Main Task: Evaluation Question 6

Evaluation Question 6:

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

Throughout making my music magazine, I have learnt a lot since creating my college magazine through the uses of Photoshop, the internet and the use of an SLR Camera.

I had been given access to an account on Blogger which is a free sign-up blog that allows you to upload text and images. I had to log in to begin creating posts where I would end up uploading and posting my finished magazine content. Although it is a very simple system that is easy to navigate, as with any technology there will be some form of issue that will be encountered. Every time I had to upload content, images had to be uploaded alongside it and it would not upload where I set it. Because of this it took me extra time to upload my work as I had to perfectly align my pictures in the right places. Because of the extra time spent on blogger I have efficiently learnt how to upload files and use a blogging site for the future if need be.

To begin creating both my music and college magazines, I had to use a Canon E05 400D camera to take the photographs needed for the magazines contents page, double spread and front cover. There were many places where I could take pictures and I had to make sure I picked the correct place with the correct lightning to help create a continuative magazine. From having to take these photographs I had to learn how to take pictures with the camera as it had to placed in the right spot for the picture to be taken, after I had to been taught to use it, it allowed me to continue on creating the magazine. I also had to make sure the battery was charged enough to take as many photos as I needed as since these cameras are extremely high quality, a lot of battery is used in taking many photos.

To properly start creating and piecing together my magazine I had to upload the pictures taken from the camera onto a PC onto my hard drive, from there I viewed the pictures on a bigger higher resolution screen to see the pictures in better quality to decide which pictures would work best for the magazine. To do this, I had place  to the cameras memory card into a memory card reader. I had learnt how to do this my past experiences of cameras and phones so there was no issue of me having to learn how to do this process.

After I had picked my photos I had to begin making the cover in Photoshop. The next task I had to do was cut out picture from its background so it could be placed over another background. I used the pen tool to specifically select around the picture to cut it out from the background, as shown below:

During the creation of my front cover, I had to do a lot of experimenting with layers and effects on these layers to learn what effects did what and how, which is helped me make what I ended up with for my final decided cover. I had learnt subtle effects on layers helped make the magazine look more creative and more alive than a bland magazine that had no effects.

For my Masthead and cover lines I had decided to use only one effect to give it the feel of authenticity which was ‘Drop Shadow’. Although just enabling it wasn’t enough, I had moved the distance, spread and size bars around to perfectly echo the masthead and cover-lines to make the font look really thick for it to shadow out.

Main Task: Evaluation Question 5

EVALUATION QUESTION 5:

How did you attract/address your audience?

To attract and address my audience I followed through with the outline of things I had asked people in my audience research. Because I did this I was able to create a streamlined magazine with the information I had gathered to meet the needs of my audience.

My magazine attracts my audience by having a powerful image on the front cover of the magazine which is of an 18 year old, and because of this it helps attract the younger end of my audience if they are able to relate and see someone of their age on the cover. I used a male on the front cover who is wearing simple clothing with the pose of him folding his arms to show his muscularity. In rap culture, gym and being stern is a part of the culture which the image I used, helps perfectly represent this. I used one of the questions from my audience research to determine whether I put a female or male on the front cover. Using an attractive male model for my front cover will help attract females as females generally are interested in and attracted to many Rap/Hip-Hop/R&B artists, while as the male part of my audience are interested and inspired by these artists making them more willing to purchase the magazine. Because this connotes the cultures of Rap, Hip-Hop and R&B it is far more likely to attract my intended audience than if I used any other features that don’t even those cultures at all.

I decided not to use any advertisements as a huge majority of people do not like advertisements whether it’s in their magazines or online. The images on my contents page and double page spread were used because they were undoubtedly eye-catching which would most definitely attract attention. I used unknown artist names for the main cover-line that also is related to the double spread page as many people are always looking for new music and if new artist names are somehow linked to well known artists, they are very likely to get attention.

I mixed in cover-lines that mention unknown artists but also a cover-line that mentions two very well known artists that will most definitely grab my audience’s attention. The cover-line that will grab the most attention says ‘Dizzee Rascal & Snoop Dogg Collaboration’, and because these are two well known artists, people will be attracted to the magazine, especially because it mentions that these artists will be collaborating which would spark very high interest to listeners of these artists, and of the genre.

On the editors note, on the contents page I had included that because there was a special event happening, that there was a free download that could be acquired when they went to the end of the magazine. Because people don’t use CD’s anymore I thought this would be very good to add as nowadays people do not really use CD’s but instead digitally download their music off of iTunes or Spotify and as an added bonus it is a free download which everyone is usually attracted to.

Main Task: Evaluation Question 4

EVALUATION QUESTION 4: Who would be the audience for your media product?

My magazine is targeting an international public audience of music lovers and people who like to purchase and read music magazines. The main people I want to attract are people who like to listen to Rap, Hip-hop and R&B music, both males and females. As my magazine genre is Rap, Hip-Hop and R&B related it is very likely to attract this audience and I also intend it to appeal who watch music channels.

I decided to mainly target people whose ages range from 15 – 30 as people from these ages would read my magazine due to its content (articles such as interviews, exclusive artist gossip and concert information) provided they liked the genre. Also the age range is targeting a very wide audience meaning there is more potential for sales simply because many people like the Rap, Hip-Hop/R&B genres. The age range starts at 15 because a vast majority of people who listen to these genres are quite young, but pricing may be an issue for anyone younger. I do not think anyone over the age of 30 would be interested in purchasing the magazine which is why the age range is from 15 – 30, just like with people who are under 15, over 30s may not be so interested into purchasing music magazines so it isn’t wise to specifically target people of those ages. To help attract and appeal to younger audiences I have featured a teenager on the front of my music magazine.

A majority of music magazine purchasers and readers will enjoy reading about the latest information in music today which is what the music magazine will attempt to offer. It will target a vast range of people from different cultures and ethnicities including white and Asian working class – middle class people but predominantly black African and black Caribbean people working class – middle class people as they are the ethnicities that mainly indulge with these music genres, a reason being that many black people are greatly involved with these music genres. Everyone is targeted equally, both genders of all ethnicities because it is better to appeal to a wider audience with a music magazine instead of a small or niche audience.

Examples of black people on music magazine front covers:

The artists featured in the magazine would mainly be American, but will also include popular artists from around the world, including UK artists, as it is meant to be an international music magazine. If it includes popular artists from around the world, it helps attract people from all around the world which helps build a big fan base of the magazine, which the end result would be that sales would increase meaning more money for advertising for the magazine.

The magazine will be perfect at targeting people who are very simplistic with music (they just listen to it and maybe occasionally read magazines) or if they are very involved with music (it’s involved with their work life) and are avid music listeners. This means they go to plenty of concerts and their social lives revolve around music. The content the music magazine will appeal to both as the simple music listeners will watch out for new tracks/album information while the magazine will appeal to the involved-in-music people with technical information such as studio locations, prices, instrumental E.PS and so forth.

Main Task: Evaluation Question 3

Evaluation question 3:

What Kind of Media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Referring back to my case study of a publishing company, I have decided that a magazine publisher such as MusicMags would possibly distribute my music magazine due to the fact it could benefit them in many ways.

There are many reasons and benefits MusicMag could publish my magazine. Their catalogue of magazines includes nothing that is the same, or any way similar to my genre of magazine which is the reason why it can benefit them greatly. Their magazine portfolio tend to target working class – middle class white people, while my magazine will target working class – middle class black people, a demographic that MusicMags doesn’t attempt to target. My magazine targets a whole new demographic that MusicMags cannot reach due to them having a limited portfolio of magazines

An example of one of their magazines, DRUM! Magazine:

 

This magazine would only appeal to a rock or indie audience more so than any other genre such as hip-hop, r’n’b and rap. My magazine would be appealing to the entire audience of rap which can offer them many beneficial things.

One of the beneficial factors of MusicMags using my magazine is the financial aspect. Because the magazine would be distributed into an entirely new audience of people, there is a new market which means they are able to acquire a lot more finance because of new magazine sales which could lead them to more and better advertisers and better retailing, and if people were to enjoy the magazine, it may conspire people to want to check out other magazines of the publishing house.

Main Task: Evaluation Question 2

EVALUATION QUESTION 2:

How does your music magazine represent particular social groups?

The magazine I made was made to represent a teenage audience of mainly males but females also, from an age range of 13 – 19. Because of the genre of music of my magazine, it is more likely to appeal to males of that age as my audience research helped me to decide. Because I tried to appeal to this age group, the image I used on my front cover had to suit the genre perfectly to accurately help represent the teenage social group, so that anyone who was walking by could see the magazine and guess what type of magazine it was before reading it.

The artist on my cover is dressed in simple clothes to represent the title, ‘BLENCH’ which is slang term of teenagers, for someone that is muscular. It is a typical convention to use a pose like this, especially for a rap/hip-hop magazine, because of this it helps associate itself with teenagers that I aimed to reach because it greatly hints at the fact the magazine is a rap/hip-hop magazine. It is a common convention of rap magazines to feature artists with famous brand clothes on, such as huge baseball jackets and snapbacks or artists wearing gold jewellery and because these are done quite often in magazines I have decided to challenge it, and go against it in attempt to slightly differentiate my magazine because I believed it was unneeded to create a complete rap music magazine front cover. However I believe the pose and clothing helps present a cover that looks like a rap/hip-hop magazine, so people will notice it even without having to look and read the magazine to know the genre.

An example of a typical rap magazine shown below:

To make it appeal make to the genre and my target audience, the expression on my models is quite stern as well as his pose to help accurately represent the rap subculture as a vast majority of these magazines will use a similar pose to represent the abrasiveness of the genre. The model on my front cover is black which people stereotype to be involved in the rap and hip-hop music genre.

The models on my double page spread are similarly dressed to promote continuity of the magazine. One of them is holding a microphone is primarily what associated with rappers. Their dress style is very casual which applies to the rap genre, but also is similar to the dress style of London residents as teenagers attempt to have ‘swag’ in their clothing, which means having an noticeable appearance about them self. The way that the models are posing shows that they are semi relaxed individuals who are musicians, and because they are in the age group that I’m targeting it can represent the London teenage social group. All my models can be represented in the same way considering that they are all male meaning that they can dress like rap artists/gangsters or dress casually because that is the norm for the male gender, whereas a female would have to dress very seductively and be in a suggestive position to suit the rap/hip-hop genre. An example of this is shown below: