Final Preliminary Pieces and Main Task Production

 

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?

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

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

Right from the start of this project I tried to reach out to my target audience of people within the 16-25 age group. One of my first tasks was to create a moodboard as I wanted to find a way to explain the magazines concept in a  simple form. I printed out this moodboard and showed it to a few people who fitted within the target audience in order to conduct some audience research. My target audience played a huge part in shaping the design of my magazine. For example they helped to suggest the name Shockwave form a list of ideas that I had included. I then used their responses to create an audience profile in order to tailor the magazine towards their specific needs. I have posted an image of my moodboard below.

While working on my magazine pages I also got my work peer reviewed by Jonas who is in my media class. Jonas  fits within the target age group of the audience and he knows about media conventions so his insight was really useful.  Below I have posted a few of the comments that Jonas typed up on Microsoft word.

 

In an earlier post I  also documented some audience feedback that I gained from a survey that I constructed on the website Survey Monkey. I created this survey after I had completed some finished drafts of my final designs and  asked a few people to fill it.  On this previous post here you can see my full in depth analysis of the results, but for this evaluation I will summarize some of my key findings that relate to this particular question.  The survey covered my front cover, contents page and double page spread and for each page I had 4 questions for people to answer. In order to get in depth feedback I used a variety of question formats such as multiple choice as well as written response boxes.  A lot of people agreed that the magazine looked like a pop magazine so I believe I was able to generate the right look for the overall design. I have posted a screenshot for  the results of that question below.   However, a lot of people thought the background looked a bit bland so I decided that I needed to fill out the pages a bit more. I took on-board this feedback and I decided to add a few more conventions such as captions and extra images.

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

Every piece of media that is published should have an intended target audience who the author is trying to reach out to. It is very important for media marketing companies to know their audiences very well, because if they print something that their readers don’t like then they may stop buying the magazine which would cut their profits. Magazine editors also need to know what kind of topics their target audience want to read so that they can keep their readership engaged. The target audience is very important when designing a magazine as it will influence the colour scheme, layout, and content among many other factors.

Media companies use Vals( values and lifestyles) and demographics in order to try and pinpoint a target audience. The Vals system categorizes people into different groups such as Survivors and Thinkers. These groups are calculated based upon on peoples personality and social standing. While demographics on the other hand is the use of statistics such as gender and age groups in order to try and gauge who would buy the magazine.

As part of the planning process I created an audience profile in order to help me to identify the sort of person who would read the music magazine that I was trying to create. Below I have posted a quick summary of Shockwave's core target audience.


Summary


Age Group:16-25
ABC1: 80%
Gender: 65% Male 35% Female
Student Percentage: 75%
Target Vals Group: Innovator


I selected a relatively young target age group as the magazine focusses a lot on technology and teenagers generally are very skilled in this particular field. My magazine is for people who like music who can't understand the hype around big names such as Justin Bieber. It is supposed to act as a quality product for casual music fans and it is supposed to appeal to the person who does not like fanzines for hardcore Beleibers. In terms of Vals group I am targeting the type of person who matches the Innovator archetype. I decided to target this group because in theory they are the most open to new ideas and experimenting with technology which is a key aspect o the magazine.

Evaluation Question 3: What Kind of institution might distribute your media product and why?

Evaluation Question 2: How does your media product represent particular social groups?

In order to answer this question I created a poster on the website Canva https://www.canva.com/

 

 

 

Evaluation Question 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

For evaluation question 1 I decided to create a PowerPoint which I later converted into a video. I uploaded this video to Youtube and I embedded a version of it below.

Improvements to final pieces



Below I have posted my improved music magazine pages

 

 

For the front cover I made the bar code slightly smaller and I also added an issue number just below the masthead.  Furthermore, I also created a strapline for the front cover and I placed it just above the masthead. I also added the strapline to the masthead on the contents page in order to keep it consistent. I corrected a minor spelling mistake in the Shockwave exclusive section and I also added another image near the top of the page to add a bit more variety. There was only one change to the double page spread and that was where I decided to add a caption to the image in order to show more media conventions. Furthermore, this also helped to fill the blank space.