In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
The magazine that I have created follows the convention of other different Hip Hop magazines. My music magazine included elements that would be in a real Hip Hop music magazine or any type of music magazine. Primarily by the pictures that I took especially as images are the main attractions of a magazine, whilst also contributing to their sales. The way I made the models in my picture pose, are: Tida- I made sure that she made more of a seductive look to the camera also whilst showing here “hood and gangster” look as she is a rapper. I looked at different Hip Hop magazine that had female rappers as their front cover and saw the different types of poses that they did, as well as the different types of clothing they wear. I made sure that what she wore was fitting into the Hip Hop genre. Clothes such as hoodies, big belts and revealing clothes, are what you would see females wearing in the Hip Hop industry. The clothes that my two friends wore (Cashman and KidJokez) where also conventional because Hip Hop artist wear these types of clothes, clothes such as hoodies, hats, urban scarves. The layout of my magazine is conventional to other Hip Hop music magazines with just slight differences such as the masthead. The masthead used for my magazine is in a Serif font (GOUDY STOUT), comparing it to different Hip Hop magazines that I have viewed they use Sans Serif in their magazines which makes my magazine unconventional, this is because it is easier for their target audience to read the name of the magazine rather than having a font that is unreadable. The content that is in my magazine features the double page spread of the featured artist on my front cover. I designed the double page spread as an interview where I was the reporter asking askin my featured artist( Tida) questions and she would answer after I asked it. The questions and answers differ from each other because of the two different colours that are used. On the double page spread there are also three different types of pictures, this is conventional as Hip Hop music magazines also contain pictures of the featured artist on the double page spread, some also include pictures of the artist and different people who relate to them in different ways. The double page spread also follows the same colour scheme throughout to make it look cohesive. At the bottom corner of the page of my magazine has a barcode which is conventional because all music magazines contain them.
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
The social group for my Hip Hop magazine would be people who like Hip Hop music, which generally consists of men of a Black Afro or Caribbean descendant. This is the assumption I have made from the results of the questionnaire that I had created for my magazine, as the way that Hip Hop has been put across to people. I think this is because they can link different parts of their life to different aspects that has been shown through the Hip Hop culture. My social group will also tend to be middle class people who live in urban areas. Hip Hop is well known to people all over the world especially Latin American countries and the United States. The model on my magazine Tida would represent Hip Hop because of the way she is dressed (“hood rat”, glamorous), the gesture that she is making in the picture and way she is posing, it is linked to the female Hip Hop culture in many ways. Female rappers are seen as dominant “divas” who are not afraid to rap about what they feel and are the way they are because they feel they “can keep it real”. For example female rapper Missy Elliot- she is a successful Hip Hop musician who I researched about while conducting my Hip Hop magazine, she represents herself by wearing bright and different colored clothing, big chains, sun glasses and still manages to be a role model for teens nowadays. Having a female as the front cover of a Hip Hop magazine can mean a lot of things, my general meaning for it is that female rappers should be seen as the new “faces” of Hip Hop especially as they are so successful in countries such as the United States. “I WANT TO TAKE THE HIP HOP WORLD BY STROM” is the headline for my front cover, seeing that is rare so this magazine might be starting something new.
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
The Media Company or institution that would distribute my magazine would be companies which distribute Hip Hop magazines such as COMAG, they are the distributor for Hip Hop magazines such as Hip Hop Connections. Another Hip Hop Media Company that would distribute my magazine would be a company called Image Entertainment, Inc which is a leading independent licensee distributor who distributes magazines such as The Source.
Companies such as TIME INC publish Hip Hop music magazine “VIBE”. This would be another company that would distribute my magazine because they already circulate magazines of the genre that I made my music magazine. In 2008 Time Inc produced an internet site called MAGHOUND (http://www.maghound.com). This is an internet membership site that has been created to show many different types of magazines roughly ranging from 300 different magazine publishers over the internet. I have found this to be a more sufficient way for me to greatly increase my target audience. As the internet is worldwide the contents within my magazine would be translated and displayed in different languages making it easy for people around the world to view whilst also enabling them to read it. The target audience for my magazine are people who aren’t able to acquire my magazine through purchasing it due to their geographical location or due to the fact that they are unable to read English.
Who would be the audience for your media product?
The target audiences for my music magazine are people between the age ranges of 16-18. When I conducted the questionnaire for my magazine I got more results are 16-18, so I had to use that for when I was making my music magazine. At first I was thinking about having the target audience as people aged 16-29, but then I realized that people aged over 21 might what to see something different than a 16 year old. When making the magazine I had to make sure that the content that was in the magazine was appropriate for the age range.
I looked at different Hip Hop magazines that where for people aged between 16-18 years old such as Young Voices, RunDown (which is a new American teen Hip Hop magazine) and Hip Hop Teen Magazine. Looking through the different magazines I looked at the content used and how they layer out different things around the pages. The styles used are all conventional, because it appears like that in most Hip Hop magazines.
According to my feedback from the questionnaire that I made, more Black Africans (64%) are more into Hip Hop than other ethnicity. I wanted to much sure that the magazine front cover, double page spread and content page was bi- racial so it would not discriminate any other ethnicity.
Me and Alex also researched on the internet and looked on Google about different market research and Media packs and we found a Hip Hop music magazine called Ozone. We saw the different elements such as the demographics such as the people who reads and buys the magazine more. Things such as race- shows that 52% of people who read the magazine are Black, White 24%, Spanish 20% and Other 4%. Age groups for the target audience for the magazine
How did you attract/address your audience?
Too attract the target audience I made sure that I followed everything that was in my questionnaire that I handed out. I used the feedback to help me make my magazine. The main image on my front cover is linked to the results I got back from the questionnaire that I created. The question asked “Which magazine front cover looks more appealing?” the results showed that 46% found the magazine front cover with female model Lauren London being more appealing rather than the other two which had male rappers Nas on one cover and Lil’ Wayne on the other. So linking that to my front cover I hade sure that I had a female as the main image so it could be eye catching rather than putting a male on the front cover and it not being appealing to my target audience. The image used on my content page was of Tida (who is my featured artist in my magazine) also of my two friends who have been labelled as successful rappers. These people are also used in the double page spread article which I conducted. With the images of Tida I used four different pictures, one being on the front cover, the other being on the content page and the other two on the double page spread. In my opinion I think this would be attractive to my target audience because I am using more than one image of the artist, this is also conventional as most music magazines use more than one image of an artist that they are covering on. They do different camera shots (which I did as well) of the artist also changing props or clothing that the artist is wearing all depending on their chose. With two images of my friends (Cashman and KidJokez) I also used two pictures, these making both photos look different and attractive, even though the settings and clothing were the same but they used different postures making it look different from the other picture. The background setting to the photos of Tida was completely white, what I did was use my grandfather’s photography studio to take the pictures. That was a big advantage to me because I was able to use the image taken and put it straight away on my front cover without having to cut or edit it. Another advantage for me was that I could use his camera (which is a Nikon D80) that he takes professional photos with, so the pictures came out really nice. With the pictures of my two friends I used a different camera Samsung D70, the background used was of a blue wall using ambient lighting.
The language used in my magazine was more modern English. The name of my magazine is called “DHA FLOSS” except for using the word “THE” it was replaced with “DHA” to fit the modern era of “teen urban slang”. I tried to use some slang for the interview that I conducted, but looking through different Hip Hop magazines that fitted my target audience, I didn’t see much slang used especially in the magazine Young Voices which I did a textual analysis on. Certain words on the front cover such as “HANGIN WITH” I took off the “G” at the end of “hanging” to make it fit into the age range category of 16-21. This would attract my target audience because this is telling them that the magazine is more “urban street” meaning that the magazine understands the way they communicate to each other.
The content inside my magazine that I created relates to the magazine that I was analysing which was Young Voices. I made sure that certain things that they had such as the brief introduction to their featured artist I included in my double page spread when I made it. I made sure that what I wrote was easy to read and at a manageable size. An important fact was to make sure what I wrote was interesting to read as well. I looked at different Hip Hop magazines before I wrote my interview on my double page spread, and saw the different ways in which the reporter asked the artist the questions. The questions that where asked by the by-line all flowed together, I had to make sure that I did the same when written my interview. This would be attractive to my target audience because it would be linked to a question that I put in my questionnaire that I made which asked “What would you like to read about the artist? This had 73% of my target audience saying that they would rather prefer to read about the featured artist latest song out. So when making my interview I had to make sure that, that was one of the main subjects to include.
The style that I used in magazine in my opinion fitted the target audience. It follows many of the conventions for the music genre. I made sure that the magazine had a particular “House Style” this meaning it had the same theme throughout the magazine. The style used in my music magazine looks similar to Young Voices and The Source. The double page spread is similar to Young Voices featured article of the way they put conduct the interview and the brief introduction in the beginning of the interview.
The general layout for my front cover is conventional. The masthead is placed at the top of the page, also I made sure that the masthead was the largest font on the page to show the importance of it and to identify to the reader that it is the name of the magazine. I think the masthead (in my opinion) is attracting because it is not any average font style it fits in with the genre of music am doing which is Hip Hop. It also has two different font styles which are Old English Text MT and Goudy Stout. Looking at different Hip Hop magazines I have noticed that their masthead on their front cover is all in capital letters and has no small caps, for example “THE SOURCE” the masthead for that is in capital letter, they also follow the same house-style of having that in every issue that they sell. Having said that one letter from the masthead is partially obstructed by the positioning of the main image of Tida (who is my main image). This is very conventional as all music magazines follow the same assumption that the target reader are already familiar with the house style and brand identify of the magazine prior to the masthead being obstructed by an image. Linking that to my magazine I made the main image obstruct apart of the masthead. It would attract the target audience which I am going for ( 16-18 ) because rather than seeing the name of the magazine they (in my opinion) rather see the image that is on the front cover. This also shows the importance of the artist as they are seen to be more important than the name of the magazine that is why it is very conventional.
The headline (MISS TIDA) is the second biggest written on the front cover, this also shows how important the artist on the front cover is, and it also tells you who the artist is as well, this is a conventional device used my most music magazines on their front cover. Underneath the headline is the strap line (which is anchoring the headline) this gives the viewers a brief preview of what is in the main article (double page spread). In my opinion I would find the strap line attractive to see because it all depends on what is written there, if it is good and eye catching it will get more attention of the target audience. My strap line that I used was “I WANT TO TAKE THE HIP HOP WORLD BY STORM”, that to me is attractive because a female artist taking the Hip Hop world by storm is very uncommon because men are mostly seen as the “face” of Hip Hop due to the reputation that has been created in the Hip Hop scene, it kind of creates a new pathway to the Hip Hop industry for females. Above the Masthead are two strap lines which draws the target reader one of them says “OBAMA: THE FIRST BLACK PRESIDENT OF THE USA” this is attractive as most teens would like to read about that certain article especially as it had so much media coverage.
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
The programs that I used for making my magazine were Adobe InDesign CS3 and Adobe Photoshop CS3. Adobe InDesign is an application created by Adobe it allows me to create things such as flyers, posters etc. Adobe Photoshop is a graphic editing program that allows you to manipulate images and using tools that are on the page, you could edit them. While making my college magazine there where things that I didn’t understand with the program that I used in order to make the magazine for example Adobe InDesign. The first time I used Adobe InDesign was the first time I started creating my college magazine, so everything was new to me and it was quickly complicated to use and understand. As time went on I started to understand how to add text onto the page, placing a picture in a certain position and creating a shape. When it came to making my college magazine my lecturer showed the class a few things that made the work simpler as we went along. The help I also used was from the internet, I started to research on Adobe Photoshop tutorials to guide me through on how to add a new layer to my image and to give it different effects. Tutorial websites such as: (http://www.tutorialized.com/tutorials/Photoshop/1), (http://www.adobephotoshoptutorials.com/ ). It took a long time for me to understand it as some of the tools on the tutorial I could not find on the Photoshop that I was using. As time went on I clearly understood what I was doing, making a new layer was an easy thing to me, so was using the Lasso tool, to cut around an image.
I had different problems while making my music magazine front cover, content page and double page spread. At home I had Adobe InDesign CS4 and Adobe Photoshop CS4, so saving it and opening it on CS3 in college was complicated. The first time I used my Adobe InDesign CS4 at home I immediately saved it by clicking onto “File” and “Save As” and clicking save after naming it and putting it on my flash drive, when it came to me opening the file in college the program itself opened but not my work instead a little windows popped up saying that different fonts and files where missing so it cannot open. When I saw that I asked my lecturer if I had lost my work when really that was not the case, I didn’t “Export” it so it couldn’t open in CS3 due to CS4 being the latest version of Adobe InDesign. Now that I knew what to do I was able to open my work at college. I think using two different types of versions of software was a bad idea or doe it allowed me to do work at home as well as college because things that are in Adobe InDesign CS4 was not in CS3 so opening it up in college and continuing with my work was not easy. Images that I added on from home would not appear on my work when I opened it up in college, it would just appear as a grey box. Another problem that I had while using the software was the font style, at home I have different font style that I wanted to add onto my magazine but at college they didn’t have that certain font style so it would look different and it would also appear to have a pink box around it. As I was working with someone I thought that just having a basic font style that was on every computer would be much simpler and easier so it wouldn’t cause so much havoc and complicated for the person who I was working with.
When it came to editing my pictures I didn’t have any problems with it. I didn’t actually change the image itself the only thing I did to it was to cut and paste the image to InDesign when needed. The reason for this was because my image of Tida that I took (the featured artist on the magazine) already had a white background setting so there was no need for me to edit her picture in any way as I wanted the picture to look real and show modern beauty.
Different techniques that I have learnt on Adobe Photoshop include how to create a gradient background on an image that I have taken. There I would need to add a new layer to the image and click onto the gradient tool bar, drag the cursor on the image and drag it, this would turn the whole image to the gradient. Then I would need to lower down the opacity to probably 50% all depending on how you want the first layer to look. When that is done change the mode on it to how ever I want it so the first layer can be showing also the layer on top. On Adobe InDesign I learnt how to place images on the page and how to rotate them. The program that I enjoyed the most was Adobe Photoshop because with that I was able to edit different picture that I took and saw the outcome of them. Tutorials that I found on Youtube and other different websites helped me as well to edit different pictures that I had.
Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
Looking back at my preliminary task (making a college magazine front cover and content page) I think I have progressed a lot. At first I did not know how to layout the pages on InDesign to make it look like a real magazine and give it a professional look. The college magazine that I made in my opinion did not look conventional comparing it to other college magazines, it was to colourful looking at it now. Maybe if I had used the photo that I took as the background for the magazine and kept it simple it would have looked better than I expected it to. Comparing the front cover and content page they both didn’t look like it came from the same college magazine because of the different styles used, on the content page it had a white background while the front cover had mix colours . I honestly believe that I didn’t plan out my college magazine good enough, maybe with more time and consideration to my work I would have made my college magazine better than I did, also doing more storyboards for planning out my front cover and content page would have helped as well. When making my music magazine, I honestly would say that I progressed more through learning how to make my college magazine. Things that I didn’t know while making my college magazine for example changing the pictures format. When I first made the magazine and was designing on Photoshop I was saving the picture as a BMP because it was put as that. When the picture was saved as that format I was not able to open in on InDesign so I opened up the picture to see what was wrong and saw that I didn’t save it as a JPEG which is what I was meant to set the photo as in order to open in on InDesign.
