Q7: Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to your full task?

The above two images are the magazine front cover and contents page of my school magazine. Since this preliminary task. I have learnt a huge amount about the construction of a magazine and the actual development you make across the period. Further knowledge has been obtained in the development of my music video, including my front cover, contents and DPS research, which has allowed me to see what I need to create a professional and realistic magazine. This has helped me greatly, as seen in the contrasting quality between my preliminary task and my first draft.

My knowledge on the use of Photoshop including how to create an effective black and white image as well as how to create a smoke effect, has developed since I created that magazine cover and contents, which is evident in the first draft of my music magazine, as I used the program to create the magazine. I decided to use this application as I had used it before in my preliminary and knew how to access help for it, as I would go onto YouTube. The familiarity I had with Photoshop meant that I used it for my first draft, as it allowed me to use software I knew to create my magazine.

I also used a greater amount of research so that I could create a greater piece of work, in which I looked into other magazines within the music industry to see their publishing companies and the features that they use. I looked into certain publication companies like Bauer Media which helped me obtain knowledge on what goes into the publication of a magazine. I also created a readership profile and formed a location assessment, which I used to research certain areas as well as the chosen audience I wanted to aim my magazine at. This contrasts greatly with my preliminary, as I did barely any research for that which is evident in the different in quality between my first music magazine and school magazine. 

I was happy with the first draft that I created as it did conform to many of the stereotypical functions used in a normal hip-hop/R&B magazine. However, with feedback from my friends after asking them for feedback, me and my classmate George decided to come together and create a new magazine, one of which would stand out from the crowd on a shop's shelf. We decided to use new models and develop a new idea for the same genre and audience. This magazine however will be much better, as we have decided to make our magazine stand out and make it using professional software. We have done further research into magazines such as RWD and Wordplay, which has helped widen our knowledge on hip-hop/R&B magazine designs. 

We have decided to use a girl on the cover, which is not normally seen in the hip-hop industry magazine, and the yellow is different from the XXL magazine that we have researched. We did further research into other magazines like RWD and Wordplay and created a new readership profile to display the new idea that we were developing. We also showed a larger amount of development in the creation of our magazine, which allowed us to show how we made components of our magazine so that our demographic could see it and give us constructive feedback to make an all round greater product. We also took all the pictures for this magazine, where as when I worked by myself, I used pictures from the Internet, which isn’t what we wanted to create as we wanted to be unique. Using our own pictures create individuality for our magazine, in which we will stand out from the crowd and create our own brand. 

One major change in the new music magazine was the software, in which we decided to use InDesign as it is proper publishing software that had grids and rulers that aided our creation. The difference in application has been the most prominent reason why our magazine is  better, as it uses the real guidelines of a real magazine and has helped us form a more realistic and professional piece that will compete with real music magazines that advocate hip-hop/R&B. InDesign is also software that magazine designers use, which means that we are using a professional application which will enhance the quality of our magazines

Looking at our final music magazine, I believe that we have made huge development in our knowledge of information as seen in the greater research that we have done and the amount of help we gained from the internet on how to use certain applications, which has enhanced our construction and overall pieces. The experience we have gained through the use of different applications and having a preliminary and first draft has allowed us to test out ideas so we can apply them to our final design. We have been able to build up research about music magazines and our audience through the survey we created and analysis of different parts of a magazine, broadening our understanding of the conventions a magazine should have. This has allowed us to get a more professional and realistic final piece, as we could apply our knowledge into our construction to create a greater final piece

Q6: What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

https://prezi.com/kf2thmcpjvn2/q6-tech-in-the-process/

Q5: How did you attract/address your audience?

https://prezi.com/aj75ztoa3qvb/how-did-you-attractaddress-your-audience/

Q4: Who Will be The Audience of Your Media Product?

http://www.slideshare.net/joshkitchingham/q4-who-would-be-the-audience-for-your-media-product-59843488

Q3: What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

http://www.emaze.com/@ACLLLLWQ/q3

Q2: How does your product represent a particular social group?

The spider diagram below is an overview of the social group that we have decided to aim our magazine at:

Our final readership profile that we did displays the socio-economic place our group will have, but it does not explain specific examples like we will do in this question. 

Generating an audience that is both male and female will allow us to get a larger amount of readers and create a greater amount of revenue. We have done this by putting a female on the cover, which will catch the eye of females as it is not normally associated with a hip-hop/R&B magazine. It will catch the eye of males also, as we are displaying a sexual image of our female model, which conforms to the theory made by Laura Mulvey of the male gaze, which creates a image that attracts a male audience.

The age of our social group will be from 16-35, which will mean we will be appealing to young adults. We have made our magazine appealing to all ages, by including numerous artists from different generations, including Jay Z and Tupac. We have also chosen this group as they have been heavily influenced by the internet and other technological sources, which is because we also want to brand our magazine on the internet and we felt that they are the most active on social media and other internet related websites.

As our social group may not be as financially stable as those from a higher class and age, they will choose to spend their money on things that may be cheaper than usual or ask their parents to get it for them. Nandos, is a restaurant that sells nice food and a small price and is very popular amongst the social group I am trying to attract. They also go shopping in towns and cities for clothes in shops like topman and tiptop, that even though they are nice clothes, they are at a cheaper price when compared with Versace or Lui Vuitton.

The main influences of the group we are aiming our magazine at may be music magazines like Q and Vibe. However, despite being magazines and published, they also have a huge online presence, which is what we believe is the biggests influence our audience has. This includes websites like Buzzfeed and Vice, that have a great online presence and feature on social media sites like Snapchat. We will try to create a website as well as social media pages that will also do the same as these websites which we believe has a great influence on our social group. By putting the latest gossip and competitions on these websites, we will gain a greater readership and therefore reach out to a large amount of people in our social group.

Our group may live in urban areas such as London and Manchester, which we believe is the home to some of the UK's greatest hip-hop/R&B artists, including Katy B, Skepta and Stormzy. These artists are big in the UK industry, and are located in these urban areas. This is the same for the US, which includes the great West vs East rivalry from LA to NY. These areas emphasise how the genre of which we have chosen is from urban areas across the globe, and we believe this is where our social group will be located. They may live in flats if they are from a working class background, or if they feature in a middle class lifestyle they may be present in the suburbs of these cities/towns.

Q1: In what ways does your media product use, develop and challenge forms and conventions of a real media product?

Our final magazine uses, challenges and develops conventions that are seen within music magazines in it’s design and the way it is set out. However this is intentional, as we wanted to use things seen in other magazines that are successful and well known in the genre we have chosen. We have also took inspiration from things outside of magazines, including a album cover that we felt looked very feminine and best fit what we wanted to portray from our artist. 

 For the front cover, we have tried to portray our magazine to be modern and professional, so we used the font ‘Slant’ from dafont.com, after it was recommended to us from our teacher. We decided to use a font like this following viewing the front cover of RWD, which uses a modernistic font that represents the genre they have chosen to represent. This is what we have tried to do, because the hip-hop/R&B industry is becoming more modern and uses a lot of beats made by technology, which we have tried to replicate. It will keep our magazine up-to-date with our audience, who are increasingly being influenced by technology.The name “LYRIC” represents what is used by many artists within the genre as a way of presenting their message or getting hits from it, which is what we wanted to portray. Lures are used throughout different magazines, but during my research, I have not seen any with them at the top like we have.

We have used lures so that we can get more readers for our magazine, so that we can then attract them to our magazine with competitions and big headlines. We have therefore challenged the conventions of a rap magazine, as despite this front cover from The Source which has words above the masthead, we have made this a prominent feature of our magazine to let the people looking to read a magazine know what is inside. By letting people know what is inside we are allowing them to choose if they want to read it, and as we have a broad selection of topics, we should be able to attract a large audience that we want. The competition is also a great way of getting people to read our magazine, as it is a free chance to win something that could benefit them greatly. Free tickets is what every music fan wants. and that is what we want to offer our audience so that we can connect with them and broaden the support for our magazine.

The big picture and headline saying ‘girl power’ with the artists name below however replicates something we have seen in XXL’s magazine, which we believe to be powerful and give a clear message about the large-scale artist we have on our front cover. This will allow our readers to get a clear idea of who the main feature is, while making it standout to new people to become our audience and read our magazine. Black power is very impacting on the audience, as it shows how Ice Cube is looking for equality within the music industry. This what we have tried to portray in our artist but for women equality within our chosen genre, as it is not normally seen within hip-hop/R&B magazines to have a female on the front.

Our contents page also develops conventions used within other magazines, including Q magazine. Despite not being from the genre of our magazine, we have decided to look outside of our industry as we can try and replicate other ideas we feel are the strongest. The ways in which the topics of the magazine are laid out are a lot like ours, as they have also used a line through the heading and description of the article. However, we have decided to lay it out differently, as we want to have our own unique design. Despite being difference as it is spread out across the middle of the magazine, it is clear to read therefore fulfilling the purpose of a real contents page. We have decided to put feature articles in a bigger font and have more writing about it, showing how it is our main article and that we want them to read it the most. 

This is also backed up by the placement of the pictures, in which they are all around the side of the topics so we can fill the space and provide a good-looking contents page. This however is also clear, as the numbers we have placed below them allows the reader to know where a topic is and what picture is associated with what topic. This is so we could add more articles in an appropriate place that is concise and allows for a more aesthetically pleasing page while allowing the reader to know where specific topics are. 

The masthead of this page however does conform to one rap magazine, Vibe, as the heading is broken up, a lot like theirs. We believe this is different and very urban-like, which we have tried to replicate by using our own font. Like the front covers masthead, we have tried to create a technological font due to the audience we are aiming it. We also believe this will keep our brand identity, which is also seen in the Vibe magazine as the font is similar to the brands logo. Even though theirs is in three rows instead of two like ours, we believe that with the font we chose 2 rows is a lot better looking and also displays how we have developed upon their design. 

The promotion of our social media site and website however is not to be seen on this contents page or Q magazines, showing how we have challenged conventions of a magazine. This is so that we can promote our social media and Internet presence, so that our readers can look at additional content online and allow us to connect with them by getting feedback on particular stories. We can therefore speak to them as we will spark our own opinions about matters in the media today, which will create debates for people to talk about, consequently spreading the message of our magazine to more people.

For our double page spread, we have used conventions again seen within the magazine Vibe in their feature of Wiz Khalifa, which has one full image on one page. This is due to the powerful image that he gives off in the close up shot, making the audience knowing who the article will be about while also staring at the audience, which will draw them into the magazine. However, we have put the masthead of her name underneath her instead of on the right hand page, because we felt this keeps the artists brand being represented clearly and in a stylish way. This works well as it gives a clear representation of the artist we are talking about while also displaying the sassy attitude our artist has, relating to a lot of young females therefore making her possibly become an idol for them due to the message we are getting across. 

We have however put a quote, which we feel links with our picture, highlighting the key words in yellow. Despite also using those colours, this is to represent the artist due to his song “Black and Yellow”, where as we have done it to keep our house style constant. This is so we can advertise our magazine throughout our final pieces so we can put our image across while also writing about our main feature. We therefore challenge conventions seen within a magazine in the same genre as us, despite also using some as well.  

We have also decided to use 2 columns when writing our content for our DPS, which can also be seen in RWD magazine. This is due to the simplicity and clarity we want to give our readers, as it will allow us to make it easier for our audience to read our magazine no matter what age they are and where they are from in the UK. This layout is a typical layout, that is also used within British newspapers, making our magazine seem more realistic and giving a professional view of our magazine that is aesthetically pleasing for our audience. 

Despite not being a magazine, the writing on the front of David Guetta’s front cover for the single “Sexy Chick” is very powerful, as it replicates lipstick and gives a certain attitude to it. This is what we wanted to try and recreate in our magazine, as it looks fierce, which is want we wanted to symbolise the hardship and grit our artist has as she has come from nothing. This will hopefully inspire our audience to go for their dreams or do their school work so they can get to where they want to be in life, creating a positive image while also promoting the artist and our magazine.

Overall, our magazine uses a lot of conventions that a normal magazine would use in hope that it looked professional and realistic. However, we have also challenged and developed on these ideas, which makes our magazine as a brand seem different, giving us a chance to develop our brand so that it stands out from the rest of the magazines within our genre. Across the magazine we have also developed conventions to keep our brand identity constant to make sure the audience knows that this is our magazine. We have also tried to promote our online presence due to the audience we are aiming at and the increasing influence it has on our audience's life, which is not normally seen in a magazine but we believe it is crucial for the advertisement and readership of our magazine.