1. In what ways does your media product use, developor challenge forms and conventions of real media products? A convention which I challenged was to having my main image covered by the masthead. I used a medium composition shot for the main image and the model is making eye contact with the audience. Made the biggest text relating to the article. I included eyebrows on my magazine. I used a plain and simple font for the masthead and kept my typeface consistent throughout my magazine. I used 4 colours for my in-house style. I included a pink tint to my background and over the image. I didn't use I sexualised image of a female on the front. An American convention to have the barcode at the bottom left-hand corner. With the price and issue date surrounding it. I included the website on the front cover.

2. I used capital letters for every word on my front cover and contents page. Ordered my page under headings instead of numerical order Maintained the in-house style. I didn't include the issue number. Used a sexualised image for my female model Made the setting and her outfit correspond with the in-house style.

5. The Front Cover My magazine develops and challenges conventions in many ways. I looked at 3 hip hop magazines to understand the conventions of a magazine for my type of audience which were Vibe, King and RWD. In many ways I have challenged the conventions if you were to compare my magazine to the US based ones for example, I have a female on the front which is not represented in a sexual manor. This is a typical convention for females to be very sexualised if they are on a front of a magazine in general. I also noticed that American magazines barcodes were positioned on the left, whilst the barcode for English magazines were positioned on the right. So I positioned the barcode for my magazine on the bottom right corner. I also have the pricing and the issue number surrounding the barcode as this is a convention of a real media product. This makes my magazine look really professional. From where I got most of my inspiration from was RWD, there magazines were very colourful and each one had a different theme for the front. I did stick to many conventions though. I positioned my barcode in the bottom left hand corner of mage page as all types of magazines tend to conform to this convention. I used a mid shot image on the front of my cover so the readers can clearly see the emotion on the models face which is what other magazines do. I also made the text relating to the main image the biggest. I included my articles on the left hand side which the majority of magazines do, because in English culture we read from left to right. I also made sure that all text on my front cover was in capitals as this is a convention of music magazines in my genre.

6. Contents Page The biggest convention that I stuck to was how I laid out the text on my contents page. Instead of ordering every single page in numeric order I put my pages under headings of ‘Regulars’ and ‘Features’. I noticed that this was a convention in a range of magazines, I also only included the most relevant information. I mimicked the in-house style for the contents page from ‘Q’ magazine. Every image in their magazine followed the in-house style of red black and white as they were the only colours used in the image. I have done the same with my image but have not included any pink or blue as the official colours were not decided yet. Another convention I adhered to was using a long shot composition of my image.

8. How does your media product represent particular social groups? My social groups that I am representing is London youths, aged 15-22, who are into the urban music scene. On my front cover image my model is holding a weight which is supposed to represent struggle and fight, which a lot of young people have to do to reach their dreams; especially those trying to pursue music. It also conveys the violent stereotype of what the youths are classified by society. The fact that the model is also black represents the social group as this is the ethnicity which my target audience is largely aimed at. She is also wearing a hooded jacket which represents the social group. The price of my magazine represent my social group as they will be low in the levels of the standard occupational classification which means they will have a lower disposable income to spend on luxuries. Its also cheap as this particular social group is also more reluctant to spend money on magazines, which is why this genre selling in the UK is a niche because there is less of an audience. The register I used in my magazine will mirror how my social group talks. Words that apply to the hip hop culture and UK slang will be used throughout my magazine, and occasional bad language. This represents my social group as rebels and a sub-culture in society as they don’t particular have the same values as the majority of society.

9. Throughout my magazine I used large images to limit the amount of space for text which represents my social group through age and occupational classification. I didn’t include any male imagery in my magazine which does not give a true representation of the American and UK urban scene, as I would say that men would dominate this genre.

10. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? I could use an American import to distribute my magazine. Media institutions such as publication companies like Harris Publication Inc. who publish King magazine, XXL magazine, Slam magazine and Scratch magazine. This is because their publications are hip-hop based magazine, aimed at men who are similar to my target audience and the genre of my magazine. Another company that distribute my magazine Rewind Creative Media, this is because both of our magazines are UK based and cater to the same market, this could also be a bad idea though as our magazines are to similar and will be competitors. Bauer may also be interested in publishing my magazine as the Hip-hop genre has a mass-audience and this is the same as the other magazines that Bauer distributes like Kerrang and NME.

11. Who would be the audience for your media product? The market segment I am targeting my magazine at is: Age: 15 – 22. Gender: 60% Male, 40% Female. The majority of the content of the magazine will appeal to both sexes, but may appeal a bit more to males because of the images and advertising. But it generally gender wouldn’t have much of an affect mainly the genre of music. Ethnicity: Majority black. But also other ethnicities who are interested in an urban culture. Standard Occupational Classification: C2 – E. The majority of people in the age I'm targeting will either be in education, work or unemployed, but unlikely to be higher up in the occupational classification as they are unlikely to have achieved this status at the age. Location: London. The majority of black people are populated in London so it makes sense to distribute in this area, as this is more accessible to my audience.

12. How did you attract/address your audience? I attracted my audience to my magazine in a number of ways: I made sure that the model on the front cover is making eye contact with the camera so the picture can catch the audiences eye, as the psychology of eye contact draws people into things. I used blue and pink in my magazine which is stereotypically known as the boys and girls colours, my audience should understand this as a unisex magazine. it also may put certain genders of my magazine though, for instance, the pink may be unappealing to my 60% male audience as this is a ‘girly’ colour. I used a bright shade of these colours which also appeals to my audience as bright colours are a trend in the youth and urban scene. I used sexualised images of females to appeal to my male target audience, but also non-sexualised images to appeal to my female audience Language Price Website and “tweets of the week”

13. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product? During the process of constructing my magazine I have used a range of technologies (computers, software, digital cameras, and internet) which has taught me a lot. I had to use the internet and search engines to conduct my research. I have learned that in search engines such as ‘Google’ you have to adapt the questions that you want to ask so that it will bring up an appropriate answers. When I did open websites, it is easy to get lost from where you were originally if there are a lot of external and internal links. I learned about a lot about digital cameras and the importance of lighting when a picture is being taken. Typical I thought that it is always better to take picture with a flash, but no I have realised that is not the case. It is better to use natural lighting or lamps to light a scene as this will produce less glare. I learned how helpful Photoshop and In-design is when trying to create a magazine; by combining these to programs you can make a very professional looking magazine. I learned how to use certain features at a amateur level, if I was more familiar with the features I could have created a ‘skilful’ magazine.

14. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product? Making this magazine has helped me develop my skills and has taught me a lot of things about different aspects in the media. My preliminary is very basic, and I used my own personal judgements to create it rather than doing research to get an understanding of college magazines and what the audience want from one. I think I done this as I am a college student myself so I was just relating it to me unbeknownst to the fact that I represent a small social group within a college as there is many. Firstly making the magazine has helped me become familiar with programmes such as In-Design and Photoshop. I didn’t know at all how to use In-Design and I would have probably used Microsoft Publisher to produce my magazine I had to make myself familiar with the basis for my main task. I have learned the importance of research before going into making a magazine. Research helps you think of issues like institutions, media language, representation, audience and conventions. Research really improve the quality of your magazines in all aspects, and makes it look more proffesional.