In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
I decided to use the idea that is used in Vibe magazine of separating the word Contents over a few lines as it looks quite modern, probably because it's unusual and not used by other magazines. Although, I know it's not too weird as it has actually been used by a respected magazine.
I also decided to use the idea on the front cover of putting all the cover stories in a column down the side of the page, as this is another thing that I saw used in Vibe and I quite liked, as it keeps everything neat and easy for the reader.
I also used a lot of quotes from the various stories that are in this edition of my magazine on the contents page, placing them next to the picture that they correspond with. I think that NME are probably the magazine that use this idea most, and that's where I got it from. I like this addition as it gives the reader a feel for what will be in the stories, and also may entice the reader into reading something that they may not usually read.
I also used the idea of mentioning my magazines Facebook and Twitter pages, as that's something that my target audience would be interested in, and it's something that a lot of big magazines do as technology features more and more in our lives every day.
I also used the idea of a competition, "win Khan signed headphones", as this is something that NME and other magazines regularly do, and it's guaranteed that the people reading will potentially be interested in what there is to win.
I also decided to use the idea on the front cover of putting all the cover stories in a column down the side of the page, as this is another thing that I saw used in Vibe and I quite liked, as it keeps everything neat and easy for the reader.
I also used the idea of mentioning my magazines Facebook and Twitter pages, as that's something that my target audience would be interested in, and it's something that a lot of big magazines do as technology features more and more in our lives every day.
I also used the idea of a competition, "win Khan signed headphones", as this is something that NME and other magazines regularly do, and it's guaranteed that the people reading will potentially be interested in what there is to win.
For my masthead, I decided to use a real retro font, but I layered three identical texts on top of each other, but slightly unaligned, which enabled me to give it a three-coloured masthead. I then went on to use this red, blue and yellow colour scheme throughout the magazine, with red and blue featuring most.
I also used the idea that many current magazines use of adding the name of the magazine in the top corner of the contents page. This creates the definite link between the front page and the contents page, and this is probably why most big magazines use it.
I also used the idea that many current magazines use of adding the name of the magazine in the top corner of the contents page. This creates the definite link between the front page and the contents page, and this is probably why most big magazines use it.
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
My magazine represents certain social groups in particular ways. For example, it represents the majority of younger people as people that like hip-hop. My magazine also portrays this social group as somewhat rebellious and streetwise, but not in the way that they commit crimes or anything like that, but just that they are not perfect and that my audience do have feelings as opposed to just being "youths". My magazine portrays youths very positively.
My magazine is represented as mostly male, but there is nothing in there to suggest that it is not suitable for females as well. Everything from the cover stars to the colour scheme suggests that it is a magazine directed more at males, and it represents males as more ghetto than females as females don't even really get mentioned in it.
Most of the cover stars and people that are talked about in my magazine are of a racial minority, either Black or Asian, as I guess my magazine portrays these groups as more urban than White or Oriental people. This is not a bad thing and a few of my cover stars are English, and none of the ethnicities are portrayed negatively.
Sexuality and physical or mental disabilities are not mentioned in my magazine. Sexuality has been an ongoing grey area in hip-hop for a number of years and is starting to get better, but there is no mention of any of it at all in my magazine.
My magazine represents lower class people positively, as that is where most of the greats come from in this field of music. Higher class people are not portrayed negatively, but I think they would find it a lot more difficult to relate to the things that would be talked about in the interviews about the 'struggle growing up', as they would never have had it.
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
I think that my magazine would be distributed by the same stores that distribute the other major magazines that I have looked at, such as NME and Q, even though the genre of the magazine is not similar and the target audience may not be as broad. By this, I mean that I think my magazine should be distributed in the big music stores such as HMV, as well as being sold in the standard magazine shops such as WHSmith, as opposed to just being sold in shops that are specific to people that like hip-hop.
The price of my magazine would be £3.50. I think this is a fair price, as it is a magazine that is released monthly so it includes everything that has happened in the whole month. This is rather than a weekly magazine, so it will work out cheaper than most other magazines in the long run.
Who would be the audience for your media product?
The target audience for my magazine would be younger people, probably between the ages of 16 and 25, predominantly male, that are interested in the genre of hip-hop/rap music. It is mostly likely that my audience will be friendly, confident people, as these are qualities that you need to be a rapper in today's music business, which I assume is what most of the reader's want to be. As well as appealing to the newer fans that hip-hop has acquired, (by this I mean the middle-class white people that like rap music because it makes them feel gangster), I also wanted to appeal to the people that this genre of this music started with and revolves around most, which is probably the racial minorities that come from a less fortunate background.
My audience would definitely be people that are interested in the biggest hip hop acts around at the moment, which relates to why I used pictures of Jay-Z and Kanye West, as these are the kind of artists that my target audience would look up to and aspire to be.
The target audience for my magazine would be younger people, probably between the ages of 16 and 25, predominantly male, that are interested in the genre of hip-hop/rap music. It is mostly likely that my audience will be friendly, confident people, as these are qualities that you need to be a rapper in today's music business, which I assume is what most of the reader's want to be. As well as appealing to the newer fans that hip-hop has acquired, (by this I mean the middle-class white people that like rap music because it makes them feel gangster), I also wanted to appeal to the people that this genre of this music started with and revolves around most, which is probably the racial minorities that come from a less fortunate background.
My audience would definitely be people that are interested in the biggest hip hop acts around at the moment, which relates to why I used pictures of Jay-Z and Kanye West, as these are the kind of artists that my target audience would look up to and aspire to be.
How did you attract/address your audience?
Firstly I tried to relate to my target audience by using the cover star that I used. The cover star used on my front page is the typical example of what I think my target audience would look and dress like, and what they aspire to be like. I also thought about the mise-en-scene (meaning the big hooded jacket and the headphones), as most of the target audience that I am trying to get to will be able to relate to this easily.
I used the big, colourful, retro masthead to catch the attention of readers and potential future readers. It will also be easy to find my magazine as it will be the most colourful one on the shelf, as this all ties in with the hip-hop genre.
In Beat magazine, I attempted to use a slightly informal register to make it seem like I was having a normal conversation with the readers. I also used quite a lot of colloquial language, as this is the kind of language that my target audience would use on a daily basis e.g. "dope", "sick". I decided to follow this path rather than using a lot of jargon and technical language, as that would lead me to getting out of touch from my readers as them wanting to constantly read words and language that they themselves never use is just unrealistic.
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
While in the process of creating and constructing this product, I learned a lot about technologies. I learned how to use many different types of software including PhotoShop and InDesign. When the project began I was a complete novice on these programs, but now after the experience of making my magazine, I feel very confident with them and I find it relatively simple carrying out any of the tasks that I may be asked to do. Also, the biggest task that I overcame while making this magazine was proabably the fact that I had never used and Apple Mac before. Although, I think I did pretty well and now I feel quite proficient when using one. The other things that I had never used before this task were the websites Blogger and Moonfruit. I have become quite fond of Blogger, as everytime you discover something new or you want to add something to your piece, you can write it on there and people can read it. Although, I cannot say the same for Moonfruit. It is a website designed so that people can create their own websites, but it doesn't tell you thatyou can only upload 20MB of data when creating it, so I went and made a good website, only to have to start again on Blogger because Moonfruit couldn't upload any of my pictures! I have learned that any software or technology can be learned if you practice them, but also that some free websites can be very wasteful of time.
Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
I have learnt many things in the progression from my preliminary magazine to my final magazine. Firstly, I have learnt that you must try to use the same house style throughout the whole magazine. Whereas in my preliminary magazine I did not use the same colours throughout the magazine, for my final Beat magazine, I made sure that the same blues, yellows and reds were a re-occurring theme all the way through the magazine.
Also, in my preliminary task, the masthead was too small and would be almost unreadable if the magazine was sitting on the rack with all its competitors, and a leading magazine has to have an eye-catching masthead. I also made the same mistake with the main cover line, as that is not very bold and it would make it difficult for the readers to distinguish which is the main story. Also with the main cover line, the font was a bad choice as it doesn't fit or match with the other fonts on the cover. All of these things I changed for the cover of my Beat magazine. Firstly, I made the masthead quite large, especially considering that it only consists of 4 letters. I also made the main cover line quite bold, and gave it an effect by layering two identical texts over each other but in different colours, so it looks like the text is blue with a red outline, so it still keeps to the house colour style. Also, for the main cover line, I made sure to not use exactly the same font as I used for the masthead or other cover lines, but to use a font that matches well with these other fonts. The font on my preliminary magazine was also quite hard to read, as it was not layered with different colours underneath, and the colour of the text made it quite awkward to read on the background. I changed this for my final piece, and decided to make it very easy to read the text for both the main headline and the cover line. Also, on my preliminary piece, the font used for the cover lines looks quite basic and looks as if not a lot of effort has been put in. This is not the case with my final piece, as the font used has been carefully chosen to meet the specification of my magazine, mostly to fit the genre. I think it works well as the font as well as the outline of it looks quite urban. For the language used, my preliminary magazine did not really show a lot of character or personality, whereas for my final Beat magazine, the lexis and general language used is more specific to the demographic that I am trying to reach out to. Another thing that I changed from my first magazine was that there was no idea or showing of anything extra that was included in the magazine, like the things that would usually entice the audience into reading on. By this, I mean extras such as "interviews" and "competitions", that are both used in my final magazine.
