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

I did research on many hip-hop magazines, mostly Vibe magazine, and was able to grasp an understanding of some of the conventions that they used. I used some of these conventions to help my front cover look quite professional for example, my masthead fills the top of the page and the font is bold and big, which most of the successful hip-hop magazines do for example, Vibe magazine. Also the body language of the person on the front cover shows this “cool” and “bad attitude” look which is very much a convention in hip-hop magazines.

A convention I saw a lot in Vibe that I developed on my magazine is the barcode placement, I think this helps give the layout more of a professional look. On the other hand, I have challenged some of the conventions in hip-hop magazines such as Vibe by my front cover being a long shot. While researching Vibe magazine I realised most of their front cover pictures were either close-ups or medium to long shots, I think with my front cover being a long shot it makes my magazine unique and better suits the person on the front of the magazine, because he is not very tall so to see that on a front cover will be very unique because most hip-hop magazines have the biggest and the best in the industry on the front, this could become my unique selling point.

While making my contents page I looked at many hip-hop magazine contents pages, I followed the convention of having my page numbers put into the category of “features,” & “regulars” which the majority of hip-hop magazines do. I looked at a lot of Vibes magazine’s layout for the contents page and it looks very different, I challenged this by doing a pretty simple, easy to read layout for my contents page.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My target social group were 15-26 year olds predominantly males, who are interested or have a passion for hip-hop music, UK hip-hop and a few R&B fans. To better help represent my target social group I researched Vibe magazine, and followed their conventions because their target social group is

roughly the same as mine, by using the conventions seen on Vibe magazine, I made a product that’s represents my particular social group.

The stance of both models aren’t identical but as you can see, very similar. On the other hand on the Vibe magazine shows more emotion than in my magazine. Both models on the magazine have their arms outwards but the models are hands are directed differently, this helps show the different emotions. The expressions on both of the models faces are almost blank, which kind of gives nothing away to what they are feeling too much. And makes the audience want to know more about the models on the front cover. I haven’t followed the convention of the model on the front cover covering the masthead, but the main reason for this is the size of my model on my front cover.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? A media institute that may distribute my magazine is Bauer media, who distribute magazines like Kerrang and Q magazine, these are rock magazines, hip-hop is not an area where Bauer are showing interest in being competitive in, but if they choose my magazine, they could potentially compete with the big hip-hop magazines such as Vibe. Content would be very important in this magazine but profit is not of utmost importance when it starts, the important thing to do at the start of putting out this magazine is getting people to buy it to build a fan base to build on. All publishers try to gain a sense of brand loyalty so people buy the magazine regularly this is why the price wouldn’t be most important at the beginning.

Also Bauer have cross media ownership, with ownership of radio and TV broadcast, for example Kerrang TV. This means my product could be advertised on a broader scale and could also gain a better brand identity and brand loyalty.

In addition, rewind creative media may be interested in my magazine because they might want to publish more magazines because they don’t publish much at the moment, also they are based in the UK like my magazine which could help.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

The audience for my media product would be 15-26 year olds, predominantly male & have an interest or a passion for hip-hop, UK hip-hop & a few R&B fans. They could be any ethnicity, but most likely black, they would usually copy the music artists they favour with their style of clothing and the way they wear it, this means they would probably shop in places like footlocker, Nike, Westside, Gucci, True religion, depending on the wealth of the person.

Their aspirations could be anything if they are just interested in hip-hop music, if they have a passion for hip-hop, their aspirations are most likely to record music and make a name for themselves in the hip-hop industry. My magazine addresses this by doing articles on people in the same positions as them for example, other upcoming artists & clothing wise, my magazine has a section on fashion, showing what’s in style in the hip-hop industry and what’s not in style.

Their demographics are most likely to be like their favourite hip-hop artist, which could be naturally because their characteristics attracts them to the hip-hop artist they like, or by choice because they want to emulate them, especially if they want to become a hip-hop artist, this could mean they are loud, funny, enthusiastic, crazy, outspoken or even quite relaxed and laid back partly depending on the music artist they favour.

How did you attract/address your audience? 

My magazine attracted/addressed my audience by following and also challenging conventions of other hip-hop magazines such as Vibe who’s target audience are roughly the same as mine. Techniques that I used were following the convention of one of the most successful hip-hop magazines in the world which is Vibe, I followed the layout of the front cover to make it look more professional and attract my audience. I also challenged conventions on the front cover by putting an unknown up and coming artist on the front cover instead of a big, well known name on the front.

I think this would work because when they see a little kid on the front of a Hip-hop magazine, they will be intrigued to see who that person is because this is unique, and it would make them interested in who the boy is, how old he is and how he is doing in the hip-hop industry, this also addresses my audience because some of my audience are aspiring music artists in the same position, and seeing this could give them inspiration and want to see what he has done to get this far in the hip-hop industry at such a young age.

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

The range of technologies available were In-design & Adobe Photoshop. The hardware available was a Samsung camera for my pictures and a Hewlett Packard computer to use the program. The program I chose to use was to construct my product was Adobe Photoshop, this I because I tried both of the programs available and I found In-Design very complicated to use and harder to learn and understand, while Adobe felt the more easier to learn.

As I kept using it, I got the handle of it. Both programs are not easily accessible as they are new and there are also different, updated versions of the program. I was only able to access Adobe Photoshop at College.

I learnt that in Adobe Photoshop you can change the texture of people’s skin and make it look better, smoother and make blemishes disappear, you can use this to make the models in your magazine look better and make your magazine look more professional.

I also had to use Blogger to show my progress on this project, I found this hard as I am not used to doing this, I usually hand in my work as a whole, so to regularly get access to the internet and upload my work was quite difficult for me.

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

From looking back at my preliminary task I feel that I have vastly improved from that to the full product. I have gained much more knowledge of Adobe Photoshop, learning how to smooth skin texture, make blemishes disappear etc.

I also suffered because I spent too much time on learning the programs I was using, which gave me less time on the final product, so I’ve learned that I need to plan my time management better. Also I think I have learnt to do more research into similar magazines since the preliminary task, I did not do much research on that task and the difference definitely shows.

I have also learnt how to take better shots and when and where to use them in a magazine, I feel the shots I have taken for the final product are way better than the ones on the preliminary task because I have more knowledge of types of camera shots and how to use them.