The document discusses how the student's media product, a magazine, uses and develops conventions from the real-world magazine "XXL Magazine". The student repeats colors, logo style, lack of thumbnails, and other design elements from XXL. The student also challenges conventions by changing the layout of the contents page and separating the editorial onto its own page. The intended audience is described as black/urban followers ages 14-20 who enjoy hip-hop music. Images and headlines feature popular artist Usher to appeal to this target demographic.

1. Evaluation

2. In what ways does your Media product use, develop or
challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
The magazine, across the 4-pages, ‘repeats’ (Steve Neale) codes and conventions from the ‘XXL Magazine’. On the front
cover where I have ‘repeated’ the colour scheme of the ‘XXL’ magazine in which it is black, red and white. The colour of the
logo is red which is a catchy colour to attract the audience. I chose these colours as they are bold colours which make a
magazine look professional due to the simple colours being used. I had to make sure my main image would appeal to the
audience as this is the main visual aspect they have as soon as they see the magazine, so I ‘repeated’ the use of star appeal
(Dyer) as this would give the audience a hint to what genre the magazine is and who it may appeal to the most. I used a
black person as my front cover image as my magazine is aimed at black race (Hartley) /urban followers and it is a hip-hop
magazine so I had to focus on the mise-en-scene of my ‘celebrities’ costume. I chose a more sophisticated look where he
wore a white shirt along with the accessory of earrings as this followed a typical male image on any ‘XXL magazine’. I was
challenged as I had to think about the headline I was going to use as this is also another convention that attracts the
audience, I chose headline that would attract the audience and aspire those to be in a higher status (Maslow) as they
would be influenced by how normal people have become famous and they would want to read more about how they can
achieve this especially by having a well-known person explain their experience. Lastly, I repeated the absence of
thumbnails on ‘XXL magazines’ as they trust their main image, headline and cover line enough to help sell the magazine.
On my contents page I repeated the use of subheadings alongside the page numbers as this is a typical feature used on
contents pages and this also helps the audience indicate what information is on what pages on the magazine. The layout
of my contents page was’ different’ a I used borders to separate sections on the contents page such as the heading, page
numbers and information, image and website as I thought that this would appear as more neat and organised making it
easier for the audience to find the right sections they need. On generic magazines such as Q magazine they tend to have
the editorial on the contents page , however on the ‘XXL’ magazine, they had the editorial on a separate page of its own
which I then repeated as I thought this would give me more room to right about the editor and the magazine. My main
image was a black girl (Hartley) as I had to follow the consistency of my genre and my audience as I have to make sure the
codes and conventions appeal to them. My double page spread had a difference compared to the front cover and the
contents page as they both have the same colour scheme however as I felt that the double page spread is an interview
page that needs to be specific to the ‘celebrities’ and more personal I had to change the colour scheme as it was no longer
information from the about the magazine it was about someone else. I realised that most magazines present the image
across the whole double page so I decided to do the same and the text would go over it along with a clear rectangle shape
so the text still appears clearly which made my magazine look professional. As it was an interview page used the Q+A layout
as this was also used on the ‘XXL’ magazine.

3. Who would be the audience for your
media product and why?
According to Hartley’s seven subjectivities, my target audience’s age would be between the
ages of 14-20 as the genre of my magazine is hip-hop and this age range is this is a popular
genre that attract a younger audience. In terms of race my magazine will be aimed at the black
race/urban followers as they are into hip-hop and the magazine can ‘inform and educate’ (Katz)
the audience to what is the latest music and gossip related to the music artists/celebrities. My
main image of my magazine is presented through ‘star appeal’ (Dyer) of Usher as he is a
popular music artist that my target audience like and can ‘personally identify’ so this would
help sell the magazine. The headline that I had used can encourage the audience to become or
desire to be like ‘Usher’ as he has “become the king of hip-hop” so ‘Social climbers’ (Maslow)
will want to gain status as they are influenced by the celebrity though the headline used on the
magazine. The mise-en-scene of the costume on the double page spread signifies (De Saussure)
the stereotypical outfit an urban follower would wear and this helps influence the audience as
they may want to dress like the celebrities. Through the use of the black costume it shows how
the duo are confident and they support each other however one of the singers have a green
‘Bomber jacket’ on which connotes that she is the leader and controls their roles which
represents her self-actualization (Maslow). On the front cover of my magazine I used social
networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook as my target audience would access these social
media networks as that is what the age range 14-20, is into. They could visit Facebook or
Twitter and find out extra information or new information about the magazine or the
celebrities that may not be included in the magazine.