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

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

QuarkXPress

For the whole of my magazine I used QuarkXPress to put it all together. For my contents page I was able to use lots of different tools to make my magazine seem more realistic, like being able to write sideways across the page. Also being able to write in columns made my double page spread a lot more realistic and made it look more professional. It took me a while to understand how all of QuarkXPress worked, as I found it quite confusing to start with, fortunately I quickly learnt how to add images and make my magazine come to life. Apart from the difficulty to start with I found QuarkXPress quite useful throughout the process of making my magazine.

Websites

Websites such as Facebook and Slideshare, were also very useful when doing my magazine. I used Facebook to be able to get my targeted audiences opinions and views on my magazine, by simply posting a couple of posts and my moodboard I was able to make sure what I was doing for my magazine is what my audience would be interested in and what they would like to see and buy. I used SlideShare towards the end of my project for my evaluation. After making a couple of powerpoints for my evaluation by putting them on slideshare I was easily able to embed them into my blog simply and quickly, this was very useful and a good website that I will be able to use in future presentations.

Blogger

I used Blogger.com as a way of keeping track everything that I had done throughout the project. By doing this it was easier for me to see what I had already done and it was easy to change if I had done something wrong. I believe it helped me present my work easily and clearly and it is a very useful website when it comes to doing projects like this one. An example of when it was useful was when I was starting my evaluation and needed to remind myself of distribution, as it was on my blog from when I previously researched it, it was easy to remind myself.

Picnik

When I took my pictures I used a Digital SLR camera, I am familiar with these cameras as I have one myself and photography is a hobby of mine. To edit my pictures I used a website called Picnik I used this website as I believe it is one of the best easy ways to edit pictures and I believe that this makes my pictures look a lot more effective. All of my pictures have been edited with this website.

I found that all of the new technologies that I have been using throughout this project have all been very relevant and very useful. I think that QuarkXPress was one of the most confusing desktop publishers that I have used, but after you got used to it, it was reasonably easy to understand and use. However, I would have preferred to have used something like photoshop to make my whole magazine, as I am much more confident with this programme.

4+5) Who would be the audience for your media product? & How did you attract/address your audience?

When doing my detailed research into forms and conventions I decided that I wanted my audience to be Mainstream, Explorers, Jicnar scale : C1/B. First of all I put my finished magazine front cover, contents page and double page spread on facebook to see what my target audience thought of the way it looked, here are some of the comments that I got:

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The photos are great - lots of impact, and great colour. I also really like the font you've chosen for the headers, and how you've used the space to draw the eye to the interviewee.

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I do love these two pages, work really well together, I love the simplicity of the white background and the size of the photos are really good for the layout of the page. The colours I like better with the white background in this one :) larvee it! Xx

- Its good, the layout is great and its not too daunting to look at which is good :) The different colours are useful for people like me who get lost easily.

- Love the layout i cant see wot i says on the computer but im guessing the questions are green and answers pink right? if so thats gud as its rather informal which is approiate for ur mag but also visually looks gud and bold. well done chick. the s[read doent look over crowed which can be easily done so one gain well done. love the enlarged quote aswell xxxx

I believe that from the comments I have received, that quite a lot of my audience like my pages, however I want to know what attracts them to the magazine and whether or not they would buy it. To find this out, it would have been ideal to have been able to record a few people to find out what they actually like about it and then put it on my blog, unfortunately because of the time limit I haven't been able to get around to doing this. Instead, I have created a new post on facebook and I have asked people if they could answer the following questions about my magazine :

1 - What do you like about it?

2 - Would you buy this magazine?

3 - What type of person do you think would read it?

4 - What could be improved on?

Here are my responses :

1) well i like the model ;) haha. nahh i like the colour scheme as it rly works well with the picture colours. i also like how the little pictures are in the circle shape as its different. the title across the cover works really well as well. :)

2) yeppp

3) i think this magazine is aimed at young people around the ages 16-20 years interested in different types of music.

4) i think the title could be bigger and stand out more at the top and the hollywood thingy could stretch across the whole pagee but apart from that its reeeli good :D

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1. Looks really professional. I like how the colours of the background ties in with the text. The reversed out coverline across the main sell really stands out and catches your attention to the main story.

2. Yes

3. I think this magazine is aimed at sophisticated young people who are interested in all genres of music.

4. Hmmmmm I think the title could do with a shadow or something to make it more prominent.

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1. I think it looks really professional, and like a real magazine. I like the colour scheme also, feels very warm and wintery.

2. Yep

3. I think its for people who like lots of different music

4. More detail about the types of music in the magazine.

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As I have successfully been able to get my target audience to reply and tell me what they think is good about my magazine I have found out that my colour scheme attracts my audience, as does the main sell and the strap lines included in my project. My doing this I was able to fully understand what my audience is attracted to about my magazine, in this case it was mainly the main sell and the layout and colour scheme. I also found out that all of the people I got responses from would buy my magazine, which means I have been able to create a magazine aimed at a target audience, where the target audience would want to buy the magazine. I also asked my audience what they thought would need improving, most of them agreed that the title could stand out more as this would attract them to the magazine more. By taking negatives along with the positives means I can always improve my work in all of my different future projects.

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

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By deciding to be distributed by a major company this way my magazine would be easily reached by my niche targeted audience who are mainstreamers who enjoy all sorts of music, I have explained this in more detail in my presentation above.

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

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