My final media product conform to the forms and conventions of a real media product as it uses the styles of the magazines on the market today. Furthermore, as my magazine is inspired by 'Vibe Magazine' in its style and layout. It does this in many ways for instance the continuity in colour scheme and font title throughout the three pages of the magazine. By following a colour scheme it creates a professional portrayal of the production of my magazine, it makes it look coherent and synced together. I also used the forms of current magazines with the use of main feature photo on the front cover. I used this as after carrying out research into other magazines, I gathered the idea of using a mid-shot of the 'featured star'. By doing this it follows the conventions of a real magazine as, in order to catch your audiences eye you must have a high-quality picture. My product again follows the forms and conventions of a professional magazine by the way in which it targets its audience. It does this by using a 'famous star' to draw its audiences to the feature page. Almost any genre of magazine does this to target its Niche Market.
However, my magazine does develop the conventions of real media products by having more images across the front cover to convey the other features in the magazine rather than using more text. I also believe the pictures add to the attractiveness of the magazine and appeal in order to grab my target audience.
My magazine represents particular socials like
teenage boys and girls as they are into Hip-Hop and know a lot about the genre and also most of the music its self is aimed at them as a social group. My magazine does this by the use of the fitted cap which is on the front which is a
teen aged fashion symbol and is also reflective of the music. Also by the slang terminology which is used throughout the magazine which represents teen life through the way they speak. Evidence of this slang is found in abundance in the interview on my feature page.
My magazine also represents black people as a social group due to the fact that Hip-Hop is a black orientated culture of music and the majority of listeners of the music are black. This is portrayed by the use of the 'featured artist' who is of black
origin which is reflective of the genre. Furthermore, it could be said that my magazine represents the male gender due to the fact that Hip-Hop is a genre of music which is
labeled as hardcore due to its sometimes abrasive lyrics mainly towards women. Therefore it could be said that my magazine represents boys rather than girls this could be backed by the use of the male model as my 'featured artist' who is stood looking fierce like a hardcore rapper
The types of media institutions which may distribute my product would be an organization like
Comag which is the
UK's most dynamic marketing and distribution company.
Comag is owned by two major magazine publishers: The National Magazine Company and
Condé Nast Publications. It is also the largest and most influential third party magazine distributor as they represent high profile market leading titles and global brands as well as niche magazines and specialist publications. I think they would distribute my magazine as my magazine has the potential to be world wide distributed and this institute being the most influential it would be perfect for my magazine.
The distribution of my magazine I would like for it to start through, firstly, giving hand copies to brand shops such as '
WHSmiths' I will do this so that my magazine becomes known to those who often go to shops which sell on-going weekly magazines. Due to research it has become known to me that chained supermarkets like
Tesco are becoming one of the biggest sellers of magazines therefore it seems that it would be wise to market and distribute my product through channels like '
Tesco' and '
Sainsburys'.
Moreover, because of the fact the
Internet has become increasingly more viable and everyone is using it throughout the world. I will be marketing my magazine through the
Internet and websites using visual copies which will enable me to see competitors in the market
as well as having my magazine amongst competitors. Overall, the marketing of my magazine will be both in shops and advertised on the net due to the fact the target audience are not adverse to using the
Internet being the generation they are.
I attracted my audience by firstly conducting a questionnaire which highlighted what people wanted to have on the magazine and trying to meet their needs and I feel this was successful with the reviews I have had on my magazine via the use of videos.
I have also addressed my audience of teenagers/young adults who listen to Hip-Hop music by using the terminology which they use i.e. slang. I have used this to relate to my audience as they are who I am targeting.
Furthermore, my front cover of my magazine attracts the audience by the four main elements of a magazine those being the layout, image, text and audience profile. These in my opinion comparing it to real media products of my genre fit the Hip Hop codes and conventions. The reason being is that firstly, the title of the magazine: Rappers Delight immediately attract the audience as it is the name of an old school Hip Hop groups single.
The colour scheme of the magazine also complies with the codes and conventions of the Hip Hop genre with the use of bold colours: red and yellow which are continuous throughout the product.
The layout of the front cover of the magazine is nothing short of the professional magazines as I drew inspiration from “Vibe magazine”. The intense mid-shot of my model looking fierce with a business like dress code.
The extra images on the front to convey feature article in the magazine adds to the layout as I feel it gives it more appeal and attracts the audience more as this is not used on many real magazine products like ‘Vibe Magazine’.
The use of text on my magazine front cover is in the right places compared to the real media products which makes it seem realistic and meet the convention of a real media product in professionalism.
I have learnt a lot about the technologies from the process of constructing this music magazine. The use of the programme ‘
Indesign’ to construct my magazine was very hard to get the concept of but after much trial and error I managed to get the hang of it.
I have learnt how to crop pictures into ‘
Indesign’ and also gather knowledge of how to use layers, insert text, insert pictures, add Polaroid template pictures to my magazine, learnt how to move pictures and text around and also I learnt how to be patient when waiting for the right results to occur as a lot of the production of the magazine is down to a lot of trial and error.
My preliminary task has changed dramatically in comparison to my final product, due to my new skills learned. It is evident how much advanced technology was used in order to construct this school magazine and in comparison with my final product it does looks quite poor whereas my final product looks more professional.
I have also learnt that using less technology which may be easy
does'nt have the same impact of quality as a programme which is advanced and more difficult to use.
