QUESTION 1 IN WHAT WAY DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT?

Media Evaluation

Thomas Spink

Candidate Number: 2030

FRONT COVER IMAGE

FRONT COVER My magazine is based around a special edition of ‘VIBE’ and a lot of the design is

based around the layout of this magazine as I did not want to ‘re-invent the wheel’ per-say. The denotation of the name of the magazine is ‘VIBE’. The name ‘VIBE’ gives the connotations of something that is fresh and trendy for readers to view. By having a magazine that has a title that is trendy immediately appeals to the potential readers of the magazine and will enable it to generate more sales. As you can see that in this original version of VIBE, they have a very stand out colour scheme of yellow and black. This colour scheme helps the cover to stand out from other magazines as well as giving the magazine identity and making it recognizable. As I liked the way VIBE did this I stuck to a similar, simple colour scheme of red, black and white. I thought this would be a good colour scheme as the colours stand out and generate power and appeal which relates well to the genre of hip-hop and R&B. As well as this, I feel the colours chosen complement each other well and can be easily used as an effective house style throughout the course of my magazine.

Another way in which I have kept to regular forms and conventions is with the content of the front cover. Much like VIBE my cover star is the stand out convention of the cover with a large and effective image framed in the middle of the cover. This helps to create the ‘star appeal’ (Richard Dyer) for the magazine and helps the potential readership become more interested and makes the magazine recognizable. My front cover lines are laid out in an almost identical style to VIBE as I thought the way this was done was extremely effective and stands out on the page. Other conventions that I used was a large main headline, artist names and smaller social conventions such as social media recognition like Twitter hashtags and Facebook profiles. This creates interaction with the readers, therefore making the magazine more appealing to the reader across different media platforms.

FRONT COVER CONT. As you can see I also ‘repeated’ (Steve Neale – 1980) a similar puff

promotion to VIBE, placing it to the left of the image so not to detract from the image and headlines, however still in a position for the reader to take notice of it.

As well as this I also repeated the positioning of the mast head on the page as I thought that it looked attractive and trendy on the page. It also allowed me to explore different positions for the text and use a large and graffiti like font style for the magazines title. This was crucial as it is one of the main features that attract the reader to the magazine and so I wanted to make it as similar to ‘VIBE’ as I possibly could.

Another feature of ‘VIBE’ that I wanted and did repeat for my page was the positioning and size if the main image. I felt this was used effectively by ‘VIBE’ centred the image on the page and had the other features based around it. I liked this as it helped to create effective star appeal. It was also a feature that in my survey monkey, readers were most interested in on the front cover and so I felt that it would be crucial for me to include this to gain the best possible feedback of the customers.

FRONT COVER CONT. However, my front cover also challenges the conventions of ‘VIBE’ magazine by

placing a parental advisory identity on the page. I did this to make it more relatable to the magazines genre of R&B and HIP-HOP for the reader of the magazine. This little touch enabled me to create not only a slight brand identity but also made it ‘personally identifiable’ (Katz) for the readers who would often see the stamp on album covers and so by seeing it on the front cover of the magazine they would be able to relate it back to an album cover of the R&B and HIP-HOP genre.

Another way that I managed to challenge the conventions of ‘VIBE’ magazine was with the positioning of the main headline. ‘VIBE’S’ main headline was to the side of the page and was not in a bold font or very obvious that it was the headline. I decided to put mine across the image in the last third of the page. The text was bold and all in capitals. This helped it stand out on the page and make it easy for the readers to see it was the main headline and not another cover story. Another change that I made to the ‘VIBE’ front cover was with the colours of the text and the font. The colour used on the ‘VIBE’ cover was that of yellow and black. I felt that this was not a very appropriate colour scheme for an R&B and HIP-HOP magazine and so I changed it to black and ‘fierce’ red. This gives the impression of excitement and danger which links back to the lifestyle of the artists in the industry, thus allowing the reader to relate to the magazine more. I also used a different and bolder font style for my cover stories as well as a graffiti style font for the magazines masthead. This makes it more relatable to the genre and more obvious that it was a R&B and HIP-HOP magazine.

CONTENTS PAGE

CONTENTS PAGE The contents page of my magazine is again based around a ‘VIBE’ magazine.

However this time I used an early edition of the popular hip-hop and R&B publication. The reason this contents page stood out to me was because of the effective use of their conventions and how it differed from other magazines. Like the front cover I ‘repeated’ all the conventions of a contents page that needed to be included, for example the title outlining that it’s a contents page. Furthermore I used storylines with sub lines giving a brief insight to what the story consists of, for example “BATTLE FOR #1// See what artists are dominating the charts right now”.

I’ve also ensured the name of my magazine, an editorial and an image of my cover star is present on the page. I styled these conventions in identical style to VIBE. I did this because it gave the magazine identity and an image that would create hype. This helps relate to the genre of the magazine and helps the audience, stereotypically readers aged 16-30 to relate to the magazine as my magazines layout would create a buzz around it and so they would be interested as many of the people buying my magazine are ‘social climbers’ (Maslow) and want to get as high as they can in social hierarchy by keeping up to date with the latest trends. Like VIBE and my front cover page I have kept to a colour scheme of red, white and black because I felt that it gave connotations of danger and excitement to the page which can be related to the lifestyle that artists in the genre live and so for the reader they can relate it back to the genre far more easily.

CONTENTS PAGE CONT. ZSS1 QQ

My contents page is probably the page in which, despite my efforts, I most “re-invent the wheel”. Here I have changed the regular layout of a contents page with the way that ‘contents’ is displayed in a column format rather than bulk text across the page. I have also included a large contrast of black and red in the top left hand corner of the page which is not seen in many other magazines. The reason that I did this was because it created a contrast to the page and despite the fact it is blended, it stands out just enough to catch the eye of anyone who is looking at the page.

Another way that I have differed from ‘VIBES’ page is the way in which I have put the editorial on my page. ‘VIBE’ put their editorial on a completely different page however I chose to keep all of my aspects to the same page. The reason that I did this was because I wanted to keep it simple and not waste time when creating the pages in designing a whole page that is not necessary. By keeping them on the same page, it keeps the design simple yet professional as it fills space on the page and means the reader will not have to flick between many pages when looking to find it in the magazine.

DPS PAGE

DPS In my DPS interview and title page uses some general aspects of a VIBE magazines

double page spread in order to create a top notch page. One way that I do this in my magazine is with the format of my interview. Here I collated a simple question and answer interview through differentiated questions and answers. I used the same format for my questionnaire as VIBE did as I liked the look and style of the simple layout on the page. This simple layout is easy for the reader to understand and gives the magazine a simplistic but professional look which I really like. The interview also denotes the pull quote in large, bold text in the middle of the interview which allows it to stand out. This technique has been used in previous VIBE magazines that I researched before completing my DPS, for example.

Another way that my DPS ‘repeats’ (Steve Neale) conventions of ‘VIBE’ is with the formatting of the picture and the text. I have based my image as a large, effective image on one whole page. This emulates my magazine of inspiration VIBE with the way that they have put ‘Wiz Kalifa’ on his own page in order to create ‘star appeal’. They then have all the text, bar some social media aspects that have been put on the page, are on its own page. I have also integrated the images and text to make it look more professional. This includes wrapping the text for the interview around the pull quote. This allows it to stand out and give it importance.

Finally, for my DPS I have not strayed too far from the path with the way I have done the ‘e-media’ sign off. Like ‘VIBE’ I have placed mine in a location, for this instance at the bottom of the page, in a viewable area. The reason it is at the bottom is because I felt that it would be suitable putting it at the end of the interview so that the readers will guarantee to see it providing they read the whole of the interview. As a result it will create advertising for the artist and also brand awareness as it advertises the website along with the artists album advertising which will attract customers to the website and raise the popularity of the brand.

DPS However the changes which I have made are clear. One of the changes

made is a slight yet for me an effective one. I have included small thin red lines across the top and bottom of the interview to keep with the house style and also make the page look more professional. Again like on the front cover, I have included the parental advisory identity on the page to keep up with the house style and to create brand recognition, as well as ‘signify’ (De Saussure) the expectation of the genre being controversial and shocking. This was probably the most stand-out change that I made as again like on the front cover, it would not usually be found on or in a magazine.