1. I have been able to achieve the specific codes and conventions that are present in existing music magazine.
Masthead
Individual House Style
Issue Number
Media Convergence
Date of Release
Cell Lines
Typography Variation
Barcode
Price
Q1 In what ways does your magazine media product use, develop or challenge forms
and conventions of real media products?
2. As we can see the use of logos is quite similar here. I have created my own
type but I used the inspiration from this magazine. The positioning of the
stars was from Q magazine. As we can also see, the masthead has been
manipulated to go behind the model which helps maintain the audience's
attention as he is the cover story. In addition to this, in the headline, the
use of a big and bold name indicates that this is the person the readers
should try to focus most on as they are the cover story. I also challenged
some of the house style used in the Vibe magazine. I used plus symbols
instead of blank space to separate the names. I also developed the use of
puffs. I used a star instead of a circle. I also developed the way the models
cross their hands.
Challenging and developing Forms of representations.
3. Facial expressions and
posture
When male artists and models are featured in Q magazine and Vibe, they tend
to have quite relaxed postures so that they can appeal to female gaze.
Although they have healthy skins and thin figures, they tend to display
masculine facial expressions to enrapture the desires of their audience and
fans. They make gestures such as putting hands in pocket, crossing hands,
point to something that they want the audience to identify, head tilts are all
common poses used by male idols. Poses that were used in magazines such as
VIBE and Qmagazine, inspired me to develop my own ons for my models in
order to depict the correct representations of male models.
4.
5. Q2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
Age
For age, there are variety of age ranges that has been used to represent social groups of youth culture as stereotyped teenagers
and young adults which are associated with rap genre. This implies that the primary social groups that this is targeted at are the
teenagers and young adults because they would most likely recognise the artists used and the things they do. In addition, over
the language that I have used which mostly tends to be formal 10/10 of the teenagers and young adults would understand such
names such as ‘Jay Z’ which again show the primary target audience/social group. Furthermore, the use of costumes of ‘bucket
hats’, ‘hoodies’ and big brands like ‘Audi’ on a young person actually represents the social group as this is a hegemonic
representation of the hip hop young people are interested in today and what they want to have. I made sure that I included
older models as the target audience is 15-25 years of age. I included them as I wanted to represent the older generation too.
This is why one of the features included two older artists who have at least once been at the tip of their careers. This helps the
older generation recognise them when they were young adults.
6. Ethnicity
In the ethnicity section, I tried to use different ethnicity in attend to reach other social groups. I
used a young black male which is a stereotype of the rap genre, however that’s from the outside
perspective. If you are part of the culture of hip hop or these types of social groups you wouldn’t
say that it’s just young people. It’s a range of different people that perhaps have the similar
interests and talents. They may also have back stories of similar experiences that they want to
share. I have also used a young male (light-skinned) to depict the other social groups.
the ethnicity section, I tried to use different ethnicity in attend to reach other social groups. The
world we live in is changing constantly, we live in a modern time where it’s more diverse, and at
times pluralistic society. The genre of rap actually seems to have quite an attenuate representation
of black males. I attempted to challenge this by using an artist that others wouldn’t normally say
they fit the genre, as the readers and audience have become more diverse. Even though they are
more urban, I would say that they are still mixed as different people bring different things all the
time.
7. Class
For class, I would personally say that my media product would be. The skilled manual, semi-skilled manual and
unemployed, people that have a working class background. All the models I used would be in these categories. They would
be there but they have ambitions of soaring up to the top of the pyramid. This is embedded in the costumes used just as
‘hoodies’ and ‘bucket hats’. This represents the social groups of young people as they are judge upon their choice of
clothing and that’s what some believe is expected from them. The other stereotype that I used is the Versace neck less, the
fact that the model is wearing one. This definitely challenges the values of these type of people not being able to afford
such items. Some could also say that they are trying to incorporate some things that the middle class would. However,
these are the type of ways the big artists show their sense of wealth, by wearing it around for other to see.
8. Q3:What kind of media institution (publisher)
might distribute your media product and why?
9. 4. Who would be the audience for your media product?
Age Demographic
The age range would be 15- 25 year olds. The hip hop genre is listened to many different types of age groups however, I just want to address this
these age groups. Teenagers to young adult demographic would be an idle age range as they are some of the most common age groups that listen to
hip hop.
Gender Demographic
Dominantly male.
The dominant audience of hip hop tends to be mixed but some would
say it tends to be more of a male audience. So it was acceptable to use a male
model as it would be appealing to a female audience and it would also interest
the male audience as they would feel that their gender is becoming more famous
and dominant.
Socio-Economic Group
C2, D, E
My main audience being either teenagers. My readers and audience
won’t be high earners and would most likely be students or in the working class
jobs. That's the reason why my magazine price is $3.99 in order to make it more
cost effect, or affordable for this group.
Psychographic Group
My magazine
will be aimed towards both mainstreamers and aspires. There are artists within
the genre promote the ideas of trends and what is popular and isn’t popular in
their culture or others cultures which is why they appeal to mainstreamers.
It’s also suitable for aspires as Jay Z and Kanye West wear lots of expensive
neck less and live lives that their fans have always dream of.
