LMED3 Stefan: 2012

Evaluation

Q1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

At the beginning of my magazine project I was set a task by my teacher to go and analyze different magazine front covers which exist in our world today and see how they are presented in terms of their lay-out and see how they use there conventions to catch the eye of a certain type of targeted audience. Within my magazine I have taken real effort to see which different ways I can incorporate conventions from various real music magazines to help me develop my magazine and make it have a more professional outlook. One thing I incorporated was the use of a very simple and bold masthead which stretches across the top of the magazine front cover, I also include a very unique symbol next to my masthead to create that effect that I am indeed trying to separate my magazine front cover from the average plain magazine front cover by giving mine something extra. On the other hand I did try my best to make my masthead as simple as possible so that it’s easy for my audience to take in as it is simple and tidy. The font I used was harabara which is basically similar to the impact font as it doesn’t have any complicated twists and turns so the reader will have no trouble reading it. I also incorporated the model in front of the masthead look as I believe it looks more professional and tidy.

A magazine selling line is another essential thing as it is one of the main things needed for a music magazine in order for it to be successful. This is used by MOST magazines as it one of the ways to put across what you are selling to your audience in a very brief and simple way as it promotes the magazine. My magazine is a Grime & UK Rap music magazine and my selling line is something which could be seen as very similar to most selling lines as your trying to exaggerate how good your magazine is in comparison to other magazines. My selling line is “The UK’s #1 Leading Grime Magazine” as it very briefly states what I am putting across.

To be able to follow the codes and conventions for a music magazine is that I use a barcode and a dateline and also an issue number, my dateline is place slightly between my barcode and my scancode which isn’t normally done by most music magazine as it is usually seen underneath the masthead.

For me to be able to catch the full attention and be able to attract my audience I needed to have catchy coverlines which is a convention which is used by all music magazines to get the reader to want to take a look inside. This is done with short, colourful and distinctive. I used mostly the same font for my coverlines. My coverlines are used to attract my audience such as having exclusive music chart information. Coverlines are formatted vertically on the left hand side on the third of its front cover and can also be found on the right as well.

My magazine consists of a two shot as it includes two people in one image together which is very rarely done for music magazine but is sometimes used.

My contents page consists of many varieties of the traditional codes and conventions of a music magazine as it has more pictures, page numbers, featuring headings and editors’ note.

My double page spread by using the different codes and conventions. I first of all made my double page spread have a similar colour scheme to my front and contents page which isn’t a common thing done within the music magazine industry. I include two columns for where the interview took place to give it a more professional look. I also made the phrase “WORLD DOMINATION” stands out to make that bit eye-catching towards the reader.

Q2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My magazine is targeted towards young urban teens who are avid listeners of either Grime or UK Rap.

The age targeted can vary between the ages of 12-24 but there isn’t really a targeted gender to be honest but it could be viewed that the male gender would be considered as the ideal candidate for the targeted audience for my magazine.

One of the things I have done is made my two models wear darkish clothing with jeans, basically a casual underground look so I am able to appeal to a certain target and social audience.

Q3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

I believe institutions such as HMV might be interested in distributing my magazine as the main shoppers at HMV consist of people of a younger generation who have a love for music, and I believe that because of this they would be very keen on distributing my product.

Q4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

I believe that my audience would vary between the ages of 12-24 and would be of a British audience. This is due to the fact that only Britain or mainly British people have access and or listen to Grime and UK Rap so its only logic that I would be targeting them.

When it comes to the ethnic background of the Grime and UK Rap scene it is believed that this is mainly targeted towards young black males who are involved in gang like activities who would only be able to understand what this genre is all about whereas that is wrong as it is mainly targeted to those hardcore Grime and UK Rap fans who have a passion for music.

Q5. How did you attract/address your audience?

Following my research I was able to attract my audience by using catchy coverlines for starters. I also included a model which potrayed a similar lifestyle to those reading so the get a sense of relation to the people there on the magazine.

Q6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Another technology I found I had learnt a lot from is the use of Photoshop as my skills on Photoshop was very limited before the process of constructing my magazine. I used a mix of Photoshop CS5 and CS3, to construct my music magazine, this is because I found CS5 more useful and easier to use when manipulating my images to create the intend effect. In CS5 I used the refine edge tool to separate the background and subject, which was the first step in creating my magazine. I then adjusted the brightness and the contrast by adjusting the image levels.

A technology I learnt to use and found a lot of fun was the Photoshop. I had previous experiences using the Photoshop but I found out I still had a lot to learn about Photoshop itself as the updated version had a lot of new and special features which helped me create my magazine such as the stroke key.

I also learnt how to convert my images into a JPEG.