Question

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or

challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

For all my media products, I researched many R&B magazines and looked at conventions of the product. This then helped me with the production of my own products.

For my double page spread, I believe I did not challenge any of the forms and conventions of the majority of R&B music magazines, I followed the ideology’s of R&B double page spreads. The layout of my double page spread does challenge some conventions as my main image takes up the whole left side of the double page and the text is on the right page whereas the majority of double page spreads have the main image in the centre. However it is conventional as the image is posed and a mid shot which may give the readers a feeling that the article is a strong insight to the personality of the artist and you see their true colours. At the top corner of the page I added small images of the artist which breaks the conventions of many R&B magazines, this then allows the audience to see different sides of the artist.

The language used in the article is informal and standard English, this then makes the reader at ease when reading the article. I did this to make the product look reliable to the readers and like a real professional magazine. I did my double page spread in this way because its what my audience expects from my magazine. My audience will be used to the artist looking glamorous and posing, therefore by challenging conventions I believe my double page would not have looked very R&B and would therefore not suit the ideology's of R&B music and artists.

My colour scheme is the same as my other media products making the magazine more professional. In my double page the colour scheme connects the text to the image, this does not break any conventions as most magazines will have a colour scheme. I did this to draw attention to the artist and I want the audience to visualise her when they are reading the article and I did this by relating the colours.

By sticking to the codes and conventions it made the magazine reliable and professional. I think my contents page does not follow the conventions of most other R&B magazines when it comes to the image for example ‘VIBE’ use the image of the artist as the whole background therefore I went against the conventions by using a small image of the main artist in the centre of the page which many R&B magazines do not have, I then used other images of other artists so that I can suit the audiences needs and wants which are to know the latest fashion and gossip of the popular R&B artists, and by having different images of artists shown on the page I can then know that I suit many different peoples wants for the artists they may like the most.

But the rest of the contents page is conventional because of my use of numbers, variety of colours, main image with other secondary images. The captions within the contents page relates to the conventions of the target audience of R&B magazines, for example ‘exclusive pictures of RiRi on tour’ ‘worst and best dressed at EMA’s’ shows many different sides of R&B music, and will therefore have many pages that my target audience will enjoy. This is how I attracted my audience by thinking of what needs my audience will want.

The colour scheme is very conventional by using a baby blue for important words within a caption and the colour of the numbers. By using a uni-sex bright colour will relate to my target audience, it also gives a more sophisticated look to appeal to young people and adults.

The language used is informal to seem friendly for the readers and also clear and engaging for the readers to then read further into the magazine. I think the language of my contents page suits the language throughout my three products to make it more professional and relate together.

I have used 7 images on my contents page, the main image of my artist is larger than any other image instantly standing out to the audience. I used these images to link to the captions and stories because image may attract more readers and to find out more about the story. I didn’t over crowd the page with images giving it a more structured layout.

I have followed the codes and conventions for the layout of my R&B magazine front cover as I feel it is more reliable to the reader overall and the audience can relate to it more. This leads to the target audience of my magazine having a clear understanding of the contents of my magazine by using informal text of headlines that are more eye catching and attention drawing for what is within the magazine. This then helps the audience understand the style and genre within.

I think my layout is very similar to magazines such as ‘VIBE’ which is a very popular R&B magazine with a very similar layout throughout each magazine. My front cover is similar as it has the masthead at the top centre of the page, and a large image of the main artist covering the whole page with headings around the sides of the artist. I feel by using this layout, the genre is very clear to the readers and the image of the artist is instantly the centre of attention.

I also followed a colour scheme for my front cover which is red, blue and white which follows the conventions of R&B music by using bright and attractive colours. by following a colour scheme throughout all three products, makes them look very professional.

I used informal language throughout my magazine. The language used gives a relaxed vibe to the readers and makes reading the magazine more pleasing. Researching other magazines, I followed the conventions by using headlines such as exclusive interviews and pictures of very popular artists, I followed this convention so that each heading would suit many people within the audience and there would be a part of the magazine that everyone would enjoy. Therefore I thought my target demographic would appeal to this and take interest in my magazine.

I also followed the conventions for my main image as I have the artist looking at the camera which is direct address which can then make the image more engaging to the audience.

Question

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Throughout my media products, there is nothing that shows any social groups in a negative way. I feel my magazine is aimed at social groups that enjoy R&B music and also aimed at younger generations and social groups which many R&B magazines also do. But I do think the clothing used on my artist can relate to certain social groups, she wears very glamorous clothes that are in the latest fashion with high heels that many people may look up to as a role model of fashion as well as music. And I used a vibrant blue and red throughout my photo shoot with what the artist is wearing therefore I think the social group attracted to my product will be young females into the same style of fashion and R&B music.

When researching my target audience, this helped me create each media product as I thought about what my target audience would expect to see. I have used certain language and images to aim at young students that relate to the language used. I did this so that the readers can instantly relate to the language used throughout the magazine and will be able to enjoy it and read it at ease.

Question

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

BAUER MEDIA

I would used Bauer media to distribute my magazine because they are the biggest publishing house in Europe and they do a variety of magazines particularly a variety of music magazines. Bauer distribute magazines such as ‘Kerrang!’ which is a rock genre magazine. And ‘Q’ who are suited to old people, when looking through the magazines they distribute, it does not include a magazine like mine, an R&B magazine for young people therefore I would choose this company as they need a magazine like mine leading them to having a variety of magazines with different genres.

Ways to promote my magazine: AppWebsite Free magazines at festivals Facebook

Some magazines that BAUER media group distribute.

Furthermore, Bauer media group include brands on national Television stations such as 4music and this would link to my R&B genre of my magazine as 4music play a lot of R&B music to a large audience.

I also chose Bauer media group because when looking at other distributions for example IPC media, I think that my type of magazine would not fit in with all the other magazines and genres that they distribute.

I would distribute my magazine in shops and supermarkets such as Tesco, Sainsbury's, WHSmiths and HMV as I believe these shops are very high street and popular with a wide range of people. Therefore my audience would have easy access to my magazine giving it a wider appeal.

Question

4.Who would be the audience for your media product?

The audience for my media product would be a large variety of people. The age of my audience will be between the ages of 16 and 26. This audience will be both male and female as I made my magazine products relate to both genders, the men may be the audience of my magazine because of the image of a pretty R&B artist on the front cover, and I also made sure the sell lines would suit the needs of both genders of my audience.And females may read this magazine as they look up to the artist, or like her fashion and will want to know the latest gossip of the artist. I used sell lines about Dizzee Rascal and Rihanna so that the readers can see there is a wide range of artists featured in the magazine.

My audience will be social climbers who care about their appearance, they are interested in the society around them and what are the latest trends. The lifestyle choices my audience may follow would be aspires who work hard to become what they aspire to be. They would also be mainstreamers and have an ordinary life, enjoy going out and are interested in the latest gossip and trends in the media industry.

I think my audience is a broad audience as my genre has many different aspects and it is not simply just one genre as every artist and song is different in so many ways when it comes to R&B.

My secondary audience will be mixed genders over the age of 25 who still enjoy to listen to R&B on the radio when in the car or still follow the artist they have loved from when they were younger.

Audience demographics

Demographics Age: 16-24 Gender: unisex male and female social class: B-E

Lifestyle: Mainly followers of the crowd, up to date with the latest and mainstream music genre. This music genre has been around for a long period of time, it is recognisable instantly but can also not be clear to distinguish from other genres as R&B can be mixed with other genres. It involves a lot of rapping, emotional lyrics about love, life and other things, this can then relate to the lifestyles of the audience. Rebels are people that go against the rules and usually have no respect for others, whilst doing anything they want to do. R&B and the lyrics within would also be rather rebellious with swearing and rapping usually involving sex and how you treat others which rebellious people can sometimes relate with and follow.

Hobbies and interests: loves going out and socialising with friends, partying, drinking, listening to music and dancing to music when partying. Love attending music concerts and festivals.

Fashion and styles: R&B genre music fans take care of their appearance, like to keep up with the latest fashion and trends.

Therefore this audience, will pick up my magazine when the see the glamorous artist on the front cover in a very fashionable dress. They will want to be up to date with the latest news and gossip so that they can talk about it and socialise over it with their group of friends. Therefore I think my magazine represents this type of social group that enjoy going out and socialising with friends and by reading about the newest popular R&B artist and their love life.

Question

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

I attracted my audience mostly by my sell lines on my front cover, the language used and the colour scheme throughout my products.

When thinking about attracting my audience, I instantly thought of the language used in R&B magazines and then interpreted a similar language into my own three products. I tried to show an informal, friendly tone in my magazine however I did not used words that young teenagers use such as ‘LOL’ as I am aiming this at young adults and by using words like that, they may find the magazine too immature for them therefore I tried to sound friendly yet mature in my language so my readers can enjoy the magazine at ease. This made my magazine more easy to follow and makes them feel comfortable to be able to understand the language well and relate to it.

As my magazine is aimed at both males and females although it may attract more females, I then tried to show a lot of fashion and glamour in the contents of my magazine to show the latest trends and they can therefore relate to it.

My colour scheme of a vibrant blue and red, are conventional colours that will suit any gender and any age, by using blue, red and white throughout my products made it more appealing and eye catching to my readers to make it more aesthetically pleasing to view.

I used these colours throughout as I think these colours are very uni-sex and by using a colour such as pink will instantly give my magazine a stereotype of a girls magazine which I did not want as I wanted a wide range of readers both male and female.

The artist I used for my magazine are relevant to my audience as they look very glamorous in their costume, make-up and hair. Therefore the audience will be more interested in her story when she looks glamorous and in the latest fashion trend that my audience will be looking up to. I used minimalistic make-up on my artist as I felt having a more natural effect will make the readers believe they are seeing the true side of the artist and reassuring the readers that you can be pretty without a large amount of make up and being fake.

Question

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

At the beginning of this process, before producing anything, I had to create a blog to post all of my work onto, this blog included many different tabs for each part of the work. I used blogger.com which was all new to me as I had never blogged before, therefore I learnt a new technology at the beginning. I have enjoyed using blogger as it keeps my work organised by having various pages and it was easy to navigate.

To produce my contents page, double page spread and front cover I used Microsoft PowerPoint which I think was very easy to use as I was familiar with the process.

However I did learn that the blog I used was not always reliable so I therefore made sure I had backed up all of my work just in case so I did learn that technology can not always work perfectly.

Question

7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel

you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Preliminary Task Front Cover

Final Front Cover

Preliminary Task Contents Page

Final Contents Page

When completing the preliminary task, not much research and planning was done in as much debt as it was for the rest of the production. When we had to do our final research and planning for double page, contents page and front cover, we had to look at 3 each and evaluate many features of them, this then helped me when it came to making my own as I was familiar of the ideologies and conventions of each product. Therefore over this period I think I have learnt a lot about research, planning and testing on your audience to understand what others want in your product.

I also learnt a lot about the production, by using my skills in the making when designing, editing images and creating successful layouts.

When starting my preliminary task I thought I could just rush into it and produce a front cover by using an image and some text as I thought I knew a lot about magazines because I read them a lot but in reality I soon found that I was wrong and a lot of detail needs to go into the production.

I then learnt how testing on my focus groups helped my production a lot as I gathered a lot more than just my own opinions on each product. You can then find out what your audience will want to see when you get a large amount of feedback to help you . This is because they let you know what works well and what doesn’t and you then look at each feature and the production in a lot more detail than I did in the preliminary task.

I also went onto picture editing websites to try different edits for my images that I have chosen for my final products to then make the image more appealing and eye catching to the readers which I did not even think about doing for my preliminary task, I just used the original image when I could have made it look a lot more effective. And you can see this clearly when comparing my products from the preliminary task to the final product.

Thank you for watching

By Daisy Corrie