Planning Evaluation

Ever since I last blogged, I have been working on my evaluation. This includes:

• Planning the answers to each question
• Choosing an appropriate technology to present the answer to each question
• Preparing the presentation of each question

So far, I have completed the following questions:

• Question 2 (podcast)
• Question 3 (vlog)
• Question 4 (vlog)
• Question 5 (Prezi)
• Question 6 (Prezi)

I am currently working on Question 7, which will be a Slideshare.

Audience Research/Feedback (Main Task)

These are the answers that I received for the questions that I posted on my blog about my magazine, that will be useful for my evaluation.

Question 1: Who are the target audience of my magazine? What age, gender, ethnicity, class are they?

• Christians of all ages and classes
• Christians aged 16-19, white, middle-/working-class
• Ages 14-24, mainly female, all ethnicities and classes

Question 2: How are listeners of Contemporary Christian Music represented? Please describe in terms of how people of different ethnicities, genders and ages are represented in my magazine, and whether or not this reinforces any stereotypes.

• Laid back and chilled
• White females aged 16-19 are represented as creative and established but boring
• Reinforces white stereotypes of creativeness, but isolated
• Calm, quiet, collective, simple
• Younger people are represented as more mature and able to fit in with the older generation
• Conforms to white Christian stereotypes of naturism
• Presented as being anyone who is interested in a livelier form of worship, but mostly white females
• Goes against stereotypes of churchgoers being of the older generation

Question 3: Which elements of my magazine do you like?

• The colour scheme is well suited for the target audience
• The DPS is good
• The layout and the friendly, upbeat tone of the narrative

Question 4: Which elements of the magazine could be improved?

• The skylines could have been a darker colour
• The text over the photos could have been clearer

Question 5: What technical skills - on Photoshop and InDesign - could be improved?

• "I don't think any technical skills [could] be improved"
• "Happy with presentation"

Question 5

What technical skills - on Photoshop and InDesign - could be improved?

Question 4

Which elements of the magazine could be improved?

Question 3

Which elements of the magazine do you like?

Question 2

How are listeners of Contemporary Christian Music represented? Please describe in terms of how people of different ethnicities, genders and ages are represented in my magazine, and whether or not this reinforces any stereotypes.

Question 1

Who are the target audience for my magazine? What age, gender, ethnicity, class are they?

Magazine Second Draft

 

 

Front Cover, Contents Page and DPS

I had a lesson yesterday, and so was working on all the parts of my magazine.

Front Cover

As the Big Church Night In coverline had the less important words, 'Your guide to,' on a separate line to the rest of the coverline, I decided to do the same with the Olympic Effect coverline, and put the less important word, 'the', on the line above. This made the coverline shorter and meant that it didn't obscure more of the model.

I also changed the colour of the Big Church Night In coverline from black to white, as white is now a part of my colour scheme and the coverline was not as easily legible when it was black.

Contents Page

The only thing that I changed on my contents page was the image of my cover model. As I had changed the brightness and contrast of the main image on my DPS, which was taken in the same photo shoot, I decided to do this with all of the images from that photo shoot. The effect that this had on the image was to make it brighter so that it was clearer and more conventional, as it is unlikely that a darker photo will be used in a magazine.

DPS

I also changed the brightness and contrast of the smaller images on my DPS, and added an exclamation mark on the last sentence of the interview. Before, this sentence finished with a full stop, but now that it finishes with an exclamation mark, it has a greater tone of enthusiasm.

Workshop

I had a Media workshop during which I made lots of alterations to my magazine and learnt lots about Photoshop and InDesign. In this post I will be explaining what I learnt from this workshop about Photoshop and InDesign.

Front Cover

Contents Page

DPS

What I learnt

Photoshop

• How to use the eyedropper tool
• How to give text an inner glow
• How to use the quick selection tool
• How to use the magic wand tool
• How to use the magic wand tool and then create a new layer with the selected element
• How to change the opacity of a layer
• How to edit the elements of a drop shadow e.g. colour, distance from text, etc.
• How to use the paint bucket tool
• How to edit the brightness and contrast of images
• How the crop tool works
• How to make text bold
• How to change the view on Photoshop so that the guidelines are not visible, therefore getting a preview of what the exported JPEG will look like

InDesign

• How to use the rectangle tool
• How to use the gradient feather tool and change the level of tint of the gradient

Audience Feedback

I have received audience feedback on the first draft of my magazine via my blog, and am having a Media workshop on Wednesday to act on the feedback that I have been given. I have, therefore, made a plan for action to make changes to my magazine based on the feedback at the workshop.

Feedback

Front Cover

• The fact that the name of my magazine is a Psalm is good
• My front cover needs a better layout
• The image needs to be changed

I was aware of the image problems and have since changed the image on my front cover. I also agree with the fact that the layout is not conventional and needs to be changed slightly.

Contents Page

• The colour scheme from the front cover continues
• The contents are positioned effectively and clearly
• There is not too much space filled in
• Despite the above, it is still eye-catching
• The contents page is overloaded with information
• It is a little confusing as there is a lot of text

Personally, I think that there isn't too much text on the contents page, although I will consider shortening the article descriptions slightly so as cut down on the amount of text.

DPS

• There are two small images in the corner, and it would be better if there was another one as there is a space at the end without an image in it
• There is a good use of colour on the article (mentioned by two people)
• The headline that I have used is good
• The questions asked are good and make the magazine look more professional
• I should play around with some effects on the big image so that it is clearer
• There should be more colours in the background, as it is rather bland
• The model's expression in the smaller pictures seems forced

It would be possible for me to add another picture to the DPS, but I don't think that it is necessary. I think that having two images is fine, but maybe the layout would be better if there was one in each of the bottom corners rather than if they were next to each other.

The main image is slightly dark, so I will try and play around with some effects to edit this image and see if I can make it look better.

I don't agree with the comment that the model's expression seems forced. This is because when I was doing my photo shoot (Location Shoot 3), I simply asked the model to choose her own poses, and when she did one that I liked, I asked her to keep it while I took a few photos of her in that pose. Therefore, because the model chose her own poses, I don't think that they were forced.

As for the comment that the background is bland, this was something that I had thought was a problem with my contents page, not my DPS, as there is more white background visible on my contents page.

Plan for action

Front Cover

• Change the image
• Edit the layout

Contents Page

• Make article descriptions shorter
• Try some effects with the background

DPS

• Try some effects on the big image
• Move one of the images to the opposite corner

Alterations

When I spoke to my model, I discovered that she decided to use the name that I picked out for her (Deborah Judge) instead of her real name. Therefore, I changed this on my front cover, my contents page, and my DPS.

Front Cover Experiments (Part 2)

My audience feedback told me that I should change the main image on my front cover. I therefore took some more photos and have selected the five best ones. I have chosen to make front covers of all of these, with the same layout that my original front cover had. This is just to see which photo works best as a front cover. I will be changing the layout at a later date.

Front Cover Option 1:

Front Cover Option 2:

Front Cover Option 3:

Front Cover Option 4:

Front Cover Option 5:

I think that the best photo out of these is the third option. This is because she looks dynamic and the masthead fits well with the photo. Also, the lighting does not obscure her face by being too bright, and is not too dark to look unprofessional. However, my target audience may think differently, so I will be asking them which they think is the best before making a decision.