Q1- In what way does your media use, develop or challenge forms

and conventions of real media products?

Kristy Lai

R&B is considered as a rather mainstream type of genre that appeals to a lot young adults and teenagers (B-C2) (C2-E).

There are 2 types of readers Type 1: Readers are usually rather passive audience

(hypodermic model, right side of the model- more on the passive side of the model) whom blinding accept facts or the things they see.

They will not challenge what has being given to them. Are usually strivers in the VAL type Type 1 readers are the people whom are lower in the income

bracket, around E, which they are still students and not have individual thinking. Therefore, they are considered as my secondary audience instead of my primary.

What genres are there for R&B?- Readers

Type 2: Whom are active and are willing to challenge songs, movie are being given.

These people do not fit into the hypodermic model at all. They are more in the Morley's reception analysis, as they may choose an

oppositional reading. They are willing to give their own options and not just blindly accepting what

is being given to them There are willing to create new products, e.g. write own songs (Gaunlette’s

making and doing culture) Have a higher income bracket than type 1 These people are my primary audience in my magazine whom are the C2-D

income bracket Are rather sophisticated in terms of thoughts Are experiencers in the VAL type, whom are willing to try and to explore new

items These readers are suitable for my magazine as my magazine is considered

as sophisticated and that my magazine challenges the idea cultural norms, which I introduce world music to my audience.

What conventions are shown in R&B- Readers (Part 2)

In typical R&B magazines, woman are being objectified and are posing in a rather sultry way.

They use rather dark colour schemes such as black, blue, dark red, etc. R&B tends to have a rather dark image

Fonts that are being use are considered as rather “Retro” type and also quote bold, which is used to attract the attention of audience. The reason why they use retro fonts is because the

fonts are rather postmodern, which is juxtaposed with the traditional representations of women in the magazine.

What conventions are being shown- Magazine

The lighting that being used on magazines are considered rather dark tone (loop lighting) to create a mysterious feeling to my artist as she is a new artist not many people may know about her even though she is a youtube sensation.

By doing that kind of lighting can raise hype and interest to my artist.

The cover-line of the magazine is usually about an exclusive interview or news about a certain artist or group that is related to the cover artist.

What conventions are being shown in R&B- Magazine

There are 2 types of R&B artists with different portrayals, one focuses mainly on the portrayal of women

Type 1: The artist shows and exposes a lot of her skin during album jacket photo shoots or interviews. the consumers would rather focus on the photos instead of the song’s quality itself.

The songs they produce surround the theme of sex, love, etc.

The beat or style of song would have a distinctive and additive beat to it to attract the audience’s attention.

The dances or music video representation usual shows of the artist dancing sultry and in a rather sensual way Windship’s notion of complicity hoping to gain more audience and hoping to earn praise.

What conventions are being shown in R&B?- Artist portrayal

Type 2: The artist would take a rather non-sexualise approach challenges traditional approach of women in R&B conventions

The artist does not show a lot of skin, and changes the attention to their voice and the music they are singing.

The songs they sing are not as upbeat as the mainstream R&B songs that are in the market

They focus more on the creativity of the music they produce rather than the styling of their clothing.

Audience vary from year to year, therefore if the artist does not have a breakthrough song; they would most likely not succeeded in the music industry.

The songs they sing still surrounds the theme of love, but sometimes may sing about other perspective and just about have fun or to party around.?

What conventions are being shown in R&B?- Artist portrayal

My magazine is a R&B and inspirational magazine.

My primary audience is the income bracket of B2- C2, while my secondary audience C2-E.

The colour scheme of my magazine does follow the usually colour scheme of having dark colours. (Blue and black)

How is my magazine different from the normal magazine?

My production- an explanation- Cover page The cover page shows an photo of a new cover artist-

Angela Evans The lighting that is being used is loop lighting, which is a

rather common type of lighting that is being used however most other magazines use high key lighting which exposes the artist’s face clearly I wanted to create enigma and to build hype to attract the audience’s attention.

Angela is dress in a rather modest outfit which does not reveal a lot of her skin

She has a serious facial expression and her head is being slightly up suggests an idea of her confidence and strong-willed against the convention/ideology of her being passive and being looked as a object Gauntlett’s empowered woman

A medium shot of her suggest an idea the audience does not know her well known to know what she is about and what she is going to bring out to the audience

I did not state what is going to be in the magazine and instead just wrote the names of featured artist at the back of Angela’s photo instead of the traditional cover-line that all magazines use to attract attention

I wanted my audience to actually think and discover what is going to be inside the magazine instead of me stating what is going to be on it

My production- an explanation- cover page (part 2)

The contents page states what is going to be in the magazine

As my target audience is for a rather sophisticated audience, I added elements of tips on creating music or writing songs for the audience to learn how to and not just to blindly accept and listen to pop/r&b songs Gauntlett’s making and doing culture

I also wanted to audience to engage in the process of them choosing what they wanted to see on the next issue of the magazine instead of us choosing

My audience are rather active and engaging than other audiences. My audience are opinion leaders in the two step flow process to the secondary audience.

They are more into pluralistic media as it gives the audience what they want instead of traditional idealogies hegemonic ideologies.

My production- an explanation- contents page

Angela Evans is a new artist that writes and produces her own songs challenges what is available on the market by making her own

She encourages her fans and supporters to step out of their comfort zone and to try doing music themselves

Artists usually do not encourage fans to try making their own products, but just to blindly asking them to accept it.

Her theme of her songs is to lift the hearts of her fans and to give her fans strength to try new things

She produces her own album and is in-charge of the whole process of her album very uncommon as only a few artists do so as there are a team of people to help them do that

My production- an explanation- double page spread

For the layout of my magazine. I decided to divide the text and the photos of my magazine into half as it is easier of my readers to read it.

It is a common way to do so, but the content of my article gives readers a deeper understanding of the artist’s style of music and also a deeper understanding of her own personal self.

The tone of the interview is in a rather causal tone and light-hearted, hoping readers to feel more comfortable and personal when reader it usually a formal tone is used during interviews

My production- an explanation- double sided spread (part 2)

The pull quote” I never though anyone would watch me” gives my readers more of an insight and introduction on what the article is about

I never thought anyone would watch me shows Angela’s humble attitude towards her success doing music because she enjoys it not for fame and wealth genuine music

Layout- Pull Quote

The use of a drop cap was really just following the rule of having a capital letter before the start of a paragraph

In my interpretation, it suggest that the use of a drop cap is to give a sense of the start of a new paragraph or new theme.

Layout- Drop Cap

I applied the rules of third when I took the photos of my production.

The rule of thirds make my photos in focus and to frame my picture better not in bad quality my main target audience is rather sophisticated quality of whole magazine must rise

Layout- Rules of Third

My masthead is from dafont.com I found a font that is bold and has a retro

feeling attracts audience attention The masthead used the tool ’stroke’ in

photoshop to make the words standout gives it a 3d shape to the fontadds color the font and not as bland and boring as it is.

Fits with the house-style/links with audience classy and elegant sophisticated audience

Layout- Masthead

I used a rather bold font to attract the attention of the audience.

I stuck with the house style of my magazine throughout my production. (font and colour)

I added a bar code onto my cover page. I also added a price and issue onto the front

cover. I put the usernames of different social

media sites I used on my magazine to interact with fans.)

How far have I met the requirements of a magazine?

For my contents page and double page spread, on the bottom of my magazine, I added the date, magazine name, issue, page number and website address to make it as realistic as possible.

However, the words are not aligned and some parts are not tidy enough.

I also tried putting lines are separators to divide text into different sections.

How far have I met the requirements of a magazine? (part 2)

Overall I think I did a decent job in completing the whole magazine and tried my best in creating a magazine typed like production.

The part where I could have done better is to stick to the original ideas of my product as I have changed a bit of my production to adapt to the circumstances of my production

My cover page shot was original a medium long shot, but due to some editing issues, I had to cut the photo a bit in order to make the photo presentable

Where could I have done better?

The layout of my magazine is a bit messy in terms of the layout of my cover page

Everything looks squashed up I should have also put some text on the

right side of my magazine instead of putting it in just one page.

I should have also used more people as my models to make my magazine more interesting.

Where could I have done better? (Part 2)

VIBE magazine is distributed by interMedia partners The genre of the magazine surrounds the theme of hip-hop,

rap and R&B. The audience they aim for is from ages 18-34 However, the content they produce and the style of layout

is similar to my produce. They take also a darker approach in terms of the color of

the layout. They also took a similar approach in terms of marketing and

distributing their product through online distribution They used social media sites such as facebook and twitter

to interact and socialise with fans. For my magazine, I also used the exact social media sites to interact with my readers to keep them updated and engaged.

Comparing a similar magazine to my production

VIBE and my production both challenge convectional expectations of genre by taking something considering as mainstream and unsophisticated and packaging into something that is elevated and sophisticated. appealing to a rather sophisticated audience

Our layout of magazines usually are simple and classy in a way not packed with words and photos more of a simple approach, hoping people will explore what is inside the magazine creating hype

Vibe is known for it’s creative style and approach, which is also similar to my production, as we are hoping that our readers will not just sit there and absorb information

Vibe has launched an event called “Best Rapper Alive Tournament this enables to gain publicity by using the internet and social media to campaign and gain more potential readers. something that is worth looking at

Comparing a similar magazine to my production