EVALUATION OF “BOOM” MAGAZINE

By Sheetal Dabasia

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge the conventions of real media

products?The “Vibe” conventions for the masthead is the large bold writing, being covered slightly by the

central image

The “Vibe” conventions for the central image is,

they are mostly placed in the middle or occasionally

to the side, with the “model” looking directly

at the camera.

The “Vibe” conventions for the cover line, is that the main article is mostly the largest text on the front

cover, relating back to the central image as well, giving

more of an insight to the audience

The “Vibe” conventions for the barcode is, they are mainly placed at the bottom on the cover on

either side, sometimes on its side and sometimes

straight

The “Vibe” conventions for the eyebrow is,

majority of the “Vibe” magazines will have an

eyebrow at the top of the cover.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge the conventions of real media

products?

On my magazine cover, I went with the tradition convention of a large and bold

masthead behind the central image.

Another convention that I followed was that the

largest text on the front cover is the main article inside the magazine and

relates to the central image.

I placed my central image to the right of the page, leaving room on the left to promote

what is in the magazine, I used a female so that my

magazine would attract both genders and made the

image large showing that the female plays a big part on

this edition of the magazine.

“Vibe” has their barcode rotated in several ways in

new editions of the magazine, but I decided to go against

the convention of the sample cover that I used to make it

look different.

I went along with the convention of an eyebrow,

this shows the readers what may be inside the magazine

as they are all RnB artists

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge the conventions of real media

products?

The “Vibe” conventions for the central image is a long shot, placed on the right side of the page, they are

looking directly at the camera which is quite

common in the vibe content pages. The central image of

the content page would attract males readers just as much as female readers as

the 2 ladies are wearing rather revealing clothes making themselves look

quite sexual and appealing to mean.

The “Vibe” conventions for the sub heading is that the font if different compared to the rest of the font used on the page, making it stand out showing

that it is a sub heading.

“contents” is in a large font, bold and also black so that it

stands out from the grey background. The word has been broken down into chucks, which

isn’t very conventional for regular magazines.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge the conventions of real media

products?I followed the convention of a large font for “Contents” and I

also went along with the idea of an unconventional way of

writing “Contents”. Something I did different was add an outline

to the text and used another font compared to the sample

contents page.

As for the central image I followed the conventions of having the image to the right

of the page, putting two images of the same person

together instead of two different people. I made him have an intense look on his face to attract the female

audience to read the magazine. Another thing I did

was cut off the legs of the model rather than having an

full long shot.

The “Vibe” conventions for the sub heading is that the font if different, so I went along with that convention, changing the font to something more script like in the sample that I have

analysed, but this time I gave it an outline to make it stand

out.

This is not present in the contents page sample that I used, I went completely against the conventions

and added an extra bit of text to the right corner of

the page and made it large with an outline in

order for it to draw attention from the

audience.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge the conventions of real media

products?The “Vibe”

convention for the page number is put

on the top corners of the pages, one on

the left and one on the right, along with

their website too.

The first page on the double page spread has a full

bleed image of the artist, the artist is not giving direct

eye contact to the camera either, the artist has a speaker box as a prop in the image giving up an

hint about what it is that he does.

Credit has ben given to the photographer at the bottom

of the image in very small text, something that is

conventional with a lot of magazines, not just “Vibe”.

The article is set in 3 columns, this article is a interview, hence the reason why the questions are in bold. They have separated the

questions and answers together leaving space in between.

This is the heading of the double page spread, the

convention of the heading is that, each word is in

the same font but in different font sizes, they have

also used 2 different colours.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge the conventions of real media

products?I also have an full bleed image on the

first page of my double page

spread, following the vibe convention of the sample that I earlier analysed. I

have made my model sit on a

music box, with headphones in her ears making it look stereotypical of an artist and again my

model is not looking directly to the camera either.

Credit has been given to the photographer at the bottom

of the image in very small text, something that is

conventional with a lot of magazines, not just “Vibe”.

I challenged the conventions of the page number, by

placing it in the bottom right corner of the right page

along with the website for my magazine.

The double page spread that I

analysed did not have an

Discography, it was just an

interview, so I went against that convention and

added an discography for

Nicole Scherzinger into

my article.

I followed the convention of the

heading for my double page

spread, but did not use other colours, I only used black, which goes partly

against the convention.

Here I went completely against the typical conventions of a

double page spread and added an image in the middle of my article. I thought I would be a

little rebellious and make it my own.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Pose:Image 1) The pose that I have made my model do, is look straight at the camera and smile. It’s a positive pose, showing no signs of aggression, as she is meant to be a female RnB artist and look attractive to attract males to read the magazine.Image 2) The pose that I made my model so something a bit neutral, raised eyebrows and looking directly at the camera to capture the attention of female readers. He has a slight intense look on his face, pulling down the top corner of his jacket again to draw in female attention.

1 2

Outfit:Image 1) My model is in a black top showing her arms and shoulders, blue skinny jeans and heels that are not present in the picture. I didn’t make her wear something too revealing as I want it to be appropriate for the target market, ages 16-25 years old.Image 2) I have made my model wear a blue baseball jacket with a top inside and blue jeans, basically casual wear but still looking stylish and attractive.

Location:I used the TV studio in college to do the photo shoots, In image 1 I used a white background as it would match with the whole positive vibe that my model is giving off and for image 2 I used a black background so that his jacket would stand out against the black, also along with his fair complexion.

Social groups:The target audience for my media product is ages 16-25 years old both males and females, hence the reason why I have chosen models in that age category for my magazine. The language I have used is a mixture of formal and informal as I don’t want to make the magazine too “Ghetto” like Vibe is.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?Design construction…

The colours I have used for my contents page are, Black, blue & red. I kept this theme going on from the front cover and made very few changes. The reasons why I picked these colours is cause they work for both genders, they are all pretty dark colours and stand out as they are bold. I have used a variety of fonts, representing that nothing is the same in the music industry, everything is different and everyone is different individually.

The broken up “contents” represents that the younger generation are willing to try new things and not make everything look so simple.

The colours I have used for my double page spread are again, Red, black and blue, with a hint of white in the text. Red is a good representation for a girl, red is the colour of “Love” and this way it shows that the artist obviously loves their career. I haven’t used many different fonts on the double page spread as I wanted it too look a little neutral and not over done as this is a magazine for 16-25 year olds and not for small kids.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

My magazine would not sell unless I am joined to a publishing company and a company that is willing to distribute my magazine. If I want my media product to sell I will have to go to a institution that sells a lot of magazines and know that they are doing so, I would join forces with “Future media with passion” in order to distributemy magazine. They have been in the Media industry since 1985.

The magazine example that I used “Vibe” Is published by “Vibe Media|Access network” .

As my magazines is a music magazine, I would like for my Magazine to be sold in places where a lot of people shop, such asThe super market, news paper stands where people walk past and can see my magazine on the shelf. Shops such as “WHSmith” would be a great idea too, as they sell a lot of magazines daily and my target audience would be seen there regularly as majority of them would be students. News agents would definitely be ideal, as they are everywhere and easy to access by all ages between 16-25 years old.

Who would be the audience for your media product?