This document summarizes how the media product reflects the genre of dance/pop music. Key ways included discussing artists from the genre like Hannah Wants and Avicii, using colors like black and electric blue inspired by album covers and posters, and mentioning the Creamfields music festival which features dance/pop artists. The masthead, fonts, and cover image were chosen to have an edgy style fitting the target audience and genre. Personal pronouns were used in the written content to directly involve readers.

1. In what ways does your media
product use, develop or
challenge forms and conventions
of real media products?
EVALUATION

2. RISK V VIBE

3. MASTHEAD
The mastheads of both RISK and VIBE magazine are conventional due to the way they both
convey what the magazine is about, music. During my research of magazine names, I wanted to
find something that would stand out to the audience and also connote music. To do this, I thought
about my target audience and what would be suitable to them. As my target audience are quite
young, they are going to be edgy and the genre of music they listen to also supports this.
Therefore, I thought “RISK” would be a good name for the magazine as it is a word that will be
attractive to them due to it being edgy and also suitable for the dance music genre. The word
“RISK” also creates a sense of dominance and would therefore stand out from other magazines as
it comes across to the audience as something powerful. As VIBE is a magazine which is similar to
mine by having a similar target audience and genre, I began to look at a lot of VIBE front covers. I
found that the “VIBE” was in block capitals, which makes the magazine stand out due to its bold
masthead. If you saw this is a shop, it would automatically catch your eye. Plus, the use of bold
block capitals also connotes the bold, loud music; this is why I used this as an inspiration for my
magazine. Similarly to VIBE magazine, I have chosen to use black as the colour for my masthead
as it was going to follow the house style of my magazine, which is mainly blue and black. To me,
the colour black is an edgy colour which will attract my target audience, and it is also a very
suitable colour for my chosen music genre (dance/pop) as most albums/posters of this genre use
the colour black.

4. MISE EN SCENE
For all of my images for my magazine, I took them all in a photography
studio. I wanted my front cover image to be set on a white screen
background as this looks professional and is also suitable for a front
cover as the white space leaves a lot of space for sub headings. I
looked at other magazines such as VIBE, NME and Elektro only to see
that all of those magazines use close ups for their front cover images. I
wanted to use this technique for my magazine but also wanted to be
original, so I used a medium close up for my image as this shows more
of the model and their outfit. I got my model to wear a jacket as a prop
as I wanted her to hide part of her face, which connotes mystery to the
magazine and will therefore tempt the audience to buy and read it. My
model has red hair but when I was editing the image in Photoshop, I
changed the levels of vibrancy so that her hair has brighter in order to
stand out more to the audience and also follow the edgy connotations I
was trying to create throughout the magazine. I was also influenced to
brighten up the models hair as on one of the VIBE magazine front
covers, Nicki Minaj has bright hair and I thought this was a great way of
attracting your target audience. As the genre of my magazine is
dance/pop music I thought that brightening the hair and eyes of the
model would add to the upbeat feel of this kind of music. However due
to the way the dance music scene is rather edgy, I asked my model to
cover part of her face with the jacket she was wearing; again, creating
and edgy and mysterious feel.

5. COSTUME & PROPS
The only thing I asked my model to wear was a jacket, this was so we could use it to help with the edgy feel of my magazine;
this was created by the model covering part of her face with the jacket. I also wanted to use this as I thought it created a
sense of mystery to the magazine, which would attract a bigger audience. After looking at VIBE magazine, which is similar to
mine, I was mainly attracted to the images of Nicki Minaj as she is wearing really bright make up and her hair is such a
vibrant colour. I decided to use this as inspiration for my magazine and therefore edited my image for my double page article
in Photoshop. I manipulated the image to make her hair brighter, her eyes brighter and added some lipstick. Not only does
this make the image and article look a lot more interesting, it also connotes fun and supports the music genre as the bright
colours are up-beat, like the music.

6. PEOPLE
In my magazine I have mentioned lots of different artists including
Hannah Wants, Sub Focus and Avicii. Hannah Wants is a female DJ
who only came to fame quite recently; this is one of the reasons I
decided to include her as I thought with her being quite a new artist,
she would be popular at the minute, attracting a lot more people to
my magazine. Also she is more well known on the dance scene as
her music is not what I’d imagine to be popular with the pop genre,
this is a good thing as including her name on my magazine will
attract the target audience I wished for, people who like dance music
as her representation is what would attract them. I have mention Sub
Focus, which is an artist who will be popular with people who like
both dance and pop music as their music is more toned done than
that of Hannah Wants’, this means that mentioning Sub Focus is
perfect for attracting the target audience I want. Similarly, Avicii is
similar to Sub Focus not just in their music but also with their fans as
they have the same or a similar audience. All of the artists I have
included are famous and well-known in the UK, this is another
reason behind me wanting to use these artists; if they are well
known, more people are more likely to be interested in my
magazine. Also, all of the artists I have used are around the age of
19-28, meaning that they are of a similar age to my target audience,
which will allow them to have some similarities and relations to the
artists.

7. TITLE, FONTS & STYLES
I used a range of different fonts in my magazine in order to make it look attractive. I wanted to make my
magazine look as good as possible but I didn’t want to use too wide of a range of fonts as this doesn’t
look very professional if everything is in a different font. Some of the fonts are the same throughout, such
as the name of the magazine “RISK” but obviously on each page the fonts do vary to keep it interesting.
For my headings and the masthead of my magazine, I got the fonts from a website called “Dafont” which
has a huge variety of interesting fonts. I decided to use fonts from this website for my main headings as
this would keep originality in my magazine as no other magazines use these fonts. For example I got the
font for my masthead off Dafont, I chose it because it has an edgy look to it and is also bold in order to
stand out to the audience; the edgy look to the font will attract the target audience.
This is my masthead, which was designed
on Dafont. As you can see it is a very
original font which can’t be found on
Micrsoft Word or Photoshop, this is one
reason why I chose to use it. It is very bold
and parts of letters are missing, which
keeps excitement and it also fits with my
house style and theme.
This is the title of my contents page, which
was also designed on Dafont. I chose to
use this font as it is very original and also
follows the edgy theme to my magazine
due to the letters all being different sizes
and the letter “t” being very obscure. I
decided to keep it black as this kept the
theme of my house style.
This is an example of one of the sub-
headings from my contents page. This is a
font from Photoshop and one that is used
throughout my magazine. I think this font is
very bold and attractive to the target
audience. Also, the use of and exclamation
mark connotes the loudness of the music
of the chosen genre. The use of the white
font on the black background is making
this stand out a lot to the audience and
also fits in with the theme of the magazine.

8. COPY/WRITTEN CONTENT
I have used the sentence “as she tells us more…” which includes a personal pronoun, “us”. The use of this
personal pronoun gives the impression that I am talking directly to the audience, helping the to feel involved and
welcome to my magazine. By using personal pronouns the audience are going to feel like they have a connection
to my magazine, making them want to read more and continue. “Try not to get too excited as we reveal…”is a
sentence on my contents page which is revealing the line up for a festival this year. This sentence come across like
I am talking directly to the person who is reading the magazine and is also tempting them to read more as this
sentence is giving them the idea that something really exciting is coming up if they continue reading.

9. HOW IS GENRE REFLECTED?
I used many different things to reflect the genre of my magazine. The main thing I did to reflect the genre,
which is dance/pop music, is that I included artists that produce music for this genre, including: Hannah
Wants, Avicii, Sub Focus and many more. By mentioning these particular artists, my target audience are
going to be attracted to my magazine as these are the artists they will be familiar of and like.
I used colours in my magazine as a way of reflecting the genre. I researched many different artists from
my chosen genre and looked at their album covers and things like posters for their shows. I found that a
lot of these posters and album covers contain a lot of the colour black, which was usually combined with
one or two other colours. Therefore, I decided I would add black into my house style along with another
colour or two. I am a fan of the genre of music I have chosen and for me, I find that a dark, electric blue is
a good colour to use for this genre as it is a very attractive colour and also represents the electric blue
lights which are usually used at the artists’ shows.
Also, I have talking a lot about the festival Creamfields, which is festival that features so many artists from
the dance/pop music genre. By doing this and offering the readers a chance to win tickets to this festival
in the plug on my front cover, my target audience are going to be attracted automatically to my magazine
as this is something they are interested in.

10. I looked at similar magazines to mine in order to decide
on a layout for y front cover and after looking a lot at
VIBE magazine, I discovered that I really liked their
layouts. I thought that basing my layout on one of theirs
would be a good idea as both magazines are of the same
genre, ensuring that the layout would be suitable for my
magazine. Therefore to create this finished look, I used
the inspiration I got from the VIBE front covers. By doing
this, it will hopefully appeal to my primary audience of age
16-25.
VIBE magazine used a lot of effective language on their
front covers, “13-page gig blow-out” being one of them. I
thought that by using “blow-out” was very effective as it
connotes an explosion and creates a sense of excitement,
making the audience want to read on. Therefore, I used
this on y front cover but changed the number to “16” to
keep originality.
As this magazine is my own design, I wanted to keep it
looking unique, meaning I didn’t want to follow the exact
conventions of any other magazine that already exists. I
included more of my model in the main image, which is a
medium shot showing the figure from the waist up.
Whereas usually front covers have the main image as a
close up, as I found in my research.

11. During my research I found this example of a double
page article from VIBE magazine. I was attracted to
this particular article as I like the way the image has
a whole page to itself, giving it more of an opportunity
to attract the readers’ attention. But mainly, I like that
way that the model in the image is posing in a way
that is relating to the text on the other page; he is
looking like he is shocked, while facing and holding
his arms open in the direction of the text. As I really
liked this idea of relating the image to the text by the
positioning of the model, I decided I would use this
for my image on my double page article. I used this
article from VIBE magazine as inspiration but made
sure it didn’t look exactly the same, which is why I
have placed my image onto the other side of the
page. However, I ensured that it followed the
convention of VIBE magazine as both my magazine
and VIBE have a similar primary and secondary
audience, meaning that if I use their ideas I will
attract a similar audience, like I hoped. I have
followed with the dance/pop genre on this page also
by using a lot of black from my house style, attracting
my chosen audience.

12. After I’d completed my double page article and front
cover, I made my contents page. I chose the layout
of this page myself, I didn’t base it on anything I
found in my research. I did this because I wanted to
keep originality in my design as it would attract more
of an audience.
I designed the font for the title of this page on Dafont
and chose this particular one as the letter “t” is very
obscure, which adds to the edgy connotations I was
wanting to create in this magazine. I made sure that
my contents page followed a conventional style of
magazine by making sure that I followed the house
style, by making sure that I had a bold title and
including the conventional page numbers in the
middle of the page.
I have followed the conventions of a magazine that
already exists, VIBE but I have changed a lot of
things to make them my own and to keep my
magazine unique, like I’d always wanted to.