The document summarizes a student's media studies project where they created a rap magazine called ICC (Inner City Culturals). The magazine was inspired by the real-world rap magazine XXL. The student used conventions from XXL such as layout, cover designs, and story formats. However, they also challenged conventions by using more positive content that didn't focus on violence or controversy to appeal to a wider audience. The intended target audience for ICC was males aged 16-30 who enjoy rap and hip hop. The student analyzed this demographic as the main consumers of rap music and digital media. A secondary audience could include males aged 31-39. The goal was to represent rap culture in a more positive light and potentially

1. Media Studies
Questions 1 – 4
By Jak Butler

2. Question I – Part I – XXL
 For my media product I carried out a lot of
research into different kinds of magazine. I
looked into many rap magazines as that is
what I wanted my magazine to be. XXL was
the rap magazine that inspired me the most
as it instantly caught my eye and had a
good house style.
 From what I had learnt through the
research, I wanted my magazine to be like
the XXL magazine and seem professional.
 On the right is an edition of the XXL
magazine and my magazine; there are
some similarities.
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of
real media products?
My Magazine XXL Magazine

3. Question I – Part II – Logo
 My masthead is more of the logo than
anything. The logo has the letters ICC within
it. This stands for ‘Inner city culturals’.
 Through research I wanted to find out what
to call it so I made a survey for my
classmates to do. On the right is the results.
 The letters ICC are a large font coloured
white contained in a large red box at the
top left side of the magazine.
 I also threw a strapline in there, however I
didn’t give a survey out to ask my
classmates. The strapline is ‘Where rap lives’
and you can locate this where the logo is.
For the layout of the magazine, it definitely
follows conventions.
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of
real media products?
Popularity out of 16 people
asked
ICC - Inner city culturals
Rap Central
Media Rap
Rap In Peace
10
1
2
3

4. Question I – Part III – Layout
 On the right is my finished front cover and my
main image is there. Overlaying the image it
says ‘Exclusive story’, through research I
looked at a lot of rap magazines and took
this convention and applied it to my own
magazine.
 After deciding I wanted an ‘Exclusive Story’ I
molded it to be a part of the ICC magazine
and placed it in the top right of the
magazine.
 Most ideas on the magazine such as the
stories down the left and the main story at the
bottom in large are from the XXL magazine. I
used the XXL layout and moved conventions
to make it fit my audiences tastes.
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of
real media products?

5. Question I – Part IV – Colour
 Rap is usually associated with dark things and in a
lot of the rap magazines that I researched
seemed to be also extremely dark within their
house style. On the right are the colours that I
used, red and light grey.
 Guns, sex and violence are also some things
associated with rap. In my magazine, I wanted to
change that.
 ICC as a magazine goes through no controversial
or dark topics. ICC is centered around non-violent
stories, I can say that I challenged an original from
and did it differently.
 The reason I did this was to challenge perception
of the rap culture and try and gain a wider
audience overall to show people that rap isn’t
controversial.
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of
real media products?
Red
White
Grey

6. Question II – Part I – Stereotypes
 It is most likely that my magazine would be
thought of as uninteresting and vulgar by
the older generations. This is because of
what the rappers wear; tracksuits and hats.
This links to the ‘chavs’ that hang around at
night time and that is where the bad image
is from.
 The ICC magazine tries to represent the
‘chavs’ and ‘vandals’ in a good light to
make the older generations rethink their
opinion about rappers and teenagers.
 On the right is someone in a hoodie and a
hat on the left page of my double page
spread. (Next slide is the story)
How does your Media product represent particular social groups?

7. Question II – Part II – Represent
 In the ICC’s main/exclusive story is about an upcoming rapper who
was born into an extremely poor family. He then turned his life around.
 The story goes on to tell that he raps because it’s the only income he
could get before he got big. The only income was from gigs in the city
of Nottingham (Where he lives).
 People could be inspired by this because the rapper in question is
doing what he loves to earn money. This story represents the ‘vandals’
in a good light to try and get people to relate to this to do what they
love and pursue their dream.
How does your Media product represent particular social groups?

8. Question III – Part I – Apps
 Through doing a lot of research on different institutions that might
distribute the ICC magazine, I came to the conclusion of
‘Development Hell Ltd’.
 The reasoning behind choosing this company was because through
the research I was doing I noticed that they had another magazine
on the go.
 This magazine had a website and an app for android and IOS.
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

9. Question III – Part II – Targets
 My target audience of my rap magazine is males
in-between the ages of 16 and 30. These are the
ages that would most likely use the internet and
their phones all the time.
 As nowadays everyone is connected to the
internet in one way or another they can interact
with my magazine if development hell did
distribute my magazine as there would be a
website to read the magazines on.
 This would be a worldwide based magazine
therefore meaning a lot more people to be able to
read it in-between the ages of 16 and 30. Being a
worldwide magazine, it would allow the magazine
to become established as a brand and people
might notice it a lot more to pick it up and read it.
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

10. Question IV – Part I – Rap years
 The audience of my magazine would be
predominantly males between the ages of 16
and 30. This would be because rap in the last 20
or so years has become an extremely large part
of the music industry. Being within this age range
could mean that you have been bought up
with rap and hip hop.
 The audience’s background/financial state
could be anything in-between rich and poor
because in my opinion there should be a nice
low – priced product to read for anyone.
Who would be an audience for your media product?

11. Question IV – Part II – Talentless
 I believe that my target audience for the
magazine would like to know about recent
news regarding the big time rappers that they
might want to be like or they might want to
know about a new rapper that has blown up
recently.
 I wouldn’t really aim my audience to be
anyone over 40+ because from a lot of the
research that I have gone through and what I
see and hear from them is that they hate rap
and they consider it to be ‘talentless’.
Who would be an audience for your media product?

12. Question IV – Part III – Secondary
 The age range that I missed that would appropriately listen to rap was
31 – 39, this is because this is my ‘secondary’ target audience but not
an intended one, I feel this way because I DO want rappers to be seen
in a positive light by other generations but I don’t believe they will read
it.
 From my questionnaire I asked quite a few questions such as, what are
your ages? I got a response of all under the age of 40. Another
question would be what are your favorites genres of music? I got a
response of pop, rap then rock. In that order. This goes to show that
younger people like rap more than the older generations.
Who would be an audience for your media product?