Task Completion Table

TASK	Completion	Completed	Yes
Initial Production of Preliminary Task (School Magazine) (Front Cover)	end of October	Yes	Yes
Initial Production of Preliminary Task (School Magazine)  (Contents Page)	end of October	Yes	No
Final Production of Preliminary Task (School Magazine)  (Front Cover)	during November	Yes	Yes
Final Production of Preliminary Task (School Magazine)  (Contents Page)	during November	Yes	No
Research for The Main Task (Music Magazine)	Beginning of December	Yes	No
First Draft of Main Task (Music Magazine Front Cover)	During  December	Yes	Yes
First Draft of Main Task (Music Magazine Double Page Spread)	During  December	Yes	Yes
First Draft of Main Task (Music Magazine Contents Page)	End of December	Yes	Yes
Final Production of Main Task (Music Magazine Front Cover)	During January	Yes	Yes
Final Production of Main Task (Music Magazine Double Page Spread)	End of January	Yes	Yes
Final Production of Main Task (Music Magazine Contents Page)	Beginning of February	Yes	Yes
Evaluation (Who would be the audience for your media product?)	During February	Yes	Yes
Evaluation (How did you attract/address your audience?)	During February	Yes	Yes
Evaluation (In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?)	During February	Yes	Yes
Evaluation (How does your media product represent particular social groups?)	End of February	Yes	Yes
Evaluation (What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?)	End of February	Yes	Yes
Evaluation (What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?)	Beginning of March	Yes	Yes
Evaluation (Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?)	Beginning of March	Yes	No

Magazine Evaluation

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

A common and almost essential element within media products is the convention of representation which is fundamentally a method  of communication that relies on the signs and denotation ect to help the encoder express their desired views. Effective representation will then ensure that the decode can efficiently understand what the media is attempting to perceive.

My magazine itself focuses on the representation of the lower social classes and people who would often be considered by high society to be particularily rough, and this is shown wthin the colloquial slang of not only my magazines interviewer, but the subject of my interview inside my double page spread. This use of language is a good example of social stratification, where the speech aspects, such as slang, of an individual help to define which social class you will be confided within.  I have also intended for my magazine to represent the younger male sector of society  and I have denoted this with not only the use of the aforementioned language but also with the humour I have written into the substance of the magazine. Despite the basic stereotype of the younger male generation that I have used within my magazine, it is not the entirely correct representation of this social class as no representation can be entirely true, but by conveying to the stereotype I have then accepted the common views on this class, in order to help make my representation more believable. In order to ensure that I maintained to this stereotype  I created an imaginary entity which contained the basic elements of this stereotype.

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

to distribute my magazine I have chosen the media institution “IPC” as not only does it produce the magazine “Nuts” which I belive to pursue similar aims to mine with regards to their target audience being based within young males, and nuts also has a comedic substance within it,  but “IPC” also targets 46% of the male market, which is the majority share for a magazine company, so I therefore believe that in order to get the most possible attention from my target audience, using this already well established institution will enable me to efficiently reach out to my target audience.

When it comes to the income of a magazine the initial price of the issue should not be the only source of this income, and in fact the majority of a magazines profit comes from the advertising fees they charge in order for a company to have their advertisments shown within the magazine. The magazine is then able to charge high prices for this, as the advertising company wishes to do the upmost to get their product known to the public with the hope of the product being sold as a result of this.

Despite magazines already existing for young men these are generally based around sport, so therefore with my music magazine I believe im entering a relatively unscathed sector of the market which should hopefully mean I can maximise interest and sales from my magazine, and by adding extra genres such as comedy and the essence of attractive females, I believe that there should be a relatively high margin for success, as a result f the lack of competition.

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

During the process of creating my media magazine I have come into contact with a variation of technology and technology based services. The initial form of any technology that was required was infact the actual pc desktop that which contains all the programs and services that I required to actually create this product. After the actual computer machine It was necessary to use a camera to capture the images that I used within my magazine, and once these were uploaded on to the computer, I found I had to use the image enhancing program called “Adobe Photoshop”  which was essential to get the effect I created for my front page image. Although this program was useful it was also extremely confusing and there are a few technical issues that could have been avoided had I used a different program.  When creating this magazine I also came into contact with the Microsoft core package, in the form of Microsoft word, which  when being used to type word documents it excels and ensures the whole process is quick and efficient. Finally when it comes down to creating the layout and design of the magazine itself , I used the program “corel draw” which is solely based around the creation of magazines and despite the good points it has in terms of the layout, I do believe it to be quite flawed, as it is not only confusing to use, but it often crashes and begins to run slow, and also tends to do its own thing, making the creation of the magazine a hard and time consuming process.

 

Overall I believe that my knowledge of these technologies has not seen any great advancement, as I could already use it all efficiently other than corel draw, but as I don’t intend on using this program again if I have a different option solely because of the lack of reliability ive had.

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

 

When I look back on my initial preliminary task the advancement made to the final production of final product is easily identifiable, as not only can the improvements in the design and layout improved, but such aspects like the image editing and the basic conventions of any media product. This includes the inclusion of in depth connotation as a result of the signs I have included throughout the magazine. I believe I have also used a great deal of professionalism in the final product which was not present within this preliminary task and this is shown in the way I have kept to my target audience thanks to the manufacturing of an imaginary entity, and this then enabled me to hold a clear image in my head of whom I was creating this magazine for, so I could therefore focus on appealing it to them, where as in my preliminary task it wwas just aimed at a large group in general with no discrete target audience, and thus the content of the magazine itself would have been vague. I have also ensured that since the initial task, I have taken on a more effective role as an encoder so that I can easily convey my messages and beliefs about what im writing within the actual substance of the magazine.

Magazine Evaluation

Who would be the audience for your media product?

Within the initial procedures for producing media work, it is essential that you identify your target audience in order to define the basis and structure of your magazine. Once the audience has been defined it is extremely important that the media work is successfully encoded, so that therefore it can ultimately be decoded by the target audience.  

Within my blog’s Target Audience section, I have already established who my target audience is, so I was therefore able to produce my magazine influenced by what appeals to the younger generations/ teenagers, who appreciate the bass genres within musical culture. As well as this genre of music, I have identified my target audience to be predominantly male. This is later shown within my magazine through layout and by the content of my articles.  Once I had found the general audience of whom my magazine is targeted, it was then essential that I created my imaginary entity. This then ensured that I had more purchase of who was aiming my magazine at and so I could therefore apply more content that is easily and consistently understandable by my desired audience.

How did you attract/address your audience?

To attract the audience I desired to my media magazine I ensured that the content of the magazine itself was appealing to the younger generation of whom my magazine is aimed. To do this I made the general structure and basis of my work that of a comedic value, this is to maintain the readers interest in my work as the younger generations find no appeal in a dull fact based piece of media. I also provided various free gifts within my magazine as an incentive for the target audience to purchase and then ultimately read my magazine. These free offerings came In the form of music samples aswell as posters and pull outs ect, I intend for this to manipulate customers in to purchasing my magazine as they’ll believe they are getting more for there money, which they in fact are. In conjunction with these I have also included a number of competitions within my magazine to help entice the customer into the entrails of my magazine. As my magazine is aimed particularly at the male half of society, I decided to include a section within the magazine of which the entirety is of an attractive female basis, this is with the aim to attract the male readers into a purchase as my music magazine includes a little extra than just content of a musical description.

On my front cover I have displayed a large image of a DJ (DJ Devverz, the artist who which my main article is based) who is within a rave or club of some description doing his job, this insinuates that he is in a loud location, where its all happening, and this is represented by means of connotation within my magazine.  Yet I have also ensure that the majority of my magazines content is didactic just to ensure that the decoders (young generation) can easily understand the denotation of my magazines content.

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

My media product uses and adapts/develops a variation of forms and conventions based upon real media products such as the employment of signs and icons which further develop in to basic denotation and then expand within the confinements of connotation. The easiest identifiable relation to a real media text would in fact be the basic application of a genre, this establishes the tone of the magazine and gives a general implementation of the basis of the magazines content. My genre is one of dubstep/bass/rave and is contended to be aimed at the young males of society, roughly within the age segregations of 16-21, so I have adopted basic conventions of the general media product in order to help maximise customer potential. This is characterised with by the way ive established the content of my magazine in the way that it will appeal to the de-coders (customers) whom I am attempting to produce my magazine for, and I have made this clear by taking advantage of various aspects within the magazine such as the layout and colour schemes. The black background with use of bright colours being used in conjunction with this give it a mental image of a club feel with bright lights and loud music and signifies that the magazine is aimed at the members of the population who take part in these events. The key image on the front cover is the feature article photograph which shows “Dj Devverz” performing within one of these clubs, this also helps to signify what the magazine is about. In hand with this  I also maintain another common convention of a media product ( particularly magazines ) by offering free items and samples with my magazine. This is something that exisiting magazines are already keen to do as it entices customers into purchasing their product. There are also degrees of characterisation within my music magazine, something which often occurs within many media products due to the writers own stereotype and prejudice belief. The characterisation within my magazine essentially is a result of the genre being one of a dubstep and base consistency, and as this tends to be associated more with the lower class citizens ( often considered chavs ) the characters within my magazine have been defined into this social strata, this is supported by the slang and colloquial language used by Dj Devverz. The characterisation is also a deprive of the representation which also is well defined in the vast majority of media products. I have used within my magazine, and this is  I have also ensured that everything within my magazine relates back to my chosen genre, this would be essential among other media products so that the topic is not lost which could possibly result in some conclusion of your target audiences interest.