One person's opinion on my Front Cover and Contents page uploaded to YouTube.

Responses to all 3 sections of my Magazine

I have asked three separate people to comment and give me opinions of my 3 aspects of my magazine, I have asked them to use text message to present their views.

What I thought went well with my magazine?

Things I thought went well with my task:

COVER

• I thought that my front cover went really well, I spent a lot of time taking and editing photos to ensure that there was a lot going on. I wanted my cover to really grab the readers attention, as that is the main priority of a magazine is to sell! Throughout the task I made many changes to my front cover, I originally had a girl group as my main image on the cover but after some more research I found that if was not common for a main star on a cover to NOT relate to a double page spread. As my DPS was focused upon star 'Edward Chua' I felt it would be more appropriate to link them directly. 
• One idea that I was pleased with was the offering for a competition to win an iPad Mini. I had some space left on my cover and was wondering what I could fill that space with, therefore I knew that I had my own iPad and thought it would be a great technique to grab the attention of the audience if they could be in with a chance of winning a new gadget. In the same way I had included images that I took myself of a friends music gadgets to promote the gadgets themselves but also attract those audiences that are interested in the new modern tech.
• One other aspect that I made myself was the bar code, I spent a reasonable amount of time in paint cutting and pasting individual lines to make the bar code look as genuine as possible.

CONTENTS 

• Overall I was also really pleased with my contents page, I felt that the content was relevant and appealing as you would expect in a professional magazine. 
• I thought that the modern features of my magazine such as audience interaction with Twitter and Facebook would be becoming more and more common within magazines so I thought this would also be a good technique to appeal to the audience. If they feel like they can have their say and also keep up to date with the latest news online then they are more likely to become familiar with my magazine.
• I thought that the sub heading of my contents was organised well, having every article clearly laid out was important for me to allow all audiences to easily navigate around my magazine.
• I also feel that the amount of images used was just the right amount, originally I only had the one image of a female which made the general look quite dull. Therefore I spent time editing more photos to liven up the contents.

DOUBLE PAGE-SPREAD

• Continuing from my contents I feel that the interaction with my audience is key in my DPS. Answering followers questions and also showing their individual tweets offers a great relationship between reader and writer.
• I felt that the questions was relevant and relaxed to portray a relaxed atmosphere whilst interviewing the star.
• I have advertised this article throughout my cover page and contents to show the importance of having an exclusive which such a big star, again this is to advertise and encourage readers to buy the magazine in order to read about their favourite pop singers.

Final Cover, Contents and 2PS

Evaluation Question 6: Looking back at your preliminary task, what have you learned in the progression to your final product?

Evaluation Question 5: How does your media product represent social groups?

How I Have Targeted and Engaged My Target Audience

• One technique I have used within my Front Cover is to advertise gadgets that are associated with the genre of music I have focused my magazine on.I have used this to on my cover to grab my audiences immediate attention. By offering reviews on the new music technology appeals to a wide variety of people interested in finding out the latest gadgets. 
• I have tried to allow my audience to relate directly with my magazine by using a model (pop star) that is of the same age range of my target audience. This will appeal to my target audience as they feel they can personally relate to the interview on the inside. In the same way the fact that the star is famous and their range. I was positive that my audience would be interested in reading about him, therefore I decided to make a big effort in advertising the star and his interview.
• One personality trait of my perfect reader was that they were fashionable, with this in mind I made sure that my model was dressed with the latest fashion. Wearing a snap-back which is common within this age group was another technique I have used to interact with my perfect reader.
• I felt that interaction with my audience is key, therefore throughout my contents page I have included banners advertising for readers to Like our Facebook page and to Follow us on Twitter. This will allow the reader to feel more engaged in the goings on on UPDATE magazine, this is the same way in which I have published followers tweeted on my double page spread. This increases levels of trust between Update and its reader as they feel that they are able to be involved in interviews and that their tweets will be seen.
• From my research I found that almost in every magazine there were advertisements for all sorts of competitions and prizes that could be won. By offering a chance to win the brand new iPad Mini will grab a person attention that if they buy this magazine then they can apply. I feel that by advertising a free competition it will engage the reader more, therefore resulting in more sales of my magazine.
• In the same way as offering a competition, I have advertised a famous musician's free poster within the magazine. Using this will attract readers to purchase my magazine as the famous artist will attract their own followers.
• I have ensured that my targeted audience is both male and female by adding an image of a girl pop group, this can be targeted in two ways. By females that enjoy their music and males simply because they are female, this ensures that my front cover is open to grabbing the attention of all sexes. 

Evaluation Question 4: My Perfect Reader

I have tried to picture my perfect target audience figure.

- Michael Fox

- Aged 18

- Fashionable

- Loves Pop Music

- Studying Music Tech at Uni

Last 5 things brought:

• iPhone 5
• Dr Dre Beat Headphones
• Music Keyboard
• Music Microphone
• Guitar

Michael is in love with pop music. He spends all of his spare time at Uni writing songs and producing music with all his modern gadgets. He loves reading online forums that keep him up to date with the latest software for his phone. Also including reading through forums for the latest gadget on the market.

Evaluation Question 3: What have you learnt about technologies from constructing your product?

Evaluation Question 2: What kind of companies distribute your product and why?

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

Almost finished draft on my Magazine!

This is very much nearly my final finished magazine, however this is not quite complete. There are a few things that I think I can change that will help improve the overall quality of my magazine.

Areas for improvement:

COVER PAGE

- Border the music tech gadgets with boxes to separate them from other images and to eliminate cutting affect
- Correct grammatical errors such as apostrophes 
- Change the font to make it more readable to audiences as even I struggle to read some of the writing
- Also to change the colour of some fonts, therefore making sure that audiences are able to read the text easily whilst still grabbing the readers attention from a distance

CONTENTS

- Ensure that the background colour scheming is consistent to add to the professional look of the overall magazine

- I believe that the contents is quite bare, therefore I would like to add some extra images to brighten up the contents page and to offer different advertisements such as 'Follow us on Twitter' and 'Like us on Facebook' This will encourage interaction between my magazine and my audience, this also shows that it is an up to date magazine that is moving with the modern times

- Similar to my cover page I would like to vary the different sizes of the text to offer an abstract look to my contents, this could also be used to advertise different levels of importance of articles, e.g 'World Exclusive With Edward Chua' This means that this particular article is stand out and will be a specific reason why it is larger. Whether it be that the star is famous, or that it is an issue focused solely on that celebrity.

DOUBLE-PAGED SPREAD

- I feel that my second page (2/2) of my exclusive interview with Edward was a weak piece. I think that having one word answers was a unique idea for audiences to see into the personal life of the star however my layout was not strong enough, therefore I would like to change that as I feel I can improve the DPS. Throughout my research I have found that it is common for a DPS to include one page of text and the actual article and secondly a variety of different images of the star. Therefore I will change this in my final draft of my magazine.

- I thought that the mirror images was also a good unique idea, however I felt that it did not work well with the text that I included, therefore in my next draft I would like to use different images to show of many different sides to Edward Chua (in terms of creating a relationship with the reader).

Video Analysis

The video analysis I have uploaded are first thoughts of a class mate that I showed my work to for the first time. I asked them beforehand to give me their honest opinion on what they thought, this way the feedback I receive I would be able to then use that feedback to better my work. The main improvements I have taken notice of is that of my front cover. I understand that for a first draft it is heading in the right direction, however in order to improve it I need to add more detail to the front cover. The more things to attract the target audience will increase the likely hood of the customer buying it. The positive feedback that I received was mainly on the background photos and the main layout of the text.