Evaluation

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

As part as creating my music magazine I researched many different successful music magazines of genres that I enjoy myself. The three magazines which I focused on were XXL Vibe and Source magazine. All of these magazines have their own unique layout; I chose to focus on XXL and Vibe, XXL because it is my personal favorite magazine out of the three and Vibe because the style and the layout of the magazine. As seen on my blog I researched into the front cover of XXL magazine to where the most important conventions were placed on the magazine such as where the banner, and mastheads go and what size they tend to be, and to get a general idea of how I was going to design my magazine. I kept to the original codes and conventions of Vibe and tried to model my contents page and some of my front pages similar to how vibes was. I decided on an arrangement of having one single main image on the contents page; the image being the featured artist. I also maintained the page setup, for example the way they laid out the words ’contents’ in Vibe magazine, by having it spread out across three lines. Likewise I kept the conventions of Vibe by having my features down the right hand side of my contents page. I tried to implement most if not all the ideas from Vibe contents page. My front page is the complete opposite in the sense that it’s not as Vibe orientated as opposed to my contents page. I challen ge the Vibe magazine front cover in the fact that mine has a lot less detail, I tried to keep it simple yet effective because I didn’t want to overload the readers eyes with to many attractions. Although I do have some similar conventions to the Vibe front cover; I have one main image just like Vibe; the style of shot I have is a medium close up of the feature image. I also have the other feature artist’s names going down the right hand side of the page. I chose to name my magazine KOD which is a short name which is easy to remember. This jus like XXL, KOD is an abbreviation of the real name which for my magazine is ’King of Diamonds’. As in Vibe I made the main banner the largest piece of writing on the page so that it stood out amongst the other things that were on the page. The colour scheme I chose for the front page was yellow red and white; I had my masthead in white due to the fact that my background is black. As for my two page spread it wasn’t so colorful, I done this to make my readers feel at ease when they read the article and that there eyes aren’t bombarded with different colours. On my contents page I have a blue background. I took into consideration the other conventions that XXL and Vibe use as they share the same niche market audiences. The main one was to keep a short and snappy masthead so readers will remember the name easily and also to have the title in the top right hand corner so readers could find and identify the magazine when searching for the magazine. 

2) How does my magazine represent particular social groups?

My music magazine represents the social class of young black people, more leaning towards the males. In Hip-Hop and RnB music, stereotypically, you would not find many White/Asians rappers or singers. At a first glance at my magazine it may seen as if I contradicted myself because there is a white artist featured in the issue of my magazine, but I done this purposely to show that Hip-Hop and RnB music isn’t just dominated by black artists, that now it doesn’t matter what colour you are as long as your good a good artist you can be accepted in the Hip-Hop and RnB culture. This isn’t the first time this has happened, it occurred on the 2007 November issue where white rapper Eminem was featured on XXL magazine, and has since then been featured on Vibe. Although my magazine is more featured to the urban young black people, all different types of cultures can read it and hopefully relate to it in some way. With the social group I am catering for, young urban (black) people there is a lot that the social group can relate to, because it is a Hip-Hop magazine and most urban people listen to Hip-Hop music because Hip-Hop is mostly a predominant black music genre. A lot if not all the adverts in the magazine will appeal to my niche market audience, adverts such as urban clothing and black sitcoms.

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

The music represented in my magazine is predominantly for young urban teens, comparable to that of Vibe and XXL. Consequently my main target audience would be of young urban teens itself. Because of that reason I are targeting young urban males and females, but more leaning over to males though. Age wise, from audience research I decided the ages between 15-23, as for the language I use in my magazine I tend to stay away from using formal language because most young teens don’t really speak formally but I wouldn’t say that I speak slang though. The magazine is priced at a relatively light £2.50 which is cheaper than both Vibe and XXL, and as a result more affordable to my younger audience. I also ran a competition, which my niche market audience could enter and have the chance of winning the experience to create a musical production. Hopefully this will feel like a change for to my audience of readers as I thought they would like to do activities hands on than just giving them small things that won’t last. For the colour scheme of the magazine I chose stand out colours just like the magazines in the same genre to mine, reason being young teens get a magazine based on how familiar they are to existing magazines such as Vibe and XXL, but I didn’t use all the conventions because then mine would just look like a copy of one of the magazines. So I chose to replace the blue on Vibe magazine with white and kept the main image to cover the whole background. This meant that my magazine still has similar conventions to existing magazines but also having an identity of its own. For the text of the other feature artists going down the write hand side, I put colourful quotes in-between them.    

4) What kind of media institutions might distribute your media product and why?

Two similar magazines to mine are XXL and Vibe. These two magazines are produced by different companies; XXL is distributed in America by Harris publications and Vibe magazine is also distributed in America by InterMedia Partners. After much research and consideration I think that the most suitable company to distribute my magazine would be InterMedia partners. The company was founded in 2005 and is based in New York City. With the magazine being based in New York I think it would benefit my magazine an immense deal, my magazine is U.K based publication and this will gain it some popularity in the U.S. another plus to my magazine being distributed by an American company is that my magazine is likely to get heard of in the US, leading to my magazine being purchased by an American niche market. My magazine is not too far of leading magazines in America but because it is an U.K based magazine I think it will give it in edge in the field of music magazines that are the same genre as mine. On the other hand there are a few downsides to my magazine being distributed by an American company some issues involve that because it is a U.K publication when the magazine is outlet in the states the price for the magazine might increase a bit. However if they wanted links to an American audience InterMedia partners could import the magazine and sell it in the US, like Vibe does in the UK. As for which shops would distribute the magazine, it would make a lot more sense for shops such as HMV, and other music area of expertise shops as this is where the niche audience would spend a lot of time, considering HMV is music oriented. As most young teens now all have internet, online shopping is a big part of young teenager lives. There will be an option so you can order and subscribe from the magazine’s website. This would in addition accumulate money.

5) How did you attract/address your audience?

I created a questionnaire and distributed it to my niche market audience; I targeted my fellow students who fitted the bill of my main audience. Once my questionnaire were completed I analyzed my results and they came back with people saying they would like to have competitions to win CD’s and ticket giveaways  for upcoming concerts and events. So I added this into my magazine and also featured it on the front page of my magazine as well. Also a batch of people said they read magazines to see what clothing celebrities wear, so there will be an extended page on fashion and where possibly people could buy the clothes from. As for the language I use in my magazine I tend to stay away from using formal language because most young teens don’t really speak formally, I wouldn’t say I speak slang in my magazine but the language I use is for the target audience. I will have different clothes shops or clothes brands advertised in my magazine giving out coupons, this would be exclusive to the magazine meaning people might just buy the magazine to save money the next time they go shopping. The magazine is not as musically dominated as Vibe magazine; my magazine has things in there other than music such as fashion and trendy topics in the world of Hip-Hop music. The product is priced at a moderately good price of £2.50 which is cheaper then XXL and Vibe, resulting in it being more affordable for my target audience which is young teens. With the idea of having competitions and CD giveaways it will attract younger readers because most young people will try and find a way to avoid spending unnecessary money. As for the colour I have chosen bright colours that will stand out, I used my audience research to find out what attracts young people to buy music magazines and with the results I applied it to my magazine. My magazine colour system is very unique as to that it has its conventions of its own with original colours such as yellow and red ensuring that my magazine has an identity of its own. As for the two page spread I have broken it up into six columns with pictures in-between the text breaking it up ensuring that it doesn’t look like one big text and it being easier and enjoyable to read.

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

As being a first time user of programs such as Microsoft Publisher and Photo Shop Elements and http://www.picnik.com/  I found it quite difficult to grasp the concept of using these programs at first. As time went on and I used the programs more I got more familiar with them. As I think there is a big difference in my quality of work and progress from my preliminary task to the main task. During the main task I learnt how to effectively use Photoshop elements, meaning that the pictures I took could be edited to suit the magazine for the genre of my magazine. Also I learnt how to edit pictures and make them look better. I also gained an understanding into using digital cameras, as the quality of my photos improved as the task went on. As time went on I learnt which poses worked best to portray the style of magazine that I wanted. In addition using Microsoft Publisher was not too challenging because I have had past experience using the programme. I mostly created my front cover using Picnik, I had a bit of trouble using this programme at first due to the fact that I was a first time user, but as time went past, the more familiar I got with it. I also gained good experience using digital cameras, as the quality of my photos got better throughout the process. I learnt how to use and control a blog due to the fact that all of my work had to be uploaded to a blog on the website http://www.blogger.com/

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

For my preliminary task we had to produce a school magazine, it was a good starting point as it helped me come to terms better with what would be required for the main task. The magazine that I created had to be similar to other possible school magazines which have been into production. This enabled me to understand the conventions and how important they are and how they should be applied. The school magazine was similar to the music magazine. Just like the music magazine, the school magazine needed to have a main story about something important from within the school, and I chose to write about sports day. Once I had taken a few images and edited them on Microsoft Publisher, I felt that this was enough preparation to go ahead with the full main task. As I leant how to take and edit photos and also which layout looks best on magazine front covers based on other magazine of the same genres. In doing all this I furthered my knowledge of the production process of a magazine. I think that both my preliminary task and final task were successful in representing their genres, I also believe that by doing the preliminary task it enabled me to go on and make a better final task.