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.)

Post production feedback:

                                                                



Front cover

Strengths:

“The masthead is bright and the design is suitable to the target audience”

Weakness:

“To make it look more professional, you should have put the masthead behind the model as this is done in real music magazines”

Contents

Strengths:

“It stands out and makes you want to read on.”

Weakness:

“There’s too many things happening at once; you don’t know what to look at first.”

Double page spread

Strengths:

“The colours are eye-catching there lots of information and its clear and easy to read/ understand.”

Weakness:

“Everything looks squashed together; there should have been space between the title and some of the text.”