2. IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT USE,
DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE
FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS?
My magazine challenges forms and conventions of existing magazines of this
genre thorough the language it uses, my magazine uses intellectual
language, such that you would expect to see in a higher brow magazine.
The slogan that comes with my magazine is the ‘Hip Hop magazine with
substance’ and the purpose of my magazine is to challenge people’s
expectations of a Hip Hop magazine that it uses basic diction, in my
magazine I used words such as
‘amalgamation’, words like this would
never be expected to be seen in a Hip
Hop magazine. The phrases people
expect to hear see in this semantic field
are hip hop slang orientated like
‘stacks,’ ‘gang’ and ‘army’.
taken from the extract of XXL to the left.
these words provide a representation that
The readers are unintelligent.
3. CONTINUED
Design wise, my magazine has followed codes and conventions
of Hip Hop magazines. The dark colour scheme is congruous
with the Hip Hop music scene as artists are often seen wearing
black clothing. Picking up this magazine
there would be no qualms
over the colours used
and could be seen
on any other existing Hip Hop
magazine.
4. HOW DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT REPRESENT
PARTICULAR SOCIAL GROUPS?
My magazine has a positive representation on the Hip Hop
group unlike what other Hip Hop
magazines may do. Hip Hop magazines
generally paint a negative picture of
the genre as a whole, they include
things such as artists being arrested, them
being in fights or taking drugs. Maybe
unintentionally this is done but
nevertheless this is what is portrayed and
my magazine is going to avoid all
temptation of shining light on negative stories, and go
against the ‘bad news is good news’ way of producing a
magazine and try and give a positive image of the social
groups as well as the genre as a whole.
5. CONTINUED
• My magazine also has a positive representation as it shows the
audience in a light which isn’t usually highlighted by other
magazines. Through the language of my magazine it suggests
that Hip Hop listeners aren’t as uneducated as people think.
Using a language like this means that the audience is going to
have to be intellectual to read it and because of the genre it
shows that Hip Hop listeners aren’t unintelligent as things
suggest. Below is an extract from my double page spread
highlighting the language used.
6. WHAT KIND OF MEDIA INSTITUTION MIGHT
DISTRIBUTE YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT AND WHY?
• My magazine is an underground magazine so it
wouldn’t necessarily be distributed by a big
institution. This is to do with my audience, Hip Hop
fans feel like they have been led along by an artist
when comes from an underground position (like my
magazine is) and they then sign to a label they are
often said to be ‘selling out’ because they don’t
tend to make the same music as a label starts to
take creative control.
7. CONTINUED
A possible institution that could
distribute my magazine would be
Vibe Media. If the magazine did join
to an institution I would need full
creative control and the magazine
would still have the same
authentic, underground feel. Also
they already produce a successful
Hip Hop magazine so have an
already existing audience, but the
magazine they produce already
doesn’t use challenging language like
mine so it will attract an audience
who are looking to challenge
themselves instead of passively
reading.
8. WHO WOULD BE THE AUDIENCE FOR YOUR
MEDIA PRODUCT?
My magazine will attract multiple audiences through the
adapted stylised approach it takes. It will attract existing Hip
Hop fans who feel that they are being underestimated in terms
of their intelligence and the reason they will be attracted to my
magazine is because it will actively challenge them.
Another audience segment may be intellectual people who are
looking for something new musically and my magazine may be
for them as their need to be intellectually challenged is already
being fulfilled. My primary audience though will be Hip Hop fans
who are interested in finding out about ‘the next big thing,’ most
featured artists will be underground artists who are on the verge
of making it big. This will turn the magazines into a collectable
item as if the artist makes it big then they will have one of if not
their first magazine covers.
9. HOW DID YOU ATTRACT/ADDRESS
YOUR AUDIENCE?
I attracted my audience through things such
as titles, images, fonts and colours but I feel
that the main attraction was the language
used. It may put some readers off but the
intelligent reader will feel it feeds their need
to be challenged linguistically and this will
attract them to read it. The less intelligent
reader will be attracted through things
such as the layout; it is structured and
carefully laid out. The images may also
attract people who aren’t the most well
off; the model isn’t dressed in expensive
clothes so maybe the audience might be
able to relate to the image this way. This
idea of my audience not being as affluent
as others links into my magazine releasing
weekly.
10. CONTINUED
My magazine is an underground type, so I made it a
weekly release which separates it from established
magazines of this genre like XXL who release issues
monthly. Doing this attracts my audience as they can’t
afford to spend £6 on a magazine but can afford £2.
I chose things such as the colours and layouts through the
research I gained from my questionnaire analysis after
asking people who fit my target audience. Darker tones
are also usually employed by successful magazines of this
genre.
11. WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNT ABOUT TECHNOLOGIES
FROM THE PROCESS OF CONSTRUCTING THIS
PRODUCT?
From designing the products with use of DTP’s I found it
largely time consuming but the programs such as
Fireworks, PowerPoint, Publisher and Draw Plus helped
largely due to there ability to manipulate images so they
fit my front cover design.
The products are all industry standard so weren’t
expensive as other possible image manipulation programs
such as Photoshop. When we gained access to Photoshop
we learnt multiple new techniques such as layering,
masking, image manipulating and resizing images without
pixilation occurring. After using Photoshop and then
InDesign we saw the stark contrast of capabilities that it
had in comparison to Microsoft Publisher. This transition
between the two programs was needed.
12. LOOKING BACK AT YOUR PRELIMINARY TASK, WHAT DO YOU
FEEL YOU HAVE LEARNT IN THE PROGRESSION FROM IT TO
THE FULL PRODUCT?
• In moving from preliminary to the full task I feel I
learnt that the depth of analysis had to be in much
greater detail, analysing magazine covers, double
page spreads and contents page using media
terminology was vitally important in the actual
task, when compared to the preliminary the analysis
didn’t have to be as deep. Something else I have
learnt is the need for the design to be as
professional looking as possible. Using Microsoft
Publisher isn’t the best of designing product and it
felt clumpy so the moving to a more professional
program was needed.
13. CONTINUED
For this reason we used the industry standard desktop top programs
Photoshop and InDesign. Using these gave us the intricacies that were
a necessary if we wanted our magazines to look professional and of
high quality. The programs gave us the ability to add more technical
effects to our images such as lens flare and embellish. It also provided
us with more font styles and the capability of downloading fonts from
sites such as ‘DaFont’ and incorporating them into our work which
gives an added dimension of style to our magazines; this simply isn’t
possible on Microsoft Publisher. Learning these important techniques
furthered the professionalism of my magazine.
14. CONTINUED
• Also I learnt that the need to ask more developed
questions in order to get better feedback was also very
important. If I asked questions to the public from the
preliminary questionnaire none of the feedback would
have been that useful so improving my questionnaire
was something that needed to be done and the
progression from preliminary to the main task shows this.
I have also learnt the importance that minor details can
have on the overall product. Putting things like web
addresses on the magazine allow the audience to
socialise and feel like the magazine is greater than what
is presented in front of them. Other minor things such as
making sure dates work and page numbers are properly
selected is all vitally important in making the magazine
as professional as possible.
