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

By using a magazine with a similar audience age and genre, I used ideas and developed them in order to make the conventions of my magazine suitable for the genre.

I looked at VIBE, a leading hip-hop magazine published in America.

Bold, red and black masthead. It layered behind the image and text. This is a common convention used by this magazine.

The artist modelling for this issue is composed in a straight posture, making full eye contact with the reader. The body language draws the reader to notice the articles which are placed in the ears of the cover.

There is no signs of a barcode on this cover, which is unconventional.

This magazine uses plain backgrounds for most of their issues. This gives the impression the background is plain in order for the picture and text to stand out more.

There are only two different fonts used, this convention is similar for all VIBE magazines.

Black, red and grey are the colours used for the text. Red is a colour that is used in many issues of VIBE. The black and red possibly conveys a meaning to the magazine such as negativity and anger which is what the artist may be feeling, this may encourage the reader to find out why the artist is feeling this way.

This magazine uses three layers, the number of layers vary between each issue. Some issues of VIBE use two, some use three.

Pull quote included for main article in the eyebrows of the magazine.

Header/Eyebrows

Main cover line

Full bleed image

Similar to VIBE, I only used two different fonts. I made this decision as I wanted to keep my style simple, also by using a certain font for the majority of the magazine will help the audience familiarise themselves with the style of the magazine. This is a convention that VIBE also uses, as it is common for there to be a main font or colours in their magazine.

I positioned my model in this way as the gesture would attract the eyes of the audience to look in the direction that the hand is pointing. By placing the main article in this area if the eyebrows, it signifies to the audience the importance of that article, this will encourage them to read it.

Masthead included, similar to VIBE. The capitals and bold colours look appealing, also I thought using the colours black and purple could be associated with both boys and girls, this is important as my target audience is based for both genders.

Header is included.

Eye contact with a serious expression. This conveys a sense of seriousness which may intrigue the audience to read the article, the same expression is used by the model on VIBE.

By using a grey and white blended background, I found it made the image and text stand out more. This is effective for a cover and plain backgrounds are also a common choice with VIBE magazine.

Unlike the sample VIBE cover, I added a barcode. This convention is significant to any magazine when being purchased.

Pull quote also included for main article

The model is dressed in casual but trendy clothes, as hip hop artists are usually dressed in contemporary clothing.

Cover line

Full bleed image

Example of a contents page from VIBE magazine

This contents used a variety of fonts, this makes the page look presentable.

Each page number has been made bold, this is an effective convention that many magazines use so it is clear for the audience to read.

The contents is written in a black and cold format. It is common for VIBE to use three lines for their contents. This convention could be used to make the magazine more original to the audience.

The use of a plain background creates more focus on the image and text, the artist on the contents must be the main attraction as that is what the audience will be looking for.

The model has a straight posture, the eye contact with the audience, also the clothes are contemporary which is significant to hip hop, as celebrities usually dress in latest fashion within the hip hop industry. Also the body language suggests this magazine portrays a sense of confidence. The audience may feel they can trust the magazines content.

There is no header included in this contents, this may come across as unconventional.

I challenged the conventions VIBE magazine by making my contents headline more simple. I still used the idea of making it bold, but I thought the plainer design would make it look more formal and easier to read.

The model is making eye contact but rather then standing straight I decided a crouching position would be effective. I highlighted the text on the image to show this is the main article in the magazine.

One of the main conventions of any magazine is making the page numbers stand out. Seeing as the text is mostly black, by changing the numbers to a purple colour and making them bold this will make it easy for the reader to see it.

The use of the masthead being used in the contents effective so the reader is still familiar with the magazine. This is slightly different to VIBE as they included just the ‘V’ in the background.

I stuck to my main colours of black and purple, this helps the audience familiarise themselves with the design of the magazine.

I created a box out for this contents to highlight the benefits that this issue is giving to the audience. This isn’t found within the VIBE contents page on the previous slide.

Separate sections were used, this is so the audience know what parts of the magazine are articles and what parts aren’t. This is a convention used in VIBE magazine, as different titles are used for different sections in the magazine.

Unlike VIBE’s contents, I included a header and a footer to make it more conventional.

Example of a double page spread from VIBE

Pull quote

Gutters

Copy/text

Drop cap

There are two main images in this article, one of them do not include a caption which may come across as unconventional to some people.

No page number, this may also come across as unconventional.

The artist is looking down in this picture, although there is no eye contact the fact he is smiling gives the impression this interview is a positive and happy one.

Image constrained by margin like the text.

Plain white background, this is so the focus is not taken away from the imagery or text.

Black and white image gives out a formal or classical impression. This could be because the artist is trying to convey his music will be around for a long time, just like the olden day music is still around today.

Title

Stand first

I highlighted the questions to a different colour from the answers, this was to make it clearer to the audience what were the questions and what were the answers. Also the colours portrayed the two different people, the purple being the interviewer and the black text is the person being interviewed. This was not shown in the VIBE double page spread.

Gutters

Unlike the example from VIBE, I placed captions for both images. I felt this was more conventional.

Pull quotesI included page numbers in my magazine. Without them the reader would have difficulty trying to find the article.

Header

Unlike my cover, I chose not the edit the background of these images. This is because I wanted the reader to feel they have engaged with the star and his work, so by showing images within the studio the reader will feel they have had a proper insight to what the producer does.

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The age group I am targeting is 16-24 year olds. I wanted the magazine to relate to both boys and girls, which was done through the colours. By using purple and black, I felt this could apply to both sexes, rather then using a more feminine colour like pink or a more masculine colour like blue. My magazine is to be distributed in the UK and the USA; as if successful this will generate a good profit for the magazine. The genre I chose was specifically Hip-Hop, which I used samples from leading magazine brands such as VIBE.

One way I have tried to target my audience is by the clothing. The model I used is wearing casual but seemingly fashionable clothing, as many males wear similar clothing to this. Although my main article is focusing on a male star, other articles which are mentioned on the cover and contents include interviews from female ‘stars’ too, so this balanced between genders of my audience.

I wanted my magazine to appeal to all ethnic backgrounds, the use of an Asian star means that the audience doesn’t have a specific cultural focus. All the artists included in my magazine are of diverse backgrounds, so anyone of any race can feel involved and comfortable to read my magazine. Also because my magazine focuses on a sound producer rather then an artist, I feel that people who want to enter the music business but not necessarily want to sing or dance can be encouraged to try get involved with other important roles within the music industry, as the production of music is highly significant and people tend to forget artists do not generally write or produce their own songs or backing tracks.

The main article focuses on an 18 year old sound engineer, which can relate to the target audience as people who are 16 may find interest in this career, also people over the age of 18 may find they want to get involved with the star’s work.

The amount of advertisement I included in my magazine is significant to my audience. Because I am basing this magazine for teenagers/ young adults, I felt there should be less advertisement as teenagers aren’t generally loaded with money, and most young adults would have only just started full time work. By using less advertisement, this appealed more to the younger audience as they aren’t going to be buying a large amount or highly expensive products.

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

Because I want my magazine to be distributed in both the UK and the USA, I think well established institutions such as IPC could sell my magazine as it distributes other magazines such as NME. Seeing as NME is a rock based magazine, I feel my magazine as a unique selling point (USP) as it doesn’t just focus on artists; it focuses on the production of the music and the important first stages in the making of the music before it is passed onto the singers.

Another institution that could sell my magazine is Bauer, as it sells magazines such as Empire. Although Bauer is originally UK based, it is a worldwide institution and sells over 300 magazines. This is beneficial for my magazine as it can be distributed to the countries that I want it to be sold in, which includes the UK and USA.

The main distributor of my magazine would be newsagents and supermarkets, as those are common places for people to look for magazines. These locations are effective as people of all ages are found in these retail shops everyday, so the magazine would be in a place where many people can notice it and take interest in purchasing it.

4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

The target audience I chose for my media product is people between the ages of 16-24. Bearing in mind this is quite a young audience, I assumed a lot of the people who want to buy my magazine won’t be earning a relatively high disposable income, as many teenagers or young adults may not even have a job. I priced my magazine at £2.50, which is an affordable and reasonable price to charge. Less advertisement will increase the cost of the magazine as the production cost will be higher. Because of the lack of adverts, the magazine may not sell as well in its early stages of release.

I think my magazine can inspire people who want to get involved with the music industry, as the main article includes an interview from a sound engineer who has worked his way into producing tracks for various stars such as Tinchey Stryder. Considering the teenager is just eighteen, stories like these could influence people of any age or gender to take their music passion and make an ambition out of it. I feel that people who read magazines forget where the music actually comes from, and the process right from the lyric making to the backing track is all created by different people working within the industry. Despite this, my magazine does have articles that include interviews with artists, as people enjoy reading about the latest gossip of their favourite stars too.

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

Cover Contents Page Double Page Spread

I used a range of techniques to attract and address my audience. For example, the content uses informal language, as a younger audience can relate to the way it is written as the majority of people in the younger generation use informal language in everyday life. Also, my magazine uses a reasonable amount of imagery rather then text, as teenagers or young adults may not be willing to read a large amount of text. By using a variety of sections in the contents and contrasting the colours, I felt this made it look more appealing to my audience. I kept my layout simple, by doing this I used a specific font (Calibri) so my audience can familiarise themselves with the style of the magazine. Also, taking into consideration the magazine is targeted for both boys and girls, I used the colours purple and black. This avoided the layout seeming like it is based to a certain gender. My backgrounds are plain for all sections of my magazine, as I wanted my audience to focus on the main attractions which are the images and text. I felt the grey background on the cover made this effective, so the audience would notice my cover if they were to purchase it in the shops.

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

During this task, I used a variety of skills with different software's. For example, to manipulate pictures and crop them into the right measurements I was required to use Photoshop. By changing the height, width and resolution when cropping the image I was able to turn my image into an A4 one, this was essential as magazines are usually an A4 size. I can now manipulate images and export or place them into other software’s without decreasing the quality, which was always an issue for me when I would edit images before. Although the process of editing the image was reasonably easy, I found more difficulty in actually taking the pictures. Using hardware such as a professional digital camera, I was faced with the problem of making sure my camera was focused before taking any pictures. Because of this error, I had to retake my pictures twice which was time consuming. Now I am aware that the focus of the camera must be adjusted beforehand or the images will turn out blurry. Once I connected the USB from the camera onto the computer, I could easily open my images and locate them within my documents when using Photoshop. After manipulating my image and sizing them correctly, I had to press ‘save as’ rather then save, just to make sure my original pictures were safe if I were to make a mistake. Another software that I used in the process of constructing my magazine was Adobe InDesign. This was used to place text onto my image, which would make it look more realistic for a cover. I placed my image onto a plain A4 document, which was easy as I had already edited the size in Photoshop. I found that adding the text was clear and straightforward, as I just had the make the decision of what fonts and sizes I would use. Adding text boxes were pretty self explanatory, as the icons were clear to see. Once I had completed my cover in Abode InDesign, I had to export my cover in order to make it a JPEG image. The reason for doing this was because all my work had to be placed on Wordpress. This site is specifically made for people to blog, which was what we used to upload all our work. Using Wordpress was simple, the only issue I had was making separate categories for each section of my magazine. I can now upload any image onto this blog which may come in handy to me if I were to use it in the future. Not only am I able to manipulate the size of an image, I can now edit the background by using the quick selection tool and selecting any background I wanted to get rid off. Once I had selected everything, I then erased it to make everything around the image white. I could then manipulate the colour of the background by clicking the gradient tool. In the future I would like to learn how to airbrush images as that is a useful skill to have when editing images or using Photoshop.

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

full product?I am now able to manipulate the background of my image, which I was not aware I could do when doing my preliminary task. I have knowledge of how to use software’s such as Photoshop, Adobe InDesign, Wordpress and Slide Share to a good standard. I can create different styles of mastheads or colour text by mixing them together and changing the width of the first layers of text. This creates bold borders and make the text stand out more. I am able to save any image and manipulate it without decreasing the quality of the image, although I was taught how to do this in the preliminary task, I always forgot to click maximum pixel quality when saving image. I am now aware of this and can create professional images using Photoshop. I have interacted with the audience by understanding the people buying my magazine may not be able to afford or buy a lot of expensive products, which is why I made the decision to add less advertisement. However, I should expand the name of the brand by getting more companies to notice my magazine and publish their adverts in it. This will help reduce the price of the production for my magazine and hopefully reduce the original price in the future; this will attract more customers if people notice the cheaper price and the good content.

Preliminary Task Final Magazine Cover