2. Why I chose to make a Drum and Bass magazine aimed at female students Drum and bass is a fast growing genre amongst the teenagers of today, it resembles the energetic individuality of today's youths. I wanted to aim my magazine at Female students between the ages of 17-25, this is because drum and Bass is more recognized as a masculine genre due to the deep bass and dark drum beats, but this isn’t nessicarially true. Drum and bass is attracting the attention of more and more females, whether they are just attending drum and bass nights or actually start their own career through the genre. Before making my magazine I had to intensely Analysis different genres of music magazines so I could work out the codes and conventions of each genre and also see how they are aimed at their chosen audience. and I also had to research who my audience was, this was done with questionnaires and researching each genre of music and finding out who was listening to that particular genre. This helped me to consider which genre I would eventually try to interpreter and aim it at the correct audience.
6. How does your media product use, develop and challenge forms and conventions of real media products? I have developed a media magazine that follows the connotations of mainstream music magazines, but due to its musical genre it is a specialist magazine designed to appeal to female students between the ages of 17 – 25. Although this particular social group is highly targeted by media companies because of their used of technology and their variation in entertainment and they amount of media consumed daily by this audience, there are not many drum and bass magazines on the market, Which I found surprising considering this is a fast growing genre and that there are more genres branching from Drum and Bass such as Dub-step, Grime and also a strong hip hop influence. I have tried to promote the Drum and Bass scene throughout my magazine by using dark colours. I managed to follow the mainstream connotations of the outline of a standard music magazine by making sure I had included a pull quote, Masthead, main image, Cells and use of colours to grab the right audience.
7. How does your media product represent particular social groups? My magazine has been generally aimed at female students between the ages of 17 – 25, who have an outgoing personality and have an interest in Drum and Bass/ Dubstep. I have tired to represent this audience through my product in a number of ways: The colours I used I think really show who my magazine is aimed towards, the black and white used keep it visually safe, although it keeps to the conventions of Drum and Bass but the vibrant pink help to grasp female attention, especially the use of it in the masthead which draws the eyes in. The type of font I’ve chosen for the masthead also represents my pre-adult audience, it conveys destruction and danger which appeals to my audience due to the harshness of the music. Although my Images are of males throughout my magazine I think this works to my advantage because it will also grab the attention of male drum and bass fans, and will eventually up my views. The boys are dressed in typical ‘chavy’ fashion, wearing caps, zip-up hoodies and expensive make T-shirts. They represent my audience fairly well, they look like typical DJ’s who would be playing at a Drum and Bass event, they also convey the outgoing attitude my audience have, this is shown in my models expressions; the main artist has a ‘bass face’.
10. City College Norwich & Various schools + College’s in the local area (attract more varied socal groups)
11. Most City Pubs (which attract youths)I would also take full advantage of having a website for this magazine, so my audience can view the entire magazine, for free, plus more features, offers and promotions. This way more of a wider Audience can get to view it.
12. Who would be the audience for your media product? My Target Audience My media product is to be aimed at college or university students between the ages of 16 -25, out going and lively students that have a passion for live music events and gigs, especially drum and bass / Dubstep genres, very sociable and enjoys attending socail events but may not nessaricaly have the funds to do attend all the time.
13. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product? I have learnt lot about media and technology this year in media, I’ve learnt to use a number of new programmes such as ‘SurveyMonkey.con’ and Issue I’ve also learned to improve skills on ‘Photoshop’ and blogs. I have learnt so many new effects and tricks that can really enharnse your images. My skills using a digital camera have improved also, I have learnt several new camera angles and learnt to consider lighting and mise-en-scene. I have learnt about moodboards to represent information in a visually stimulating way.
14. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product? I feel I have improved so much over the year, looking back at my college magazine especially my contents page, you can see a vast improvement, I have improved my awareness of the codes and conventions. But I think my main article could do with improvement, especially the layout of the font.
