Evaluation
For my media coursework, the task was to produce the front page, contents and double page spread of a new music magazine. The magazine I produced was called ‘Urban hits’ and the genre that I decided to follow was hip hop. The reason for this was because the hip hop genre has a large market share of magazines, this of which shows how popular hip hop magazines are, also the genre of Hip Hop is easy to follow as the conventions are fairly similar also hip hop music is one of the most popular music worldwide and therefore will attract a large scale of people. While constructing my media product I used the magazine ‘Hip hop connections’ in order to help me analyse the conventions of a general hip hop magazine.
My media product “Urban Hits” follows the common form and convention of a real media product as firstly I used a maximum of three colours; red, orange and black, I decided to use these three colours because they are vibrant and eye catching colours and in the magazine market most of the magazines use colours like this to attract the attention of consumers. Furthermore the typography that I used throughout this task was Arial black I used this font style because I thought it was a clear and bold font and therefore the audience would find it more eye - catching and clear to read. However on my front cover I have tried to minimise the amount of straplines, because the magazine I was trying to manipulate did not use excessive amounts of text. I incorporated a skyline this follows the convention of real media products as most magazines include a skyline this of which attracts the audience attention as it gives the reader an insight of what will be included in the magazine. The main image on the front cover of “Urban Hits” is central and the straplines are based around the image, this connotes that the image is of central importance.
In addition to this I have places the image at eye level on the page this will engage the reader.
My media product represents particular social groups of teenagers which are trying to break out into the music industry, and “urban hits” may be there break through to be recognised by the public. My media product shows a representation of teenagers through the costume for example in all three of my main images the costume that I chose was street wise clothing e.g. hoodies, caps and baddy jeans all these items of clothing have a representation of teenagers. Furthermore the posture of the main image in my double page spread is very in your face and looks as if the model is giving the audience attitude this is another connection of how teenagers are represented in today’s society. The resister of my media product is colloquial language however there is use of slang, the reason for this is because I was attempting to reach out to my target audience and in order to do this I knew I would need to use this sort of language.
The target audience for my media product is 16-25 year olds. I have chosen this as my target group as my magazine represents this social group of teenagers who would like to make a break through into the music industry “Urban Hits” caters for this group by including these stories too help them build a public profile.
I think that my front cover does attract my target audience and I have presented this through the main image as I have used a teenager model, who is wearing a hooded top this connotes the idea of a stereotypical teenager that listens to hip hop music. This is another convention of magazines in general as the main image should represent the target audience.
Moreover the language used is easy to understand and there not many complex vocabulary used this connotes the idea that the audience is of a younger generation. On my front cover I have not included much text this is because the younger audience do not like too read much text as this may put them off buying the magazine.
Furthermore for my double page spread the language used is formal but conversational and chatty this of which draws the audience to buy the magazine, as they feel apart of the conversation and makes them carry on reading. I have used the work exclusive on my front cover in order to attract the audience attention so that they feel that they must buy this edition as they will not find that same story elsewhere.
The kind of media institution that might distribute “urban hits” is great big companies, for example the institutions that distribute magazines such as ‘hip hop connections’. The reason behind this is that “urban hits” has great potential in producing and selling its media product and therefore it will be able to distribute to well known institutions, as ‘urban hits caters for the mass market as it appeals to a wide audience.
Throughout the construction process, I have learnt a range of skills about technologies I first learnt about how you can position camera in different ways in order to give a different effect and give a different meaning to the photograph. In order in construct the front cover, double page spread and content page I used the programmes Photoshop element and publisher software. When I was using Photoshop element I learnt a range of different skills such as how to manipulate, edit and resize images in order to meet your own requirements. In addition Photoshop element allowed me to change my original image to make it look eye catching to the audience for example adding different filters and changing background colours.
Looking back at my preliminary task, the things that I have learnt in the progression from it to the full product are how to take a camera shot and how thinking about the mise en scene, lighting, costume and colour can create a different meaning to the image. In the preliminary task I was off track in what I was trying to achieve and I was not happy with my end result however in this task I feel that I have worked to my full ability to produce a music magazine in order to attract my target audience. My main fault in the preliminary task was that I never did any research on school magazines and I didn’t know the conventions of a magazine.
