EvaluationBy. Madina Ahmadi

9.12.2011

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

• The Masthead of my magazine cover is ‘RIVAL’, I chose this to be my masthead because I believe it is something different compared to any other music magazines. Moreover my magazine Is about an upcoming rap artist, ‘FLEX 'he believes he will be better than the artists we have at the moment for e.g. Drake and Eminem. I really like the way ‘Vibe’ Magazine present their magazines with a clear Masthead, The skylines and the writings surrounded by the main image, so I decided to do something similar. I believe Vibe magazine was an inspiration.

• Furthermore to develop my magazine, I analysed two music magazines (Vibe and Kerrang) even though they were from different genres of music, the analysis helped me understand what I should include in my Rival magazine and how to make it looks more professional.

• The information that consists in my Music magazine is not very different to Vibe magazine, I say this because all the information, quotes and images that are needed in each page, I have added in my music magazine as well, for example ; On my contents page I have ( Flex’s image, pages numbered and have written the titles for all the pages that are going to be presented in my RIVAL magazine.

• One of the differences between my magazine and a professional magazine is the background/fonts and the formal/informal language that I have used.

• My magazine hasn’t been written in any form of formal language, there is quite a lot of slang used in the interview I had with FLEX.

• If I was to set myself a Challenge for another music magazine, I would change the person I have interviewed and the type of music genre it is based on.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

A representation is the description or portrayal of someone or something in a particular way or as being of a certain nature. The representation is the main point of the music magazine, it helps the person who makes the music magazine know who their target audience is, the construction of the photographs, textual content and the layout and the design of the piece. The social group I am targeting is between the ages 16-30. I know my magazine will attract my target audience because of the Bold Title, the colours used and the type of text written. The photographs I have taken and used in my magazine will give my target audience an idea of what the magazine is about, for example The images I have used in my contents page, lets the audience portray what the magazine consists of and what it may be about. The representation builds my textual context by the way it has been phrased for example “ Lil Wayne Teaches us ‘How to Love’” as soon as someone reads this, they will know there will be a whole page written about Lil Wayne and his new song. As I have said in the first slide, the text hasn’t been written in formal language throughout the magazine. Starting from the interview with FLEX, I have used slang language, this is because youngsters prefer to read how they would say something in their own way. An example will be presented in the next slide.I have laid out my pages in a magazine form. The colours I have used are bright and eye catching, The purpose of bright colours is to attract the readers. The Bold writing is also necessary for the youngsters and adults, they will have a clearer view to what they are reading.

The heading is BOLD, to make it eye catching and attract the customers attention.

The colours used in the background has not been used to make the magazine look colourful, It makes the piece look different and shows the target audience how hard the magazine producer must have worked.

This tells the audience that the magazine is not only about FLEX, it talks about other music artists as well.

Pictures make the Magazine more interesting and attractive.

- Too much text in a magazine is not very interesting, there should be plenty of visualised pictures and symbols.

Example - Interview

This is the a slang term.

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

The company that will be publishing my magazine will be the ‘International Publishing Corporation’, here is some information about their company and their past history. << The British magazine publishing industry in the mid-1950s was dominated by a handful of companies, principally the Associated Newspapers (founded by Lord Harmsworth in 1890). King controlled publishing interests which included two national daily and two national Sunday newspapers (the newspaper interests being informally tagged he Mirror Group), along with almost one hundred consumer magazines, more than two hundred trade and technical periodicals, and various book publishing interests. >>Website Used - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPC_Media

• The content page is the main and important page within the whole magazine, I say this because it’s the soul of a magazine. Content is the best tool for building relations with your potential customers. The look and feel of the magazine is crucial but quality content may be more important. A perfect content page is when all 3 of these are completed ;

• Quality Information: Authentic information• Quality presentation: Unique and user-friendly presentation• Quality Writing: Proper grammar, concise and comprehensive style

The main aim for this magazine is for it to get sold, the only way that will happen is by the magazine looking representative and attract customers, moreover Profit is important because it is the bottom line of a business. Profit helps grow a business and it makes it's owners become more financially stable.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

• The audience for my RIVAL magazine will be youngsters and adults (starting from the age 16). I have specifically chosen this age group because, I believe youngsters would prefer to read a ‘RAP’ magazine more than an adult would, on the other hand many adults like rap , this is why I think some adults might be interested in reading a magazine as well.

• Not only are people who like rap magazines going to buy ‘Rival’, but Tupac and Lil Wayne fans might also be interested .

• There isn’t a specific origin of people who will buy the magazine, however, I can find out by doing a questionnaire or by checking what kind of people are interested in the RIVAL Magazine.

How did you attract/ address your audience?

• To attract my target audience, I have used Bold texts and colours, such as ; The masthead ‘ Rival’ – The font I have used for this was BLACKOAK STD, reason being because it is clearly visible, moreover, the colours I used for my masthead is Red and white, the colour red is attractive and shocking, therefore , the customers won’t find it difficult to view it or miss it. Moreover, I believe that my target audience will not only love the text within the magazine, but they will love the colours that I have used on my pages. I manipulated my representation by researching different magazine covers, for example I researched on the vibe magazine cover and compared it to a Kerrang Music magazine cover. I got all my ideas from Google images/Vibe magazine covers. Vibe magazine has a very big influence and impact on my magazine because I used most of their cover ideas, to make my own one look appealing. I have used many sites to help me develop and improve my piece, these are some of the websites I have used ;http://www.vibe.com http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?q=vibe+magazinehttp://journalism.winchester.ac.uk/?page=257http://www.flamingtext.com/As I have previously mentioned, I got the content ideas by ‘VIBE’ magazine images, this helped me develop my work more, I added the extra icons that may be acceptable to be seen on a music magazine cover/contents page and double page spread (including the columns).

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

• This was the first time I used InDesign and Photoshop. At first it was extremely difficult, but as I got more interested in my work, I learnt many different techniques and found out how to place text and change the background colours.

• The most difficult part whilst doing my coursework was using Photoshop to crop the pictures and also inserting pictures onto the page was very frustrating, because at times by pasting another picture into 1 page the old one would disappear.

• InDesign is a useful program, I believe it is easier to use InDesign than Photoshop, it is more straight forward and has similar icons as Paint!

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

to the full product?• One of the main skills I have developed during the process of making my magazine and

doing my preliminary exercise was the use of Text. This was my first time making a magazine and I think it went quite well because of all the help I go through study space and a few worksheets. My writing skills have definitely developed and also I have become more confident with writing persuasive language.

• Planning out my magazine stressed me out a lot, however after actually making it, it wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be, I believe I have done all the exercises I was meant to do for this coursework.