Breerha Alam Media Evaluation 1.

In what ways will your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? Before commencing with my assignment extensive research was carried out. I researched and examined existing music magazines from the same genre in order to get a better understanding of how I should proceed with my own magazine. I analyzed these magazines in order to understand how hip pop/r n b magazines are presented and to get a general feel of the conventions used in terms of text, pictures, fonts etc in order to attract my target audiences. I based my final product on the existing magazine Vibe as the magazine was unique and at first glance attracted me, as an audience instantly. This is what I wanted my magazine to do, to stand out from the shelves and attract instantly. Therefore, following the trend of convention I adopted the layout and style from Vibe Magazine however, instead of fresh and light colours I chose to use a deep royal blue background with vibrant gold for the text. I did this for two reasons: number one I wanted my font to stand out and be seen from across the room and by using the colour combination I chose it allowed me to achieve this. There are numerous ways that my final product use, develops and challenges forms and conventions of real music magazines. One of the conventions I used in my magazine that is important in many magazines is the large, bold masthead at the top of the magazine which attracts the eye of the audience and stands out from the rest of the magazine. To achieve this I downloaded a specific font from Dafont.com which was called Xscale. The font used is san serif; I chose to do this because I wanted to give the magazine a contemporary look as it would attract my target audience.

Dafont.com My Masthead To adapt the font I added many effects on the text such as:

Breerha Alam Media Evaluation Bevel and Emboss Stroke As I was analysing Vibe magazine, I noticed that the masthead for that magazine was very eye catching as it was behind the model, but by challenging that recognisable convention, I didnt follow it. I had a strong belief that by not having my model in front of the text would not affect my magazine a lot, and that my target audience will still be attracted to the magazine as the masthead is bold and big.

A magazine selling line is another convention that was used in my music magazine. I noticed that it was generally used in music magazine, as it is one of the most important selling points of the magazine. As my magazine is Hip Hop and RnB, the selling line was used to attract the fans of that genre of music by saying THE U.Ks BIGGEST MUSIC MAGAZINE EVER! The selling line in my magazine is also short, sharp description of the titles main marketing point just like existing magazines.

To try and follow all the conventions of a magazine, the use of a barcode and a dateline was needed. Unlike Vibe magazine I developed the form and had the dateline placed underneath the masthead for it to be easier for the reader to notice it, as it is under the masthead. But as a convention I followed, I put the price with the barcode in the bottom right hand corner, as that is typically seen in magazines.

Dateline

Barcode

Breerha Alam Media Evaluation Another convention, that is usually used in many magazines, which I used to attract my target audience, is Cover lines. Cover lines are used to give an overview of the main featured stories in the magazine and also catches the attention of the target audience as it should be catchy, short and vibrant. As I followed this convention thoroughly, all my cover lines are vibrant in colour as well as being short and catchy. The fonts used for all my cover lines were the same, as it makes the front cover neat and tidy, however they varied in size- especially my main cover line which covers the bottom part of the magazine. The main cover line, the main image and the selling line all work together to make a selling point of the magazine, so all three have to stand out! One of my cover lines differs to the others, as it is in a circle shape- I done this to show the importance of that cover line as it states FREE POSTERS INCLUDED. My cover lines are arranged out on the front cover like many other real magazines- on the right hand side vertically and some on the left- this is so the focus on the main image would not get distracted.

In my magazine I used a medium long shot, which is a popular convention that I used and developed from an existing magazine Vibe. However the model on the existing magazine is facing towards the audience, but I developed that convention and had my models body slightly on the left, to make it seem like she is looking at something through her body language. I think that the model would attract my target audience as she is standing with attitude, and my target audience is stereotyped to have attitude

Breerha Alam Media Evaluation My contents page used and developed convention from existing magazines. I firstly added many different images to highlight the other stories in the magazine. This is a widely used convention that is used in real magazines, however the music magazine I was researching did not use images and it challenged the widely used convention. To attract my targeted audience I included an image that, in some ways, links to my front cover. However I also used images that contradicted the front cover as the scenery as those pictures are eye catching. Another popular convention used in a real magazine is the vertically arranged columns, which consist of the featured articles in the magazine. I followed this convention thoroughly as it is another widely used convention and also it makes the contents page look neat and structured. I arranged my contents page with three pictures on the left and the columns on the right. Underneath the pictures I placed an editors note- which is another convention I followed. However, yet again, the magazine I was focusing on had no link to my final contents page as it differed a lot.

Similarly, my double page spread uses conventions from existing magazines. The colour of the background is a dark blue, contrasting the front cover. However I used an eye catching yellow for the artists name, as I wanted it to attract the audience to read the interview. I arranged my interview in to two columns with a short paragraph first. A popular convention uses in my double page spread is a quote from the artist. This quote is used to show how the artist is feeling, or what he wants to share. The quote on my double page spread reads THIS IS JUST THE BEGINING.

I also added a drop capital on my double page spread, which is another popular convention used in magazines

Breerha Alam Media Evaluation

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups? My music magazine is aimed at the age group of 16-26, both males and females who are Hip Hop and RnB listeners. I represented this particular social group through the images that I used in the magazine. The model itself on the front cover represents my particular social group in different ways. One way in which the model represents my particular social group is thorough her clothes. The model is wearing a black and blue addidas jacket with a pair of dark blue jeans. Her clothes are casual and normal. Her clothes are also stereotypical of what young teenagers would wear so this leads to it being a representation of my particular social group. Also addidas is a major brand that is well known by my social group, so as my model is wearing an addidas jacket would be another reason why my front cover represents my particular social group. Another way that the image of the model on the front cover represents my particular social group is through the props, such as jewellery and electronics. Hip Hop and RnB genre usually encourage costly accessories and electronics, such as bracelets and headphones, so I thought it would be normal for my model on my front cover to wear costly items- this also represents m particular social groups as they copy the path of popular artists.

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3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product & why?

Going back to the publishing house case study I wrote about during my research and planning stage of my coursework, I think that Conde Nast publications would love the idea to issue and distribute my magazine. There are many specific reasons why Conde Nast will love the idea to issue and distribute my magazine. Firstly, Conde Nast does not issue music magazines, so by issuing my music magazine they will attract a whole new market with a wider target audience, as well as increasing the popularity of their current magazines. However, my music magazines genre is Hip hop and RnB, and Conde Nast do not have any magazines issued with that type of genre which leads to an advantage of my magazine as it would be something NEW for Conde Nast to publish- this will lead to a major advantage for the company as it will be an outburst for them. Another reason for issuing and distributing my magazine is that Conde Nast publications will have a major financial advantage, as they are attracting a whole new audience that none of their other magazines actually target at the moment. And because they dont already issue music magazines in the company, there wont be any competition. My magazine would be targeting a wider audience than any of their current magazine which means that Conde Nast will increase in popularity and be financially benefitted for a long term. Overall because of their increasing profits, through my magazine will make the company well known to more audiences that are not targeted. I possibly would distribute my magazine in retail stores that are well known such as TESCO and WHSMITH, and small corner shops as they are popular with my targeted age group, but not in music stores such as HMV as they are losing customers due to the fact of online downloading and steaming of songs and films. Also it has been predicted that music store like HMV will be closing down soon, so I wouldnt want to take the risk of jeopardising my magazine. However distributing my magazine in WHSMITH and TESCO would let a large number of my targeted audience to be able to access it. Also, Conde Nast sells their other magazines in retail stores such as WHSMITH and TESCO as well.

Breerha Alam Media Evaluation

4. Who would be the audience for your media product? My music magazine PAUSE, as stated in my audience research, is targeting both teenagers and young adults aged 16-25. This is mainly targeted at the British audience as they know the most about the Hip Hop/RnB genre and many of the famous artists from this genre are British. I chose to target a young audience, as in my magazine the content is more likely to appeal to the younger audience aged 16-19 than the young adults aged 20-25, as the younger targeted audience know a lot more about the genre, as it affects their lives everyday, unlike the young adults. Magazines issued nowadays are targeted at the younger audience the most, as the music artists are also young, which shows a link between the age group and the artist. On the other hand, my music magazine would also attract young adults aged 2025 as I included many selling lines such as CHANCES TO WIN as well as TICKETS TO THE o2 and other competitions. The reason why my music magazine will attract the young adults with the competitions involved in them, is because these competition all have age restrictions on them, which means only the older targeted audience (young adults 20-25) can apply for them.

The genre Hip Hop/RnB has been stereotyped to be based for Black People, however in terms of ethnicity; my music magazine targets all races equally and targets both male and females. My magazine would also consist of many different social networking sites such as Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter as well as many phone apps on iPhones and Blackberrys. The reason of having all these different types on online technology is because I know my targeted audiences lives consist on these.

Breerha Alam Media Evaluation

5. How did you attract/address your audience? I attracted my target audience in many different ways with the help of my audience research. The first way in which I attracted my target audience was through the front cover, which is an important aspect of the magazine, as it concludes on whether or not my target audience buys the magazine. I felt that I attracted my target audience through the front cover of my magazine, as I chose a model that is categorised in the same age group as my audience, which would let the audience feel a link between them and the magazine as well as feeling as if they can relate to the model. The models clothes also represent a style of Hip Hop/RnB as she is wearing a well known brand that my target audience knows: Addidas.

Addidas Logos

I also got my model to wear bracelets that are in fashion with my target audience I did this so they could be attracted to my magazine and yet again feel a link with the magazine.

Fashion bracelets

My audience research helped me to find another way to attract my target audience, which was done through the use of interesting cover lines. Acknowledged through my questionnaires, my target audience were attracted to freebies in a magazine such as FREE POSTERS INCLUDED as well as juicy gossip of famous artists. I used names of artists that are well known with my target audience, as I wanted them to feel a connection with the magazine, for

Breerha Alam Media Evaluation example PLUS TREY SONGZ, RIHANNA FENTY I know that these two artist are very popular with my targeted group, and that using their names is a main selling point for my magazine. My other cover lines state LISA LINN SPILLS ALL and NEW MUSIC APPS ON BBs. The cover line about Lisa Linn would attract my target audience, as she is a new artist in the Hip Hop/RnB genre, and knowing that our magazine already has juicy gossip about her is an advantage. Also Blackberrys are popular with my target audience; so latest news about the phone is also a way to attract my audience.

Overall I used san serif fonts to show that my magazine has continuity as well as showing a hard, stubborn and attitude look. I felt that this font worked very well with the genre of music, as RnB has been stereotyped to have attitude and stubbornness, which leads my audience to be attracted and addressed to the magazine. My masthead also is in san serif, which I downloaded from a website Dafont.com called XSCALE. This font for my masthead generates a strong yet distinguishable brand look so that my target audience will be attracted to its dominance that it creates on the front cover.

Another way I attracted and addressed my target audience was with the colour scheme I chose. The colour scheme of my magazine was based on a dark blue background with gold, white and yellows, as these were the colours that my target audience illustrated in my audience research, as it is an acquaintance with the genre Hip Hop/RnB. The colour I chose is very bold and vibrant, that catches the awareness of the audience. Also I did not want my magazine to be biased through the colours so I chose very unisex colours, which both males and females can be represented through and attracted to.

To keep my audience both attracted and addressed, I kept the tone of Standard English throughout the whole magazine, as I dont want my magazine to only fit in with one group in a specific area of the UK; I want my magazine to be read and

Breerha Alam Media Evaluation understood by not only the targeted audience, but others as well, so both young and old can communicate with each other as well understanding each other.

Another way I attracted my target audience was thorough the contents page. I kept my contents page all structured and neat, allowing the audience to easily read each section and not getting confused.

6. What you about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

have learnt

Before commencing with my music magazine, I had to learn and understand about the many different types of technologies that I had to use. Firstly, I had to show my skills of using a camera to take good quality pictures for my magazine. However throughout the time of taking the photos I needed for my magazine, I learnt and enhanced new skills and tips for using a camera. The cameras model was a Canon EOS 400D even though I took pictures with this same camera for my preliminary task, I think that the quality of the pictures varied between the preliminary task and the main task. My images were all taken in the same location, a studio room, where as well at the camera I used a Bowen Flash Kit with a Blue Screening behind the model. I did this so then my pictures get a professional look, as it would portray a real magazine as they use the same location for their photos. It also made it easy for me to edit the background on a programme called Photoshop CS3/ CS5, however a couple of pictures on my contents page were taken outside of the studio room, to give the contents page some natural colours, which meant I did

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Breerha Alam Media Evaluation not use the flash kit for them but I still used the same camera to give the same quality for all the pictures. Even though I learnt and enhanced new skill with the camera, I still faced problems. My main problem was that I could not focus the camera, which meant some of my photos were blurry, but then I resolved the problem leading to good quality pictures. During the process of my music magazine, I developed and enhanced my skills on using Photoshop, as at the beginning of the task, my skills were very limited. During the process of my magazine, I used both CS3 at college and CS5 at home (different softwares of Photoshop). The construction of my magazine was all done on CS3, but the final touches were all done on CS5- as CS5 had more options with tools. Also with the CS5, I adjusted the brightness and contrast of the main image on the front cover. d s m n A ju t e ts

Brightness and Contrast Brightness and Contrast Also using CS5, I used the resize tool (CTRL and T) to make the image on my front cover bigger, so it could then cover the whole page, as well as showing dominance towards the magazine.

ACTUAL IMAGE

I resized the image, as the original picture was too small, and was leaving too many blanks on the page. But the after pressing CTRL and T, I resized the image, so it looks dominant on the page, as well as not leaving blank spaces.

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Breerha Alam Media Evaluation

After pressing CTRL and T

As well as resizing the image, I used the Spot Healing tool, which helped me make the models face flawless, as it removed all unwanted spots from the models face.

The healing of the spots

Those perfect rectangle shaped boxes on my contents page, were done with the help of the Rectangle tool. During the preliminary task, I didnt know how to use the rectangle tool, but by the end of the main task, Ive enhanced my skills in using it.

Rectangle Boxes

Other ways I used Photoshop, was to decorate my text, through a tool called Stoke. I found this tool very helpful and easy to use, as it gave my text that boldness and eye catching look that I wanted without facing difficulties. This also gave my magazine a professional look, as many existing magazines use stroke as well.

Stroke

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Breerha Alam Media Evaluation

In the beginning of the course, I was introduced to Blogger- which was new to me. Blogger is the place that we Blog/Post our work. This was the first time I ever used Blogger, so the first couple of times I had trouble using it, however I enhanced my skills on Blogger and learnt techniques which allowed me to use Blogger properly. Using Blogger has made me learn that blogging work is really good ways of letting others see your work.

The last set of technologies I used were networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook and Whatsapp. I used these networking sites when I was researching about my targeted audience, and when I understood their view on a magazine.

7. Looking back preliminary you feel you

at the task what do have learnt in the progression from it to a full product?

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Breerha Alam Media Evaluation

Since doing my preliminary task, I have learnt many new skills which have helped me construct my final music magazine pieces. I have considerably improved my Photoshop skills, which was very basic during the preliminary task. I consider that one of the main concerns of my preliminary task is that I didnt follow any conventions of existing magazines, for example- I did use a masthead and cover lines, but the cover lines were not planed out, which leads to my preliminary task front cover looking like a poster. Also my contents page has not followed any existing conventions of a magazine, as my preliminary task contents page has not used any columns and sub headings. Whilst producing my music magazine, I kept looking back at my preliminary task, to see what I should not do and kept it so I could keep looking back at it and realising that I progressed a lot from the preliminary task. Overall my college magazine looks too basic and boring for it to attract its targeted audience. One of the main aspects that I learnt in the progression from the preliminary task to the full product which helped my music magazine was the use of Photoshop, which I wasnt skilful enough whilst producing my preliminary task. This assisted the quality of my music magazine, as it looked more professional than the preliminary task. The preliminary task only consisted of a front cover and a contents page, both A4, however during my main task I had to produce a double page spread, as well as a front cover and contents page. The double page spread let me learn how to apply conventions on an A3 canvas as well as using the space properly. During my preliminary task, I felt as if I did not attract my target audience, however as I progressed from the preliminary task to the full product, I learnt how to fully attract my targeted audience. I also learnt how to focus my magazine on a specific social group, as my magazine had a specific audience so I was able to be more focused on what suits that target group. Managing the time during my preliminary task was a disaster, as I kept on changing the layout of my front cover and contents page as I did not have a certain idea of what I wanted to create. However during the main task, the management of time was exceedingly better as I had a clear picture of what I wanted to produce and I knew I had to meet a specific deadline.

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Breerha Alam Media Evaluation Since my preliminary task I also learnt how to use a Canon EOS 400D camera, therefore I was able to produce good quality pictures which led to my final product looking like a magazine, not a poster (preliminary task). With the preliminary task, I did not know how to use the camera properly which was an obstruction.

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