Question 7

Question 6

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product? by Eric Media

Question 5

Question 4

Question 4: Graphs and Charts
Create line charts

Question 3

Question 2

Question 1

Question 7: Draft

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 can see that I've learnt a lot throughout the duration of my coursework. The quality of my work has improved when we compare my preliminary task and my full product.

Front Cover

The image on the left is the front cover that I have made for my preliminary task and the image on the right is the front cover I made for my full product. Just looking at it generally, I think my full product looks much better and professional. First of all, the masthead in my preliminary task is plain and boring. It is placed at the top centre of my magazine front cover and doesn't look particularly eye-catching. On the other hand, my 'FLOWLY' masthead looks a lot my professional. It is place in the top left corner of the front cover and looks like there was more thought and work put into it. I think it looks more unique and cleaner as opposed to my preliminary task, so I see a significant improvement there.

Next, I will be looking at the cover lines. In my preliminary task my cover lines do not look very organised and I think the mix of black and white in the cover lines did not fit in well. At the time of actually making this front cover, I thought the cover lines looked quite nice and couldn't think of much to improve my work. Now looking at my full product, we can see the cover lines are more organised and fit in with the colour scheme much better. So overall, I think my cover lines have improved a lot since the preliminary task.

Lastly, looking at the photography, we can instantly see there is a much bigger difference. First of all, in my preliminary task it looks like the main image was just slumped at the back of all the text which doesn't look good. Looking at my full product, we can see that I have now added layers to my main image and my cover star looks much more involved in the front cover rather than being in the background of all that text. Secondly, we can see that the quality of the photo has improved much more. The main image in my full product looks clear and has a clean plain background as opposed to the main image in my preliminary task. 

Contents Page

I think that looking at my contents page generally, the difference between my contents page in the preliminary task and my full product is even greater than in my front covers. Firstly, I think the most significant difference is the most important one; in my full product, my contents page has more content. My preliminary tasks' biggest flaw is that there was very little content in it, and this made it look less professional. In my full product I have added much more content and even had to make it a double page contents page as opposed to the one page in my preliminary task.

Also, another thing that I have done in my full product is add more photographs. Not only have I added more photographs, but they are also a much better quality than the photograph used for my preliminary task. In my preliminary task I have only used one photo and it is low quality which is something that needed improvement. Therefore, I added more photos in my full product of higher quality which I think made a significant improvement in my contents page.

Question 6: Draft

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

Throughout the process of this coursework, I have used many technologies which I have never used before. There were some technologies which I have used before and there were some which I have never even heard of before, therefore I had to learn how to use them. Some technologies that I have used throughout this coursework are:

• Prezi
• Adobe InDesign
• Adobe Illustrator
• Adobe Photoshop
• DSLR Canon Camera

Prezi

Before I started working on this coursework, I have never heard of Prezi before. I have learnt that it is a presentation software which I could display my work from in the form of a presentation. Prezi was especially useful when I used it to present my music magazine proposal as it looks organised and professional. When I first looked at Prezi I was perplexed and had no idea on how to use it. However, I soon got the hang of it as I have used similar softwares and programs such as Microsoft PowerPoint. 

Adobe InDesign

I have heard of Adobe InDesign before working on this coursework, however I have never actually used it. I had trouble using this InDesign as Adobe programs are very hard to master and they're generally quite complex. I managed to learn some of the basics of InDesign and I had some practice. The first time I used InDesign it was when I created my 'College Magazine' contents page, which was looked very plain and basic. I used InDesign to create my 'FLOWLY' magazine contents page and double page spread, which I think turned out alright for a beginner. I think using this program was useful as I now have the basic knowledge on how to create simple things which may be useful for me.

Adobe Illustrator

Adobe Illustrator is another program which I have heard of but have never used before. I did not find Illustrator as difficult as I found InDesign. I used this program to create my masthead and because my masthead was pretty simple it wasn't too difficult. I did not want to make my masthead too complicated as I didn't know enough about Illustrator and if I try to make it too complex it wouldn't fit in with my magazine. However, overall I am happy with the 'FLOWLY' masthead that I have created even though it's simple.

Adobe Photoshop

Adobe Photoshop is one of the programs which I have actually used before working on my coursework. I have used it before in my own time for editing pictures, there was no real purpose to it other than that I enjoyed doing it. I used Photoshop to create my front cover of both my college magazine and my 'FLOWLY' magazine. Since I am a little bit experienced with Photoshop, I knew what I was doing more or less and I am happy with the front covers that I have created.

DSLR Canon Camera

I have never used a DSLR Canon Camera before and I'm not very good at photography, however I own a Nikon camera which I sometimes take pictures with. I believe that my photography wasn't very good and could improve in a lot of ways. However, I don't think my pictures turned out too bad and I was able to include them. I used the DSLR Canon camera to take pictures for my 'FLOWLY' front cover, contents page, and double page spread, I have never been in a photo studio prior to this coursework and it was a useful experience that I was able to learn from.

Question 5: Draft

How did you attract/address your audience?

Audience Feedback

I made a group chat on 'WhatsApp' and asked some of my friends what they thought about my front cover and contents page. Here is some of the feedback that I have received:

My friend pointed out that I used colours well and that my colour scheme was good. He also said that this grabs the readers attention and the front cover and contents page in general, is aesthetically pleasing.

I didn't tell my friend about my target audience for this magazine, however he instantly noticed that this magazine is targeted towards young people as I have used popular trends that come from the youth culture and outlined them in my front cover and contents page. For example, the clothes that my cover stars wear.

On the other hand, my friend pointed out that I have put a lot of writing on my front cover and at his first glance he would not want to read all of it so I should keep cover lines in my front cover brief. My friend also said that I should make the headlines in my contents page clearer so that it is easier to understand what the page will be about without reading the full text.

Question 4: Draft

Who would be the audience for your media product?

The target audience that I am waiting for is going to be between the ages 16 and 26, which would make my median age 21. This is because young adults are most likely to like rap out of all the other age groups and I would also want some of my readers to be teenagers as I will be featuring modern rap, which is what many teenagers are interested in.

The gender that I will be aiming is mostly males. This is because rappers are usually males themselves, and men are more likely to enjoy rap. However, there is also some females that like rap therefore I will also include some content which will appeal to females. In my case study, when I was looking at the 'XXL' magazine I found that 78% of the readers were male whilst 22% were female or other. Therefore, I would want 75% of my readers to be male and 25% of my readers to be female. I want to add content which would also appeal to females because even though they are not the majority of my audience, it is much better if my readers do not feel excluded and covering this would generate more profit.

My magazine will also be targeted at the black ethnic background. This is because rap/hip-hop is often listened to by that audience. However, I will also target people from a mixed ethnic origin and some people from the white ethnic background. This is because I want my magazine to feature a broader range of interests which may appeal to people from different ethnic backgrounds. My percentages of the audience will be 75% black ethnic background, 15% mixed ethnic background and 10% white ethnic background or other.

Audience Profile: Male

Age: 23

Gender: Male

Ethnicity: Black

Region: Hackney, East London

Enjoys going to parties and is likes to go to social events. Works part time at JD but is still a student at University. Likes to listen to grime, rap and hip-hop music. His main hobby is playing football but he also listens to and likes to make music. He is working class and lives in a small apartment.

Audience Profile: Female

Age: 20

Gender: Female

Ethnicity: Mixed

Region: Bromley, South London

Enjoys hanging out with friends and going to parties. She has just started University. Enjoys listening to grime and rap. Her main hobby is playing dodgeball and going to youth club. She is unemployed and still lives with her parents.