Evaluation

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

My genre of music was Rap/Hip hop. My magazine followed many of the conventions of a rap magazine, but it also challenged some. The conventions I followed were, thick and bold texts. I also used strong colours such as red and black. Red can represent danger and this is something rappers are associated with. They are shown as rough and dominant. Black can be used to show uncertainty and unknowing. This could be used to represent rappers as concealed and hidden. This hidden identity could show that rappers are dangerous.

My image of my rapper was in the center of the cover. This shows that he is dominant and in control. I challenged conventions by covering the rappers face in a bandana. This makes him seem like he is possible of anything. You cannot see his emotion or identity. As a result of this he seems like he is extremely dangerous, a trait which most rappers have. Although this is challenging conventions, it also is following a common magazine convention. This is covering certain parts of the magazine. Most famous magazines cover their masthead. This suggests that they are so famous that you do not even have to be able to read the mast had and you would still know what the magazine is. Also, by covering the face of the rapper it suggests that he is so famous that you do not have to see his face in order to be able to tell who he is.

2) How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My media product targets teenagers, specifically 17-19 year olds males. The Mis en Scene I decided to use is commonly seen in the Rap/ Hip-hop culture. The rapper I have used on my front cover and double page spread is wearing a baseball jacket and baggy t-shirt. These are conventional clothes that rappers would wear. He is wearing a baseball cap and bandana around his mouth. This again follows convention, however it is also used to create an enigma surrounding the rapper. By using these conventional clothes it will appeal to people following this Rap and Hip-Hop culture. (You can see this in the picture below).

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

COMAG would be a good institution to distribute this magazine. COMAG was founded in 1977 and is jointly owned by The National Magazine Company and Condé Nast Publications. This shows that it has many valuable connections and has a well-established base, which has been running for 33 years. It distributes magazines worldwide. This shows that they are extremely good at distributing magazines.

4) Who would be the audience for your media product?

The target audience I am aiming my media product at is teenagers, more specifically 17-19 year olds. The reason I have chosen this age group is, when conducting my market research I found that this was the age group that the majority of people read this music genre magazine. The results in my market research show that 17-19 year olds. I used colours, which go well with the genre of music. It also showed me that the gender, which reads this magazine genre, is males. This means that if I target males I will get more interest in the magazine. This will make it more appealing for people interested in the magazine. The red and black show dominance and danger. When you mix these colours with the enigma of the artists on the cover of the magazine it really attracts attention to the magazine. The main target audience is 17-19 year old males.

5) How did you attract/address your audience?

I decided to use a mixture of unconventional and conventional features to address and attract my target audience for my media product. The masthead for the magazine is ‘The Joint’. This has different meanings. In the Rap/Hip-Hop culture this can mean two things. The first thing is weed, a lot of rappers smoke weed and this relates to that which could interest people who follow this culture. The joint can also mean ‘the place to be’, meaning the best place to be. This will attract the audience, as they will think this is the place to be when it comes to Rap and Hip-hop. It makes the magazine seem likes it’s the best place to find out about Rap and Hip-hop news. The image I used on my front cover will attract my target audience. He is wearing a bandana and a baseball hat. This covers his face and makes him seem hidden and therefore creates an enigma around his character. The anchor line I used says “Exclusive interview”. People will want to read the interview to find out more about him. It will help them find out his identity, this will attract readers.

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

The application software I used to edit my photographs was Adobe Photoshop CS3. Photoshop has many great features which can help you when editing photos or designing the actual media product. There are many features, which help the construction of your product. You can get rid of backgrounds or unwanted parts of photos extremely easily with tools like magic wand. Text, shapes and pictures can be faded, enlarged and cropped. This allows you to make the photos and products look more professional.

Here you can see an image being edited. I am removing unwanted parts of the image using the magic wand.

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

There are a few things that I have learnt which I didn’t know during the preliminary task. When constructing the product I learnt many new ways in which I could edit photos and documents with Adobe Photoshop that will have more professional looking results. As I used Photoshop more and more I started to get to know more of the tools which allowed the standard of the products to increase as time went on. When I first started, during the preliminary task it was very hard to use advance features when I was just getting started.

Something I did not do during the preliminary task is use websites and blogs to gain feedback for products. I posted a survey and photographs on a social networking site and ask for feedback. This helped me distinguish what people like and what people do not like about the particular pieces. It definitely increases the quality of the product, as peoples positive feedback will tell you what people want in a product. If you can achieve this product will be desirable for the consumer.

I also learnt a new technique of photography. It increases the quality of the photography. First you must tuck your arms in and hold the camera level with your eye. By tucking your arms in, you are restricting the movement to the camera the pictures will not be blurry.

Final Front Cover

Final Contents Page

Final Double Page Spread

Using photoshop

This is a screenshot of me using photoshop.


This is how I edited my photos and added text to them. Here, I am constructing the contents page for my magazine.

Planning

When planning my Front cover/Contents/Double Page Spread I needed to take some factors into consideration. I needed to make sure that they all followed a certain house style.

The colours I decided to use are Red and Black. To ensure that I follow the same house style, on all of the pages I used the same font and colours.

Planning for photographs. For my front cover I took many different photographs. The reasons for this is so I can see which ones I liked or didn’t.

These are a few I didn’t like.


This is the one I did use.



I decided to use the photo because the lighting was good and it was clear. There were no objects, which distract you from the main object, the rapper.

Question 8

Question 8
Which font is the most fitting for a Hip-Hop/Rap magazine?


These results show that the most fitting text for my Hip-Hop/Rap magazine is text number 4.

Question 7

Question 7

What do you like in a Hip-hop/Rap magazine?

As you can see by these results the most popular articles in magazines are interviews and music charts.

Question 6

Question 6
What do you when enjoy looking at on a magazine cover?

The most popular answer here is bits of texts and one large image on the cover of the magazine. I will take this into account when making my front cover.

Question 5

Question 5

What type of layout do you think is appropriate for a Hip-hop/Rap magazine?

As you can see by these results, the most liked type of layout is ‘Structured symmetrically’.

Question 4

Question 4
What is a suitable price for a Hip-Hop/Rap magazine?



Using these results I can see that the price, which most people feel is a suitable price for a Hip-Hop/Rap magazine, is £2.99

Question 3

Question 3

For a rap magazine, which colours are most appealing as a colour scheme?

As you can see here the colours, which were most appealing, are Black/Red/White. This gives me an insight into what the majority of people find appealing.

Question 2

Question 2
What gender are you and do you enjoy reading hip hop/rap magazines?




Judging by these results you can see the majority who enjoy reading hip hop and rap magazines are males. The majority who said they do not enjoy reading it are females. I now know that if I target my audience as males between ages 17-19 I will get more interest in the magazine.

Question 1

Question 1

What age group are you in?

As you can see by this graph my results show the people who mostly read Hip-hop/Rap magazines are aged 17-19. Using this data I will aim my magazine towards this age group.

Questionnaire

This is my questionnaire. Instead of priniting out hardcopies of it I uploaded it on facebook so more people have to access to it and I can get a larger range of results.

Here you can see the questionnaire on Facebook.

Second double page spread flat plan

This is my second double page spread flat plan for my music magazine. This one is based on a top 40 music charts. It consists of two images of artists and two sections in which the top 40 singles for hip-hop and rap will be shown. It is very clear and I have kept a good distance between the images/articles and the spine. The reason for this is that the images and articles can become unclear if they fold in the middle of the magazine.

First double page spread flat plan

This is the first page of my double page spread. This one is based on an interview with a famous hip-hop artist. It consists of a large image of the artist spread almost completely over the two pages. A large title for the article, which does not cross the spine of the magazine, is placed near the top of the page on the right. A column of text is placed on the right side of the right page that will not overlap the main image.

Second contents page flat plan

This is the second contents page flat plan for my music magazine. This one is the opposite of the first one. This one is a lot more crowded and spread over the whole page. The other one was made up of four large sections. This one is split into many smaller ones. This makes the page seem cluttered and may make people not want to read the magazine. This again can show stereotypes of a rock magazine, messy and out of control, which does not match my genre.

First contents page flat plan

This is my first contents page for my music magazine. The main point of a contents page is to convey information. This contents page is very clear and simple. It consists of two images and two sets of articles and their page numbers. This is easy to understand and makes it more pleasing to look at. Looking at over crowded pages can put people off from reading the magazine.

Second front cover flat plan

This is my second flat plan for my front cover of the music magazine. I have decided to go for a more irregular layout. The texts and images are spread out randomly. It is messy and random I believe this gives more of a rock and roll feeling. I think the first flat plan is more suitable to the genre of my magazine.

First front cover flat plan

This is a flat plan of my front cover. It is very organised and in a symmetrical manor. This means the texts and images are clearly visible. This will ensure there are no overlapping text or crushed and confusing text. It should appeal to people and make them want to read it. The clear layout means people can easily find the main stories which will interest them in buying the magazine.

Double page Spread Annotation

Second Contents Page Annotation

First Contents Page Annotation

Third Front Cover Annotation

Second Front Cover Annotation

First Front Cover Annotation

Magazine cover analysis

Analysis of magazine covers

These are two different magazines in the genre of Rap/ Hip-hop. The common conventions in Rap and Hip-hop magazines are tough, gangster looking music artists. Lots of jewellery shows that they’re rich and can wear what they like. This appearance shows they have a lot of power.

I choose to talk about these two covers because they are definitely all the opposites of the conventional Rap and Hip-Hop covers. The cover on the right shows a well-known music artist ‘Kanye West’. However he is not shown covered in ‘Bling’ as rapper usually are. His facial expression is also quite sad and this seems to make us think that he is not as tough and powerful as all rappers seem. His beard has some grey hairs and this makes him seem old. This is the total opposite of a stereotypically gangster rapper.

The second magazine also challenges conventions and it does this by putting a beautiful woman on the cover with revealing clothing. This magazine is uses sex as a selling point. As I said before, the stereotypically rapper is covered in jewellery and must look tough. This is such and opposite and I believe these challenging conventions are used to grab your attention.

However there are many conventions to do with the layout of the magazines, which is kept the same. The fonts are usually thick bold writing. This shows strong wording and a macho style layout. This style of writing is usually associated with Rap and Hip-hop.

The magazine on the right has its masthead covered. This shows that the magazine is well known and people know what magazine it is without actually reading the masthead. The left third of the magazine is where you attention is drawn to on cover. Having an eye on the left third really increases the focus on a person. In both magazines there are eyes in the left third and this allows us to focus on the images, which will make want to buy the magazine, it seems more interesting. Having lots of writing here can be boring and this will result less people wanting to buy the magazine meaning fewer sales for the magazine.

The layout for both magazines is quite similar. There is a famous person on both who cover almost the entire length of the cover. The cover on the right uses a close up. The reason for this is that it shows the effects, which have been used on the artist. This include, grey hair in his beard, messy hair and his eyes are slightly closed showing he could be tired and stressed. The corresponding story for this image is ‘ The truth hurts’. This could suggest that he is dealing with hard news and has let him self-go. He doesn’t care about his appearance. This is what the image portrait. Although this challenges conventions of Rap and Hip-hop magazines it could also show a convention that rappers are so tough that they do not care what people think about them.

The cover on the left uses a long shot. The reason for this is similar to the cover on the right. It is used to focus on the person, again a famous singer. However, the reason a long shot is used instead of a close up is the focus is on the body of the singer. The shot type was selected to show the singer in revealing clothes. The purpose for this is to engage readers and use sex as a selling point.

The cover lines are on the edges of the page. This means there is more space for the image. The image is the main aspect of a cover as this is what grabs the reader’s attentions. It is important that the images are not covered or covered as little as possible to make it more interesting.

The mis en scene used in both these magazines is very unique as far a Rap and Hip-hop magazines go. The magazine on the right seems to go against well-known stereotypes for rappers. We cannot see all of him but we can see his face and judging by this we can see he is very different from other rappers. He seems very depressed and the grey hairs in his beard make him seem old. Rappers are not old at all and this makes him instantly seem like the opposite of a rapper.

The woman in the cover of the magazine on the right is wearing revealing clothes and this makes her seem like a ‘sex object’. This could be used for many things, either that she is being used to interest readers and make them want to buy the magazine. The other way it could be used is to show the opposite of stereotypical rappers. The woman on the front is actually a rapper as well.

Audience Theory

Audience theory

There are 6 different types of audiences. These are:
(A) Upper middle class
Top management, bankers, lawyers, doctors and other professionals
(B) Middle class
Middle management, teachers, many 'creative' e.g. graphic designers etc
(C1) Lower middle class
Office supervisors, junior managers, nurses, specialist clerical staff etc
(C2) Skilled working class
Skilled workers, trades persons (white collar)
(C) Working class
Semi-skilled and unskilled manual workers (blue collar)
(D) People at lowest level of income
Unemployed, students, pensioners, casual workers

Using these groups of audiences media institutions will conduct market research while in the making their media text. They need to think what the particular target audience will like. Things that will determine what they like are things like their age, gender, where they live etc. After working out what they need to add they will then incorporate that into there magazines that will increase their sales.

In the 1920s a theory was thought that large audiences would interrupt mass media in different ways. The theory basically says that people are injected with media. Once taken in, this then influences people and this was largely used during the World Wars to recruit more troops. Mass media was new when this theory was thought up. Things like radio and cinema were about 20 years old.

The Hypodermic Needle Model suggests that, media might easily change the audience’s behavior and thinking. The information is passively absorbed. This theory is still used today.

A well-known case of this was two boys named Jon Venables and Robert Thompson who killed a toddler named Jamie Bulger. The boys were influenced by violent video games and movies. This is what was thought to make the boys commit this awful crime.

Here you can see a famous rapper holding a gun. This can influence people listening to Rap and Hip-hop or following this culture to think it is correct to posses a gun. Media is giving off the wrong impression in this case..

Main Task Introduction

The objective of our main task is to create a Front cover, contents page and double page spread for a music magazine. The music magazine genre i have decided to make is a Rap / Hip-hop magainze.
The reason i chose Rap and Hip-hop was because i am aiming my magazine at teenagers and people that are in their early 20's. Rap and Hip-hop is very popular amongust this age group and that is why i thought it would be good to aim it at them.

To make sure my magazine is successful i will complete some market research. The reason for doing market research is to find out what people like and would want in the magazine. I can then incorperate this into my magazine and hopefully this will make it more intertesting and a better reading experience.

My Preliminary task magazine cover

My contents page

This was my original flat plan. I decided not to use this but adapt on it. I thought some of the ideas I had on this were ok, but it was a bit plain and boring. Some space is wasted on here so I decided to use these ideas but try to make it better.

My ideas

I have thought of a couple of possible names for this publication.
These are:
· HCS Newsletter
· Heston News
· Heston Weekly Update
· This week in Heston

I decided to go with Heston News. The reason I chose this over the other 3 choices is it is formal but it also is simple. As this is targeted at teenagers the title should not be boring or long. This is not childish and not too boring. I think it will be engaging for both teenagers and adults.

There are certain things you need to take into consideration when choosing colours that are appealing to the audience. You need to think about the emotions associtated with colours, for example blue is calming, red is related to anger.

I want to choose a calm but interesting colour.

Using a colour wheel it can help me choose attractive colours and also show you which colours are complimentary. If there is a good combination of colours it will make the readers experience better.




















After choosing my masthead I then decided to choose a font for it. Here were some of my possible choices.














I decided to use the bottom one, number 4. I thought number 1,2 and 4 was a bit too formal and 3 were a bit illegible. Number 5 I think is suitable for a teenager newsletter.

I’m going to try and keep the layout to my newsletter cover simple and not cluttered. Teenagers do not want to go through useless paragraph just find out something.

Introduction to Preliminary task

Preliminary task

Our preliminary task was to produce a front cover for the weekly school newsletter. I am trying to create a front cover, which will engage the reader and want them to immediately pick up the newsletter and look forward to reading it. I aim to create a cover, which is appealing to the target audience; ages 13-19.To do this I am going to need to select different colours and fonts which teenagers find interesting.

The task requires that it must be a front cover for the school newsletter. It can be based on any theme, however it must be related to school. A mid shot of a Heston Community School student must be used. It must include a masthead and appropriate layout of text.

I have currently decided on two different themes for my front cover. As there are a lot of exams going on, I think it would be fitting to do something based on this. The ideas I have for this are either stress, which exams put on the students. The previous year 11’s, now sixth form, had outstanding results in their GCSE’s and this is also something I could target. A mid shot of an ecstatic student could be shown. The story behind this could be inspiring children to achiever there full potential. The other idea I had is that children are becoming more and more obese as technology progresses and so I believe alerting children about this is a good way to attack the situation. Bringing this to student’s notice from a young age will help prevent health problems in the future. I believe as this is a direct issue that these students can relate to and will want to know how to address this problem.

I am going to target mostly students from the school years 7 to the second year of sixth form; this is almost the whole teenage years. The newsletter is most likely going to be red by the students rather then the parents. So addressing the parents about these issues is useful but I think it is better to directly talk to the people it is affecting.

As I am going to target teenagers, I am going to use bright colours and attractive fonts. This is to entice the readers and make them want to read the newsletter. This creates interesting reading for the audience.

I have decided that the aim of my publication is to entertain the readers. I will also inform readers of events using an interesting and appealing layout. This allows me to engage the reader and pass on information. I believe this will be more effective then just informing them or just entertaining them.

If this were a real magazine I would distribute it weekly. This is because there are many advantages of distributing this weekly rather then every few days or monthly.

The advantages are if you are distributing weekly, you may not have enough stories to cover a certain week or you may not enough money as it costs a lot to produce these magazines and doing it so regularly could cause you to lose money.

If you decide to monthly distribute them you may not be giving your readers the latest news first and this will cause them to stop reading this magazine and change to a different magazine.