This document provides a critical evaluation of a media product created by the author that aims to emulate the style of the NME music magazine for ages 16-25. The author analyzed how their product used conventions from real magazines, represented their target audience, and could potentially be distributed. Through feedback and learning Adobe Photoshop, the author improved their skills and created a higher quality final product compared to their preliminary task. The technologies used, like Photoshop and PowerPoint, allowed the author to develop their technical skills and represent their target demographic effectively.

1. Critical Evaluation
As Media Studies

2. In What ways does your media product use, develop
or challenge forms and conventions of real media
products?
• Due to the high amount of consumers that responded NME as their favourite
music magazine, I have focused mainly on this magazine and its attributes
• For the front cover, It uses many of the conventions that you would see from an
NME mag
• You the main article, with main headline, they barcode in the bottom right corner
out of the way and the magazine name in the top left corner.
• Also there is the use of reversed out text to draw readers in and Separate picture
and story away from the main story
• It has developed attributes from the NME magazine in the way the pull/filler is
unrelated to the main story and offers a pull to a different related article.
• Also my front cover does not have any of the masthead covered, this is due to the
fact I believe it is more important for a new magazine to show its Name, otherwise
people will end up not remembering it and therefore not purchasing it again
• However above the Magazines name I have put a band name in bigger font as i
believe the band is bigger than the magazine

3. Continued
• The Contents page follows attributes with the band set, however I have chosen not
to put them in alphabetic order to show difference between the two magazines
• I Have however used the same set up with the top saying the week and the
magazines name in bold writing at the top
• Also i have chosen to only put one picture on my contents , to show its the
magazines main pull. I have set the picture up in a similar style to NME with a
caption in the left corner of the picture
• However for the contents of the magazine I Have chosen to integrate the different
styles from Kerrang and NME to make the magazine look even better
• The Double Page Spread is very similar to any you would find in NME, With the
Drop Capitals, the different coloured fonts and sized fonts, This is all done as it is a
clever way of drawing readers into the article.
• However I have chosen to put a single picture on the double page spread to
represent then bands importance and stature.
• Also I have chosen to integrate the pages with a headline which is similar to the
way kerrang and Q set up their double page spreads

4. How does your media product represent particular
social groups?
• I targeted my particular magazine at people within the age of 16-25 that generally
listen to either indie or rock music
• I believe I have done this with the particular language that i have used. Although
the language is not to complexed, it contains phrases and words people in this
catchment would use.
• I also believe the types of font used will attract these particular groups as it is bold
and eye catching
• The colours are similar to those that would be associated to people in these
brackets
• Also they types of story are set up to target rock and indie fans as it tends to talk
about bands that play this type of music

5. What kind of media institutions might
distribute your media product and
why?
• I believe that my media product would be best distributed online as there is a
larger audience to target the product at.
• However I also believe it could distributed as a magazine, possibly by the NME or
Kerrang franchise, as a sister magazine to their main products. Possibly to aim at
one particular genre of music as both of these magazines have a wide target
audience.

6. Who would be the audience for your
media product.
• I believe that the audience for my magazine would be 16-25 year olds, who listen
to rock or indie music, I believe this as my questionnaire indicated these are the
ideal groups to aim at
• Also I tried to base my magazine around NMEs conventions as this is the most
popular magazine.

7. How did you attract/address your
audience?
• Throughout the construction I was always getting feedback from, by showing
them my product and the different stages it was in
• I was trying to make my product look as much like the NME magazine without
ripping it off
• Through consumer feed back I have discovered that they believe the magazine
would be targeted at rock fans.
• They believed that the front cover was more like the Kerrang covers but the
contents page and double page spread was more like NME
• I was always constantly asking whether or not they believed that the front cover
contents page and double page spread is good enough
• From most consumers I have asked, they believe that my contents page and
double page were of a good quality, however the front cover was not as good of a
quality.
• I believe that this is due to problems I had with Photoshop and trying to put things
in place.

8. What have you learnt from
technologies from the process of
constructing this product
• I have learnt from my preliminary task that Microsoft publisher is very basic and
easy to use, however the quality is not of a high standard when compared to
Photoshop.
• I have used Photoshop 5.0 and 7.0. Although the technologies are quite
complexed, they give a much better quality finish
• However although Photoshop 7.0 is newer than 5.0, I believe that it is easier to use
and you still get a high quality finish. It still has pretty much the same attributes as
7.0 but is older meaning they are more basic and easier to use.
• However Photoshop 7.0 has many attributes that enable you to do things you
cannot do on 5.0. This overall means that you can make your work better than if it
was all constructed on 5.0
• Also I have found that when constructing a presentation, PowerPoint is the best
form of technology to use

9. Looking back at you preliminary task, what do
you feel you have learnt from it in the
progression from it to the full product.
• I believe that my basic knowledge of Photoshop has developed throughout the
task
• That is why I believe that my final product is much better than the preliminary
task.
• I have learnt the publisher is a very good starting point when designing
products, however if you want to expand your ideas and make them better, then
the use of Photoshop is a very good programme to use