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Final Front Cover For Music Magazine

Final Of Contents Page For Music Magazine

Double Page Spread Final (i)

Double Page Spread Final (ii)

Preliminary Task

Evaluation Part (i)

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

My media product is a music magazine of the Hip-Hop genre. Both of these concepts determined the actual appearance of my magazine. For example, in the Hip-Hop industry, the theme of “bling” is commonly featured, also most hip hop artists are wearing a New Era Cap - this gave me the incentive to have my artist featured on the front cover, wearing a New Era Cap, so my audience could see evident comparisons between other professional Hip-Hop magazines and my magazine. Throughout my magazine my colour-scheme consisted of four main colours; white, black, blue and red. I chose to use these particular colours as I wanted to intertwine three dark colours with a light contrasted colour of the background to create a sense of diversity to highlight the mainstream readership of the magazine. All of the fonts are typical of a Hip-Hop magazine as they are in bold and stand out on the page which attracts the reader to the specified article. All of my images are Medium close-ups (which is a common convention of Hip-Hop magazines), except for the images featured on the contents page which are a variation of medium-long-shot and medium close-ups. I decided to use a medium-long-shot for the contents page because I wanted to draw attention to my artists outfit and how it fit into the Hip-Hop convention. Many colloquialisms are utilised in my feature article which also is another principle of Hip-Hop magazines. For instance, I used words and phrases such that relate to the Hip Hop industry like “you get what I’m saying” etc.

As you can see from the comparison of the Vibe Front Cover with My Front Cover, ther are both wearing Hats, there fore I'm following convention. Also, their colour scheme is Black, White and Yellow, and Mine is Blue Red and Black.

Evaluation Part (ii)

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My media magazine represents particular social groups through text, and as I used colloquialisms. Also, the whole idea/concept of Grime/Hip-Hop music is ‘Giving something back to the community, trying to encourage young people to move away from crime, sex, drugs…’ This is why many young people seek hope and inspiration through such artists.

Evaluation Part (iii)

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

The distribution of my magazine is totally based on the genre and as my magazine is a Hip-Hop magazine, there is not really a broad market that will be content in distributing my magazine. I believe this as Hip-Hop itself is constantly under scrutiny and is deemed as materialistic as well as hated. However my magazine promotes a sense of fun, and passion towards music therefore, I feel that institutions like urban music channels e.g. MTV Base and Channel U, music stores e.g. HMV, newsagents and urban clothes stores will be contented to distribute my magazine. Also, my magazine focuses on the change of Hip Hop to a more communal form of life. This is why I believe it will be more successful than others.

Evaluation Part (iv)

Who would be the audience for your media product?
The target audience of my magazine is males and females aged 15-24. I wanted a unisex audience as I featured both male and female dominated articles on my contents page such as subjects on relationships, fashion, as well as interviews from rap artists. Also, the colour scheme and layout of the magazine was quite male dominant and there was only one image of a female artist included. The age of my target audience is quite mature as real-life topics like sex, drugs, gun/knife crime… which my target audience may be able to relate to. I also wanted to aim my magazine at those less-fortunate and make it enjoyable yet affordable for them. Additionally, I carried out a survey and the majority of my readers were of the above age group.

Evaluation Part (v)

How did you attract/address your audience?
I attracted and addressed my audience through my bright colours and the use of my vivid images. As all of my Mastheads were in red font - immediately attracting the readers’ attention. Also, my structure was clear and the text was comprehendible as I spaced my text out on the page and used a black font behind a light background, lest any of my readers’ were visually-impaired. A Bauhaus93 font was used for all of the Mastheads and sub headings whereas Times New Roman was used for the main text to create logic for the audience. In addition, I made sure that my images (especially my front cover image) were bright and eye-capturing so when people so the magazine, they would be enticed to read it from its appearance.

Evaluation Part (vi)

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

1. Photoshop

a. Image Manipulation

i. Cropping

ii. Light effects

iii. Magic wand

iv. Magnetic cropping

v. Shading

vi. Special effects

b. Text manipulation

i. Test Wrap

ii. Installation of Alien Fonts

iii. Glow

iv. Outline

v. Shading

c. Generally

i. Photoshop operation in general.

2. BlogSpot

a. Creation of Blogs

b. Maintenance of Blogs

c. Permission Setting Of Blogs

d. External Tools Application On Blogs:

i. Slideshare.net etc

Questionnaire Results

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Questionnaire

As part of my AS Media Studies coursework, I am required to produce a questionnaire to help me to identify my target audience. Through the use of this questionnaire, I can identify which age group will be attracted by my music magazine, and what they would expect from the magazines as readers. I would really appreciate it you could spend a few minutes to fill the questionnaire. Thank you.

1. What is your gender?

Male

Female

2. How old are you?

11-14

15-19

20+

3. What is your ethnic background?

_____________________

4. What music genres do you usually listen to?

R&B

Hip Hop

Rap

Rock

Grime
Other_____________________

5. Who are your favourite artists?

____________________________

6. How often do you attend concerts/gigs?

Weekly

Monthly

Yearly

Never

7. If your answer was any of the above except never for question 6, then which artists or bands did you go to see?

_________________________________

8. Which music channels do you like to watch?

___________________________________

9. Do you spend time on the internet on music websites or websites regarding music? If yes, please specify how many hours.

______________________________________

10. If your answer was yes to question 9, what types of music do the websites consist of?

___________________________________________

11. What are your hobbies?

Raving

Dancing

Singing

Other__________________

12. How much are you willing to spend on a music magazine?

2.50

3.50

4.50

13. Do you purchase music magazines? If so, which ones?

_______________________________

14. What do you like to see in a music magazine

______________________________________

15. What do you like free with your magazine?

_________________________________________

16. Do you participate in the competitions the magazine offers?

Yes

No

Thankyou!

Evaluation Part (vii)

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

During the time of the construction of my coursework, i have learnt a lot of things mentioned in the past question. Time in this case was experience and it helped me to construct a far better magazine than my preliminary task. So the progression of time helped me to create a more developed magazine .

Another factor affecting the design of my front page dramatically was the amount of research put into the construction of the two magazines. The preliminary task had no research going into it white the proper magazine had tons of research going into it.

The preliminary was constructed without the need of consultation and comparison with other real magazines while the actual magazine was compared against Vibe and XXL every single step.

So from the progression of the task i have learnt how magazines are suited to their target audience and how to make the music magazine stand out and be great.

Rejected Pictures

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