How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My research into codes and conventions helped me make my decision on particular social groups I would like to represent with my magazine, and base my magazine on. As VIBE is a very young R&B magazine I chose to focus my magazine on this theme, with the preferred reading age of my magazine the same as VIBE, between 18-34 years of age. My magazine conveys a strong theme of a young persons magazine. The large use of ideology towards specific artists and gossip conveys a dominant young theme and also, on the contents page of PLAY features many social media websites in which could appeal to young readers.

Based on my research into audience response and research into other magazines, the stereotypical music magazine includes gossip and links into social media, with ideology and reading based on celebrities. Using specific mise en scene, I have created a R&B magazine with all the specifications to a young persons music magazine. The shot choices and layout are conveyed as young social class, which has been conveyed through clothing and language used on the covers. A key theme of the magazine showing the stereotypical R&B magazine is the choice of artists such as young DJ AVICII.

Tag lines featuring gossipy interviews is very mainstream which applies to a wide range of people rather than particular social groups. There is a very wide reading range of my magazine with features on the contents page applying to my target audience age range, with feature headers such as ‘gossip’ and ‘cover girl Robyn’.

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

When researching media institutions the main media distributers I was interested in researching were VIBE and Q magazine as these magazines are alike my magazine. The main distributer of Q magazine is Bauer Media Brands. Bauer also distribute the well known Kerrang! magazine. My magazine ‘PLAY’ would be more beneficial to be distributed by media institution such as InterMedia Advisors. InterMedia is a very mainstream distributer, distributing magazines such as VIBE. Whereas Bauer Media Brands cater to a more niche audience. Bauer Media has expanded Q to radio and TV, creating a very large global well known marking for Q. Bauer have also been the marketing and distributers for other magazines such as ‘Take a break’ and ‘That’s life!’.

VIBE is currently owned by Spin media and distributed and marketed by private owners InterMedia Advisors. I feel InterMedia would be the best possible company to market my magazine, because of aswell as having knowledge of a similar magazine VIBE, and having many connections in that area, they are also based in New York, in which PLAY magazine would fit in perfectly into the busy city lifestyle. I feel there would be a gap in the market for my magazine, and with the through research and planning into this my magazine would be very successful being marketed by InterMedia.

Who would be the audience for your media product and how did you attract/ address your

audience?The target audience for my product is aimed between 18-34 years of age. The magazine conveys a strong theme of a young persons magazine so I felt this age range is appropriate. I addressed this through any aspects in which I will show in the next couple of slides.

Young person DJ dance act. Attracting a young age group – very mainstream.

A very conventional front cover with a direct mode of address to the audience. Dark make up contrasting with the models pale skin, drawing you to the magazine. The picture taking up nearly all of the front cover is a well used convention of a typical R&B magazine style.

The suggestion of ‘I-pod’ which would largely apply to a young audience, attracting them to the magazine with the chance to download the ‘top summer songs’.

How I attracted my audience: ‘Play the music love the music’ - Attracting a young audience.

Links to social networking sights – very appealing to young age groups.

‘Gossipy’ articles, very mainstream for the nature of my target audience.

Festival photographs. Age appropriate photographs for my target audience. Positioned at the top of the page attracting people straight to the features column.

Young model – appealing to a young audience of a similar age. Direct mode of address, eye contact. Giving you a personal bond with the model.

Gossipy quotes from artists. The language used such as ‘bow down mortals’ is typical young language slang used, giving the magazine a further appeal to a young audience.

The model is dressed in a fashionable way, making the article, presuming to be about her, very appealing.

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

During my research and planning for my magazine I used a wide range of technologies, some in which I learnt to use especially for this project. A main part of learning how to construct this product was tutorials. I watched many tutorials on YouTube, showing me how to use the camera in which I took my photographs with, and how to use photoshop in which I used to edit these photographs on.

Below is a link to a tutorial I used in order to learn about photoshop. The tutorial showed me how to use the basic features of photoshop, and as I had never used it before it gave me a very good first understanding on how to use it. From constructing my magazine with no knowledge of photoshop, I now have plenty of knowledge of the program to use it sufficiently.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjRqZiAgoHo

During the process of constructing my product I would converge with friends about up and coming occasions, such as booking the studio in order to be able to take the photographs. In order to talk to them, and also to book the photography studio technology was used. This included email, mobile phones and social networking sites. The main interaction with social networking sites was of course blogger. I had absolutely no knowledge of the program as I had never heard of it or used it before. Tutorials played a big role in teaching me how to use the program.

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

full product? Preliminary task:

Final production:

My preliminary task was completed with minimum Photoshop skills, hence the basic design and lack of creativity. My preliminary task lacks skill and information and only features two pictures. It’s simple design is clear that someone with little knowledge of Photoshop has made it. Everything I learned about Photoshop was learnt through using tutorials. My preliminary front cover is bland with no overlapping images, leaving it boring to look at. I improved dramatically, watching Photoshop tutorials and learning different techniques to make my final production front cover enthused. I learnt how to layer pictures (including adding a barcode), so I can have more than one photo on my page, giving it a very lifelike music magazine feel.

My preliminary contents page is not very conventional – in order to make it look so, I added a ‘feature’ column, which when researching was very popular to have. My skills learned from Photoshop tutorials on YouTube allowed me to create this column, adding shapes and textboxes to make the layout