Evaluation - Question Five

How did you address/attract your audience?

I feel that my media product attracts my Target Audience in a number of ways, and by looking at my Front Page, Contents Page and Double Page Spread, I'm going to show you how I have used my research into my Target Audience to influence the construction of my Media Product.

My Creative Decisions

Throughout the entire process of construction of my media product, I have been making creative decisions to ensure my magazine appeals to my Target Audience as much as possible. For example, the choice of a Black Background on the Front Cover and Double Page Spread gave my magazine a more ominous atmosphere as it challenged the usual conventions of a music magazine. This is applied to my Target Audience since their nature of challenging the 'mainstream' ideas of music and fashion can be linked with the new and interesting ideas explored in the layout and page design of my Magazine. The use of the shards that frame the bottom of the magazine was a graphic element that I created again to challenge the normal conventions of music magazines to appeal to my anti-mainstream Target Audience.

The 'Micro' Details

As you can see in my Media Product, there are many small details that help make up the page layout, model pose and many other major aspects of the music magazine. These will be outlined here:

• Shot Composition: My photos are all shot with angry expressions and mainly from low angles to suggest a dominance over the reader. All of my pictures are also shot in the dark so that they will blend with the black background in a more realistic and believable way. Costume has been used to create a link with my Target Audience and link to the genre of music that makes up the content of my music magazine.
• Genre Conventions: The genre of music that makes up the content of my music magazine is Metal along with all its sub genres. The connotations associated with this genre of music include immense anger, dominance and power through confrontation, and with the pictures used throughout my media product I have tried to present these emotions using a combination of low angle shots and dark lighting. This type of shot can be linked to a picture used for the Double Page Spread of a Metal Hammer article (above). The low angle and dim lighting conveys the conventions of an article on Heavy Metal, and these conventions are what influenced a lot of the images that I took for use in my media product.
• My Unique Selling Point: The Unique Selling point of my media product is the way in which it challenges the usual conventions of a 'mainstream' music magazine. Although there are aspects of my music magazine that contain inspiration and influences from other magazines (namely Metal Hammer and Kerrang!), many of the design elements that I have created push the boundaries of modern music magazines. Since the magazine industry is currently a fragmented market with many popular titles becoming solely online-based as they fail to keep up with the changing environment. I feel that my music magazine "Project Mayhem" is what this industry needs to get it out of the state of flux it is currently in, with the new challenging conventions incorporated into its design.