was also important to have an SD card because I needed to save my photos in a safe place. This is the first time I’ve ever really had to use an SD card and there are more devices you need with an SD card which is something I have learnt. Along with the SD card a SD card reader may be needed if your computer doesn’t have a SD card reader built in.

Overall I have learnt about a lot of technology which will help me in later life.

evaluation question 5

How did you attract/address your audience?

There are a few ways in which a magazine can attract an audience, it’s important that when you aim it at a specific group, you aim it at their needs and interests. If you want your media product to be successful then you need to pick the right target audience and make sure they connect with the magazine; this can include the price, plug and competitions.

The price of your product is one of the main factors a potential buyer will look at before deciding whether to buy your magazine or not, this means that you should do some research into the ‘social class’ of your genre, for example my genre is Reggae, from my research I know the ‘class’ of most of my target audience is ‘lower class’ which means I needed to adapt my product to suit the needs and expectations of my audience, I did this by making the price lower, altering the plug so it had some relevance to ‘the lower class’. By adapting the price towards the audiences needs it’s more beneficial to you and the audience.

The image on the front cover contributes massively to whether somebody (a potential buyer) buys your product, what I mean by this is that the model who you’re using as your main image needs to be relevant to the main feature story (the topic). If someone is browsing through magazines in a shop and they see the artist on the front cover they’re more likely to become attracted to it because they want to know what information you have about them inside your music magazine. In my magazine I attracted the audience by using an image of a Reggae artist who had recently released a new album, if this was in a shop people would see the Reggae artist and the caption which says ‘new album coming soon’ then they would want to know where, when and other details on the album.

The front cover in general is very important when in the process of attracting your audience, in my magazine I have used bright colours which are associated with the Reggae genre, one problem with this in my magazine is that they aren’t specific to the Reggae genre; the colours I have used don’t match with the Reggae trademark of Green, yellow and black (the colours of the Jamaican flag). If I was to do this again I would use the Trademark colours just so it attracts the audience that little bit more and makes it stand out.

Evaluation Question 4

Who would be the audience for your media product?

The audience I have chosen is the Lower Class Reggae Fans; the reason I chose this group is because form my research it’s where the majority of Reggae fans are within, this is the Reader profile I created….

It shows that the age of my audience is about 20-30, I got this information unreliably by searching for Reggae fans online and look at their age, if I was to do this again I would conduct some professional market research which would be a lot more reliable than the way I found out this information. I found out that most of the Reggae fan base is male, the statistics I found to back this up are that 90% of them are Male, 10% are female, I found these stats online which arguably isn’t reliable but if I was to do it again I would try and gain my own statistics through research. I also found out why they enjoy reading Reggae Magazines the most; they like to hear about the next big song that’s coming out of Jamaica as well as the next big artist, this is why in my magazine I introduced a couple of new artists such as ‘Dexter Rashard’. I found this out by doing online research which again isn’t very reliable but if I was to do it again I would definitely try a new technique such as online questionnaires using Survey Monkey.

I also found out through online research that most Reggae fans are unemployed, obviously this means they can’t afford to be paying £5 for a magazine so I built my magazine around the fact my magazine had to be relatively cheap, this links back to the fact my audience is lower class because unemployed are within that category. If I was to make my magazine again then I would definitely change the advertisements and competitions so they were attractive to the Lower Class, I could have added things such as ‘buy one get one free concerts’ so ultimately it would be more attractive to my audience. I also don’t feel as if my research was good enough, I think the way I researched this is unreliable and it could be false, if I was to do my research again then I would again make a survey using Survey Monkey which is a skill I have learnt to use throughout the process, with this tool I can create a useful survey which I could distribute to the public to gain information on employment status and other information which would help me target my audience more efficiently.

One thing that I have done throughout the process is try to find out what ‘reggae’ means to the Reggae fans, from what I’ve found out they want to be proud of Artists that come out of the country, people like Bob Marley are Legends in Jamaica. They also want to be different to countries like England who have lots of different music genres compared to Jamaica who have just the one Major genre which is Reggae. I represented this in my magazine by focusing on Reggae, no other genres are featured in my magazine, it’s just pure Reggae.

Evaluation question 3 - Re submission

One Institution which ive found is called 'Black Music'. They publish mainly reggae magazines but also have an audience in classical music. Ive researched into the company and ive found that they are a well respected organisation within the reggae industry and have a wide range audience. This is obviously beneficial for my magazine because it will reach more people and it's focused on a very niche audience.

Another distributor which I could use is 'worldreggae.com' These like to publish their magazines online meaning that the audience could potentially be greater. In the modern day a lot of people use the internet to view media, meaning that this could potentially be the best option for my magazine. They have a good history of successful magazines which is also another massive benefit.

Another potential distributor would be Bauer media group,  i researched these and they have had a no experience in distributing Reggae but they have the widest range of Genres meaning that they would be ideal for my magazine. 

Overall Reggae has been a tough Genre to focus on because of it's popularity in England, not many people read Reggae magazines who aren't from Jamaica which makes it hard for Reggae magazines to gain popularity.

Evaluation question 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My media product is aimed at an audience which isn’t massive in the UK therefore is a niche audience so it was difficult for me to find conventions to follow. Firstly I think my product represents the lower class because generally when I researched Reggae it was often associated with the ‘lower class ‘which is why my product only costs £1.50 meaning it’s not very expensive which is a benefit for the lower class who should be able to afford the magazine comfortably, if I could do it again I would try and make it more appealing to the lower class by maybe adding in competitions and advertisements which would benefit the lower class.

My magazine is gender specific towards male but if I could do it again I would make it less gender specific, however generally reggae is associated with the male audience which is why I thought it would be a good idea to make it more male orientated, if I was to do it again I would make it less male specified because there are female reggae fans in the UK, my product could also get females into Reggae in the UK so for this reason I should have made it less gender specific.

My main target audience is Reggae fans within the UK, people around ages 20-40; to get a more accurate number I could have done some market research where I conducted a questionnaire on the streets. Knowing what my target audience affected my magazine in different ways; it affected the price, the advertisements as well as competitions. From doing research on Reggae fans using social demographics charts and creating reader profile from the information I learnt, I could influence my products to their particular interests.

The colours of my font represent Reggae fans in general because they are widely associated with the Reggae genre, I used colours like Red, yellow and green which are seen as ‘Rasta’ colours, this highlights the fact that Reggae has a trademark of certain colours which must be used on a Reggae magazine to put it in the Reggae genre.

The clothing used in my magazine isn’t really associated with Reggae but I had limitations to what I could use as clothing, the closest I could get to ‘Rasta’ was plain black. If I was to do it again then I would try and find more suitable clothing which was associated with the Reggae genre. I did try and Photoshop the clothing with the colour replacement tool but I felt that it looked unnatural and ‘fake’.

Feature stories are one of the most important factors of a magazine because they are designed to help sell the product, they can decide whether the potential buyer buys the magazine or not so with that in mind I had to make sure I got my feature stories right and make sure I fitted them in correctly. One of my feature stories is “Bob Marley tribute act going on tour” this is associated with Reggae because Bob Marley is seen as the ‘king’ of Reggae and one of the most successful Reggae artists there has ever been so obviously this is going to attract my target audience and attempt to persuade them into buying the magazine.

Overall my magazine represents the ‘lower class’ and Reggae fans in general, I did this by adjusting the price to one that the ‘lower class’ should be able to afford whilst creating feature stories that can persuade the potential buyer into buying one of my magazines.