In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
My magazine is similar to other grime magazines as it has big bold writing and a lot of vibrant colour as well as photographs relevant to the grime scene. The background and text of my magazine is black and white, this is because a lot of the grime scene concentrates on racial issues between black and white people. I added colour into the magazine through photographs. The photographs I took for my magazine are of people who fit into the grime scene. I took photographs of people on the street against walls with graffiti as a lot of grime is about growing up on the streets in the city. The other place I took photographs was in the music bar I work in as I thought showing people dancing and having a good time to music would be a good thing to show in my music magazine.
The rules, codes and conventions of magazine that my cover uses is the masthead showing the big bold title in the top left corner of the page. This is so when magazines are stacked in the shelf you can see the title of the magazine. The other main thing is the image taking up most of the page, yet still having legible sub-headings. The other thing that follows codes and conventions is having a barcode, date and issue number on the cover of my magazine.
The contents page I designed follows the code and conventions of a magazine as I have numerous photographs with subheadings bellow them telling the audience what page they are on. There is also a box with featured pages in, as well as having another box with other page number listings. The title and sub headings follow the rest of the scheme of my magazine as the colour scheme is black and white and I have used the same bold typeface.
My double-page spread page follows the codes and conventions of a magazine as it has a big bold title as well as quotes on the page from the interview in a big font to make them stand out. There is also photographs of the interviewed artist on the right page and a photograph of the article writer on the left page. I laid the page out in a three-column grid system, which is also very commonly used on a double page spread of a magazine.
The title follows the conventions of a magazine, as it is the biggest piece of text on the page. It is bolder than the other text, as well as a bigger font size. The title is also short and memorable.
The language in my magazine links with the audience, as it is very informal and relaxed. This is because most of the text is an interview; therefore it is written how a real grime artist would talk. This way the magazine attracts the correct target audience. The photograph on the front cover of my magazine does not really follow the code and conventions of a magazine. This is because the image I used you can see the legs of the model in the photograph. Usually on a front cover of a magazine the photograph is taken from the waist up. However, on the inside of the magazine there is a mixture of photographs, which are full body shots, and shots from the waist up.
Comparison of Beatz and similar media text
There are a number of similarities between my magazine Beatz and Vibe magazine. The cover of my magazine is similar in the way that the title is big and bold. On both of the magazines the title is aligned left in the left hand corner of the page. The image on the front of Beatz magazine is similar to the image on the front of vibe magazine, as the image shows from the head to the knee of the model. Just like Vibe, Beatz has the sub-headings going down the left hand side of the page. Some words are bigger than others as well as different colours just like Vibe. Both of the magazines have a strip of writing across the top of the page, above the title showing what is in the magazine. Although both front covers have a barcode, they are in different places. Beatz has the barcode in the top right corner and Vibe has their barcode in the bottom left hand corner.
Beatz contents page and Q contents page are very similar. Both of the pages use a similar layout. The pages both contain four boxes, two of them filled with image and two full with text. Both of the pages have 'Contents' at the top of the page. Both pages use sub-headings to separate the different types of pages, instead of all the text being in one block. Beatz contents page and Q contents page both use the sub-heading 'Features', as the main text box sub-heading.
The two double page spreads are very similar. On the right page of both Beatz magazine and Metallica, they are both full with image. Although Metallica has used one image to fill the page, and Beatz has used four images to fill the page, the two magazines look very similar. On the left page, the top half of the page is fill with a title and quotes, where as the bottom half of the page is filled with a written article. Both magazines use a three column grid system on there article. Both double page spreads have a little image of the article writer next to the text.
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
The photographs represent men and women very different in my magazine. In my magazine the photographs show three different males and three different females. All three men shown in my magazine are black, have a similar dress sense and have a relaxed body language. All three girls shown in my magazine are white with dark hair, a very bright colourful dress sense and also have a relaxed body language. The photographs in my magazine therefore represent men and women in a similar way.
The photographs and text of my magazine represent younger people rather than old. This is because my target audiences were all young. The main element that represents young people is the photographs of younger people. The language throughout the magazine is also vocabulary that a younger person would speak rather than an older person.
Race is represented through my magazine as it is a big part of the grime scene. When grime started it was about young black males growing up on the streets of London. I showed this in my magazine by including photographs of young black males. However, as grime grew bigger it started including other race and gender by white males following the genre as well as white and black males.
The genre of my music is represented through how the people are dressed and the language they speak in interview. The photographs which are taken against a brick all represent the streets. The colours in my magazine also represent a lot of the grime scene.
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
EMAP publishing have fewer titles than IPC. I think the best publishing institution to distribute my magazine would be IPC as they have previously distributed a music magazine where as EMAP publishing have not. Other types of institution who may distribute my magazine may be institutions such as ‘St holdings’ or ‘Z audio’. They are two of the main grime distribution companies at the moment.
I think a good advertisement in my magazine would be ‘The UK Grime’ CD. This is a CD with a mixture of grime songs on it. I think the target audience would be really interested in this CD. Single artists might also want to advertise their CD’s through the music magazine. Other good things to advertise would be grime websites such as RWD, which advertises grime gigs coming up, or various Grime Forums so people can discuss the grime scene with other fans.
I think a good advertisement in my magazine would be ‘The UK Grime’ CD. This is a CD with a mixture of grime songs on it. I think the target audience would be really interested in this CD. Single artists might also want to advertise their CD’s through the music magazine. Other good things to advertise would be grime websites such as RWD, which advertises grime gigs coming up, or various Grime Forums so people can discuss the grime scene with other fans.
Who would be the audience for your media product?
The demographic who would buy my magazine would probably be young people between the ages of 16-25 who like grime music. This would more than likely be people who live in the UK, as grime is not an international category.
The audience for my magazine would probably use it to find out the latest news on the grime scene, new released songs, new and upcoming grime artists and gigs that are coming up.
How did you attract/address your audience?
The audience would be interested in my magazine as its full of information about the newest grime artists. It also has a double page spread interviewing a big artist on the grime scene.
The audience would be interested in my magazine as it is easy to read, as the language is quite informal and fun. The cover is very eye catching as it is full of colour and has an eye catching title. The title is so eye catching because the typeface is so bog and bold.
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
When taking my photographs for the magazine i learnt alot. I had to use different lightings to give the effects i wanted This included natural light and artificial lighting. After taking the photographs i used photoshop to edit them. On photoshop i learnt skills such as changing levels, brightness, contrast and saturation to give different effects such as more bold photographs and more faded photographs.
Tricky challenges i came across was trying to get bright photographs when i was taking them inside. i did a number of different photo shoots to get the best photographs for my magazine.
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
When taking my photographs for the magazine i learnt alot. I had to use different lightings to give the effects i wanted This included natural light and artificial lighting. After taking the photographs i used photoshop to edit them. On photoshop i learnt skills such as changing levels, brightness, contrast and saturation to give different effects such as more bold photographs and more faded photographs.
Tricky challenges i came across was trying to get bright photographs when i was taking them inside. i did a number of different photo shoots to get the best photographs for my magazine.
