Looking Back At Your Preliminary Task, What Do You Feel You Have Learnt In The Progression From It To Full Product

If you click on the images it will link you to flickr where you can read about how my magazines both relate to their individual target audiences.
 Looking back at my preliminary task I have learnt a lot more about the different programs I used to create my magazine. Before this process I was not able to fully use photoshop, which was why my college magazine was created in publisher. I feel that my music magazine is more reflective of the language and features used in an existing magazine. I have used other media such as slide share and survey monkey which I had not used before, slide share allowed me to put my PowerPoint presentations onto my blog.
Overall I am now able to use photoshop to fade the background of my magazine, change the colours of different elements of my magazine like the puff and text. I can rotate objects and pictures I have used on my contents page, I have also edited my masthead to have a viynl as the dot on the I.

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

 

Through creating my magazine I had to use different technologies and programs such as Adobe Photoshop, Slide Share, Publisher and Survey Monkey. These programs have helped my to create my music magazine.

I used Adobe Photoshop to create my final front cover, contents page and double page spread. It enabled my to edit and change my photos as needed.

I used Publisher to create my College magazines and my mock up front cover, contents page and double page spread. 

 I uploaded all of my research and work on to my blogger account. 

I used the site "slideshare" to upload my power point on to my blog.

To annotate my example front cover, contents page and double page spread. I used Microsoft power point.

To receive some feedback on what sort of magazine would suit my target audience best I used Survey Monkey.

To move my work from my home laptop onto my school computer I used my hotmail account. 

I used Youtube top upload my video responce.

I have also used the photo sharing site flickr to put my photos into a slideshow.

I used Prezi to creating interesting and engaging presentations to help explain elements of my magazine.

I create my magazine on my school computer account as my home laptop did not have the write Photoshop software. However I did a lot of my blogging from my laptop at home.

  Creating my magazine had shown me how to use many different programs that I hadn't used before like Photoshop, Slide Share and Survey Monkey. 

From using these technologies to create my product I have leanrt about the importance of technological convergence in relation to this industry. In order to create a fully functional and successful magazine, you need to be able to use different sorts of technologies. Magazine are now available to access online, this means that your magazine has to have an element of it which isn't available online. For instance my magazine offers the chance to win Beyonce tickets and exclusives that you wouldn't get anywhere else.

How did you attract your audience?

I have attracted my audience by putting interesting headlines on my magazine cover to engage the target audience, this being people that listen to hip-hop music. I included different well known hip-hop artists that would attract the right target audience. I researched what sort of shots of the artist were common on the front cover of a hip hop magazine, I also looked at what they would wear so that I could replicate the look on Mia for my front cover and what color scheme my magazine should have.I also created a video of some of my peers commenting and giving their reviews of my magazine and how it relates to my target audience.

Who Would Be The Audience For Your Media Product?

I have chosen to compare the edition of Vibe featuring Mary J Blige, to my front cover featuring Mia. Both women have a direct mode of address which can be seen as confrontational which reflects the gangster hip-hop genre of the magazine. It is also a way of engaging the target audience of my magazine. Both shots are a close up shot of the artist, with a plain white background. This draws attention to the artist rather than having a distracting background. The outfits wore by both women are dark colors and don't stand out too much. This adds to the dramatic effect of the magazine. Although there are some differences between the two, Mary J Blige is in a more formal wear than Mia who is in a t-shirt, I chose to do this to relate to my target audience of late teens.

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

IPC Media is a magazine a consumer magazine and digital publisher based in the UK, owned by Time Inc. The company was founded in 1958 by Cecil Harmsworth King who was the chairman of a newspaper group which included the Daily Mirror and the Sunday Pictorial. IPC Media currently publishes more than 60 iconic media brands which feature contents from many different platforms such as; print online, mobile, tablets and events. IPC Media are the UK’s leading consumer magazine publisher and engage with 26 million adults in the UK. IPC Media feature three publishing divisions specialised to focus on the different areas of the market. These divisions are IPC Connect, IPC Southbank and IPC Inspire. IPC Connect focuses on mass market women, IPC Southbank focuses on upmarket women and IPC Inspire focuses on men.

I think that IPC Media would be a good publisher for my magazine as although it doesn't already have a music magazine of the hip hop genre they publish many different types of magazine which gives them a lot of experience and research of what different target audiences interests are. Therefore I think for an up and coming Hip-Hop magazine IPC Media would be a good choice. This production company offers a wide range of magazines, therefore they will have the needed skill and knowledge to create and market a successful Hip-Hop magazine.Since my magazine is brand new and Hip-Hop music magazines are in a niche market, the fact that IPC Media are already a successful and established company will help my magazine reflect that representation. Although my magazine is subject to a niche market at the moment I would use synergy through this company so that I could use different distributors to reach different markets. IPC sell their magazines in leading brand stores, such as Tesco and WH Smith. This means that the magazine will be more accessible, the magazine will also be available online this will bring in more audiences and more sales.One of the magazines that IPC Media distrubute is NME this is a leading music magazine, although it is a rock magazine and not a hip-hop magazine the companies ability to create a successful music magazine will be an advantage for my music magazine.

In what way does your media product challage forms and conventions of real magazine products.

For the masthead of my magazine I chose to try and replicated a similar look to the mashead for th Hip-Hop magazine Vibe. I did this by choosing a bold font called "Greyhound SF"

I manipulated the font on photoshop by changing the colour. I did this to contrast with the colour scheme of my front cover. I also used a vinyl record as the dot for the I. This reflects the old school gangster look of my magazine. The title of my music magazine is "Hitz", I used a z to again given the magazine the Hip-Hop feel. This targets my main audience, of people who listen to Hip-Hop music. The word Hitz connotes that in my magazine you will be able to read about people who are succsessful; and have had hits

I challeged the codes and connventions of a music magazine with my masthead by using the viynl record as the dot over the I. This appeals to my target audiences.

The overall Mise-en-scene of my magazine channel the codes and conventions of a music magaizne because I have chosen photos that reflect real music magazines. My music magazine has a plain white background with the arist in the center of the frame in a direct mode of address. This is similar to the magazine Vibe. I have used the same colour scheme on each of my pages to keep the same feel throughout the magazine. I want the reader to know that it's the smae magazine without seeing the magazine logo or being told.

The featured person in my magazine challages the codes and conventions of a real music magazine because my magazine appeals to both genders however with it's slightly gangster style it could appeal to males more. This would suggest that I should have used male as my artist as they could be someone that my audience can relate to. However Mia does relfect the codes and connvetions of a traditional music magazine, she is wearing a t-shirt that has a faded picture on it, this appeals to the target audience as it is something that they might wear. Her poses also relfect the codes and conventions of a music magazine. She has a directmode of address and the shot is a close up of her face.

The written element of my magzine also relfects the codes and conventions of a music magazine as I have asked questions that you would normally find in an interview in a music magazine, such as "Tell us about your new single" and "How do you cope witht he pressue of being a Hip-Hop star?" The front cover of my magazine also channels the codes and conventions of a music magazine as I have used phrases such as "Exclusive" and "Sneak Peak". These attract the readers attention, just as they would in a real music magazine. I have also included an editors letter on the contents page which is something that is very common in an existing music magazine.

The layout of my magazine also shows the codes and connventions of an existing music magazine as I have set out my frount cover in the way that an existing magazine would. The main feature is at the bottom right and the other key features of my magazine are in the left third of the page. This relfects the codes and connventions of an ezisting magazine as this is where the eye is draw to on the page, so you want to display the features that are most likely to appeal to your target audience.