The document summarizes Kayla Carstens' preliminary work on their media studies portfolio, which focuses on creating a hip hop magazine. It describes researching existing magazines like Vibe, Billboard, Q, Rolling Stone, and Kerrang to understand conventions. Kayla chose to model their magazine after Vibe because it is popular in hip hop and they could relate to its focus on R&B and hip hop artists. The document outlines conventions identified from researching magazines, including the masthead, date, cover lines, main image using star appeal, and target audiences.

1. OCR Media Studies – AS Level Unit G321: Foundation Portfolio in Media
Preliminary Task, Log Book and Evaluation
Name: Kayla Carstens Candidate Number: 6613 Center Name: St. Paul’s Catholic College

2. Preliminary Task progression –
Evidence Front cover: step-by-step

3. This shows the step by step progress of my magazine, and what I did to get the final product.

4. Preliminary Task Progression- Evidence
Contents: Step-by-step

5. This is also a step by step guide to show what I had to do to create my contents page; I
used simple shapes to create the different headings and then added the picture for my
editorial, and similarly I included pictures for the story about prom.

7. Genre research – Vibe Magazine
Name: Kayla Carstens Candidate Number: 6613 Center Name: St. Paul’s Catholic College
Vibe predominantly features R&B and hip-hop artists, actors
and many other entertainers. It is a music and entertainment
magazine founded by producer Quincy Jones. The magazine
was shut down in summer 2009, and Vibe was purchased by
the private equity investment fund interMedia partners and is
now issued every other month with double covers. The
magazines main target audience is mainly aimed at young
urban followers of hip-hop cultures. However in 2014 you can
only access the magazine online.
The magazine owed its success to featuring a bigger range of
interests than some of its closest competitors which are The
Source and XXL which focus more narrowly on rap music.
Vibe magazine has featured and had exclusive interviews with
some of the people on the issues to the right, also with other
big names within R&B and Hip Hop such as Jennifer Lopez,
Mary J Blige, Beyoncé, and Eminem.

8. Why ?
I have decided to research and deconstruct Vibe magazine as
my starting point because of the fact it is well established, very
popular amongst the R&B artists, like wise a respected
magazine, which will then give me ideas on how to structure
my magazine and what should be included in it.
Similarly because of the fact that Vibe magazine is specifically
focused on one genre of music which is R&B/Hip Hop it will be
a lot easy for me to focus on a specific look and way to
represent people in the magazine I will be creating.
On the other hand magazines such as Q covers all sectors of the
music genre, this includes music from modern Hip Hop to
English rock bands. I made sure I chose a magazine that is
focused on one genre so that I will be able to replicate and
‘repeat’ (Steve Neal) all the aspects of the magazine so that my
magazine will give off a R&B feel to it.

9. Target Audience – Katz, Maslow, Hartley and/or socio-economic needs
The target audience for Vibe magazine can be denoted as 18-34 year old males and
females (Hartley). Similarly, according to Katz, the audience could be identified as
‘inform and educate’ consumers as they wish to learn more about their favourite rap
artist and entertainer such as Kevin Hart, as well as things like what songs are at the
top of the charts so that people are filled in with new songs, anything new being
released by different rap or hip hop artists etc.
Vibes primary target audience can also be recognised as ‘Explorers’ and ‘Social
Climbers’ (Maslow) due to fans being inspired by their favourite rap artists and the
lyrics in their music and to aspire to be just like them.
What is the USP of this magazine?
From the research completed into this media product, I think the USP of Vibe
magazine is the star appeal of the different artists on the magazine front cover. This
influences people to buy the magazine because of the fact that it includes exclusive
interviews of their favourite artist. Similarly the USP of Vibe magazine is the big bold,
short and catchy masthead ‘Vibe’. This is important as people can ‘identify’ the
magazine and can easily recognise it even if they don’t see the full ‘Vibe’ masthead,
For example the magazine issue with Alicia Keys, the main image of her covers the
masthead but because of the fact that it is a very well known magazine the masthead
doesn't actually need to be shown because it is already recognised by the audience.
Name: Kayla Carstens Candidate Number: 6613 Center Name: St. Paul’s Catholic College

10. Masthead
Barcode
Main cover line
Main image
Puff
Cover lines
Web address
The Masthead ‘Vibe’ is put against a darker
background so it stands out. However you
also establish that it is a very well known
Magazine because of the fact the image is
able to cover the masthead yet people are
still able to identify with what the magazine
is.
A Cover line is some of the main stories
found in the magazine. For example a cover
line would mention ‘Lil Wayne’ because he
is very well known in the music industry
which would influence other people to buy
the magazine. (Star appeal)
The Main cover line is the story
based on the main image so that
the audience know that the article
on Alicia Keys will be one of the
main stories in the magazine.
The Main image creates ‘Star appeal’
for the audience and this is where
the famous person (Alicia Keys)
would persuade the audience to buy
the magazine, similarly it shows
straight away what the main story in
the magazine will be about.
The purpose of Puff is to promote
the magazine and influence
people to buy it.
Strapline
The strapline hasn’t been
included on this specific magazine
Because it is already well known
enough to not include one.
However a strapline is something
that sells the magazine for
example ‘Vibe, Best selling
magazine’. This influences people
to buy the magazine because of
the fact that it is the best selling
or the most popular, and
normally people are then drawn
to buy it.
This is important for a magazine as it
means the audience can get to know
the magazine a bit more online.
This is another convention which is on every
magazine.
Name: Kayla Carstens Candidate Number: 6613 Center Name: St. Paul’s Catholic College

11. Publisher research
Quincy Jones launched Vibe in 1993, in partnership with Time Inc. Before Scott
Poulson-Bryant gave the magazine the name Vibe originally it was called Volume.
However in 2009 it was announced that the magazine was shutting down and instead
Quincy Jones would like to keep It alive online. After it shut down private equity
investment fund intermedia partners, LP bought Vibe Magazine and they have said
they ‘feel privileged to purchase and resurrect such a storied brand’.
Name: Kayla Carstens Candidate Number: 6613 Center Name: St. Paul’s Catholic College

12. Before my final decision
Before I decided which genre I wanted to do I
made sure I looked at different music magazines
so that I knew exactly what I wanted to conform
my magazine to.
Here are some of the other magazines I looked
at…

13. Genre: popular music (This is a music charting magazine and
it unconventionally focuses on all genres.
Magazine known
for its record chart
This magazine also
has a wide range of
colour schemes which
represents ‘difference’
(Steve Neal) in
billboard magazine in
comparison to others
as most magazines
will stick to a
maximum of 3
Billboard is also
published weekly
Billboard is owned
by Prometheus
Global
Circulation : 16, 327
The target audience
for billboard is
intended for music
professionals for
example record
label executives,
music retailers and
artists.
It also retails at around
$6.95

14. Circulation: 52,781
The magazine was
sub-titled “The
modern guide to
music ad more”
Genre: British popular music magazine.
Q is owned by
Bauer Media
Group
Q retails at around
£3.90
Q is published as a
monthly issue.The target audience
for Q magazine can
be denoted as
British white males
aged 15 – 25 from a
middle class
background.
A USP of Q magazine
is that it has an
ambiguous message
on the spine that
encourages the
audience to guess
what will be featuring
in the magazine.
It also has a sister
magazine called ‘Mojo’

15. Masthead
Genre: Rock/ Popular Music/ Entertainment
Main image
Cover Lines
The colour scheme
of The Rolling
Stones is Red,
Black and White
however includes a
lot of Yellow too.
Circulation: 1,464,943
which has been paid and
verified (Annual)
Founded in 1976
What’s unique
about this
magazine is that it
doesn’t only focus
on music news but
has a big emphasis
on politics too.
‘In the 1990s, the
magazine changed its
format to appeal to a
younger readership
interested in youth-
oriented television shows,
film actors and popular
music’.

16. Genre: British Rock Magazine.
This is a clear example
of Puff being
represented which
will attract people to
buy the magazine as
they could get a prize.
Retails at £2.10
First issue was the
6th of June 1981
Circulation: 35,127
Readership: 345,000
The popular colour
scheme of Red, Black
and White is
‘Repeated’ in this
magazine and is also
used in other
magazines such as
XXL, rolling stone and
Spin. However the
dark colours are
conventional to the
style and genre of
Rock music as it can
be seen as quite dark.
Kerrang! Is “The
world’s largest weekly
music magazine”
It’s also the only
magazine which
includes punctuation in
the masthead.

17. My Chosen Music Magazine
After looking at all the different genre’s of magazines my final
decision was to do a Hip Hop magazine, this Is because I could
relate to this genre the most as this is the type of music I
listen to, like-wise I am genuinely interested in Hip Hop music
and it’s culture.
The magazine I chose to model was VIBE magazine as I felt it
was very popular in the Hip Hop industry, similarly I also liked
the simplicity and sleekness of VIBE magazine and I felt as f I
could replicate it to a similar standard.
Although the magazine I chose to replicate was VIBE
magazine I was also inspired by other Hip Hop magazines such
as XXL and the source. However I noticed many ‘similarities’
(Steve Neal) between both of them when looking into the Hip
Hop genre.

18. Conventions of a Music Magazine: Front Cover
Masthead
Date
Web address:
VIBE.com
Puff:
‘Free iTunes
download’
All examples of
‘Star appeal’
Main image
Barcode
Cover lines
Target Audience:
American Black males,
who are into Hip Hop/
Rap or R&B music,
aged 16-35 from the
middle class
background as the
price is $4.99.
Price

19. Conventions of a Music Magazine: Contents page
Photo credits
Page numbers:
This important
as it then leads
the reader to
the specific
story they want
to go to.
Always only one
image on the
contents page,
which is usually
the artist which
is featuring in
one of the main
stories
Vibe
magazine
always

20. Conventions of a Music Magazine: Double Page Spread
Main Images
Quote from the
interview
Main Body
(Interview)
Web Address

21. Research for my magazine
To make sure I knew what the audience would be looking for in a Hip Hop magazine I
created a survey using word to come up with a few questions that people would
answer so I could get an idea of what they expected from a Hip Hop magazine.
This is the questions I made
and emailed to people.
This is one of the emails I
received back, answering
the questions.

22. Research for my magazine: Results
What is your age?
Under 9
10 to 17
18 to 24
25 to 34
35 to 44
45 and over
What gender are you?
Male
Female
How much would you spend on a
magazine?
Nothing
£0.01 - £1.00
£1.01 - £2.00
£3.01 - £4.00
£4.01 or more
What is the most important aspect of a
magazine front cover?
The Masthead
The Main story
The Cover Lines
The Main image (With
star appeal) - Richard
Dyer

23. Planning magazine pages - Results
Do you listen to Rap
music?
Yes
No
What would you expect to see in a Hip
Hop magazine?
Some of the reoccurring answers were:
- Latest Music
- Famous Hip Hop artists
- Hot girls/Boys
- Competitions
What colours would you like to see in a
Hip Hop magazine?
Some of the reoccurring answers were:
- Black
- White
- Red
- Grey
- Blue
What would you expect and interview in
a Hip Hop magazine to consist of?
Some of the reoccurring answers were:
- Question and Answer
- Upcoming music and music videos
- Personal Questions
- An insight into the artists lifestyle

24. Research for my magazine - Results
What would you expect someone featured in a
Hop Hop magazine to be wearing?
Some of the reoccurring answers were:
- Bomber jackets
- Hoodies
- Chains
- Sexy clothing
As a result of the responses I received from my survey, I decided to make the colour
scheme of my magazine grey and black as these were some of the popular answers
from the results, like wise it conformed to Vibe magazine. Similarly I took into
account some of the results in what they would expect someone to be wearing in a
Hip Hop magazine, which is why I made sure Rhiya the girl who I used for my pictures
to wear a Bomber jacket.

25. Planning magazine pages - Photographs
In order to have a successful magazine, I had to carefully plan
who I wanted to be the model for the magazine, likewise I
had to make sure the location was set so we could meet up
and take sometime out of college to get the pictures done.
By texting my friend Rhiya I asked her when she would be
available and if she could assist me and luckily she was very
co-operative and an amazing model. Similarly she also fit in
to what I wanted my magazine to portray such as a very
pretty girl to create the Male Gaze (Laura Mulvey), and
someone who could pull of the Hip Hop vibe at the same
time.
Taking into consideration the answers I got from my
questionnaire, I requested that she could wear a bomber
jacket, as I would be mostly focusing on the top half of her
body, and people said this is what they expect from a Hip
Hop magazine.
I Purposely made sure I took the pictures against a white/ cream wall in my house as I
knew when I took the pictures the background colour would come out a greyish colour
which I wanted for my magazine. I similarly did the same thing for my contents and
double page spread as it meant I didn’t have to edit the picture to a high extent and I
didn’t have to use the quick selection tool on Photoshop to go around the image.

26. Planning magazine pages -
Photographs
This is another image I planned to use for my
font cover however I thought the background
was very dark, and I wanted the Bomber jacket
to show the inside of the pink colour, to
represent a feminine touch.
This was the final image I chose for my font
cover, however I made it bigger so that it could
replicate what a stereotypical large image on
Vibe magazine would look like similarly it
would catch the audience attention straight
away.

27. Planning magazine pages -
Photographs
This is a similar image to what I used for the
contents page, however for the image I used I
made sure it was lighter so that it would
‘repeat’ the same colour I used in my front
cover.
For the final image, I just
cropped the other half of
her body out so that the
images didn’t look too
similar on each pages, and
it could create a difference
between the pages.

28. Planning magazine pages –
Photographs
These are some of the
photos which were
my original idea to use
for my double page
spread, however I
decided to go for a
more serious look.
This is the image I decided to use for the double page
spread, because it connotes the idea that she may be
pretty but when it comes down to the amount of work
she puts into her music she is very serious, and that not
only men can make it in the music career, but as a
woman she can represent all the other woman that
shouldn’t give up on their dream.