Q1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

My evaluation for my music magazine coursework Evaluation:

My media product is a hip hop and R&B music magazine aimed at young black teenagers of both sexes. Before I began our music magazines I looked at examples of other magazines that had the same genre, and analysed them in depth so that when we came to do ours we had a better understanding. Not only that, but so we could follow the rules which make music magazines recognisable to audiences.

There are many ways in which my magazine uses the forms and conventions of a real music magazine.

One of the conventions I included was a selling line at the top of the magazine which states “The UK’s biggest hip hop ‘n’ R&B magazine you will ever read’. I’ve done this because selling lines are used a lot on magazine front covers to promote the magazine and so the audience would be more interested in spending their money because it’s the ‘UK’s best’

I also put ‘n’ instead of and in the selling line because my target audience (teenagers) would understand that type of slang and would appeal to them more.

Not only that I used a bright and large masthead which is another convention.  It’s placed in front of the model even though it would look more professional to place it behind, but I decided to make slight changes deliberately and challenge this convention so I placed it there because I wanted it to be one of the main highlights of the page. I also chose the font from the website ‘Dafont.com’ making sure the font matched the type of genre I chose for my magazine and at the same time making it look intriguing to my target audience.

Furthermore, I tried to make it stand out by making it bright blue to draw the attention of young teenagers as they’re into bright aluminous colours.

More conventions that I used to make my music magazine recognisable to audiences, was include a barcode and including the price and date line.

These things are important because the audience need to know the price of the magazine before they decide to buy it and so they can decide whether or not this magazine is worth spending their money on. In addition they need to be informed of when the magazine was published because they want to make sure that their not reading old news because that wouldn’t be any use to them because they have other free sources they can go to for that. So I placed it underneath the masthead so it’s clear and easily recognisable for the target audience.

Also the barcode is important because almost every product has one unless the product is free. This shows I’ve used the forms and conventions because without a barcode you can’t buy the magazine and every real music magazine has one. Some real music magazines have the website included on the barcode; the audience would be a bit confused buying a magazine or product without a barcode on it.

Other conventions used to attract my target audience were the cover lines on my magazine. Cover lines on magazines are very important and are recognised by audiences because it gives you a mini snapshot of what’s going to be included in the magazine; audiences can look at it and make the decision of whether or not this magazine is for them, in terms of age group or the taste in the music the magazine promotes and so on.

The cover lines in my music magazine are in the same font which is sans serif font. I done this because I wanted to make it look professional to show the audience that even though it’s a teenage magazine it doesn’t mean that it’s less professional or has less quality as other magazines aimed at older audiences.

I stuck to two colours on the cover lines which was purple and grey because the magazine isn’t aimed at just girls but boys as well so I balanced the colours to attract both genders. I also did this because I didn’t want to make it too colourful because the more colourful it would be the more it would attract a younger target audience. I tried to keep the colours balanced for young teenagers as well as the older teenagers around the ages of 17 or 18 years who may also be interested in the magazine. In addition, I made the main cover line large to stand out more because the cover line and the image are the main selling point of my magazine. On a real magazine cover you find the main cover lines placed vertically on the left hand side of the magazine sometimes on the right hand side also. In my music magazine I developed the convention of having more cover lines on the right hand side, with the main cover line there also. But this was done to make my music magazine a bit more original I also did this because I didn’t want the other cover lines to dominate the main cover line and the Image. 

Another convention I’ve used which is found on most music magazine covers is the picture of the model being in medium close up with an eye level shot. I’ve imitated that in my music magazine also to make my magazine look more realistic and because the image is the main selling point of the magazine so it had to be dominant over everything else on the cover.

A puff was also used on the bottom left hand side of my magazine front cover. This was done to attract the target audience because it says ’15 exclusive interviews’ and doesn’t say who with so it builds a sense of excitement and they’d start wondering who it’s with which is one of the ways that help sell the magazine quicker.  

 There are also many ways in which my contents page challenges the conventions of a real music magazine such as the small version of the front cover. Some real music magazines put a small version of their front cover on their contents pages so that you’re aware that the contents page is a continuation from the cover.

Not only that but I included a ‘contents’ title so the audience knows that this page is the contents and I included the name of the magazine also as part of the title, by placing this underneath and making it white to stand out. I developed this convention because most magazines put the name of their magazine somewhere in the corner or make it small or don’t use it on their contents page at all, but I made it large to show the importance of it. Also making both the titles stand out by making them large and using strokes and so on. But including fusions website and cover date in the top right hand side of the page as well. This is a convention that would be recognisable to my target audience. I made it white on a black background so that it stands out even though it’s small, and so it’s easy to find if the audience need some sort of contact information to the magazine. This is important.

Other conventions I’ve followed/used are the headlines which were ‘Inside’ and ‘Monthly’ so that the audience is clear of what’s inside the magazine as well as what’s in it magazine monthly. I made the text white again on a black background because it’s bright and clear for the audience to read. Also I separated the magazine into different areas (following more of the conventions). In addition I wrote a little bit about the pages underneath by using slogans to give the audience more insight on the pages available in the magazine and making it more interesting. Also putting them into columns making it clear and easy to follow but also is a recognisable convention to audiences.

Page numbers are also included, which is another convention.  

I Included pictures and not just of one model indicating that I’ve followed conventions again, with page numbers to show that each picture is a different page and has more information on that model on my contents page, (attracting the readers to the articles with pictures). I made the pictures quite large to attract the target audience which are teenagers. Most teenagers prefer looking at pictures rather that reading a page with lots of writing so I took that into account while making my contents page so it appeals to my target audience.

Also I used black models which show that this magazine is aimed at black teenagers of both genders. Even though there’s only one picture of a male on the contents page I challenged this convention because if a music magazine is aimed at both sexes there would be roughly the same amount of pictures of both sexes whereas mine was done because the pictures of the girls attracts the boys, Also because they’d want to look at a magazine full of girls rather than a magazine full of guys. (Unless they were homosexuals).  Also girls prefer to look at girls or older women in magazines that they can aspire to, be more like and look up too.

I developed the convention of having the pictures go around the writing because on most magazine contents pages all the pictures are either on one side or are together then the writing on the other side in a column. But I made mine slightly different making it more unique, and because there isn’t much text there are more pictures to attract my target audience.

The colour schemes used on the contents page is another convention because there the same colours used on the front cover; showing consistency.

The editor’s note’s is a bright and white to make it bold and stand out with the name of the editor, signature and photograph. This is important as it makes the reader feel as if the editor is talking to them; it’s in a non formal style of writing but involving the reader.

Last but not least there are more things I’ve used on my double page spread which follow the conventions of a real magazine. Such as the title ‘Rhianna’s come back’ which indicates the subject of what the text is going to be about, I made it large and white with a stroke to make it stand out.

A stand first was also included as a convention as a mini introduction about the text making the audience interested and excited about what’s coming next and making sure its not too long at the same time.

Other conventions I followed was having the large image of the model on the right hand side of the page but taking up the whole page because the picture is large it creates an illusion that the reader’s close to the model.

The image usually spills over two pages on real music magazine double page spreads; even though the image spills over two pages I had the model large on one side taking up one page and the background of the photo on the other side so that I could put the text in. I put the image on the one side taking up the page so that it stands out more than the text to appeal to my target audience. I also had 3 other pictures of the same model on the bottom of the page so that it’s more interesting and more appealing to the target audience because if there was one main picture it would be a bit plain and boring so I developed this convention and put 3 little images of the same model; also including strokes around the pictures so that it makes the pictures more vibrant and captivating to look at.

#

I challenged a convention because usually on a double page spread of a real magazine the quote’s are in-between he text but I separated it putting it over by the picture, to make it seem that the model is actually speaking to them saying ‘Never thought I’d make it’ by putting the quote near her face making it more real for the reader as It’s exactly her words.

Forms and conventions I’ve also followed on my double page spread putting the text into columns making sure it doesn’t spill over on the other side where the picture is because I want the reader to be more drawn to the picture rather than the text.

I used small font size12 because the text on double page spreads in real magazines are small but clear so you can fit more information on the page. I also used drop capital as a convention of a real magazine indicating to the reader where the article actually starts and where to start reading.

I also kept the colour scheme the same as the cover and the contents page. I also made the colour scheme simple creating a modern and contemporary look.

Q2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My music magazine is aimed at black teenagers of both sexes. The way my magazine represents the social group is through the props which is the jewellery. The model’s wearing gold bangles and a gold chain around her neck. This represents my social group a lot because hip hop and R&B artists wear a lot of ‘bling’ especially big gold chains and earrings, loads of bangles to show their wealth. This is because they like to boast about what they have and how much money they have, but I kept it subtle as she’s only a teenager but at the same time included it on the model.

Another way that my magazine represents my particular social group is through the subculture, which is an urban culture. The model I used on my front cover. She’s a young black teenager; she’s wearing a jean jacket with a vest top. I made the model wear bright colours and not dull depressing colours. This is a casual/normal dress code indicating that famous people are human and sometimes they’d want to dress casually. As she’s young as well I wanted her to dress/ look like a typical original teenager so that other female teenagers her age can feel inspired and dress like her and feel a sense of closeness to the model.

Body language is another indicator that I made my music magazine representable to the social group So I made her look laid back and relaxed by making her lean on the brick wall, as well as putting her in a casual dress code making her look unique and original also making her look directly at the camera; not smiling but not being dead serious at the same time. This also shows she’s relaxed and calm.

It also looks as if she’s taking a break from the world of fame, because not all models in magazines all wear glamorous clothing indicating their wealth a lot of the time. Which can be very common in hip hop and R&B magazines.

The colours also making it balanced with colours girls like and that would attract them like the pink and purple and the same with the boys using blue, grey and white which aren’t feminine colours. Also making the colours represent my particular social group by making the colours bright because if the blue, pink, purple and grey were dark it wouldn’t be that attracting to my target audience.

Q3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

The media institution I chose to distribute my music magazine is Bauer. I chose Bauer media because it operates in 15 countries around the world, it operates in radio as well as magazines and has over 80 different media brands and two of the most well known music magazines are distributed by this media institution (Q magazine and kerrange). All this would be very useful for me and the distribution of my magazine because I’d have the support of a big magazine distributor, also because it has a good distribution network. Bauer has lots of contacts with large companies also such as:  Sainsbury’s, Asda, Tesco, WH smith and so on. Not only that but I’d like my music magazine to be sold in small companies such as corner shops, newsagents and so on. Hip hop and R&B is also a small genre and usually targets niche audiences so being apart of a media institution that is very well known and is a large distributor it can get this genre to be more popular and broad.

Hip hop and R&B is also a small genre and usually targets niche audiences so being apart of a media institution that is very well known and is a large distributor it can get this genre to be more popular and broad.

I chose Bauer not just because of the distribution but also because they usually sale magazines about things such as women’s fashion and rock music, so it would also be beneficial to Bauer as they will be able to target different audiences not just the same types of audiences because they haven’t sold magazines about hip hop and R&B before. Also they can attract different advertisers to advertise in my music magazine (fusion) than what they normally work with. This leads to more money.

Q4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

The target audience my music magazine attracts are young black teenagers, ages 13-19. I chose this young age group because even though hip hop and R&B is listened too by many people of different ethnicities and ages it appeals and is associated more to young teenagers of that ethnic minority.

The gender my magazine targets are both male and females who take great interest in hip-hop and R&B or either one or the other.

My music magazine targets the ethnicity of young black british african/ caribean teenagers. I chose this ethnicity because even though there may be white hip hop and R&B solo artists, that type of music is mainly dominated by those of that ethnicity and because that type of genre is mainly dominated by black artists it attracts that target audience. I did this to make my music magazine more realistic as the target audience that I chose would relate and have a stronger interest when it comes to hip hop and R&B music.

Q5. How did you attract/address your audience?

I attracted my audience through the colour scheme I used; balancing the colours to suit the different teenage ages and at the same time making sure the colours appeal to males and females. I used large bold texts; I done this on the cover of my music magazine for example my main cover line and masthead.

Moreover, the model that I chose also was another way I attracted my audience because I presented and made her dress in the way that other teenagers of her age would understand and relate too, or maybe even dresses the same way. I made sure that the way she was dressed was also the way a typical black British teenager would dress, and made sure that in choosing my model she was within the age range that I chose, which I included in my audience research. I made sure that the model was also attractive so that it attracts the audience, and making sure the picture was shot in medium close up because the image a long with the main cover line of her name are meant to be the main selling points of the magazine so I made it large and in your face to attract the audience. In addition as the hip hop and R&B music artists are into big large gold/ silver jewellery so will the audience be into big large gold/ silver jewellery. So I used that as a way of attracting my audience by making sure the model had some sort of jewellery worn.

I used the names of artists that the audience will recognise in the cover lines of my magazine and that are quite popular in the genre of music that I chose. This is because if I chose names of say a new hip hop artist, for example that jus started out in the music industry but no one knows of him only the odd few would want to spend money to find out who this artist is, but most would probably go for someone who is well known by the audience rather than someone who no one knows about because they haven’t listened to their music.

The puff I used at the bottom left of the front cover of my magazine was used to promote the magazine and attract the audience. It says ’15 exclusive interviews’. Meaning that the audience would be cautious and wondering who the interviews are with; tempting them into buying the magazine and reading it.

Slang, is another factor, in the selling like I wrote ‘n’ instead of and. This is something the target audience I chose would understand, which makes them feel part of the magazine and part of that subculture/ social group so they’d feel comfortable.

I attracted my audience also by using white on a black background on my contents page. To stand out, making it look more appealing to read as teenagers like bright colours because it attracts them. I also used the pictures to grab the target audience’s attention because they take more interest in looking at pictures of celebrities than reading pages and pages of writing which they could do in school, so I took that into account.

On the double page spread the quote was used to engage the audience because it’s the words of a famous R&B singer which will amaze them and make them want to read on, also by making it large to captivate the audience. The images at the bottom were added so that the audience could see the model at a different view point even though she’s in the same studio.

Q6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

I’ve learnt a lot about technology whilst making my music magazine from the camera down to the tools in Photoshop.

With the camera I used which was a Fujifilm 10 megapixel digital camera. This produced my bright and good quality pictures used in my music magazine. I learnt about the different lighting you should be aware of when taking photo’s for example making sure the image is taken outside because of the natural light you’d receive from doing that and if you chose to do inside photo’s be aware of the shadow’s you get behind the model on the walls and so on. Not only that but I’ve learnt about the angles of shots, I didn’t just take my pictures in portrait and landscape, I wanted to be more creative and take it from a diagonal angle thinking about whether or not I take it from a high/ low angle shot. This gives it more of an effect and doesn’t just look like a boring picture taken in portrait/ landscape. I also learnt about zooming into the pictures to a good point that shows the model in a medium close up or mid shot and so on. I also learnt about making sure the pictures aren’t fuzzy or blurred but are in good quality being aware of the backgrounds/ surroundings also.

I used Adobe Photoshop CS3 to create my music magazine and edit the different photo’s and so on.  I learned a lot about Photoshop from the process of constructing this product such as adjusting and brightening of the photos, I used adjustments to set the brightness/ contrast and also used the curves tool. From using these tools I learnt that they give different effects and tones to the photos used in my music magazines, making it look more professional and like it belongs in a magazine.

I also learned about using stroke. I new about Photoshop before because I’ve used it before previously but I didn’t know fully about all the tools; while creating my music magazine I realised you could use stroke to give the text used in my music magazine effects and making it more appealing to read and interesting to look at. Also I learnt that you can change/ adjust the sizes of the strokes, so it stands out even more which I didn’t know about before. Not only that but I learnt and discovered that stroke can also be used around pictures not just text and numbers, so I used that in my magazine.

My image was too small on my double page spread to fully fit the A3 Page from this I learned about the cloning tool. This meant that I could clone the background and put it in other places to fill up the space. I never knew about or used this tool before and it really helped me because I was worried about how I was going to deal with the situation.

Similarly, I learned how to use tools such as the guide tool and the new guide tool. I learned that these tools were important to use as it helped me to move and adjust my columns, text and pictures so that everything was in line making my magazine look more professional. For example I used the new guide tool to help me split my double page spread in half so that I can separate the text from the pictures and so the fold line in the middle doesn’t interfere with the texts and pictures.

Q7. Looking back at the preliminary task what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to a full product?

I’ve learnt a lot in the progression from the preliminary task which was to create a college magazine to the full product which is my music magazine. One of the things I’ve learnt/ realised was that by doing planning and research before carrying out my music magazine, it had a huge impact on the outcome of my magazine. I was able to have a full understanding of what and how real music magazines make their music magazines so successful and in drawing their target audiences. This was something I didn’t do when creating my college magazine therefore the outcome wasn’t very good because I didn’t use the rules and conventions of real magazines; it didn’t look like one, even though I included things that are put into real magazines such as the cover lines, selling line, and barcode and so on. So I learnt that before doing something especially when creating a magazine that research and planning is really important.

Comparing my college magazine to my music magazine, you can identify that I was unaware of some of the tools used in Photoshop which I used in my music magazine to make it look more professional such as: Using strokes around pictures and texts to make the text stand out and the use of the curve tool to make the model more interesting to look at because of the editing, toning and brightness/contrast used.  I was also unaware of the website ‘dafont.com’ which I discovered through doing research and planning and now there’s a clear change from the masthead in my college magazine to the one In my music magazine.

  Time management was another thing I learned in the progression from the preliminary task because I didn’t have/ spend as much time in creating my college magazine in comparison to my music magazine. My media teacher looked over my work and was pleased as I completed all the tasks, finished early and had time to spare as this meant I could check over my work and make sure there was no mistakes made.

Also, I learned how to produce good quality pictures with the camera I used. When taking pictures for my college magazine the pictures weren’t really good in terms of the lighting on the front page of my college magazine, and then drastically changed to a bright photograph on the contents page.

I learned also that putting writing over the picture isn’t really a good Idea because as you can see in the contents of the college magazine the writings not really clear and you cant read it; It clashes with the background. This is where the guide tool and new guide tool comes in which helped me structure where on the page to put my pictures and text which was done clearly and successfully in my music magazine.

In addition the uses of colours weren’t really thought about as I used loads of colours and didn’t stick to or plan the theme colours I wanted in the college magazine. Whereas, in my music magazine I challenged that and done the complete opposite. I chose the theme colours I wanted my magazine to have and then stuck with those colours throughout the magazine (In the contents and double page spread.)