Reasha McLarty

Media Evaluation

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

The layout of my media product is very much in keeping with a stereotypical music magazine. The masthead ‘RAW’ is placed at the top and attracts the reader into taking an interest. This convention is common with most music magazines such as RWD and VIBE.

The choice of shot I used for the cover I feel challenges the conventions of a real media product, simply because of its angle. Through research I came across mass covers where the artist is slightly looking down at the camera but yet we still remain at eye level. I decided to contrast this totally within my media product and have my model being above the camera. I did this because I felt it went with my theme of ‘up and coming artists’ and this feeling of being on top of the world

The features that are placed on either side gives the reader insight into what is inside and even entices them to see what will be said, this is also a very popular convention within real media products, the use of well known musicians mentioned on the cover makes the consumer want to know more.

By placing a web address on the front cover it enables people who are more computer friendly to be apart of it online, opening my product up to a wider range of people.

This develops the conventions of real media products because it informs the consumer straight away that there is an alternative rather than them having to purchase the media product to find out it is available online.

In terms of my colour choice, I looked at a range of magazines and found that with grime, hip hop and rnb, black and white seemed to be popular colours, showing class and even sometimes authority, following this formality I also decided to incorporated another colour, I chosered. I chose this colour because it can be interpreted in a number of different ways, but in all cases it always gets noticed. In this this particular formatting I wanted it tobe seen as a warning colour, as if I am telling the reader to ‘look out’ for this up and coming artist.

After looking at a series of music

magazines I began to look at the

reoccurring themes that they consist of.

I then began to brainstorm ideas which would be original, yet still in keeping

with the conformity of a music magazine.

Similar to real media products, I wanted the theme from the front cover to continue through to the contents page, choosing the same reds, blacks and dark purples, that were seen on the front cover, so that the consumer can make that direct correlation between the two.

Relating back to the conventions of a real media product, I spilt the contents into two sections, allowing the audience to see straight away what they want to look at and what page it is on.

Unlike real media products I decided to make the setting the main picture rather than the artist. I wanted the reader to relate back to the cover and to be reminded of the ‘LDN edition’.

The text I used also relates back to the text on the front cover. The block looking font is remote within rnb and grime magazines, tying in with my chosen genre-grime.

I decided to develop this idea of shared unity within my media product by naming the contents ‘Whts Rawing’ rather than just the ‘contents’ that is used in many real media products. This language allows the audience to feel more apart of it, using slang to entice a specific age range of people who will be familiar with the slang used.

Following the conventions of a real media magazine double page spread proved demanding because of the amount of rules that have to be followed to make it a success product.

Whilst still keeping my theme I focused in on the artist mentioned on the front cover which is common within real media magazines. This works as the ‘convincer’ almost, making the consumer buy the magazine based on this article.

The heading immediately tells the consumer what is going to be talked about, LDN GRIME, this font then immediately associates to the MJAY and takes the readers eye straight back to the artist. The use of this same colouring within the text allows the reader to know straight away what was said my MJAY because of the colour connection

By using other pictures of the artist with his ‘former band’ allow the audience to make a direct correlation to what is being said in the article, almost as if they are looking in his past and now they seeing him as a completely reformed person.

Through research I found that consumers enjoy visual aids, to help them associate with what is going on. After looking into this I looked at real music magazines and found that the picture frequently takes up most of the spread and the text tends to be much less in comparison.

Another convention that is popular in real media products is the use of quotes above the article to tell the audience a little bit more of what they are reading. I decided not to incorporate this onto my double page and quoted on my front cover instead

Developments

Final draft First draft

The first draft I had done didn’t quite conform to the real magazine standards. As you can see the barcode is at the top and this is not used very often in real media products. This is because it takes away from the audiences attraction to the magazine, because it is at the top of the page.

In my final cover I moved the barcode to the bottom of the page and moved my master head up, enabling it to be seen and recognised. By moving my quotes down, across the models frame it makes the audience have a direct correlation to this person and what they have said.

By adding a small advertising board at the bottom it makes the page longer and more magazine like rather than a poster, allowing the consumer to identify what my media product is without confusion.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

After choosing grime and hip hop as my genre for my media magazine. I decided to look at other magazines and how they represent such social groups

The ways in which hip hop is represented is quite thuggish. With lots of tattoos and jewellery, symbolising how much money they have and therefore expressing to their consumer that its all about the money

By branding my product as the ‘LDN Edition’ it immediately unites a certain sector within social grouping. London youth that enjoy grime and hip hop. Instead of making it about the money and the look, I challenged this stereotypical convention and brought it back to the talent.

I decided to do this because I knew that my social groups would be C2, D and E on the JICNARS scale and therefore wouldn’t necessarily be able to afford the things that they are shown as successful on real media product such as XXL and RWD

•The target age of my audience would be aged between 18-25, aiming at both genders who have a taste, interest or talent, music wise. I have represented this through the artist on the cover, someone who was maybe not well known but is now big, working as inspiration.

•The colour scheme of my magazine remain conventional to a real hip-hop/grime magazine, so that it can be easily labelled as just that by my social grouping

•The social grouping I aimed for, are people who enjoy music past the point of listening to it on the bus, they like to feel apart of it and this is why my magazine would be monthly instead of weekly, allowing them to get updated but still have time to concentrate on their own thing.

•The pricing, I wanted to be affordable, yet feasible for what they were getting so I rounded it to £2.10, considering the grouping I was aiming for, I wanted them not encouraged by the price not put off.

• The writing style that is continuous throughout is very informal. Text language like ‘whts rawing’ gives this idea of being on the go, shortening words to get your message across quicker. The competitions inside appeal to my social grouping because of the age group in which you would have to be to attend, for example, “V Festival” is something that is not recommended for people under 16, without a parent.

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

• A very popular music distributor is IPC Media and due to it ‘reaching almost two thirds of UK women and 42% of UK men’ I think that it would be a perfect distributor for my media product.

• IPC Media also distributes real media products such as NME. However the audience that IPC’s magazines aim for are for people of an older age and this means that my product may not fit into their democratic of people .

• A media institute that may take an interest in my media product would be InterMedia Partners as they focus on content assets which target underserved markets. Which would be perfect for a magazine like mine , something that may not necessarily appeal to a huge audience but appeal to a specific range of people.

Due to my audience being a specific democratic it means that the distributor my media product would go to would ideally be something to do with hip hop and grime, like magazines such as RWD, who are independent because of platform they made from music television. Something like this would probably appeal more to my magazine as it would enable my media product to be seen by my target audience in a number of different ways.

How did you attract/address your audience?

• With any media product, the consumer is drawn in by what they see first and it can be the difference between them purchasing the product and not.

• So knowing this I focused very much on my front cover, as I knew this would be the first thing they will see. The colours I used, I believe attract a ‘grime’ base audience. With deep reds and black it would stand out on a shop shelf and would entice a variety of peoples eyes not just my target audience.

• The font and the slang used throughout the magazine immediately address my target audience, it first being named RAW, ‘not processed or refined just raw exposure ‘ enticed my audience because it tells them that the magazine has nothing to hide and neither should the reader, they should express their music.

• By including a ‘freebie’ ‘Two Tickets to V festival’ It makes the audience feel more involved and allows them to be more apart of what is going on in the music world. The purpose of my magazine is to inspire my consumer to be that person that they see on the magazine rather than wishing they were.

• I challenged the idea of stereotypical grime and rnb magazine by having a white model, I did this to represent that it isn't just black people who participate in grime, as long as they have the talent they can become just as big.

• I included a web address to entice a variety of people from my target audience, allowing them to go online opens my magazine up to the modern world , giving my consumer a number of ways to access my magazine.

What have you learnt about the technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Throughout the process of making my media product it has proved difficult at times to construct something original yet conventional .

The use of technologies such as a simple digital camera, Photoshop, the internet and publisher was more of a challenge than I first expected it to be.

When given the task, I knew that constructing a successful magazine would be difficult because I had never used programs such as Photoshop before, so interpreting my own magazine started of to be hard.

The program itself was something that I found became easier to use through experience. The more I played around with different effects, the more I found the look I was going for. My first draft I had done of my magazine was successful in the effects area but at times I had got to carried away and therefore lost the success conventions that real media magazines had.

I had used a digital camera before so I felt safe in using it successfully to take pictures that would allow my media product to be expressed successfully. It allowed me to take a number of pictures and therefore gave me more variety in my front cover, double page and contents.

I did a series of drafts on of publisher in terms of where I would place everything in my draft and this also seemed easy because it enables me to get a visual plan of how I wanted my magazine to look.

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

When I was given my preliminary text I was quite excited about the fact that I would be creating my own media music magazine.

However when I got down to the ins and outs it proved to be harder than I first expected it to be.

Because of the many conventions that are behind a successful music magazine it proved hard to make my ideas stand out yet follow the basic conventions that hold the success of real media magazine.

Throughout the process I have found that research was a great help in making my magazine a success, knowing who your target audience is, is very important so that you will be able to appeal to them as much as possible.

I have found that by knowing who you are appealing to, it works as the basis for the rest of your media product, the formality, colours, language. When creating a school magazine the language I used was much more formal, so that it would be able to be read by the parents as well as the students and would be able to be informed by what is going on within the school. In my music magazine I found I was able to use informal language because I knew who I was trying to address.

Also I have learnt how to associate my product to a certain age range or gender or even genre, to encapsulate my consumer and make them feel a part of something.