Evaluation

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

My media product develops forms and conventions of media products because I have looked at many types of magazines to get an idea on which codes and conventions to include in my magazine. A few of the magazines that I analysed were rock magazines such as ‘Kerrang!’ and ‘NME’ and I made a ‘Prezi’ based on the analysis of the two magazines. The genre I chose to base my music magazine on is Grime, which is very similar to Hip Hop. I looked at many hip-hop magazines such as ‘Hip-Hop Connection’ and ‘The Source’ and analysed the codes and conventions on them in my own time. I then used many codes and conventions for my own magazine such as mastheads, Main headings, images, barcodes and another codes and conventions.

For example many images on Hip Hop magazines are associated with violence and crime with a dark coloured theme. So on my magazine I took a close up image with the subject posing with aggressive facial expression and then I edited the colours to a dark theme so it conveys the conventions of a Hip-Hop/Grime magazine. Even though I was basing my magazine on a Grime genre which was different to the Rock genre magazines I analysed on ‘Prezi’, I still wanted some of the codes and conventions to remain the same, such as style of headings, the barcode, colours, etc.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The main social group my media magazine represents is young people from a working class background who live in areas affiliated with gangs, crime and violent music. Other types of social groups also like to listen to Grime/hip-hop music. I am appealing to these social groups by making a magazine based on the music they like and so they can read about life problems from people are come from the same backgrounds as them. I represented these social groups in my media products by selecting the right images and themes.

In my images, the subject has posed an aggressive facial expression, this relates to many people because it represents the hardship of life. Another element of the magazine that represents the social groups is the colour theme I chose. The red and black colours relate to a dark and violent concept. Many listeners of Grime see this as an essential of Grime.

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

Net Theory is a distributor of the magazine called ‘XXL’. ‘XXL is a magazine, which is based on Hip-hop. Seeing as my magazine’s genre is Grime, which is also related to Hip-Hop genre music, Net Theory would distribute my product too because it satisfies the same type of social group. Net Theory is a well-known media institution and if my media product was to be distributed by Net Theory, my product would be more popular and of a high standard than getting my product distributed by a low profile distributor.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

Young people who were bought up around violence and gangs would be the main audience for my product. This is because Grime/ Hip-hop artists mainly emcee or rap about how hard their life was, this usually relates to many of the public who grow up in urban areas.

Even young children in urban areas grow up listening Grime/hip hop music so they would be an audience for my product too.

My questionnaire analysis shows that, male 16-21 year olds would be the majority audience for my magazine.

How did you attract/address your audience?

I attracted my audience by including text and images that relate to Grime/Hip-hop music. For example the double-paged spread, the interview was about how the artist’s life was before he entered the music industry. The artist’s life before is similar to the life of many young people growing up in urban areas today. Growing up with life revolving around violence would attract young people to read magazines that relate to them.

The colour theme I used portrays the dark side of Grime/hip-hop which is very popular in urban areas, so that is a way the audience can recognize a magazine containing what they want to read.

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

I have learnt a lot about technology. On my front cover of my magazine, I used a low angle shot of my subject. On my contents page I used a high angle shot of my subject and on my double-paged spread I used a close up shot and a mid shot. I mainly focused on lighting for my images on my double-paged spread. I developed my skills on Adobe Photoshop by learning new ways of toning, cropping and editing images. I learnt how to manipulate the colours to suit the genre of a Grime/Hip-hop magazine to obey the conventions. For my images, I added a drop shadow to them because most magazines have a drop shadow so I did the same to follow conventions.

I also learnt how to use the online programme ‘Prezi’. After I got used to it, I could use it with ease and manipulate the pathway for the text and images for a unique way of presenting it my analysis. I also learnt how to submit posts on BlogSpot. I now know how to attach images and text. On Microsoft Excel, I had to import a set of results from my questionnaire. I then learnt how to convert the set of results in a form of a bar chart. With my main image on my front cover, I overlapped it with my main heading to make it stand out; this follows conventions of most magazines.

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

Looking back at my preliminary task, I didn’t really apply any codes and conventions onto my preliminary magazine. I edited my image and text with lack of skill. My preliminary magazine reflected my lack of knowledge because of its standards.

I have learnt how to analyse magazine conventions in depth which I applied to my final magazine. I learnt how to aim my media product to a specific target by doing research. The research included looking at other types of hip-hop magazines, analysing them, making questionnaires, etc.