In what ways does your media product use, ddevelop or challange forms and conventions of real meidia products?
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This is my completed media product which is a magazine. As you can see it looks like a typical magazine which would be sold on the shelves. I based my magazine on other urban RAP magazines such as VIBE or XXL. With my magazine i have gone for the classic look with a black and white picture, and the only colours used are white, red and black. The clean contrast of the picture makes the front cover look chic and sophisticated, with a sense of attitude, the magazine has an intention to represent a culture. The model in the photo is not looking at the camera, nor smiling like a normal magazine, once again to show a more sophisticated approach, it looks like he is contemplating something, compared to some magazines these days where there is just someone smiling into the camera, they look artificial where this person looks more real.
The cap he is wearing symbolises the kind of group or culture he is from, a younger generation, and also combined with the unshaven look and ear stretcher shows a contemporary look as a lot of people are getting into the trend of wearing "snap backs"and "stretchers", so if someone saw this in a shop then they would know the type and genre of the magazine.
Also he isn't looking at the camera, it is a profile shot and with this his face is half showing, half of it is hidden - this could mean that there is some sort of secretive about him, something he isn't telling and that there is another sight to him, within this magazine we may find out what he is thinking and how he is feeling. The magazine suggests a RAP and HIP HOP genre as the title is "REPRESENT" this is a slang word which is used within these type of cultures, it represents a specific identity, the slang meaning means showing acknowledgement to your background, social group or place of residence. This could show that the magazine "Represents" people and the people who are reading it feel part of this social group through reading the magazine.
In my research into what sort of magazine i was going to do realised the certain things which all of them had and the conventions that are generally used. I then put these into my magazine so it followed the conventions of successful magazine which have already been realised and proved successful. The written content in my magazine is quite formal, but also stylish- on the double page spread ( shown below) the text is in a newspaper type style with two rows, and the font i have used is similar to the ARTIST OF THE MONTH text so I have followed the same style so it looks more professional. I have gone for a black and white colour scheme with most of my photo's, I have done this because it gives the magazine a classic look, with a nice clean contrast you are able to see the characters in black and white- this could also mean that you get to see the peoples true colours, rather than all the glitz and glam as most of them are portrayed in most other magazines, which are full of colour.
The contents page is also following the colour scheme of black, white and red, I have used both photo's and text to show what is on each page, on the main pages 1,3,12 I have added pictures of the artists and the size of the image is with size of importance for example i have page 12 is the EXCLUSIVE ARTIST OF THE MONTH this is twice the size of the other pictures as it is the main story of the magazine, and the rest underneath are just other stories which are not as important. The mise-en-scene of my images throughout the magazine are in back alleys, and skate parks, this gives a "grimey" look to the magazine which is exactly the look I was going for, as the type of RAP and HIP-HOP in this magazine is "underground" which is not so well known.
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
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I have got my front cover, and also a copy of XXL which is a rap magazine in America. I am now going to compare the two and look at the similarities and differences between them.
The first obvious similarity is the black and white colour, the two magazine are trying to go for a classic and mature look. Both of the people in the pictures look like they are contemplating, they both look very sophisticated and mature, mature not just physically but mentally. Most magazines these days have pictures of people smiling and jumping in front of the camera around lots of flowers and clouds although in these there is either a clear white background or a black background - once again going for a simple but sophisticated look with the magazine. Both models are wearing a type of clothing on their heads, this obviously symbolises something within the rap culture. On both pictures there is some lighting which is on their face and also on both of them the pictures are not showing their whole faces, on the right is a profile shot where on the left it is almost straight on but there is a side of his face we can't see. Neither of them are smiling, once again this could mean that these magazines show the more serious and sophisticated side of this genre of music- rather than all the "gossip".
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
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I have looked at a range of different magazines such as THE SOURCE magazine and also VIBE and XXL, and VIBE magazine were published by Miller Publishing which also publishes SPIN which is also another urban magazine which has relations to rap and hip hop, and also a number of other music genres. Athough they no longer do this as they sold it. They now publish TENNIS which publishes 10 times annually.
Even though they do not now publish for them I believe that they will be a good option as they published successfully the VIBE magazine which is known worldwide.
A media institution such as IPC Media, I believe will be one of the best to distribute my magazine, this is because it distributes already magazines which are sophisticated, and also aimed at a younger audience, magazines such as NME. Also, by distributing such a successful magazine I believe that my magazine will hopefully follow the same road as magazines like NME, both well known, established and available all over the UK, or US. My magazine is a different genre to the usual things in NME as they are more "indie" with things such as rock, pop etc. My magazine will not effect the sales or profit made by NME so it will not be in competition with it as it is for a whole different audience. My magazine is specifically for these people, if they did not like rap or hip-hop then they would not like my magazine.
I think my magazine could be distributed not just on the shelves in a shop, but on the internet also. This is because many of the younger generations are online these days, so if I bring the product to them, to their computers then they will be more likely to buy it; also payment methods are very easy online to so there will be no trouble buying the magazine, and money will be saved on paper costs as no paper will be used for the online versions.
Who would be the audience for your media product?
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After deciding what on what genre my magazine I want which is rap/hip-hop, I believe my audience will be people from the younger generation so from around 14-30 and mostly males. For this reason I will try and make my magazine match with the criteria and correct format and text which will suit this audience. This will be quite informal and some slang words could be used as I would want my magazine to seem as if it was interacting with the readers. Above is a picture which i have got from the Internet and i believe this is what one of the readers of my magazine would look like. The music taste that my perfect reader would have would be interested in RAP and HIP-HOP, because this is what my magazine is about. They would wear clothes from places such as FOOT ASYLUM or other shops that sell things like hoodies, snap back hats, hi-top trainers and other things. A typical reader would be a social person and rather go out with friends at night rather than staying in on their computers, watching TV etc. They would go to a bar/club or to a friends house to "chill out". They will have a laid back lifestyle, or a working class lifestyle as a lot of my magazine focuses on people like them, underground artists who are struggling to get a deal and struggling to keep their 9 to 5 job.
How did you attract/address your audience?
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This is my front cover and I believe it matches the conventions of many other Rap magazines, such as XXL or VIBE. On this page I believe my audience will be attracted by the image of the person on the front, this is because he looks like a professional rapper, this is because of 
his clothing and also his facial hair with the "chin strap" beard and also the stretcher he has in his ear. This will appeal to audiences because this is the sort of clothing that they wear to so they will be able to relate to it. Also the colours stand out a lot, the headlines but most of all the big blocked REPRESENT title. If this was in a shelf in a shop people will be able to spot this magazine from far away. Also the black and white picture could appeal to people who like a more classic looking magazine, it looks more sophisticated. This is the contents page and this has also followed the same house style, with the black, white and red colours throughout the page. The pictures on this page are in colour and rather than stage photo's which have been took in a room, they are real life photo's which have been taken outside on the move. This could attract the audience as this magazine is more for the underground rap fans and those who are not in it for the fame, having photo's where they are not posing and smiling makes it seem so much more real. The photo's on this page relate to the main stories, then underneath are the less important - they will be drawn in by the pictures and hopefully be interested in the corresponding story.
This is my double page spread and on this page, once again I have gone for the black and white style, which makes it look a lot more sophisticated, and also once again it is a photo "from the road". People will be interested due to the big title which has a red line underneath, once again a consistant house style. The text is set out very neatly and a whole page is covered with another photo.
I have recorded a number of people who I believe would buy the magazine, and have asked for their opinions about what they think of it. I have then uploaded this to youtube.
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
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The USP for my magazine I would say is the fact that it is for the underground hip hop, not the usual publicised side with artists such as Drake or Nicki Minaj - a lot of people are sick of the chart hip-hop and rap music such as these artists. So this magazine is there for these people, and I believe there is a big enough audience for this magazine to be sold widely across the UK and maybe the US.
I have used YouTube for tutorials on PhotoShop and also to upload my video i created to my blog.
I have used a camera to take my photo's, to take them I went through a lot of different modes on the camera to try and find the right picture to use for my magazine.
I have used blogger to create a blog. This is new to me as I have never used something like this before, although I believe it is very easy to get used to and I can now use this properly.
Photoshop is one of the main things I have used in my project, this has been used to edit my photo's, and basically create my whole magazine, I have learnt a lot on this program throughout the project and will not stop using it after I have completed it.
Throughout this project I have used a range of technology, the main one being PhotoShop.
I have also used a range of other things such as a Pen Drive, a camera, I have then uploaded the photo's to Photoshop, and edited them.
YouTube has helped me to gain skills within Photoshop, things such as layering and using different tools within the program. Then, obviously to make my blog I have used Blogger to post all of my research and my final magazine and evaluation.
I believe overall I have learnt a lot about the technology I have used to complete this project, and developed my skills a lot in each of these different technologies, some I have never used before, such as PhotoShop or Blogger. I now use Photoshop in my own time to create images and making all sorts of things and I believe this project was the reason as I have discovered some of the things you are able to do.
Some of these effects I have learnt on Photoshop I will show in screenprints below and explain what I have done in each one.
In this picture I have used two tools in Photoshop. One of these (labelled 1) I have copied a part of the picture for it to fill out the rest of the picture by using the Rectangular Marquee Tool, and what I did was select an area (top left image) and then simply pasted it in a new layer and moved it over so it looks natural and it fills out the rest of the blank space.
Another simple skill I have used it the image rotation which I have simply flipped the image around horizontally so it appears on the right side of the page rather than the left. Other skills I have used is on the contents page I added a gradient where it goes from black to grey. Another is on the double page spread where I have arranged my writing into two columns by using the alignment tools.
Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product??
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