The evaluationBy Eve Lakatos- Yarde

URBAN: The Magazine

How does Urban use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Masthead

Date and price

Barcode and link to website

Key words: Exclusive and exaggeration

Key words: Insider knowledge

Ticker tape

Headlines

Colour scheme of red

The Masthead

The masthead is the 2nd main feature of the front cover, as it takes up almost a quarter of the page. On most of my examples, the masthead is covered by the main photo, this is because the magazine is an established brand and consumer would immediately recognise the magazine. The masthead should be short and catchy and use colour throughout, as it makes it stand out more. For my masthead, I picked a short word associated with the r’n’b/hip hop music scene. I also used the three primary colours: red, yellow, blue and kept the red as a prominent feature through out.

Key words

Keywords are important as they draw the reader in and also insinuates that the reader is getting exclusive knowledge. This gives the reader a sense of being in a group . The keywords I have used are; ‘exclusive, official and top ten’.

Headlines

The headline is the main convention that will entice the reader to buy the magazine. Depending on who the magazine is for the style and layout will be very different. The headline is usually the main featured artist, so has to be an artist the suits your magazine’s audience. The headline has to be clear and easy to read.

Contents PagesQuirky layout of the title

Full length image, of featured person

List of features in the magazine, in a set line

Contents Page

Picture of main/ front cover artist

Clear title

Clear sub headings

Pictures of other featured artists

Clear page label

Date, website and page number are institutional conventions

Red colour scheme

Double page spreadQuotes from the interview

Full page picture of interviewee

Differentiation of text, to show interviewer and interviewee

Double page spreadheadline

Album cover and track list

Promotes artist’s upcoming cd

Water marked background photo Makes the

background more interesting

Makes other images more prominent

Interview quotes Varies

images of artist

introduction

Red colour scheme

How does your media product represents a particular social group?

What social group does urban represent?

The social group my magazine represents is young adults, the majority of them will be students either at college or at university. Many of them will have a part time job, to make them independent from ‘mummy and daddy’. They will prefer the luxuries of life, such as smart phones, up market branded clothes e.g. supreme hats, Fred Perry, vans and original adidas. Girls will have a similar style to boys, with same style hats and jumpers but will make it more girly with elaborate nail designs and costume jewellery. Geek glasses, shirts and baseball jackets are also significant style features.

How does your media product represents a particular social group?

How do you represent this social group?

My social group is fashionable, interested in new music, attractive and confident. The way I’ve represented them is through the language, images and fonts I’ve used. Headphones

Represents interest in music; new and old.

Baseball jacket

Similar style to target audience

microphone

Symbolises artist talent

Holding the microphone casually, laid back, similar to attitude and life style of target audience

Facial expression

Approachable and calm

Target may aspire to look and be like this

How does your media product represents a particular social group?

Urban magazine compared to a real magazine; Vibe.

Similarities•male cover artist•Long mid shot•Barcode•Masthead•Ticker tape

Differences •Facial expression•Pose of artist•Colour scheme•background

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

My magazine is aimed at both males and female aged 16-24, and could become a very popular, mainstream music magazine brand. As it could be sold as a mainstream magazine, I think Bauer Media or IPC could distribute it, as they distribute mainstream music magazines such Q and NME.

As well as being in printed format, I would have a web edition and as its quite a high-end brand, maybe host/sponsor urban music awards ceremony, this could feature artists that have been published in the magazine and also give readers a chance to come along.

Who would be the audience for media product?

Name: YasminAge:16Favourite artist: Drake, The Weekend and Nicki MinajFavourite clothes brand/ shop: converse, bank, top shop and H&MFavourite film: Adulthood and 4,3,2,1

Name: JermaineAge:17Favourite artists: Tyler the creator, J.Cole and Ed SheeranFavourite clothes brand/shop: vans, Fred Perry and River IslandFavourite film: Get rich or die trying

How did you attract/ address your audience?

Price- I would say £2.99 is a reasonable price for a monthly magazine.

Featured artistes- I have used artists that I feel my audience will like and will also be interested in so they will want to buy the magazine

I used black font for my masthead as I felt it would stand out more against my white background. Also the use of colour in it, is very contrasting and will help the reader recognise it for future copies.

Keywords-these help attract the audience, by showing they're getting an ‘exclusive’ product

How did you attract/ address your audience?

Constant use of red theme- this just gives the reader some familiarity to the magazine and also stand out on the white background

Main artist photo- this is used to give the reader sustained focus on the main artist, so they know directly who the main article is about

Page numbers- make the magazine more reader friendly as they can navigate quickly and easily to articles

How did you attract/ address your audience?

Constant use of red theme and same font-familiar to the reader and also is very clear and easy to read

Background image- adds a edge to the magazine and makes it more interesting to look at

Quotes- adds to the intimate detail of the artists interview, also gives hints at what the readers can expect the interview to be about

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

I learnt how to use serif page plus. This software was very new to me, as had I never used it before I started my preliminary task. Using this software, I built up my masthead, and article and also used the cut out tool to crop most of my pictures.

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

I learnt how to use picnik, a online photo editing site . I had never used this site before but it was quite easy to navigate around.. On this site, I edited all my pictures, by using various effect and editing features,

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

Computer- this was an essential technology tool as I could not have constructed my magazine with out. On my computer I had all the different software that I used to construct my magazine and also uploaded my pictures onto it, so I could edit them.

Camera- this was also essential, as I used it to take all my pictures. As it was a good quality camera, it meant all my pictures were clear and crisp, so not blurry.

Preliminary task compared to main task.....

I feel like my preliminary task was very basic and was too rigid. Most of the text was set in a boring straight line and the font choice was very safe, as I didn’t take a risk to make it a bit more creative. In my main task I learnt to use a variety of images as well, this made the magazine more engaging for the reader.