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.