AS Media Music Magazine Evaluation

By Kirsty Lever

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

To show you the common conventions and forms I have used and developed from real media products. I will compare my magazine with another hip hop magazine (VIBE)however I have looked at numerous covers to see if it is a convention.

Big Bold Writing that takes up most of the top third of the page. I chose to develop this convention because it makes the masthead stand out to attract the reader.

I used the form of an eyebrow used by real media products. I did this because over all the other magazines this is what will be seen I tried to use content that would attract Hip Hop fans.

Another convention and form I have used is the picture. I have placed it in the centre of the magazine like real media products, I used this form as it allows me to place the cover lines around it, which is also a common form used by media products, while still allowing the magazine to look neat and professional. I also followed the convention of male singers being pictured from the waist and above . I used this because

Used common convention of a discernible house style which I’ve done by using the same colours throughout the magazine I have used red and black because red is quite a bright colour and black is a dark colour this contrast helps it stand out more I also used different colours and used different size fonts. I used these conventions to help me draw the audience eyes to certain texts first. I also used san serif which is the conventional font for real media products. This gives more of an informal look than serif text.

I have followed the form of having a list of artist in the magazine on the front cover usually on the side. I followed this convention as it allows me to tell the reader a number of articles in my magazine without taking up too much space which helps it look tidy.

Cover

A common convention of a real media product is a light colour background, dark colours like black are rarely seen.I followed this convention as it allows my picture and content to stand out from the background.

Another form I have used is the composition of my photo. Like in the photos on the right I have composed my model to point at the main cover line. I used this convention as it draws the reader’s eyes to a popular name which is well known to my audience. This is likely to tempt them to read and buy this magazine.

An additional convention used my real media products is having a barcode on the cover in the bottom corners. It also has the price and issue. I used this convention because a barcode is essential for the magazine to be bought It also draws the reader to the price. If they didn’t know the price they would be unlikely to buy the magazine.

Pull Quote

Cover LinesBarcode and Price

Eyebrow

Central Image

Mast Head

I have challenged the common convention of having one main image that covers 50% or more of the page.I have instead used two photos of different artists and there is less than 50% of imagery. I have chose to do this as I wanted to put as much information as I could in the contents page this is because before buying this magazine they may decide whether to by looking what’s in it by looking at the contents page. Therefore I wanted to give as much information to the audience as possible.

Labelled the pictures with captions consisting of the page number and there names this is a common convention for hip hop connections which is a UK magazine like mine and so they will be targeting to a similar audience as mine, this is one reason why I used this convention.Another reason is if the image attracts the reader which makes them want to read the magazine instead of them having to search what page it is they can just go straight to it. This makes it more convenient for them. Just little things like this.

A form I have used which is used by real media products is used 2 columns. At first I challenged this by using three columns I found this make the contents page look to squashed and so I chose to follow the convention instead.

Looking at my genre’s conventions I found that they don’t have sections unlike rock genre’s like Kerrang who do. I decided to challenge my genre’s conventions as having it in sections allows the reader to find what they want easier for example if they had been attracted to my eyebrow talking about the posters and they wanted to skip to the posters they’ll would be able to this easily by just going to the heading of Posters.

Contents

CaptionFooter

Header

Double Page Spread

I have challenged the conventions of a music magazine by having my double page spread on different articles (Facts and Review). However as it is a double page spread I want the articles to flow and join as one I have done this by using the same coloured background for both and made part of the photo go on to the next page.

I have used and develop forms as shown by the labels

Headline

Header

Stand First

Footer

Justified

Margin

Gutter

Columns

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

• By mostly sticking to the conventions of other hip hop magazines I am confident it will appeal to the audience as well as help attract my audience to the magazine e.g. Bold masthead. It also allowed me to keep my magazine tidy rather than things being everywhere and in the wrong places e.g. stand first goes below the headline. I have slightly challenge these forms because I wanted my magazine to be unique rather than look exactly like my competitors.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

• My main audience are teenagers they are stereotypically portrayed as anti social for example by wearing hoodies, taking drugs, drinking, being delinquents, hanging around on the street corners or in parks starting trouble.

• They are also represented by stereotypes such as being rebellious and never obeying authority, being lazy and focusing on trivial things like fashion, material things and socialising

• These are just a few ways that teenage youths are represented.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Here are a few ways my magazine represents teenagers.•My Masthead has a graffiti look to it this represents my particular target audience who are thought to be trouble makers and do illegal things like graffiti. •I used informal language, which represents my target audience who are all thought to just talk in slang, e.g. ‘ain’t cutting it’ ,‘fresh’, and ‘tight’ and the name of my magazine which is slang for cool and is also a drug this also represents teenagers today who are thought to be in parks doing drugs. • I have made my cover model have his shirt unbutton, this gives a rebellious look unlike if he was wearing a buttoned shirt with a tie. This represents my target audience who are portrayed as being rebellious young adults, he is also wearing bling (Big Watch) associated with my target audience and hip hop artists.• I have made my other model wear a hat with a hood this makes him look ‘hard’ a lot of my social group are represented as wanting this image.• By him also wearing a hoodie represents my social group , wearing a hoodie is a common stereotype of teenagers.

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

Hip Hop magazine Hip Hop Connections has been distributed by Popular plc, Future plc, Ministry of Sound and now Infamous Ink.IPC Media would be the best distributer for me for a number of reasons: Firstly I plan to distribute my magazine nationally IPC would be the ideal choice because it is UK's leading consumer magazine publisher; secondly it is familiar with distributing other music magazines – NME and Uncut the success of theses magazines is another reason why I would pick IPC Media. They are also both rock magazines so my magazine won’t have to compete with them unlike if Bauer Media Group distributed my magazine it might have to compete with Q; another reason I’ve chosen this media institution is because my audience are computer literate and the majority have access to the internet, if I was to have a website for my magazine IPC will have experience with this due to NME having one.

My magazine would be sold in music shops both mainstream such as HMV and independent. As well as in newsagents located in areas where the majority of the population matches my magazines demographics.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

42%

56%45%

35%15%

InterestsDeejaying

Rap / Beatboxing

Beat Production

Graffiti/writing

Breakdancing

67%

30%39%

26%

28%

Recreation

Bars/Pubs

Clubs

Cinema

Restaurants

Gigs

My audience are daily listeners of Hip Hop trying to reach their dream. They are both male and female aged 16-30. Majority of audience will be black or white and a minority of Asians are likely to read this. My audience will be earning between 15-50K leaving my audience with disposable incomes to do recreational activities like go to the pub and see gigs. They also have a variety of interests in Hip-Hop mostly creating and producing hip hop but also break dancing and more. Are up to date with the latest technologies – Mobile phones, PC’s, game consoles and are also interested in fashion keeping up with the latest trends inspired by hip hop artists and get all the well known brand names.

Most of my audience will have aspirations of being successful/ rich/famous. Which is promoted by artists such as P Diddy who give the image of going from a poor background to being rich and famous. They will mostly try to meet these aspirations by the following interests on the right. My magazine addresses these aspirations by giving tips and advice on these interests to help them know how its done professionally . For example in my magazine there are top 20 tips by David Guetta. Also readers can get advice from up and coming artists who are also showing the audience it can happen and advice from successful artists.

I got these figure on the right by looking at my primary market research and looked at the questionnaires filled out that had the hip hop genre ticked. I also looked at other hip hop magazines media packs and saw the types of interests hip hop readers have, however the numbers aren’t exactly the same because of the target audience I have tried to appeal to in my magazine is slightly different.

8

3

Gender

Male Female

15-18 19-21 22-24 25+0123456

Age

Age

8

2

1

Status

StudentEmployedUnemployed

How did you attract/address your audience?

I have used direct address for all my pictures I also put a well known artist on the front cover to entice my audience. I’ve placed the well known artist in the middle with his arms slightly up and pointing his hands downwards. He is pointing to a cover line of another well known artist. The way he’s been composed means the readers eye will be drawn down to this cover line, a hip hop fan will instantly recognise this name and will appeal to the magazine.

The name is also in a big size font and I have made this cover line and the other cover lines look bold by using Arial black font so they would stand out and attract my audience.

Furthermore I used a quote as well as loads of artists names to attract my audience and get them to want to read the magazine.

I addressed my audience by using content such as slang. This addresses the audience as it is familiar language to them and therefore they will understand and be more likely to want to read my magazine.

My masthead has a graffiti style to it this might attract my audience as they will see it and think it looks more interesting than mastheads on other magazines. It is also slang for a well known drug commonly used by my audience so it may attract them to the magazine unlike older people who will probably see it as information or most probably have no meaning

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

From using a camera for this project I have learnt the effects of incorrect lighting and what things to think about before taking a picture. For example I had to think of where the masthead and cover lines would go before and when taking the picture. As well as having to think of shadows when taking the pictureThis is the first time I used Photoshop. I learnt to use the magic wand tool and polygon tool to erase the background so its just the person. I had slight difficulty using the polygon tool on the cover photo which caused the photo to not look as professional or authentic. However if I had professional software I could correct this mistake.I also learnt about the software of InDesign and how to use it to construct my magazine .

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

• Since my preliminary task I have learnt:• About software's InDesign and Photoshop and how to use the

different tools.• How to layout my magazine following conventions of a magazine

enabling me to make my product look more professional.• About Mise-En-Scene this helped me progress as I chose

background, clothes, props etc. that suit my music genre rather than for example to have a guitar on the cover for a Hip Hop magazine.

• The importance of textual content, photo’s and how they are shot and presented and the layout of my magazine.

• How to attract and address an audience and how to represent them.

Improvements

• If I had more time I would:• Make improvements by researching more

magazines of my genre to get a better understanding of there conventions and forms.

• I would improve my sample of my market research to get a better idea of my target audience.

• Used more pictures• Learn more about the software so I could use tools

that would improve the look of my magazine.