Lee Johnson evaluated his reggae music magazine "One Drop" that he created for a class project. He adapted traditional magazine conventions to reflect the reggae genre, such as using the colors green, yellow, and red which are associated with reggae music internationally. Johnson conducted research on his target audience of 15-30 year olds interested in activities like surfing and music festivals to determine the magazine's content and style. He learned new skills using software like Adobe Photoshop, InDesign, and PowerPoint to construct the magazine from his preliminary task to the final product.

1. LEE JOHNSON.
MAGAZINE EVALUATION.

5. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge
forms and conventions of real media products?
My magazine adapts traditional conventions and converts them so they reflect the reggae genre. An example of this will
be the colour scheme. The green, yellow and red together are internationally relatable to reggae music. There are minimal
magazines of this kind currently on the market so ‘One Drop’ will perfectly fill the gap.
My masthead style is slightly
unconventional when considering a
mainstream magazine, as they
regularly have plan bold font as their
masthead. However, this masthead
is quite fitting for a niche magazine
of reggae genre, as the style strongly
represents the genre. I believe a I decided on the locations of my shoots
successful thing about this masthead by finding out the interests of my target
As you can see One Drop Magazine audience, and then determined the
shares conventions to IPC Media’s is that with one look at it readers will
be able to tell what type of music places where they most likely are to be
‘UNCUT’ Magazine. It has similarities found. I decided on a skate park in
in the masthead being behind the will be included in the magazine.
Didcot for my front cover as it appeals to
focus model, similar bands being the target because they can relate to the
mentioned on the front cover and Other niche magazine
mastheads: location because it is a place that they
also the model is looking directly at are familiar with. This is a regular
the camera which initiates a convention of magazines, as most try to
connection between the model and link their locations with their readers
the audience. preferences.

6. How does your media product represent particular social
groups?
Props Colour Location
The colours of the magazine
reflect the musical tastes of the
target social groups. The red,
gold and green colours are a
common icon for the reggae
genre of music. ONE DROP
The props that I included magazine focuses on reggae and
throughout the magazine its many sub genres. In general,
represent the ‘Skater’ and ‘Surfer’ Again, the location of the main
the ‘Surfer’ social group is most
social groups. The typical clothes shoot was at Didcot skate park.
commonly associated with
such as flannel shirt and a hoodie. This is a place that strongly
reggae music. Also, the name
Brands such as Enjoi, Girl and éS represents the ‘skater’ social
‘One Drop’ is the name of the
represent these social groups as group. This is because it is a
rhythmic pattern of music in
they are all brands which place where they will most
reggae. It is also the name of a
distribute hobbies. These styles commonly be found as it is
Bob Marley song. The colours
will be relatable for the audience made just for them.
are bright which allow
as it is the type of clothing that implications of summertime.
they will wear. Also, new fashion However, the shoots were done
trends can be set by the clothing in the winter so the magazine
included in the magazine enabling will be considered as a winter SKATER SURFER
the readers to follow suit. issue.

7. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product
and why?
During the research part of my magazine task, I researched the top magazines
institutions and what types of magazines they distribute. The institutions that I looked
into were IPC Media, Bauer Media and emap. They all have a range of magazines that
they distribute.
For my magazine, I will need an institution that distributes niche magazines because
ONE DROP falls under this category. I think that the best distributor for my magazine will
be Future PLC as they have a range of Niche magazines that they distribute.
My magazine can be advertised on websites that link to the genre of my magazine. For
example, on a music gig/festival ticket sales site my magazine could be advertised in the
side bar when on an artist which falls into the reggae/reggae rock genre. It could also be
advertised at the beginning of YouTube videos that have links to the genre. Videos such
as artists music videos will be a perfect slot for ONE DROP magazine to be advertised.

8. Who would be the audience for your media product?
Male: 63%
Female: 37%
Target Age Range:
15-30
Psychographic profiling:
Explorer: Someone desiring discovery,
challenge and new experiences.
Socio-economic group: C2/D.
Music Taste:
•Reggae Rock
•Dub
•Roots
•Surfer Punk
•Punk Rock
Bands such as Slightly Stoopid, Pepper, The Expendables, Tribal Seeds, Sublime, Stone Senses Stick Figure, Rebelution etc.
Interests:
•Readers are interested in activities such as surfing, snowboarding, skateboarding, skiing and longboarding.
•Interested in going to music festivals and events.
•Music is very important to the readers, they rarely go anywhere without headphones in.

9. How did you attract/address your audience?
I did several things to attract and address my target audience. One way I attracted the
target audience was the colour scheme that was easily related to their favourite
genre of music. This alone would catch the audiences eye when It is on the shelf in a
shop alongside other magazines. It is easily identifiable as a reggae magazine because
of its colour scheme.
As you can see my magazine shares similarities with the ‘Reggae Vibes’ magazine. This
shows that my magazine will fit in with other magazines of the same genre because
they have similar conventions. If a group of people who like ‘Reggae Vibes’ see it on
the shelf with ONE DROP next to it, they may decided to buy ONE DROP as it will have
similarities ‘Reggae Vibes’. They know this because the colour scheme indictaes the
content of the magazine.
I believe that the contents page is probably the best strength about the magazine. I
think this because it appeals to the target audience successfully. Also, I think that it
looks quite real when compared to other magazines contents pages. I addressed the
audience in a semi-formal way. I used a mixture of both formal and colloquial
language. The colloquial language especially will form a connection between the
audience and he magazine.

10. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of
constructing this product?
Adobe:
I used three Adobe applications throughout the production of my magazine. These were
‘Fireworks’, ‘Photoshop’ and ‘InDesign’. I have had some experience with these applications
previously. However, I believe my skills in these applications have vastly improved. My
knowledge of the range of editing products on these applications has improved greatly, and I
now can make the most of the options available.
I used ‘Animoto’ to present a brief profile of the target audience of my magazine at the
beginning of my ‘Evaluation’ PowerPoint. I discovered that it is very simple to use as the
options available are very basic and do not require much skill.
Microsoft:
I used two Microsoft applications during the process of constructing my magazine. These were
‘PowerPoint’ and ‘Word’. I used them to present my work as they are simple to use. I did not
learn much from these technologies as I have used them since a young age. Although I have
found out that they are reliable products to use as they rarely crash or have issues.
Canon eos 1100d:
I used ‘Slideshare’ to convert my work on ‘PowerPoint’ and ‘Word’ I used the Canon
onto a simple and easy file to upload onto ‘Blogger’. I had never used eos 1100d to take
this application before and now feel I have a decent understanding of all of the photos
its uses. This software greatly benefitted my production as without it, for my music
presenting my work would have much more difficult. magazine.
I have had this camera for quite a
I used blogger to upload all of my work onto. I learnt that it is much more difficult
while now so I feel as if I have a
to use than I expected. Therefore, I had to go onto ‘Slideshare’, convert my files,
stong understanding of its
and then upload them. I also spent a very long time trying to work out how to
options.
design my blog. Eventually, I discovered how to conquer this but I feel as if the
presentation could have been improved.

11. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have
learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
Preliminary:
Research and planning:
Throughout the task I believe that my skills on the software that I used to create the
magazine has greatly improved. I think by comparing the magazine from the
preliminary task with my full product it is clear that my abilities have improved.
Especially on the contents page there is a clear increase in quality. I planned my time
much more appropriately when doing the final product as a result of the things I
learned from doing the preliminary task.
Full Product:
Audience:
Determining my audience was a very important stage in the research of my music
magazine. I conducted a questionnaire to specify the target audience of my magazine
and what they would expect in a magazine. This was very insightful as it showed me
what to include in my magazine. I think the audience research greatly helped me to
identify what my target audience wanted to be included in the magazine.
Construction:
My skills developed greatly from the construction of the preliminary magazine to my
full product. I designed both magazines on Adobe’s InDesign and I think that I have
vastly improved on this program. I have never used InDesign before this unit, and now
I have a wide range of things that I can do of this software.