Evaluation question 3

Evaluation question 2

Question 2: How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My music magazine is made to target both female and male teenage audience who listen to British rap. I made this obvious through the images I used in my music magazine. The image I used in the front cover clearly represents a rapper and because the selling line says “U.K’s n.o.1 music magazine” it shows that it is about British music. My model I used for my front cover represents a particular social group in many different ways.

One way the image of the model represents a particular social group is by his clothing. The model is wearing a black bomber Nike jacket which is a very common winter jacket that teenagers from the U.K rap community wear and also it makes you look bigger so you look tougher; a chunky silver ring and two diamond ear rings which suggest that he’s wealthy; black sun glasses to make him look more gangster and cool and finally a designer scarf again to show wealth. This look is closely associated with gangsters and also famous American rappers such as Gucci mane who dresses very similar.

Out of all the clothing on my model I think that the Nike bomber jacket represents the music genre and the social group of my magazine, because people who listen U.K rap or even American rap have a very similar style and people who wear this sort of clothing are stereotyped as a ‘gangster’ or is gang affiliated.

Evaluation question 1

Question 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions real media products?

Before I started my music magazine I looked at an existing music magazine to see how I should design my magazine and also to see how they used conventions. There are various ways in which my music magazine uses challenges forms and conventions of a real music magazine. For my music magazine I used conventions to make my magazine look similar to real music magazines. One example of conventions I used in my music magazine is a big masthead at the top of my magazine, I did this so it looks like a real magazine and I wanted the masthead to stand out; I used the Magneto font because it’s a stylish font and to make it attract the target audience. Another example of conventions I used was placing the masthead behind the model; I did this because it makes the music magazine look more professional.

Another convention I used was a magazine selling line. A lot of magazines use a magazine selling line as it is one of the magazines selling points and it also shows what the magazines objective is. The magazine selling line also is a way to promote the magazine. My selling line also to attract my target audience as it stated “U.K’s n.o.1 music magazine” this would clearly attract my target audience.

I also used a barcode and a dateline for conventions. I placed my dateline under my magazine headline so it could stand out.

I used cover lines as conventions as most magazines use them and they also give information on what things are included in the magazine. Another reason why I used cover lines is because it is one of the main ways to attract my target audience. The main cover line is the biggest as it is supposed to be eye catching so it has to stand out. One of my cover lines attract the audience as includes gossip about a big U.K rapper which my audience may find interesting. I added cover lines on the left and right hand side so one side wouldn’t look more interesting than the other.

I used a medium shot for my magazine because most magazines use it as a convention and because it make

the model used for the magazine stand out more.

My contents pages also follow and developed conventions. Firstly I used categories which is a very common convention that magazines use. I arranged my categories on the left side of the page so I could include some pictures on the right hand side to make it look more interesting. I arranged my categories on one side because

most magazines have it on one side so it makes it looks similar to real magazines.

I also included different pictures rather than one picture, which a lot of real magazines use as conventions. I included other images to show my target audience that the magazine has a variety of things to read about. 

My double page spread also uses and develops conventions. Firstly, I used separate colour scheme from my magazine front cover to make my magazine look more colourful and not boring.  I arrange my double page spread vertically as most magazines have it the same way so it looks more professional. My double page has two columns one with a headline and a image of my model I used for my front cover and the other side questions and answers of ‘C.Wizz’(the rapper model I used) which gives my target audience more information about the rapper so they feel closer to him which attracts my target audience even more.

Music magazine front cover

Music magazine doule page spread

Music magazine contents

Texual analaysis 3

Denotation

The magazine has a picture of a male rapper looking directly at the camera. It’s a medium shot which shows his head all the way down to his waist. His standing behind something, with his arms crossed and his hands tucked into his sides. The back ground is grey. Behind the picture of the male rapper is the magazines mast head and a numerous amount of cover lines. The name of the photograph of the male rapper is on the left in big red capital letters.

Masthead

The Vibe mast head is bold as it has a big font and is shaded with the colours black and red. The font is not serif; each word of the masthead is upper case and is evenly spaced out. The magazine is called vibe and since it’s a music magazine the word vibe suggests that vibe means the feeling you get when you listen to music. Also in America there is a network called the Vibe LifeStyle network which is a music/entertainment group under the name of vibe.

Character

The cover photo is of the famous American rapper ‘Eminem’.

Composition: he is posed in a way which makes him seem tough and gangster.  His body language and clothing gives the impression that he is saying don’t mess with me.

Costume: His clothing is a black vest, showing his tattooed arms and is wearing a silver cross round his neck. His clothing has been chosen to appeal to the target audience of the magazine who mainly listen to rap music and also those who are fans of Eminem and want to know his secret as underneath his name it says ‘comes clean’. His clothing makes him seem as if he isn’t a famous rapper, but a normal guy and is very similar to the costume he wears in his song ‘cleaning out my closet’

NVC: His non verbal communication is very manly and tough. His arms crossed showing his tattoos and also making his arms look bigger. Also looking directly at the camera he has a ‘don’t mess with me look’.

Lighting:  The lighting is front lighting.

 Setting: There is very little setting to this magazine, but the grey background connotes calmness, peaceful, relaxation, modernisms.

Cover-lines: The main cover-line that relates to his photograph says: “Eminem: comes clean”. This is making a reference to a song he did before the picture was taken called ‘Cleaning out my closet’ (released in 2002). It became the second top-ten single from the album reaching #4 on the United States Billboard Hot 100 and one of the highest-charting singles of his career. The cleaning out my closet video shows Eminem up brining when he wasn’t rich and famous and the vest that he wears for this photo shoot shows that he was just a normal guy like everybody else. The different cover-lines show that the magazine talks about other interesting news and stories and not just music, e.g. “The 50 hottest rap blogs ranked” and “Who is the best rapper you decide”. The cover-lines on the front of the magazine suggest that the magazine focuses on one type of music genre (Hip-hop) but one cover-line does mention Jimmy Fallon an actor/comedian/singer. The cover-lines also consist of different rap artist such as lil Wayne, Jay-z, T.I, Kanye West, Drake, Gucci Mane and Kid Cudi.

Target audience

Taking account of all the points above, the target audience is most likely to be male and female (more male then female) ages between 14-30 this because the magazine talks about new young artist, more males would read this magazine because males are more interested in Hip-hop and rap the females. The people who would read this magazine would have good knowledge on new rap artist and Hip-hop.