My official draft

1)      In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

The overall genre of my magazine is R&B, while creating the format of my magazine I felt and I am feeling  like I have followed  most of the codes and conventions of a real magazine ( i.e.billboard), my main inspiration while constructing my magazine was  billboard magazine, not only because it is deemed to be the most powerful, influential and well-known R&B magazine at all time, but it is also popular due to the fact of various of  readers that are subscribed  and read this magazine, the inner question that I have asked myself is why are they so popular and well known? What can I do to make my magazine as successful and well known as Billboard? What is their secret?

Looking at my front cover, one of the main codes and convention of a real magazine or music magazine such as vogue or billboard, my model is staring out to the camera to the audience, at an audience perspective they will believe the person in the front cover is staring right out at them. The reason to why most of all magazines such as vibe magazine do this is because this will not only does this look appealing to the eyes of the reader but will also make the reader  feel like that the front cover model is inviting, in another words attracting and welcoming the readers. Another form of convention I have on my front cover is teasers, this type of format is used by every magazine the reason being these teasers are the things that teases/ attract the audience and pushes innovates them more to pick up and buy the magazine, teasers were created to give the audience and nice, quick and fast insight of what information and the type the magazine have, in most magazines they tease their most juiciest interviews or subjects (but not in full), as a result this makes readers curious on what that information and it concludes to them picking up the magazine and buying it. The teasers I used in my magazine are quotes, with main and juicy lines I did it this way because I knew it will attract the buyers to want to buy my magazine. Another convention of a real magazine that I have used is the skyline, this is to give a visual identification of additional information or advertisement, most magazine such as billboard do this. Another convention of a real magazine that I have input in magazine is the official website of my magazine, the reason to I did this is because readers could get extra information in the magazine website this is a source of communication to the magazine to the readers what inspired me that did this is closer, yes closer is not a music magazine but I was curious to why they had millions of readers and found out that their tactic was having an extra source which was having a website. Next the code and convention that I have followed is the masthead, I formatted the masthead in a different way than other magazine because I wanted the name of my magazine to come off as a brand like the way billboard magazine has and to be able to that I had to make and masthead look unique, in addition this why I have a subheading under the masthead this is done to incorporate my magazine as a brand. The barcode on my magazine is a convention that I have followed from other magazine this is to identify the price of the magazine, I have also included the price and the date of the issue.

Referring to the contents page, I have challenged the code and conventions of other magazines what I did, I gave my contents page a bold and string background whereas in contrast most music magazines have a soft background for their contents page to give off a welcoming and nice welcoming for their readers, but the reason why my background comes across as bold is because I wanted the bold colours to empower the readers with rare emotions, making them already have an over view of what the  magazine is going to be like and the colour black symbolizes dark lies and passion. On the left side on the contents page I have followed the codes and convention of billboard magazine I have entered an element of the music industry what I entered was a top 10 R&B music list I did this because I wanted to give the audience a little teaser of our expertise, the reason why I followed this magazine convention is because of the magazine publicity and this is what makes them unique from any other music magazine. In some aspects of creating my contents page I have used some pull quotes, this was to tease and make the audience want to read more and use the content page as a guide lines to interesting stories and this was also created to make sure that reader would want to look on every page (billboard magazine also do this). Another section I have added on my contents page is an author note, which includes the “writer” of the magazine welcoming the reader to the magazine and the “writer” thanking the readers for picking up our magazine, this was done to make the readers feel like they make the magazine and we as a company would not be here without them, I followed the convention of Q magazine a magazine that is greatly known, popular and has many readers. The writing technique used was welcoming as well as formal there is no slang words, this was because I wanted the magazine to have a prestige feel about it as well as giving the magazine a warm feel I really wanted it to feel real in the readers perspective so this would not scare away the readers, I wanted the readers too feel like the magazine was made from real human beings and as a result this is why the author note may come across as chatty I do not want my magazine to feel too formal because this may give our readers a cold and long welcoming and as a result they will no longer want to read the magazine anymore everything should be short, snappy and sweet, referring back to my first case study college magazine I followed this convention but I do  feel like I have improved on my expression with words and while creating my contents page I feel like I have added more time, attention and detail.

 The double page spread in my music magazine covers all the elements and convention of any real magazine such as vibe magazine, but it is portrayed differently. One of the main conventions that my double page spread have has is a pull quote, I have two pull quotes one pull quote which is on the left page this was done deliberately because firstly the pull quote is quite big and obvious meaning it will be the first thing the readers will see while turning the page, I used a controversial quote because it will urge the reader read on, then the reader’s attention will on master head of the story. While doing my news stand case study I learnt about the reader’s lazy eye, in the reader’s perspective I know that they will first put their attention on the big pull quote then the head master to see who and what the article is about, then see the second pull quote that I have added as a result this will continue to boil the reader’s curiosity and they will then read the whole article. The reason why I have decided to added two pull quote is because I know about the lazy eyes and I thought at the reader’s point of view and thought it will be a better idea to at another pull quote and this will persuade the reader to believe that that article is good and interesting, from thinking like this I do feel like I have made some progress in the way I think because in the beginning of the media course and we made our first magazines (the college and the music magazine the practice) I never really thought about things carefully or put too much thought into it I only did it because I only used some magazines as a guide line but in this experience I have learnt to think things from the audience perspective for this is the reason by magazine such as billboard and vibe are popular. Another aspect of my double page spread, is the images that I have used are obviously based on the artist but of the artist surrounded by what makes her in a sense if where she came from and who is by her side I followed the convention of billboard magazine form the case study on one of the double page spread the photo used related to the point if the whole interview, so I used this convention in my magazine the first photo of the model by herself is of her in the “hood” where she comes from in sense of born and raised and this makes her because this inspires her to write heart felt R&B songs and the second picture is of her with someone special who has helped her very much in life (this part is actually mentioned in the article. Just like other magazine there is page numbers for the readers to know where specific information is and the official website is a constant reminder for the reader if they like what they are reading they can get more from the official website.

2) How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My R&B music magazine represents the young teenage girls to middle aged women who crave inspiration, who are filled with curiosity about the real R&B music industry and wonder how to get into the music industry and how it is like. The aspired economic group for my music magazine is middle classy, the target audience for my magazine is people who see R&B as a classy, slick and respectful genre this is why my aimed audience is people who has a high social status during my research I have learn there was not many R&B magazines aimed for those who has a strong economic background and a high social status meaning a gap in the market. The type of clothes that my aimed audience will be wearing is classy, young but hip clothing like turtle necks skinny jeans with Timberlands boots etc.

 How I represented my audience through my front cover:  They are represented  My music magazine represents my female and target audience in many ways such as the colour scheme in the sense of  black and white meaning they have a classic sense of style or are classic, the pop of gold represent my audience richness and their richness in taste in addition the colour gold was and is still always used to represent R&B, so not only did I represent my audience but I also represented the music and genre of R&B as a whole and finally the colour burgundy colour was used to represent the youth and maturity of my audience meaning even though we may have young readers we will still show them respect and our audience themselves are young but mature. The model represents my audience in a sense of what she is wearing, because my target audiences are people who are upper class, she represents them in a classy way and in addition my model is mimicking the same attire that my audience may wear.  My model being fully clothed in way does represent my target audiences, in a sense of them being educated and upholding respect and having the qualities of equality, because my music magazine does not sexualize women and present them as sexual objects and in addition we do not in fact sexualize anything at all but all we do is talk and learn about the beloved genre of R&B and the artists within the R&B industry. The master head “LE CLUB” represents my target in way that being a lover of R&B we are in a club and we are in the “it” club where on their behalf we as a magazine know everything that is happening in relevance of R&B. The reason to why I have decided to have my master head in French  is because French is a language of class and elegance and that is what my target audience have classiness and elegance. The teasers and pull quotes on my front cover represent my female target audiences because as a female I know that we love gossip and stories and this is hook but at the same time represent women curiosity.

How I represented the audience through the contents page represented by using images of different key aspects of R&B like the fashion, exclusives and events this represents my audience because this is what they are interested about and looking for, within my contents page I have used raw images to portray to the audience that this R&B music magazine is for the people and the people make this magazine addition the photo consists of my models in a musical and R&B environment. In the first page of my contents page I have and author note addressing the readers this is to welcome the reader to my music magazine and thanking them for picking my music magazine. The writing in the author note is quite formal but friendly because I do want to be welcoming to the reader, the font I used for the writing is Script MT Bold because I wanted the author note’s to look quite private like a “me to you” note. During the process of creating my contents page I continued with the same colour scheme as my front cover black, white, gold and burgundy.  On the side of my contents page I have added a music chart this was to show the audience that as a magazine we are up to date with what is going up in the music world and this was also created to inform the audience what is the best songs in the R&B industry.

How does my double page spread represent my target audience? My music magazine represents my target audience in many ways such as my double page spread, which is based on an exclusive interview that will interest the audience in a sense the questions that they themselves would ask this singing sensation and the question asked was the question that I knew would interest my target audience. The interview is quite chatty but formal this is to make the reader feel like they were present during the interview and the reason why some parts of the interview may be formal is to represent our high class readers. The photo I used in the double page spread was for the audience to see the artists and who is the main person she works with in sense to get to know her at a personal level. The colour scheme used was black, red and white the reason why used the colour white because it symbolizes honesty and purity in reference with the artist and audience, the audience wants the artist to be honest and pure during the interview and the colour white represents this, the colour red represents the blood, heart and the emotions of the artist the colour red also grabs attention this will be perceived to the audience that the this written information is important  and meaningful as a result this attracts the reader. Finally the colour black was used to represent boldness and secrets in the audience perspective this is will inject them with a sense of curiosity and wanting to know and read this exclusive interview.

3) What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

My chosen company to distribute my R&B music magazine is DENNIS publisher, this is because in the past and currently they are publishing famous magazines or products such as Men fitness, Women fitness, health and cycle another positive about me making this decision is that they have not yet published a music magazine, meaning there is a gap in the market and no competition for my music magazine. In addition another thing a love about this publishing company is that they publish and distribute magazines in many different ways and this will benefit my magazine if I am planning to reach out to a young and middle aged audience I will have to use technology in my distribution. Doing my own personal research I have learnt that a lot of your people no longer physically go to shops to go and buy magazine but know we are at a technology period where everything can be done but downloading one app, I feel like DENNIS publishing could give my music magazine a present representation within the world of technology and that is how we a product will become well known and this how we will get more readers. DENNIS publishing is a company who are in not only a part of the technology world but are also popular there too, this will be ideal for our readers meaning they will be able to have access to my music magazine where ever they go in the world and in addition this could even attract more readers around the world and could make my music magazine global.

4) Drawing up a media kit

5) How did you attract/address you audience?

I addressed my audiences in many ways within the construction of my contents, front cover and double page spread like in the sense if the text, images and colours etc.

During the construction of my music magazine I got a couple of audience feedback on what went well and what I could improve on. For example on my contents page one audience member said they liked the layout of my contents page everything was neat but she said that she felt some key information is missing and that I should add more information onto it, what I did with that comment I did add more information in my contents page because I did not want it come across as boring so I added more things i.e.  images and for my front cover some else had said they love the way I played around with the dark colour to make my front cover but thought I should change the layout.

Within the front cover I attracted my audience with a mixture of colours like black, white, burgundy and gold, the colour combination of black and white symbolizes classic and classy whereas the colour gold symbolizes the riches and wealth of the magazine in terms of what is featured within the magazine and R&B itself and finally the colour burgundy represents my youthful readers and target audience and colour brown also represents the roots and soul of R&B , during my case study I have realized that all R&B music magazines including VIBE always use the colour brown and from my own knowledge brown always did represent R&B. Another way I attracted readers to my front cover is me having controversial, short, snappy and sweet teasers  that where bold and obvious, looking at my front cover you can see that I have put my exclusive story in one different colour than the other things going on in my music magazine  this was to firstly ensure that information stands out the most (after the mater head and the) in addition I even had it in the colour gold to portray to the audience that “this” interview I have in my magazine it is so exclusive it is gold. How I made the teasers stand out? I did a pattern of brown and burgundy this to ensure my reader’s eyes do not get bored and they feel refreshed every time they read my teasers.

Due to the reason that my target audience are teenagers to middle aged people roughly from 17-35 years, I have to approach and attract them in a unique way and that way is involving technologies like apps, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram I do this to able to get as close as possible with our readers and by posting certain stories online (anchoring) and in addition this will attract more and new readers.

The type of language I used while constructing my magazine is formal but chatty, for because the economic status of my target audience is strong also because I want my magazine to be or appear as an prestige magazine like a musical version of vogue, but at the however I wanted my readers to have a warm feeling towards the article also, to feel inspired and even more in love with R&B which the reason why I made my writing chatty because I did not want my readers to feel like they are reading  a boring newspaper but an a inspiring magazine that inspires them. My linguistic aims towards the audience was to inform fully about my exclusive interview with the R&B music star, I wanted my reader/ audience to feel like they are getting to know her personal as if she was spilling her deep dark true feelings for example “my fans will see me naked” this is a pull quote on my double page spread.

The written information within the interview is the 1^st person this to show to that audience that the article is personal and makes the audience feel like star is confiding in them.

All the mages used throughout my magazine the models are staring out the page, I did this to ensure that my reader/audience felt as if the model was really making eye contact with the reader and making the reader feel like they could feel the raw motions of the model, because they say the eyes are the window to people’s real emotions.

Within my music magazine the images portray a sense of community because the images used are of my model in the “hood” and surrounded by people that support her and within the article I always related back to where she comes from and where R&B has started.

6) What have you learn from the process of constructing this product?

 During the construction of my magazine I have used a lot of technologies that varies for example during the construction I used: InDesign, photo shop, illustrator, DSLR camera, photo studio and blogger

I used both blogger and time toast I found both technologies efficient and useful because this helped me make use of my time and reach my objectives. Time toast really helped with knowing deadlines and hopefully completing work by these deadlines, this also permitted me from never giving work late and even sometimes giving work early meaning I was sometime ahead of schedule. Blogger was like work book for me looking back at my blogger I can see my weaknesses and the progress clearly within all of my course work on blogger, in addition to that I always posted the progress and activities that I did in lessons, blogger was like a reminder of what I did, what I should do and what vi should improve on. From using this application I have learnt that organization and time management is extremely important, for it gives you more time with construction your work.

I used InDesign to design my double page spread and contents page.  What I have learnt from this application everything is possible, every source within the program is useful especially the rulers and grid, me using this made my double page spread and contents page look neat and this also permitted me to see some of the main issues within my magazine and how I could improve my work. There are other formats within this application like the text box and other editing features like saturation and within the application there were layers, and you can also create a colour mic for yourself that is I did to get the dirty gold for my colour scheme.  This experience helped me improve my skills on InDesign I now know and understand the value of layers and layering and how they are beneficial they are and also help with organization. Form this experience I do feel like my skills have improved looking at my previous case study (college magazine) my current magazine as a whole looks much neater because I have made use of the rulers and grid and this is what I feel that improved my work.

I used photo shop to create my front cover this application helped with me editing the main image I wanted to use for my magazine, within the application there is editing features like the white balance which helps you change the background of the image or just make the colour appear lighter or darker, anther application on adobe photo shop is text and you can also edit text. From this application I have learnt not to over edit my images because they tend to look over processed, keep the editing to a minimum as possible. Yes within certain aspects I do feel like my skills have improved 100% on this format because I now know how to control and edit out if the picture/image is too dark I know how to control the white balance and make the image look lighter.

I used the DSLR camera to take pictures for my magazine from this technology I have learnt that everything in the studio affects the outcome of your images, for example if the lighting of the studio is rubbish your pictures are going to come out dark and rubbish, and you should take in account the amount of exposure is in the studio for this will also affect your image. I had some assistance from friends with the photo shoot, but what I feel like improved during the photo shoot is my usage of lighting I know and understand what is good lighting from this experience because at the beginning of the phot shoot the pictures were looking dark and it made me unhappy but during the progression of the photo shoot I have learnt how to control and make the lighting useful. My skills have improved because I have learnt how to make use of the 3 point lighting.

I used illustrator to construct the title for my contents page because I wanted the words “contents” to have an R&B feel to it and felt that InDesign could not offer such service, because during my lessons I learnt that you could edit the words itself in terms of making it look like a trade mark like adding certain shape to the word while using the same font, for example if I am using the font Arial narrow but I want the a specific letter to have a flick an the end of it illustrator permits you of doing so. From this application I have learnt I edit words and I understand the worth of this application.

Question 7

Overall from this experience I have learnt to put myself in the audience position and think about what they want and seek from my magazine. I understand that a magazine is created for the people (our target audience) not for me the creator. However I have also learnt everything you input within or throughout the contents of your magazine should have a purpose or your magazine/media product will not be successful and as a result would not look attractive to the audience’s eyes.

When I first started this course, during the construction of task 3 I would input random things for example on my front cover and contents page just because it looked nice to me and to my point of view, not for target audience but for me. Presently I understand and know what I need to do to attract my audience and what it is likely for them to like within and throughout my magazine. Another huge aspect of this learning experience that I have learnt and taken from is that  everything within and throughout the magazine is based and created on research, you need to know and understand the things you are presenting to people for them to have interest within your media product and it is extremely important how you present your research. What I have learnt from my research is that my genre (R&B) is that magazine such as vibe and billboard tend to have similar stories but they present it differently and uniquely but  yet they have different audiences/readers, what I have learnt is that billboard magazine have a more sophisticated audience opposed to vibe whom have more male audiences than females and everything is sexualized, and from this revelation I learnt myself  that the way things are presented  and advertise within and throughout my magazine should appeal to my target audience as well as to look unique and attractive to attract my target audience. Throughout my journey in the construction of my music magazine, I have used popular music magazine as guidelines for creating my music magazine so this will make my magazine more appealing well known if it was to be release.