Forms and conventions

The Masthead in hip hop magazines goes along the top of the page in big writing to stand out.

Normal in any magazine is the barcode.

The clothes the man is wearing is normally represented in hip hop with the baseball cap also looking quite confident.

The font in hip hop magazines is quite new and hip looking and stands out.

The name of the main artist on the front of the magazine stands out and is normally underneath the head.

There is normally writing information of other artists in a small column near the side of the page.

The Masthead goes along the top in a big funky font to stand out and fit the genre. Just like The Source it goes along from one side to the other to fit the whole page.

The style of the photography is very much street, hip hop culture. The photo is shot from a low angle to show dominance and to make the Artist look bigger. It also is shot on location on the street which is different from some hip hop magazines which are shot in a studio.

The information of other Artists is on the left hand side in a small column.

The name of the Artists is on the body in line with his arm in a big size and quite a graffiti looking font to make it fit in with the culture and genre of the magazine.

Barcode in a bottom corner.

The magazines I looked at mad mastheads at the top of the page in big bold letters to stand out, it also had a quite new feel to the font and fitted in with the rest of the page. I used a masthead at the top of the page as well which stands out and uses up all of the free room above the head of the artist. I used a font which fits in with my genre and it makes it look like a hip hop magazine. So for the masthead I used forms and conventions.

In the magazines I looked at they used extra information and put it at the side of the page sometimes there are cover lines but don’t draw the reader in as they aren't that big and colourful.

In the magazines I researched the cover lines they used stood out and took up a portion of the page. They also had a little bit of extra information underneath which would also stand out. I used

The photography that I looked at in other magazines is either shot on location or shot in a studio. I shot mine on location because it made it look more street. The style of photography is for a hip hop magazine. This is why I thought I would follow the convention as it would make the magazine fit in with other magazines in the hip hop genre. I followed it by making the person in the photo pose with a confident stance.

Magazines normally have a barcode on the front page. It is normally in the bottom corner and I presented this item in the bottom right corner.

The fonts in Hip hop magazines are very new looking and are big and easy to read. They are neat probably for the people who scan pages. This is why my fonts are big look quite funky but are still easy to read.

The masthead in this contents page is set out differently in a big font to stand out in black against the grey background. Most hip hop magazines contents page mastheads are all different but have a new font look and are easy to read.

The style of photography in contents pages is very much the same all way through a hip hop magazine. The confident looking stance in quite trendy looking clothes or suits.

The writing in contents pages I have seen and researched have it set out in neat columns using most of the height of the page. With sub headings in the writing.

Set out in one big section

Masthead

Wring in columns

pictures

Cover lines

In magazines I have researched they presented there contents page Masthead in many different ways. Lots just have it in a normal layout of a word but some set it out differently. Like the example I have pictured on the left. They are all set out differently and in different fonts or styles at different parts of the page or have different ways to make it stand out. I presented my masthead by using a white font in front of a black background . I followed the convention as I made my Masthead standout and used a very different font to most other magazines on the market.

The set out of the contents pages I researched would normally have a picture and a column of writing underneath or overlapping the picture. There are also a couple of cover lines as well. I presented my contents page in 3 sections. The main picture the masthead and cover line. Then a black background with another cover line and photo. Then the final section has a white background with two columns of writing and two cover lines. I challenged this convention as to make my contents page I put everything in that a normal contents page would have but change the set out with sections and used lots of cover lines behind yellow shapes to make them stand out.

The writing styles in magazines are all different but the set out of the writing on a contents page is normally in one small column. I presented my writing in 2 columns so I could fit more information on. I developed the normal one column writing style into 3 with two columns for writing and a third for two cover lines.

The photography in magazines I have researched has normally been of a music artists in a studio with some shots on location. Also lots of the photos are shot in the medium range with medium long shot and medium close up. I presented some of my pictures in the medium range and some where long shot, I also set my photos on location on the street. I progressed the studio shots and put my artists on the street shooting on location instead of using green screen or a set.

Other magazine cover lines normally are just set out in a normal font in front of a picture or near other writing. I set out my cover lines in a different way. I set them out so they would stand out more in a different way, I put them in front of black and then yellow shapes which where rasterized in Photoshop so I could rub them out to create the shape I wanted. I think that I challenged the normal conventions of a cover line but it could have been developed as I used a font a bigger font to make it stand out, just the background I changed to make it look better.

Page numbers are a normal thing to insert in a magazine contents page. In magazines I have looked at every one had page numbers onto show what page to go on. I presented the page numbers in two columns with writing. I also put it in a green font so it would stand out but also fit in with the theme colour of my page. I followed the convention as normal magazines have them and I didn't change how they where set out.

My double page spread follows conventions of a normal hip hop magazine. This is because the photo takes up one page and has its masthead lower down, more like a cover line. The photography style is very much street and would work for my audience. The secondary photo would bring the break-dance crowd into the magazine if they didn't know it was an all round hip hop magazine.

The writing style of the photo is in two neat columns separated with 5 questions a photo and information about Manickz. This is seen throughout other hip hop magazines.

How does your media product represent particular social

groups?

dominant representation

The dominant representation of teenagers has connotations of;

- being loud

- un-controllable

- trousers very low

- having mobile phones

- bad behaviour

- mischievous

In my media piece I would suggest most of the audience would be in their twenties suggesting that most of them will probably be past being mischievous like a teenager would be. This isn't to say there won't be any teenagers reading just that the social groups I have set my magazine to don’t really act like a stereotypical teenager being moody and violent.

This is my front cover magazine, it has lots of conventions on it that would represent my social group in a certain way. A hip hop magazines front cover photo is normally of the artist looking very confidently at the camera. In mine he is still looking at the at the camera but showing how fun the social group can be. Many people would believe that a guy stood down a alley would automatically but in the it shows that the genre isn't all about gangs and crews fighting it is about respect and being nice outside of battles and events.

If I was to look at this as a real media text I would feel that the social group would be male of about social class C1 to D and age around 16 up to 30.

The class of my magazine is C1 to D this is working class getting into skilled workers. The hip hop genre is mainly all working class as it is from black culture in the Bronx in New York city. The hip hop culture is very much a black community so I would expect a lot of the readers to be black. The reason my photography doesn’t have any one black in is that where I live there are few ethnic minorities. This is why my media product only seems to show the white social group. some of the cover lines on the top left of the page have black rappers on and this shows that my audience is still aimed at the black readers.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media

product and why?

magazine institutions

these are two of the key magazine publishers in the uk. Bauer Media owns more than eighty influential media brands spanning a wide range of interests. "Bauer Media reaches over nineteen million UK adults across multiple media channels". IPC Media produces over 60 media brands "reaching almost two thirds of UK women and 42% of UK men – almost 26 million UK adults – while our websites collectively reach over 20 million users every month" .

http://www.bauermedia.co.uk/ http://www.ipcmedia.com/

I would choose the publisher company Bauer as it is one of the leading companies for media publication. I also think it would benefit from a hip hop magazine as it hasn’t yet published a hip hop magazine which in turn could widen its audience bringing in more customers. Bauer own over 30 radio stations and bringing my magazine to this publication company could help me spread the word of this new magazine quickly and as it is a successful company I’m sure that my magazine wouldn’t fail.

Bauer owned radio station.

Think about how your magazine, as a product, could be extended into other media areas ?

My magazine product could be extended in many ways. I have thought that since my product is hip hop based it can’t really have its own festival as there are no big hip hop festivals, mainly events and gigs. So maybe I could have a TV website where you subscribe for a year for a certain price to see videos of every hip hop gig around including break-dance events and rapping and the whole hip hop culture in one website. I could also expand the product onto YouTube creating a whole page of just cut down versions of the clips you can subscribe to on the website so people will want to watch more and subscribe to the website. There could also be a possibility with this production company to have a radio station as they already have more than 30 successful stations. This could attract audiences as lots of people use YouTube everyday and giving a taster of the music and videos sometimes just isn't enough bringing customers to subscribe.

This is from a portfolio of Bauer media and shows some demographic information about this institutions abc's statistical data about its audience figures taken over a 6 month period.

As you can see on the chart the women's sector takes up most of the number data accumulated. But the real challenge would be empire magazine which isn't a music magazine but is a big entertainment magazine which has over 170,000 readers or subscribers. There are only three music magazines which aren’t hip hop magazines. This could be seen as a good thing but also has a negative side as it would have to take on all the other magazines as a single genre.

Being the only hip hop music magazine genre in a big publishing institution might have some disadvantages especially if the audience like the other three music magazines more. They get around 40 – 90,000 readers where my estimate for the first 6 months was 30,000. Saying these magazine companies have been around for a while I will have to work my way up and get known which is why I would have to have a advertising campaign which would involve TV commercials and information in newspapers, leaflets at hip hop events and stalls selling other merchandise to get the magazine known. This is why having Bauer as my media distributor would be helpful as they already have very good music magazines which have radio stations and other extras to go with the magazine. This extra backing from Bauer could boost the magazines ratings and advance my audience to a more larger sum bringing the statistical data views up.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

For the final product of my magazine the audience is the same as it is on my pitch. The audience for my final product should aim at males16 to 30 years of age of a hip hop background. The hip hop genre is based on black culture in America that is why most rappers black. But as I live in York which is pretty much a white ethnic background city. Therefore I think that it should be an all round ethnic magazine.

The social classification of the magazine should be C1 to D. The reason for this is the hip hop genre is a very much working class society. The clothing in the my finished product is what my audience should wear; Dickies workpants 874, baseball cap, hooded jumpers, windbreakers, beanie hats, Puma Suede, Adidas Stan smiths etc.

The audience for the finished piece is still the same as it used to be from the planning stages through to this moment, as my media piece fits in with the genre and the hip hop genre is very specific.

16 to 30 year olds.

Mostly male

Interested in hip hop genre

Working class

Social class C1 to D

Mostly black ethnicity but as I live in York it would mostly be white

How did you attract/address your audience?

Through research of other hip hop magazines that are aimed at the same target audience that I am aiming for, I designed my front page so my audience will want to pick it up and take it around with them. I don’t want it to be a magazine you hide as you don’t want people to know you read it. I want people to be able to read it more than once to get all the information from it. this is why the mast head was big and went all across the page.

The image on the front is of the artist featured on the double page spread standing in a alley way which fits my genre. The reason for this is because it looks like the entrance alley way down Brixton academy which is where the UK world Bboy Championships is held which is the biggest and most influential hip hop event in the UK. this for most hip hop fans would make the photo stand out to them as it I believe it is a very street looking photo.

This cover line is very big and should stand out to the audience. At first they will see the writing saying album exclusive as it is in a red font. They should then see the bigger writing saying Manickz. The fonts only let capital letters so it stands out even more I thought this was a good effect.

The photography in my magazine should have something in common with the reader. This photo is kind of formal but has a relaxed feeling to it but the artist still has lots of confidence and wears street stereotypical clothes. This speaks to the audience as they will own baseball caps and hooded jumpers and hip hop, break-dance clothes.

Informal language

Breakers, Rappers, Lockers, Poppers, freestyle, battle, rep and Manickz.

In the double page spread I have used some slang words and words to do with hip hop. This should for my audience make them understand the writing on the double page spread more and attract them to read it.

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

In my media project I used a lot of technology software.

I used Microsoft Word

I used Microsoft Power Point

I used Photoshop CS3 and 6

I used Slide share

I used Blogger

I used Survey Monkey

I used a internet browser (Internet Explorer)

I used Google Images

I used Blackboard

I used Photo Shop shortly in the planning but mostly in the production of my magazine . I used it for making my Front page, Contents page and Double page spread. I hadn't used the software before but I quickly got the hand of it from help from peers and tutors. The using of rulers for alignment and using lots of different colours to separate parts in the different pages made it look more professional.

I used Blogger In Research, Planning, Production and for evaluation as a online work book to keep all my work on instead of using paper and files. This was the first time I had ever used a blog so at first wasn't too sure what to do but after a while I learned a lot of things like uploading Photos and links to the blog and how to edit them. This was helpful when uploading Slidshare presentations as other wise I would have had to upload the pages one by one.

I used Slideshare in Research, Planning, Production and for my evaluation. This was a very helpful piece of software as made it quicker and easier to upload PowerPoint presentations in a neat and easy way. I had never used the software before but it taught me to upload PowerPoint's onto my blog and how to copy very long links using the control button and A which I had never done before.

In my media project I used a lot of technology hardware.

I used a Canon 60 D camera

I used a Flashgun

I used a HTC Camera Phone

I used a Computer

I used an iPad 2

I used a Usb stick

I used a phone memory card to store data.

I used a Canon 60 D camera in taking some of my photos. I borrowed this from a friend but I had used it before as we take photos quite a lot. I learned how to choose the right settings and change the iso and aperture to make sure the photos weren't too bright.

The flashgun was harder to use than the camera as you had to put it on the right setting to work. I learnt how to set up the refractor and choose the right setting and how many bursts to use. Every time I took a photo it took the flashes twice to keep the light on.

I use the memory disk everyday on my phone but without knowing as everything these days are automatic. I put my Usb lead into my computer and had to access files and put files into the right place so I could save things onto it successfully which is harder than it looks as there are automatic files which have some photos in but I had to find more files on it so I created a my documents on my phone

TechnologyCould you have completed your project without using any technology?

I think doing the project without using any technology could be possible but you would have to have a camera or a painting as you don't want a magazine without pictures as it would be all writing. The rest should all be possible, for instance when you are researching you can look at existing magazines and products for ideas. You would then have to cut out the bits that you wanted onto a scrapbook and write about it on paper. If you had to change anything you would have to rip out the other page and change what you need. You couldn't do the project without a camera as you need to put images onto the piece. I think Photoshop was quite essential to change some settings on the photos to bring the sharpness and colour out more. It also helped in the layout of the piece using rulers. If you where to do the front cover by drawing it would look very un-neat and unprofessional. You would also have to rub the lines you made to make sure everything you draw on was inline and it wouldn’t look good or like a finished piece, it would look like a rough draft especially if I drew it. I could have also done my questionnaires by hand and worked out the analysis and put it into tables by using maths and percentages. It would take more time but the that is a part that could also be done without technology.

What pieces of technology could you have done without?

I could have done without using a flashgun on my camera. It was for extra light when I was in a darker place. Instead of using the flash gun I could use the flash on the camera, it’s not as bright but I didn’t really need it.

I also wouldn’t have needed to use my HTC camera phone but I used it when I didn't have my Canon 60 D. The photos from the phone weren't the best as there isn't much shake resistance and lots of the photos I took where blurred. This is why I could do without the phone as it wasn’t the best way to get good quality photos.

Another thing I could have done without was a memory stick. I used the memory card in my phone for most of the things I needed to save. At the start of the project I used a memory stick but then I lost it. I always had my phone on me so I used the data connection cable to connect to the computer via usb.

Which piece of technology couldn’t you do without?It doesn’t sound like it should be an important piece of technology hardware to use in this project but it was very helpful for me. My iPad 2 helped me write more correctly as some of the buttons on my computer don’t work so I don't have any shift, caps lock button, letter a and number 1. This made it harder to write things as I had to copy and paste everything I needed so I would copy a letter a and go through putting a’s in by using ctrl v. This was time wasting so I used my iPad and wrote everything on that then I could upload things straight to blogger.

A camera is a very important piece of equipment that was needed to complete the work properly. I Couldn't have done without the Canon 60 D I used it helped make some of the photos look more professional as it stopped the shake and blur of the picture and the overall picture quality and colour was better.

What were the positives of using technology?

Some positives of using technology was when you finally worked out how to work a complicated piece of software or hardware. For example the camera I used had lots of settings on the camera and also on the lens as I used Manual focus not Autofocus. I was very pleased when I could work the camera without the assistance of my friend who knew a lot about cameras.

Another positive of using technology was getting the hands of using Photoshop Cs3. At first I thought the software was going to be hopeless for me as I didn't understand anything on it or how to change different layers around. A class mate helped me understand the software more as she used the product quite a lot and for me was my first time. The most positive part of using Photoshop was putting together my contents page which is my favourite page as it looks very good. It was also a positive when I finished doing my pages and had all three finished pages on screen that was a positive of using Photoshop.

What were the negatives of using technology?A negative of using technology was using hardware and software that I had never used before. It was

a struggle to get to grips with some of the software like Photoshop and also blogger. This made it quite hard to start the production of the work as it took me a while to get a deeper understanding of the software. a bad experience I had during the production of the piece was when the camera I was using went a bit weird and the flash didn’t work and some of the settings didn’t work properly. Then I realised that some of the settings where not right and I fixed the problem. This still took quite a long time to fix and wasted an hour out of my photography schedule. Another annoying part of using older technology was using slow computers with limited disk space, if I didn’t have a memory card with me I couldn’t save anything and if I saved from Photoshop it would take a while.

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

I feel that I have gained a better understanding of my audience and progressed this from the preliminary task. A magazine has a set genre and the conventions of a magazine need to be set for that genre. Putting your audience in mind could make your magazine look like the genre you want it to be especially if you put sub genres in and make it look like you think it would on other magazines.

Some of the conventions I used in my preliminary task where developed in my magazine as I had planning and research and also a audience to fit my pages to. The photos had to be

represented in a different way from other magazines. For my preliminary task we had very little planning for the photos that we took. That was why the photography isn't very good. This

is where I think I progressed very well. The photography that I used in my final product is much more clearer and had much more planning. I also followed a stimulus which helped me

progress the photo into looking more professional. I didn’t do anything dramatical with the editing in the preliminary except for cropping the photo. I progressed and learnt how to

change the sharpness and RGB colour of the photo in layers. I also learnt how to put affects onto the photos.

The experience has taught me to use any extra time in trying to finish work and making it better as you cant leave it to the last minute as there is vast amounts of work. Another good thing to do is ask the teacher for help as they won’t know your stuck or confused if you just sit there. I never used to ask for extra help outside of lessons and agree to doing it but now I am in a level the step up of work and the load of it is much harder than GCSE so any help was appreciated and it taught me that you shouldn’t be scared to ask questions and also listen to teacher advise and criticism as it is for the best. It also taught me that timekeeping and organisation is essential for getting work done on time.

Some skills I learnt during the production stage;- how to use Photoshop.- how to use a Digital - SLR camera.- how to make a blog.- how to read my target audience.

- Using these skills for weeks developed my skills and these skills are shown throughout my newspaper article. These are the skills I feel I got better at during the production of my media piece.

This is the preliminary work I did. The front cover was done without the use of much planning and I had very little skills. The contents page is just a rough draft much more like a flat plan than an actual page. It sets out the details of the contents in very little detail. The background for both of the pages are basically the same that is the only thing that could tell you it was that front covers contents page.

This is my final product and compared with the preliminary task it looks so much better. You can tell that there was planning a lot of thought time and skill went into it. Making the final product was nothing like the preliminary task as the final product was done for a specific audience and social class, meaning the Mise – n – scene and conventions of a magazine had to be done in a specific way.