As Media Evaluation

Critical Evaluation

Kofi Missah

In what way does your media product use develop or challenge forms of conventions of real media

products?• My media products use, develop and challenge the forms and conventions of real media products. Conventions

are things people would expect to be there when they see a magazine. With music magazines one would be to magazine would be that the main artist/ band which the issue of the magazine wants to focus on has a picture in medium close up on the front page. I questioned certain conventions and uses some specific ones. By analysing front cover of music magazines already out in the shops i was able to draw my attention to that convention trend . Which didn't only appear in Hip-hop magazines but all the other ranges around there. It could be said that i challenged the forms and conventions of real magazines by as i was producing my magazine i looked out other genres of music and how they composed their magazines and converted some of that into my magazine in a different way to make it not seem out of place. Overall I used some conventional methods and some unconventional methods to give my magazine its own unique style. I.e. I realised throughout my project that mostly every magazine no matter what genre they were covering has a picture cover half or sometimes more of their logo. Spotting this on a wide range or magazines made me believe that this was a conventional idea therefore i took on the idea and incorporated it within my magazine front cover. My other projects that I have made I used some conventional methods to display my magazine. Usually Hip-hop magazines are brightly coloured but not too much as it wouldn't suit the genre, instead the hip-hop genre drew attention to their magazine by the pictures as you can guess the genre of the magazine by the sort of artist pictured up front. I feel that my front cover is conventional, a main image in the middle of the page which links to the main story and the double page spread. These are typical characteristics expected on the front of a magazine. My contents page was made to challenge the conventional contents page of a hip-hip magazine. this is because i wanted to see what sort of layout i could come out with. I’m happy that I did this because my page still looks professional. I think that my double page spread met to the conventions of a typical music magazine. As the layout and what the page contains are what music magazine’s double page spread would have columns, and information about the band/artists at the end of the article. I did my best to meet the conventions of a music magazine as had to make sure it looked like a magazine for the genre i was replicating.

Real Media Product My Final Front Cover

As I've said in the previous slide i based my magazine on a real media product.

1. I use the idea of how the picture took up most of the front page.

2. The magazine logo with half covered up and the logo on the left corner.

These two conventions are part of the many i used or tried my best to fit in along with my magazine product.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

• Media product often try their best to target as many different types of social groups as possible in order for them to make as money as possible. For example the music magazine NME is targeted at anyone who like songs from “rap” to “heavy metal”. I think my product represent the group which i was aiming for which is Hip-hop groups. I think this because a glance at my front cover I've used specific picture which and poses which you wouldn't associate i.e. “ Rock” people also with the language, colour scheme and layout. Real music magazines use these as well to represent several social groups. Hip-hop magazines have very simple front covers with maybe 2-3 colours, Statement and “pull out quote”. I think my media product met aspects of an “hip-hop” magazine. My magazine was not aimed at any gender but if i had to choose would be male as during my questionnaire analysis i had a lot more male answer my questionnaires than females so it was based pretty much on the males side of things, this is because the band featured in the magazine; both of the people are female. I could have made it more suited for females aswell but i dont think that would suit as females dont tend to listen to hip hop unlike males. My magazine is aimed for the working, lower class people as they can relate to it unlike if for the upper class, it would be too informal and they was everything was laid out may just confused a lot people. During me analysis for hip hop magazine i noticed a trend with the sort of picture of artist and people coming up as if they were male had tattoo, chains, “ the gangster look”, I focus on that image and when it came to the making of my magazine i took a picture which got as close to what i had seen.

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

• My project would be best distributed as a newsletter, it could be published on the internet or these media institutions Newsagents, Gigs, Supermarket I believe that these institutions would distribute my product. This is because my product if for Rap/Hip-hop loving people. Their age range tends to be from ages 11 – 28 +. My chosen places of distribution are best for my product because those places are socialising areas. This gives me a wide audience range and higher popularity. Digital publishing is becoming increasingly popular as more magazines can be found online. The internet could distribute my media this would increase the changes of it been a hit as the internet is available to a very huge range of people and it would make it easier to get hold of. Through digital publishing and its been sold at gigs could do it greats as both places will supply me with a wide range of people. Increasing the selling chances. It would be simple to buy at gigs and over the internet etc.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

• The audience i was targeting for my product would most likely be teenagers and a few people in their 20s who are fans of hip-hop music. The type of stories which are covered in my genre of a magazine would been seen as unsuitable for young children form ages 12 downwards. Plus some pictures would be too revealing. My magazine focuses oh hip- hop that's made clear thorough out it so a person who's into rock would be very unlikely to read it. The articles in my magazine are aimed at this social group (Hip-hop). It could also attract other people who prefer every type of music. When it came to choosing my audience for the magazine I did some research in the form of a questionnaire .The results i got back helps my decide what type of genre i was to base my magazine over which then led to the audience type i should aim my project at. I'm interested in hip-hop but also prefer other genres. I made it out to have features of not just the hip-hop genre but some convention of the other genre out there. After that I looked at lots of similar styled magazine helping me figure out what attracted this audience, what the preferred style to the magazine was and what promotions are offered to attract them more so to the magazine.

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

• I have learned so much whilst producing my products in Photoshop. I had never used before to edit and manipulate pictures at the standards this work needed. My skills have dramatically improved from when I first started the course. As you can see with my preliminary task. I had no order in what i was doing, randomly placing things everywhere hoping they looked good. When I started making my magazine I made them look unprofessional and basically completely unconventional. I used bright colours and I used plain ideas and it looked childish playing around to see what i could come out with but this was all part of the learning as i improved my own ideas as i went along eventually grasping the hang of the programme and been able to do magic with it.. At the start of the course I found that the pictures you take can make or break your magazine if not suitable for your kind of genre. They very important to attract peoples attention and if you cant attract audience by a famous face then you think of another way.

Looking back to your preliminary task, what do you feel that you have learnt in the progression from it

to the full product?

• Looking back to the preliminary task and what I've managed to produce I've learnt to imagine out side the box. That was the problem when i was doing the preliminary i wasn't thinking far enough so why product was anything different it was just another “ poor effort”. I progressed from when I made my preliminary products to my final products. When making the preliminary projects I did it on Microsoft publisher and when it got to Photoshop I feel like I was restricted in which ways to present my products. So as i started with Photoshop and I looked around different magazines for ideas it helped me extent what i was able to do. My skills progressed and advanced and I managed to produce a product that I was pleased with which looked professional and attractive then what I produced for my preliminary product. I now know how to present my work and how to layout my work in an appropriate way for a magazine. I know how to chose and match fonts so they look appropriate .I also know how to present my pictures and to edit my pictures to make them look at place for the right kind of magazine. I have learned a lot through-out the course and I am now pleased with the final products that I have produced.

• During this project I learned more about the music industry and the media. I was able to research many existing magazines which i knew nothing about and learn more about each one. I can now distinguish between the different genres with a lot more ease. I have learned how to make a magazine look more professional and I now know what kind of articles, language and photography is used in certain genres of magazine

Final Product