COURSEWORK EVALUTATION

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of

real media products?

What is different from my magazine to other magazines is that it is simple. Reading a lot of magazines I feel that there is too much editing to layouts and unnecessary detail and too much editing to pictures of celebrities. The music type of industry I am it is more of the content then the look or image or artists personally, especially rap music. It is all out the content of the music and the type of artist involved. I got this influence, editorial habit from my influences such as Vibe magazine, The SOUCRE magazine and RAP-UP magazine. The image on the front cover is always the artist as they are not too much attention to the theme or background detail linked with the artist on the cover, I particularly like this as, as a reader of these magazines I particularly read them to learn or see the artists for what they really are not how they might be presented in their music videos etc.

The image looks like a cartoon and you can’t see a clear picture of the artists featured just a mixture.

Whereas, these magazines which are the influence of my magazine have clear images of the artist and things featured in the magazine with little edit to the actual artist is themselves. I particularly like this as, as a reader I like to completely and clearly know what I’m getting stuck in.

MY MAGAZINE

Hardly any edit to my model on my front cover just as Vibe magazine.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Representation refers to the construction in any medium of aspects of ‘reality’ such as people, places, objects, events, cultural identities and other abstract concepts. The target of my magazine is a fan of RnB, hip-hop and rap; they’re either in full time education or employed and pretty well off with money. I say this because the majority of the RnB and hip-hop culture is very money motivated; making money in different ways, spending money and having a lot of money, buying big expensive cars and designer clothes with expensive alcohol and spending money on beautiful women.

Drake ‘Headlines’ music video. 3 very expensive cars.

P.Diddy ‘All I Do Is Win’ music video throwing about a whole lot of money.

Nicki Minaj ‘All I do Is Win’ music video wearing expensive designer clothes loaded with money.

Rick Ross ‘That Way’ Music video with expensive alcohol and woman in the back

Wale ‘That Way’ Music video pouring an expensive drink for a beautiful woman.

Usually in music magazines of my genre, woman advertised on the front cover are half naked so it portray that it will be the woman they say in popular music videos; hardly clothed, seductive looking etc. Whereas in my magazine I particularly kept my model fully clothed in the latest trend, I did this because I did not want the audience to just think that this magazine was about music full stop but also about the latest trend to do with the genre and the audience of the magazine, however, I still kept within the guidelines of the models you’d find in the music video; foreign, tanned skin, seductive look, curvy etc.

My model fully clothed in the seasons trend, people will then look to the magazine for this

seasons trend as well as music

Model in the music videos and photo-shoots with artists. Audience may see this and will only be interested in the body of the model, wouldn’t look to the magazine for fashion tips.

The representations my textual content constructs is that it is a chilled out magazine, targeted at all ages not for anyone in particular. The language used is pretty basic because readers of this music are from all countries as you can order this magazine online as well as buy it in stores. My layout representation is that it is for quite modern people, no particular theme, again very laid back and simple with the colors.

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

Bauer media distributes my magazine as they are well known and produce the influence of SOUND magazine Vibe magazine and are very successful. They also operate worldwide which is what the magazines audience aspires to be as they started from an online blog and website which is popular all over the world. The profit of the magazine is extremely important as it determines whether the issue continues with its magazine or sticking to the online website and blog. It also indicates around how much should be spent on the magazine and the competitions and what should be advertised; whether people are buying the magazine and they can afford this luxury as well as what else is advertised inside of the magazine.

As sound is a brand new magazine the content of what we have in our magazines is very important and crucial for it to match up to our online blog and website as our website was very popular for its content as it had hardly any pictures that were particularly taken or uploaded for the website. More text editorial than imagery.

Double page spread imagery to text 1:5

Who would be the audience for your media product?

The audience for my magazine are aged 18 up to 28 years old, 50/50 men and women. They are all fans of RnB, hip-hop and rap. 96% of the audience are involved within the music industry somehow whether its photographers, stylists, journalist, the artists featured in the magazines themselves, producers, engineers etc. Audience love SOUND because it provides their latest gossip, fashion, music, events, concerts together in a package of 72 pages. For the people that don’t enjoy the gossip side of the industry, there is the informative side of the magazine keeping them up with the latest albums and tracks, giving previews and recommendations made by THEM, however for the people who love gossip we have everything from paparazzi pictures to exclusive up and coming interviews with artists to models. The magazine caters perfectly for the audience and understands them, with themes for every issue keeping up with every season. It is ideal for them.

Fashionable, laid back, well off with money. Foreign backgrounds.

She is an upcoming model and host for raves and TV shows also features in very popular video shoots. She’s also in full time education and is well off with money from her castings and parents.

Upcoming rap artist and model recently signed to a label. From America but with a black, Latino and white background. Very fashionable, known as a fashion icon at times.

My magazine addresses their aspirations and jobs as they get to keep up with the industry within a few pages. They find out about upcoming gigs, events, past events, paparazzi pictures, gossip, upcoming jobs and opportunities. This is useful as they are on the run and may not be in reach of internet connection. With the magazine they can subscribe to it and get it delivered where ever they are.

How did you attract/address your audience?

The image on my front cover is a young attractive female with a middle eastern ethnicity in the latest trend that the audience of my magazine follow. I chose this particular female as my front cover image as researching RnB and hip-hop music, watching music videos of that genre, all the females in the videos are of color and foreign ethnicity; black, Latino, Asian, middle eastern, Arab etc. The model I used for my magazine was also decided on the shape of her body; curvy, tanned skin, dark eyes and hair. She is not a typical model you see in magazines, however, she is the typical model RnB and hip-hop artists desire about and are attracted too. The language used on my front cover too attracts my audience as it is my audience’s type of slang e.g. ‘I AINT SELLING OUT’, ‘GROUPIES’, ‘THE HOOD’.

J.Cole – Work Out

Dance A$$ - Big Sean Ft. Nicki Minaj

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

Through and beforehand this process of designing my magazine I did not get taught or talked through how to edit magazines or use any software so it as a real struggle trying to use loads of different software and edit. I didn’t know exactly where to begin so I had to muck about with the software firstly to construct my magazine. I wish I did get taught or taken through the software because my magazine would have been to a much higher standard. I used adobe photo shop and indesign to construct my magazine. Editing pictures on photo shop and transferring them to my indesign layout of magazine. They are pretty hard to use if you’ve never had any experience or lessons or tutorials with the software.

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

I don’t feel I have learnt any skills with the software's, I weren’t taught how to use them in the first place so it was really hard constructing the magazine and things I did manage to edit I was talked through with people outside of college so it wasn’t useful at all. I don’t feel I have improved from my preliminary exercise. However, I have learnt that having flat plans for constructing things are very useful and will continue to use plans. It put things in perspective and eventually helped me to finish my work much quicker, only thing that held me back from my magazine being up to my standard was the fact that I weren’t taught anything whatsoever to do with editing. I have learned that representations can make or break a magazine, getting audience or losing audience of your magazine. You have to be very careful how things are represented and that wrong messages don’t get sent across.