My magazine does largely stick to the conventions of an already selling and successful magazine I feel. The placement of my title is alike existing magazines in the sense that it is big and bold at the eyebrow. If I was to change the conventions I could have placed it on one of the ears for example.

Another factor such as the barcode has been placed in a conventionally. It is located at the bottom left of my magazine. I noticed that most allot of music magazines have their barcodes there, for example “VIBE” . An alternative place would be the bottom right which is also conventional. I could have put it at the back of the magazine but through my research I found that not many magazines put it there.

•In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

The Audience of my magazine are mainly teenagers to young adults that are interested in hip-hop and R&B music and culture. I set an age range for the magazine so that it would make it easier to identify what this specific age group want, this is not to say people just shy of teenaged years or an older person in their late twenties early thirties would not be interested.

The main readers of this magazine will mostly be black males with an urban dress sense that are influenced by the American Rap culture. As these people are probably at least one of their role models. Women and people from other ethnic backgrounds will also be interested as these genres of music are extremely popular and are listened to worldwide.

•How does your media product represent particular social groups?

As a passer by the first thing that is seen on a magazine is the image and its name. So I made it my priority to ensure I had a good title name and layout and also an eye catching interesting main image. As I have already touched on I have named my magazine Wavy which is a word associated with the young generation. So this will hopeful grab their attention . I also chose a font style and colour that can be easily seen. I made the A a different colour to the rest of the title as it brings a fresh aesthetic visual. In my research I didn't notice many magazines with different colours in the masthead.

•How did you attract/address your audience?

The publisher of my magazine I have decided will be IPC. They are a company with cross media ownership, meaning the cover a wide range of media. i.e. television, radio and magazines. Through doing research I found that there was a gap for a Hip-Hop/R&B under this publisher. This is why I believe that this would be advantageous because in terms of this genre of music my magazine is the focal point. In addition you can attract a much wider audience through the TV and radio. The more interest you have in your magazine the more successful it will be.

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

Photoshop played a large roll in the production of my magazine. The photos i had taken I was not 100% content with, so I required a program that would make it possible for me to easily edit photos. I chose Photoshop as I was already experienced using it from previous media projects. In addition it was accessible as the college had invested in it for the use of college students.

•What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

InDesign is a software application produced by Adobe Systems. It can be used to create works such as posters, flyers, brochures, magazines and books. This program is used by Professionals which was a major reason for me using it for the development of my double page spread. My lecturers advised that I used it also.

Continued...

The internet played an integral part in the making of my magazine. to carry out research for the double page spread on Def jam Rap Star and also conventions of other magazines currently in production.

To take photos I needed to use my camera from home. It was used for the images that would be included on my front cover contents page and double page spread. Also for any images I needed taking of a current magazine for my research.

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

Through me completing a preliminary task I learnt what was required of a successful magazine cover. I learnt the different parts of a cover. E.g. masthead, eyebrow. In addition colours that would be most eye catching too a passer by, pictures that will relate to certain audiences and also what wording techniques may entice someone to buy it.

I believe my college magazine to be okay for a first attempt, but it is missing some essential components. Simple things such as a barcode, what issue it is and the date it was released on. Also more minor faults like putting more detail into the information on the cover. The reader needs o get a rough idea of what’s inside to build a buzz around the featured stories inside and one world will not accomplish this.