Evaluation - Question 4

Evaluation - Question 3

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

I feel that receiving any form audience feedback is a useful method in achieving a greater understanding for the product you are creating or have created. This allows you to gain an understanding of who your target audience is and how their needs are suited to what your product has to offer to them. With knowing this vital piece of information, I felt it would be beneficial to gain audience feedback for the media products I have created.

Through a variety of multi-media software’s, I have presented my audience feedback in a clear and concise way that has allowed the customer to tell me what they like, what they don’t like, how it suits them and how I can make it better for their needs.

I included a target audience profile whereby I asked four students in my primary target audience range of 16-25. I created this by the smooth-running and professional software Prezi. This helped me identify what four real life people are interested in and what their likes/dislikes where that I could incorporate into my regional entertainment magazine.

I created a reader profile that I created on PowerPoint by collecting data from a target audience survey that I gathered on the website surveymonkey.com. I asked 20 people to state their age range, gender and what they thought was the most important features a magazine should feature. This was useful as it allowed me to fully understand what my target audience wanted therefore, I would include this. It also provided me with responses that showed a low interest in, therefore not appropriate for my youthful target market.

I also filmed a video with a student who fits my 16-25 target audience trying to gather an understanding of what they would like to see in a magazine of my genre. I asked her specific questions such as “what kind of articles would you like to be featured?”, “how much do you think a regional magazine should be?” and I showed my guest an existing magazine of this genre and asked her “what do you like about this magazine” to which they answered with a several list of positive attributes.

After only creating my magazine for a single month, I received my first piece of feedback from my peers who provided me with positives about my ideas/pitch that would help me create the best regional magazine possible. They also provided me with constructive criticism in response to some of my ideas that I have stated and how I could change or redevelop those specific ideas.

Coming towards the latter stages of my creation process my class repeated a similar peer feedback session, where we each assessed each other's works and provided essential feedback that we felt would benefit each other. I had comments that reassured the creative choices I made and criticism that helped me tweak certain elements to suit a variety of reasons such as personal taste or more importantly my target audience would prefer. This helped me additionally as my target audience are also the same age range of that of my peers. 

I originally felt as someone that fits my target audience of a student that is between 16-25, I had a clear understanding of what my media products should look like, how they should appear, the content that should be included and way it was produced. However, after receiving a variety of audience feedbacks produced in a numerous of ways, I can understand how other’s viewpoints are just as valid and if not stronger than my original concept. With the knowledge, I feel that I have created a regional magazine that is suited to my mixed gender, youthful age range and entertainment enthusiasts.

Evaluation - Question 2

Evaluation - Question 1

Evaluation 1 from ellishilton98

Magazine - Front Cover - Draft #5

This is the final draft I made for my front cover. The noticeable changes include the resizing of font as I still felt it were still a little crowded and a typical regional magazine that I was researching avoiding this. I also added the pop of yellow under the sub-images as I felt 'exclusive' should stand out as it something I want to advertise to my target audience. I have also smoothed around the edges of my photo as it were still a little rough.

Magazine - Contents Page - Draft #9

This is my final draft of my magazine. I have only made several small changes I felt that were relevant into pointing out. Under the signature I have included the word 'editor' so that it is clear who the image and the accompanying text is from. I have also made a few spelling corrections that I later realised after proof reading my work.

Magazine - Contents Page - Draft #8

This is the eighth draft of my contents page. The noticeable changes I have made include the changing of the main photo featured. I have done this as I felt that my model was only wearing one costume and this felt quite 2-dimensional which didn't interest my audience. I have chosen another photo that my model is positioned in a similar way and offering the same friendly smile, however she is now wearing a typical coat a young person of her age would wear and a popular brand of shoes. I have also changed the font for my article text as I felt how it were previously in all capitals, felt unconventional. I have went for a softer text so that it is cleaner and easier to read. I have also changed the editor picture as the previous image was unprofessional due to the angle and the mise-en-scene. I have rectified this by taking a level, head shot of my editor.

Image Manipulation

Magazine Article Page (Double Page Spread) - Draft #6

I have made a major change in the sixth draft of my double page spread. This includes an overhaul of the font that I used as part of my article text. I felt similarly, to my contents page that it felt like the reader would be getting shouted at as the it were all in capitals. This is something after looking at my research into magazines, I found was unconventional. I have also included three sub images as I felt this added to my overall look of my double page spread. They are all in black and white as I felt this showed consistency. I have included captions so that the reader can identify what the photo shows. I also changed the strap line slightly to include VANT in the familiar font that the band uses all on their media. I have also included a standout, bold caption under one photo as I found NME who I took research inspiration from included something similar.

Photoshop Tools

Magazine Article Page (Double Page Spread) - Draft #5

I have since added another subheading called album that is in relation to any future music the band will release. I have also changed any errors in my article that I have only just spotted.

Studio Permission

I emailed a technician from my college photography studio to ask him when I would be able to use the room to take photos as part of my magazine work.

January Targets

Targets

1. Make sure you have feedback from target audience/peers uploaded
2. Contents Page draft to be uploaded

Peer Feedback #2

This is the second amount of feedback that I have received from my peers in my A2 Media Studies class. I have gathered a lot of information that will allow me to improve my magazine and ancillary tasks before they are finished. I also received comments in regards to my overall blog, this allows me to improve at the core also.

I have found that I received a strong amount of praise towards my magazine. Some of the main factors that were noted included that the front cover I recently added is very effective, this is due to me changing it from a plain background as I felt it looked quite mundane. Someone said that I had a good layout and that I keep to the regional theme throughout. This was very important to me as the brief specifies that the primary theme must be regional so I am glad this was recorded, due to the fact of the language that I had used that refers to locations in the North-East and Yorkshire. The house style has remained the same throughout and this is due to the colours and fonts, this shows consistency so that my readers know they are reading the same magazine. This makes it very distinctive.

My website also received some positive comments that included that theme of my overall product being entertainment really complements the regional theme as it is relevant to my target audience of 18-25 year olds. My layout of my website is also very simple and easy to look around which is important as if the structure appeared to complex or bare then this may detract any audience from staying on the site. Another mentioned that my website was creative and genre appropriate. Again, this was important to show that my genre suits my target audience in order to engage appeal. I have tried to do this by including Spotify playlists and YouTube videos as this will attract the music enthusiasts of this audience. There is also a great use of multimedia that has been used. Text, images, videos and other third party involvements. I feel this is a convention that most websites will incorporate as the more features to a website, the more people it will reach and be attracted to.

To improve on my website it was advised that I include more of my own content and to make it more regional. This is something I intend on doing as I feel it is very important to stress the regional theme just as much as my entertainment theme. I will include more local information such as music, film and television related facts to the region. Another improvement I received was to think about my colour scheme. As I am still in the creation process of the website, the colours are not set in stone. Currently the website is very basic in that it uses the colour black a lot. I will try to incorporate more of the dark red, blue and purple as this ties to my colour scheme from my magazine which will be familiar to readers of the magazine.

I will take back all the feedback and use it to the best of my ability so that my magazine and ancillary tasks can be much stronger.

Magazine Article Page (Double Page Spread) - Draft #4

This is the fourth draft of my article page, which I have now later changed to create a double page spread as opposed to one single page feature. The reason I decided to change my original idea was I felt my article was lacking in depth and I wanted the chance to create a longer and more interesting article that my target audience would enjoy. I also feel that a double page spread is a lot more professional and visually more appealing. Although physically different in size a lot has remained the same. I have still included my byline at the side to show constancy, the number at the bottom of the page (in addition to the number on the corresponding page), the website address and the month of the issue. The styling of my main heading/title remains the same as I felt this were professional and conventional. However, as I have added more detail to my article I also felt it were important to notify my reader different themes of each paragraph. I have included a divider which is titled 'youth' as that specific paragraph included details of the bands youth and time at home. I have also included a label on the main image that specifies where the photo was taken at. I have also included the slug at the top of the page as this is professional and conventional.

Billboard (Final)