7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the process from it to the full product?

Given that I constructed my preliminary task before undergoing any research or planning meant that looking back I can see just how dismal my school magazine was. I had not yet understood the expected form of a magazine or how to arrange things in order to appeal directly to my demographic meaning that the sales of that magazine would have been very low and unsuccessful. I have come to realise that understanding the audience is key. Yet when creating these pages I had not done any research into my demographics' lifestyle, wants or needs from a school magazine. My qualitative and quantitative research into my demographic was vital in furthering my understanding of what my audience wanted from a magazine and therefore helped me to construct a more successful mode of address that would appeal to them for the main piece. The qualitative audience research focus group was incredibly helpful as it meant that I could gather rich, detailed answers from my demographic rather than just pre-written answers ticked from a selection which was what I received from my quantitative survey that I conducted using ‘Question Pro’. My research into existing texts was vital as it helped me to understand the codes and conventions in detail and therefore take that knowledge of your audience (from my research) and use it to design the mode of address of a magazine that they would want to read. The in-depth analysis I conducted into three different front covers, contents pages and double page spreads all helped to advance my understanding of music magazine conventions and how they were codified to entice a certain demographic. Among other things my technical skills with photo shop and publisher developed and improved the most from the preliminary to the final task. I learnt how to manipulate images fully in order to make them hyper real and also how to adjust them in order to make them appear more professional and of a higher standard. As well as this I became more confident when it came to using Microsoft Publisher and found it easier to crop images, place them according to the text and also became better at arranging textboxes and designing pages to make them appear as professional as possible. It was also apparent that focussed audiences are much easier to target. With my preliminary task I had to make my magazine appeal to students, teachers and parents which is very difficult as they all look for different things they would expect of a school magazine. Thus when it came to constructing my main task I was able to take more time and conduct more research into my demographic as well as having a better understanding when it came to designing my pages to make them the best they could be in order to appeal to my niche audience.