CLASSICS

AS MEDIA STUDIES
ALICE WARE
EVALUATION
 In what ways does your media product use, develop or
challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

 My media product follows basic generic conventions such as the use of a masthead in simplistic font
with a different colour “I”. I got this idea from the magazine “Classic FM” which uses basic font with an
italic red “f”.

 I also use pull quotes on the double page spread such as “I want people to be able to understand the
meaning behind my songs”. This conveys a magazine purely about the music rather than about the
latest gossip that is often found in magazines such as “OK!” and “Heat”
 When taking photos, I had to consider different poses that would be appropriate for my audience. To
do this, I researched some articles and magazines under the genre of music “classical”. Some of
these can be found on my blog. On my double page spread, I had my model sat down across the two
pages, I got this idea from an article I saw on Katherine Jenkins. This can also be found on my blog.
 My magazine has a very basic background. I did this because, when researching classical magazines
I found that the main focus on the front cover was usually the artist, leaving the background very
simplistic and plain.
 When doing my contents page, I bought a copy of the BBC music magazine and took inspiration from
it. I did the same simple layout with 3 columns, “Every week” “Reviews” and “Features”. To this, I
added a few pictures but I did not want to add a lot as I wanted the text to be the main focus. I also
added a small paragraph from the Editor, I did this as I have seen it in many magazines, not just
classical.
 How does your media product represent particular social
groups?

 My media product represents mainly high brow middle to upper class people who are able to
recognize class and sophistication, aged 25 onwards. Although on the front cover, the model is a
young girl dressed in a glamorous classy dress, this still applies to that particular target audience.
Men will look at the front cover and see an ideal partner where as women will look and see and
ideal self, this follows Carl Rodgers theory.
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product
and why?

 My media product will be sold nationally as apposed to locally. It will be distributed by a

multinational conglomerate company such as Bauer or IPC. Some of the advantages of this would
be that the advertisement of the product would be the responsibility of the manager of the company,
which will therefore be cheaper. In an independent company, it is usually the job of the editor to
advertise the magazine.
 It will also be consumed by a wider audience and will therefore profit more as it will apply to more
people
 A disadvantage of this would be that multinational conglomerate companies tend to stick to what
they know will sell. For example, they can’t afford to take risks by breaking certain stereotypes.
 The magazine will also have to compete with other popular classical magazines that have been
selling for years.
 This type of company would be perfect for my media product as they produce popular magazines
such as Heat and Now! that sell world wide
 Who would be the audience for your media product?

 AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHIC
MALE = 50% FEMALE = 50%

I have chosen to create a magazine based on the classical genre. From the research I have done, I have
come to the conclusion that the main social class for my readers will be middle class. On ,y reader
profile ( shown above) I did a collage of what I thought related to my target audience in some way.
Obviously my audience will be higher educated people who can recognize sophisticated classy
music and are more interested in the music rather than the gossip behind the artists.
 How did you
attract/address
your audience?
 More famous names the target audience
will recognize, on a black background with The use of the unisex colours of
white font to stand out from the rest of the blue, cream, black and white
front cover. throughout. This shows that the
magazine is targeted towards both
males and females.
Looking at the front cover, contents page
and double page spread of my media
product, you can see they all follow the
same colour theme, style etc; Also known
as “house style”.

The masthead is done in simplistic front with a fancy “C”. I The model looking directly at the
got this idea from the magazine Classic FM. This camera gives the audience a feeling that
immediately lets the audience know that the magazine is she is looking directly at them. This
simplistic but classy. would encourage them to buy the
magazine. The fact that she is female
gives female readers an idea of an
Famous names which will draw the correct audience “ideal self”. However, this will also
for the magazine. People who would enjoy this attract males for the idea of the “ideal
magazine, will recognize the names of the classical partner”
artists printed in basic fonts.

Following the conventions of the mise-

en scene, the model is wearing a
The price of the magazine is
slightly more than an average glamourous silk dress, portraying
elegance which will apply to the
magazine. I had to consider the
fact that my audience would be readers. I considered using an older
mainly middle class and would man in a smart suit using props such
as a conductors baton, but I decided
perhaps have more money.
against this idea in the end.

The date and issue number assures the audience

that the magazine is not a “one off” and there will be
regular issues.
What have you learnt
about technologies
from the process of
constructing this
product?
I have learnt to become confident in using technologies such as Photoshop, Quark, Cam Studio, SLR Cameras, Scanners and Windows Movie Maker

During this course, I have learnt how to use

Using Quark, I found that I was able to
Posterous effectively. It was easy to get used to, and
create my double page spread to the best
through using it I have been able to keep all my work
of my abilities. It is easy to understand and
together online. However, I did find it confusing to
clearly labelled and allows you to fit your
begin with as to upload posts, you had to send your
text into columns, making everything look
work through an attachment on Google Mail. Here is
a lot more neat and professional. Although
a screen grab of my manage menu on Posterous.
I do see the plus sides to using Quark, I
preferred using Photoshop, as picture and
text editing in Quark had to be kept fairly
simplistic. To the right is a screen grab of
I found using the SLR Cameras my double page spread on Quark.
extremely useful. They were
great for taking close up photos
in high definition. I was able to
take around 100 photos on one
camera at the same time and
then upload them easily to my
computer with no difficulties. My
only problem with these cameras
would be the size and weight, I
sometimes found it difficult to
take photos at angles the Tri-pod
could not get. To the right and
left are a few examples of some http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pv
of my photos. 6QRfY5Kpk
cam studio

Above is a link to my YouTube

channel of a video I created on
Cam Studio. It shows me
To the left is a screen grab of cropping a photo on Photoshop
my first video analysis on and then importing in to Quark in
I found it hard to edit videos on
Youtube working with my to a picture box and fitting it to
Windows Movie Maker. Often it
friend. As you can see from the size of the box. I found it
would freeze and delete parts of
watching (link below) we were easy to understand how to use,
my editing. This is one of the
very limited in our knowledge at however, I had difficulty with
main reasons my evaluation is
the time and the camera work saving it and twice lost my video
done as a PowerPoint, as well
is awful. so had to re do it.
as being very short on time.
http://www.youtube.com/user/trcmediastudies15451?feature=fupl
dc#p/a/u/0/LRT2I_Dk24c
first video analysis
 Looking back at your preliminary
task, what do you feel you have
learnt in the progression from it to
the full product?
Looking back at my preliminary task, I had a very limited understand of how to use Quark and Photoshop. The front cover and contents page looks
very un professional and limited in technical skills. Over the duration of the course I have learnt how to use Photoshop and Quark in particular to the
best of my ability and as a result have made a realist media product worthy of being sold.

As you can see, my college magazine is

very basic and shows little skills, but
looking at my music magazine, it is
realistic and shows how my skills on
Photoshop has developed.

Again looking at my preliminary contents

page, it is very simplistic with no effects on
fonts, pictures etc; Creating my contents page
was more time consuming and took more
thought than my front cover as there was more
text to be considered as well as trying to make
it look realistic which proved difficult.