In what ways does your media product use, develop

or challenge forms and conventions of real media

products?

What are the conventions of existing texts and how does my Hip-Hop magazine compare to these.

Once, I had completed my research upon several possible music genres to pick from, I finally then decided that Hip-Hop was the most well suited music magazine for me to create. This is because of my desire and love already for Hip-Hop as well as my regular in take of listening to my favourite Hip-Hop music and artists. I felt like I could easily relate to this genre, because of my knowledge already. My inspiration magazine, which I could at for guidance throughout my production of creating a Hip-Hop magazine was the most famous of all ‘VIBE’ which is known for their upbeat and wild Hip-Hop gossip, in which I also what I wanted to create. I carefully looked at the conventions the magazine had upon the pages; Front Cover, Contents Page and Double Page Spread, and this helped me to create a professional magazine, in which would sell to my target audience and make them feel attracted to it. I have already looked at examples of VIBE magazines and written textual analysis on them as we also spent time looking at other real magazines and challenged them with real media products. In order for my magazine to look as realistic and professional as I could possibly make it, by looking and analysing already published Hip-Hop magazine, it gave me a greater understanding of exactly what conventions I needed to follow in order for my magazine to stand a active role in competing against all the other Hip-Hop magazines in which are on the same shelf as what mine will be on.

My Magazine

The typical conventions of Hip-Hop magazines

The typical conventions of a normal Hip-Hop magazine are;

• Big bursts• Sell lines• A main image normally with a direct mode of address• Barcode and price• Black and white theme• Plain and simplistic style throughout• Serif throughout.• Pull quotes and call outs for specific article within the magazine• One bright colour• Housestyle of certain things like; masthead and page numbers

Challenging ConventionsRay Gun was a American alternative rock and roll magazine. Ray Gun explored experimental magazine typographic design. The result of the magazine ended up chaotic, abstract and the writing was not always readable, however distinctive in appearance. This followed no convention and unfortunately it did not sell well. And for this reason I wanted to follow conventions, especially because I want my magazine to aimed at a mass audience and I feel that it is very important to create a magazine which people feel comfortable reading as well as understand what they are reading about reading about, without feeling confused and dislike the pleasure of reading. However I do understand why he would like to bedifferent and unique, only in this modern era not a lot of peoplelike different anymore.

VIBE MagazineHere are some typical Hip-Hop genre magazines, before this course I didn’t really read Hip-Hop magazines, however now looking at them in detail , I have taken inspiration from VIBE and looked at all of their visual and language elements which is included throughout the magazine and this had helped me throughout the way, in creating my Hip-Hop magazine. VIBE has the same target audience as me and from that I can take on board there professional issues and create something like VIBE, however my own. I will use VIBE as a guidance in my production and hopefully this will help me to create something new and something different.

How has my Front Cover challenged Conventions?

Firstly, my front cover has challenged conventions by the effect I have chosen on my front cover. Most Hip-Hop magazine front covers are in a bight and non-effect and natural effect to emphasise upon their models natural look, where as I have applied a overlay on my image because I really like the black and white theme. Black and white is also a theme through out VIBE as well however not all of there issues are in black and white. I have challenged the male gaze image which VIBE normally presents and changed my image to become more classy and professional and likewise something my older target audience, both male and female will want to look at. I have also challenged the convention because behind my model is a brick effect which never seems to appear on VIBE magazine, a plain white background with a exposed picture of either a man or women is regularly on the front cover of VIBE, unlike my image, which is plain and simple, which no flesh showing, however I still think it will appeal and think believe the male gaze theory will be a active theory still, even though my image isn’t in any way sexually provocative. Meanwhile, I have also challenged conventions with the circle and free gift, which does not seem to appear on the VIBE magazine,however I wanted the audience to feel a audiencepleasure.

How does my Front Cover followconventions of a real Hip-Hop Front Cover

Even thought the font is different, I have kept the convention of the masthead to appear at the top of the page, as well as in a clear colour and bold and large font. Even though it is still different from VIBE, I have still followed the conventions and just made small changes to fit in with my different Hip-Hop magazine, because if I copied the font and colour, that would mean coping and creating a magazine which is already produced and that also means that my music magazine might not sell as good. Likewise I have also made sure there is roughly three colours, just like VIBE has because I don’t want to crowed my front cover with too many colours because Hip-Hop is very simplistic and three colours it just enough to connote a specific message to your reader. From the two images below you can see that both have different connotations from one another because they are trying to convey a different message to the target reader. Also through the use of looking back through my questionnaire I have noticed that some people have said that the yellow really strikes out to them the most on the page and that is what I wanted from the Front Cover, for the colour I have picked to stand from the rest of the text and images on the page.

How does my Contents Pagechallenge conventions?

My final contents page challenge conventions because I have made sure my contents page included quite a lot of colour, where as the VIBE magazine contents page doesn’t seem to have a lot of colour what so ever. I included colour because I feel the target audience needs to feel an attraction to my contents page because this is what exactly is going to direct them to the page at which they want to read upon their chosen artist. I have included the name of the magazine at the top left hand side of the page on my contents page which VIBE doesn’t, because I wanted that to be the housetyle throughout my magazine issues. Finally, another thing in which I challenge convention with on my magazine contents page is, that I have more sections at which I apply information underneath,unlike VIBE who only have 2 sections, however VIBE does have more information under than I do, but I onlyhave 3 section at which I wrote sub-heading. Also the writing I write underneath is brief and to the pointbecause not many people want to look at the contentspage for long and therefore making the page stand outand attract the readers eye, all they have to do is skimread the contents page to have a brief idea about the pages with the article, music and competition is on.

How does my Contents Page follow conventions of real Hip-Hop magazines

I decided that I wanted to keep 'Contents' split up like it was in the first draft, however I didn't really like the 'con' being on the top because the word 'Con' suggests something bad compared to a pro which is something good. Therefore, I decided to include the 't' to the 'con' to make it 'cont.' and that then wont make my readers have assumptions of it being something bad to read and a bad Hip-Hop magazine. For that reason, that is why I kept the VIBE inspiration and I really thought it made the contents page look really quirky and different and thought it would be a recognisable key item in which my readers will become familiar with because I will make it a house style and continually make it something with is in each and every issue of my Hip-Hop music magazine. Likewise, I also kept the layout of the page very similar too because loved the simple but very modern look about it. However my image takes up all of the page, the VIBE magazine doesn’t, which means I have followed convention all of the way, but it is good to be different I have made sure all my exposed information is in serif font, just a VIBE is to convey that the info I have expressed is trustworthy, safe and believable, because you want your audience to feel like your information is the most reliable source of gathering your Hip-Hop gossip and latest music and new singles and albums.

How does my Double Page Spreadchallenged the conventions of a real Hip-Hop

magazineSignificantly, one thing I challenged about the conventions of a real music Hip-Hop magazine, is the ‘H’ I have created, this does not appear in all VIBE magazine, however is does in some . The ‘H’ was used to apply emphasises on Hannah’s name and her achievement of her new place as Empress of Hip-Hop. Likewise, I included a pull out quote, which is “IM THE NEW EMPRESS” to break up the article from one another because I feel like blocks of writing is sometimes to much for the reader to read and it may out them of wanting to read it, because there is just too much on the page. In addition, pull out’s are in majority of music magazines- probably everyone you read- and therefore I took this as a overall convention rather than a convention from one magazine. The image on one side of the magazine is also how VIBE portrays there imageswhich I feel is suitable to the page and it makes the page look really clear, as I originally got this convention from VIBE.

How does my Double Page Spread followConventions of a real Hip-Hop magazine

I followed the convention of VIBE, for instance; the pull out quote is in the majority of music magazines- probably everyone you read- and therefore I took this as a overall convention rather than a convention from one magazine, however VIBE still included this in their issues of their magazines. Likewise, I followed also the convention of the writing font and colour because I feel black is a dark and overpowering colour which you need in order for your reader to understand and be eligible to read when they are reading my article. I feel like on my Double Page Spread I have challenged the convention of my inspiration Hip-Hop magazine ‘VIBE’ rather than followed the convention, which is definitely not a bad thing, because I have pin pointed out the key things which I feel works in VIBE and applied them into my own work, in my own unique way, changing things I don’t really like and creating something new, because it is all about experimenting and finding outwhat worked for my music magazine, and using conventions from ‘VIBE’ is a positive thing because it means my research can come in handy and I am able to create my own music magazine.

OverallOverall, I have kept the majority of conventions which are found in a Hip-Hop magazine. However, I didn’t want to use all of the conventions and some of the conventions of Hip-Hop music magazines I did not like and for that reason I changed them to suit my magazine. For instance, the location and place of setting for my main images and the colour scheme on my contents page and double page spread. I think that because all of the conventions are the same, that it makes my magazine different from the rest of the other magazines and that even thought I used some conventions I applied them and put them to great use, to make my Front Cover, Contents Page and Double Page Spread the most professional, natural and realistic I could for a Hip-Hop music magazine.