Evaluation

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

In my magazine I have developed and used the conventions of existing music magazines for example all magazine have a title block that is recognisable and consistently used by the magazine. This is similar to a logo as it sells the magazine is instantly distinguishing. Also the name I gave my magazine is very easy to remember and relates to the music and artists in the magazine. I also used a direct mode of address image which is generally used in magazines. This seemed very important that is why I took careful consideration into who was and what image was my front cover.

How does your music magazine represent particular social groups?

My magazine appeals to the 1980s and early 1990s generation and due to its genre, ‘old school hip hop’ and the type of artists which are included in the magazine cultural it appeal mainly to the urban community. The audience will be mainly of black ethnicity and other minorities due to the type of music and this is reflected in the artists included in my magazine. As hip hop is largely listened to by the black community this does not mean that my magazine will be only bought by black people because during the era of time I chose hip hop music was becoming more and more mainstream and becoming much more popular. Also in my magazine there is a lot of informal use of language and slang which only people that really listen to this type of music would understand, e.g. ‘Skool’, ‘thang’, ‘y’know’. My magazine uses the same language as its intended targeted audience to make the magazine less formal and represent these social groups more positively. Despite hip hop during that time was heavily dominated by males I decided to use a female as my front cover. As well as this I used a Latin American woman as my front cover hopefully appealing to a wider audience. I tried to include women more because they are usually shunned away especially in this music field.

Who would be the audience for your music magazine?

The target audience is mainly people born in the 1980s and early 1990s of both genders because I believe both genders should be viewed equally. The magazine will appeal mainly to ethnic minorities because of the music genre and the era it is from. The age range will probably be from approximately 25- 40 because of the time the music comes from. However there will be a few exceptions with the age because there are many older and even younger people who enjoy this type of music. Hopefully the magazine will help the audience reminiscent and will bring them back briefly to that period of time.

How did you attract/address your target audience?

I knew the time period I was using was very colourful therefore I knew that my front cover had to extremely colourful but reflected my artist’s personality as well. I used a direct mode of address for my image to create a relationship between the reader and my artist, it gives the impression that she is looking directly at you. The pose my artist is doing very seductive because she is seen as a ‘sex symbol’. This will appeal to men because they might like the way she looks and it appeals to women because they probably aspire to be like her and be ‘sexy’ like her. This image is the reason why the majority of the target audience will buy the magazine. I decided to use an image as the whole image as the background rather a colour background because of the age range I am targeting. I believed having the artist as the whole front cover will make it look more professional overall and less childish. The title block is bright red so it stands out even though it is partly covered my image and it works well because it is made for a very colourful era. Also red is not a bias colour like yellow or pink which may appeal more to women than men. The name of the magazine is short and sweet so that people will remember it and it relates to the music. My anchorage text was a short phrase which will appeal to a reader because they will be wondering what the phrase means and would want to know more. I didn’t really use buzz words because of the age range I was appealing to, the only buzz words I used was ‘+’ and ‘free’ which makes the reader feel like they are getting something extra with the magazine. In my questionnaire the people asked said that the picture on the front cover would persuade them to buy the magazine which is why I spent so much time on the picture.

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

The company I was choose if I was to publish my magazine would be West Coast Distribution because of my target audience. My magazine will be sold mainly in inner city areas so a big distributing company like Bauer would be too extravagant. Also my magazine doesn’t appeal to a small portion of the population so my magazine doesn’t need to be sold widely. Therefore it my magazine should be sold in supermarkets and large music like HMV making it easy for people who listen to this type of music to purchase it. Also I would make my magazine accessible via the internet so that it is easy to increase the interest by posting it on popular social networking sites.
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing your music magazine?
When producing my magazine I learnt a lot of new things because I was relatively a novice at both Photoshop and blogging. I was not a good photographer so I had learn how to take professional looking picture. Therefore I had to take into consideration the mise en scene, costumes, cinematography etc which my teacher had taught me before hand. Once I had my images I had to learn how to use Photoshop and how to alter my images. I learnt how to use various effects like feathering and the magic wand to remove the background. I found Photoshop very difficult even though I was learning something new every time I used it so my teacher suggested I used illustrator to make my magazine which I grasped quite easily even though I hadn’t used it before. However I stilled used Photoshop to edit my photos and then transferred it to illustrator. I learnt how to make shapes like rectangles which help separate my article and make it look similar to what professional magazine have. I also learnt how to use various fonts and change the colours. To order my work I had to make a blog which I had never done before. I used the blog to publish my work. The website (www.blogspot.com) was very baffling I never really managed to master it but I was able to change the background colour, layout and learnt how to upload pictures and work. I also learnt how to make polls which helped me get feedback from my audience which helped improved my overall magazine. This can be seen from the drastic change from my first draft magazine to my final draft. Sometimes I found BlogSpot frustrating because there were various times I tried to upload work and it kept bringing up an error page but with trial and error I learnt only certain types of documents could be uploaded.

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

My first task was very basic and didn’t use any effects however it was more difficult because it was a college magazine. Also I put much more effort in my final magazine than I did my first task. Also I learnt how to use Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator quite well and learnt the importance of camera angles and lighting. I feel much more comfortable in editing photos than I did and can now do it in half the time I did when I started. I also developed my blogging ability because when we began I didn’t even have one. Photoshop and BlogSpot is not daunting any more and I feel learning near enough on my own proved a good experience and I feel I learned a lot this way. Also I learnt how to attract audiences through conventions.