When I started my music magazine I based it off the conventions of Vibe Hip-Hop magazine as I liked the work they did and also it was the same genre of music. I tried to use the sort of photos they used which were large (usually closeups) which are very striking and strong images. Where the person is standing withs some kind of dominance to his pose and usually keeping eye contact with the reader. I don't feel I challenged the conventions of a real media product, but I did notice that the magazine I compared mine too (vibe) did not include a online presence on ANY of their pages, and I included it on EVERY one of my pages and I also kept my logo (brand) on each of my pages which I found rarely many magazines do. I tried to keep my magazine simple which is quite popular among other magazines, such as Q and Vibe, where they use very basic colours and don't push too much as the reader but all through my magazine I used bright colours and lots of variety of fonts which really connoted hip-hop through my magazine.
Evaluation 1
View more presentations from ryansoanes.
2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
Representation is how something re presents the certain item it is trying to, so in my media magazine In this question I'm answering how my magazine re presents the social groups.
My music magazine doesn't necessarily represent one individual social group, but it's aimed at people who like Hip-Hop and Music with a fast beat. Hip-Hop music is music that is more aimed at the youth who like to go out and party, and also the kids who are raised on the streets, because across the years people have forgot what Hip-Hop represents but Hip-Hop was actually a (African American) cultural movement in 1970 and it was a way for the poorer kids who have life hard to escape and just let them listen to music that relates to them and since then the meaning has been lost. My media product is aimed amongst the younger generation 14-20 who like to listen to chart music, and also the sort of people who are more creative and who also like to create their own music and are open minded into finding new artists who have a new and different hip-hop music.
3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
After creating your product you have to distribute it there are lots of different options avilable for distribution. I would want my magazine to mainly be avilable in large shops such as Sainsburys, Tesco etc. As a lot of people visit this shops and people looking for music magazines will be looking at the more main stream magazines so hopefully they will be attracted to mine. I will also use the internet widely to help distribute my magazine I will use the Internet for advertisement and also to distribute an online version of the magazine which should become more popular in the next few years as everything is becoming more online and this will also make it more available to people who can not get out to shops. Also iPhones, Android and other phones with a market place also offer apps where you can buy and download magazines so I would get it on these applications to make it even wider distributed.
The type of media institutions that will distribute my magazine will be the sort that covers a large area and cover the mainstream population, and get my magazine into the majority of supermarkets, corner shops etc. I did research into the criteria that I wanted and I found Bauer media institution was the best to distribute my magazine as I'm aiming it at people from age 14-20 and they distribute some of the most popular main stream magazines available now.
4. Who would be the audience for your media product?
Aiming at people from 14-20 (Usually 16-20 as of the language that Hip-Hop tends to use).
The audience for my magazine are Male and Female but will probaly be more Male as Hip-Hop tends to have more interest from Males, and most of the artists that appear are male, but it will still get interest from Females.
People who like Chart Music, but also want to find more independent artists, or create music them selves.
People who have had tougher lives and look for support and to relate to music.
People who follow main stream chart music and like music with a fast beat.
Eval 4
View more presentations from ryansoanes.
5. How did you attract/address your audience?
Before I started my magazine I did research (questionnaire) into what people wanted to see in my magazine and this is what helped me, know what to put in my magazine and what people wanted to see in my magazine.
I attracted my audience to my magazine by using free things and give aways on the front cover of my magazine, in big bold writing it says ' FREE Mixtape of 2011 ' which anyone loves something for free so this should instantly grab their interest. Also a long the top banner of my magazine it says about ' Win Tickets to a Festival ' and all of this makes the reader pick it up. My magazine also uses bright pictures and lots of different contrasting colours and a large variety of fonts which just makes it stand out from other magazines and hopefully this is enough to encourage the reader to pick it up. The bright colours are also associtaed with Hip-Hop so it should encourage people to pick the magazine up as they connote hip-hop. The headlines i have used make the reader want to give on they give enough information to get them interested but not enough to tell the full story so they will want to read on. The mode of address in my magazine is informal and I decided to use some slang words this is to relate to the reader individually and not as a mass so you do not isolate them and I feel this makes the magazine a lot more personal.
I also asked a couple friends of mine a few questions about my magazine and here are their responses
6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
I have learnt quite a few technologies from the process of constructing this product, the main one being photoshop, to start off with I knew very basic features and was skeptical about using it, because I barely even knew how to edit fonts. As the process went on though I did pick up more and more skills in photoshop and at the end of the task I consider myself quite highly skilled and I can do a lot in photoshop and could easily make another music magazine. To a less extent I also learnt some skills with Mac computers as before I mainly used Windows PC's and never really used Macs and I took to them quite quickly and I have learnt how to use them a lot better and more confidently to do tasks with. I was good with Social networking before but I have found that it has been really useful with this task and has help me communication with people whilst doing my music magazine task and I have also learnt how to use blogger to a high standard and have throughly enjoyed it. From doing this piece of work, I have also learnt about web 2.0 and I now finally understand it, the way that people can use the internet to produce and distribute for others to consume and being creative through the internet.
7. 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 a lot since my preliminary task, looking back at it now It looks poor quality and nothing like a magazine it has none of the conventions of a magazine. Since then I have learnt so much the most important being the skills in photoshop because back then I struggled to do simple things and the editing of the image (removing the background) is so poor and there is holes in the actual image. Since then I have learnt the conventions of a magazine so my final piece actually looks like a magazine instead of something just put together to resemble a magazine. Also on my preliminary task I ignored what my teachers said and thought i was doing everything right, but since then I have learnt to take in their input and also get input from my classmates as it defiantly helps make your final piece a lot better. I know realise how important background research is with the preliminary task I just jumped in not knowing much about magazines, and thats probably why it turned out so poor, but with the music magazine I did lots of research into the fields looked at loads of other music magazines and this is probably a huge reason why my magazine looks a lot better than my prelim task.
