Q7 looking back at the preliminary task what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to a full product?

Since carrying out the primary assignment I have learnt a few skills that helped me advance towards my final creation. One thing that was needed for creating a magazine was to learn the conventions of a magazine and the features of this sort of media product. Through learning the features I next analysed how to present them appropriately onto a page. Looking at the primary task which was to create a college magazine front page and contents page, I can see it looks incomplete and also not fully clear. Overall I can say that the performance in executing this product was fairly poor and if done again I believe it would be better-quality. As you can see the contents page looks both bland and not 100 per cent magazine like.

Photoshop was also a main part of the creation process, not only was it a main tool but it also helped enhance the music magazine overall. Photoshop wasn’t something I was not familiar with when creating my first media product, the college magazine. The program/ software helped enhance features of the magazine, it made it more presentable and expert, as well as controlling features to my gain. During my first task although I was less familiarised with Photoshop I still had less time to create my magazine and use these programs, the fact that I had more time to use the software and also gradually gained skill with it was a great benefit as I could now use that in improving my assignment

Q6 what have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Through constructing my media product/ music magazine I learnt a lot about the equipment required in order to construct the product. Firstly through creating this media product I gained the knowledge in using a canon E0S 400D camera, this was the camera I arranged with my teacher to use during, the task to produce a distinctive music magazine that could be recognized by an audience. The camera I used achieved what I wanted it to; all photos were taken in a studio where a blue screen was behind. The photo on the front page and double page spread both used this background in order to show consistency as well as a magazine view to it. The canon definitely met the quality I wanted it to, picking up the slightest of details as well as showing overall great quality in the images taken. Out of a possible 15 images I had taken, 13 of these actually could have been used for the front cover, contents page and double page spread, suggesting the camera proved good use.

Although the canon E0S 400D was good it had to be used in conjunction with another type of technology, a program used on the computer. The program was called Photoshop, software used in creating, editing and also viewing imagery; this was an adobe product and was very necessary. At the beginning of my course I had not used this program once and had no familiarity to it, over the time of creating my magazine I found it less time consuming and simpler to use. My computer had adobe Photoshop CS3 installed, which is a basic version of the software allowing you to do all of the essentials. The main problem

Q5 how did you attract/ address your audience?

At the beginning i undertook audience research to see who ill be aiming my magazine at and also what will appeal to my audience. My audience were attracted firstly by the first thing you can see, the front cover photo. This is not only central but is also very bold taking up most of the page. The picture on the cover page determine wether my audience decide on buying or leaving the magazine. The model used in the picture was either in and around the same age as the audience i chose, this could help people both relate and also associate themselves around her and her characteristics. The model is wearing clothes that represent hip hop/ r and b singers of our era, although this genre of music suggests a black ethnic group, i wanted to use a latino model to break this stereotype and show a new appearance to this genre.

My audience was also attracted through consistently keeping the focus on the Hip Hop/ R And B music scene. Centering topics around issues connected with this genre, meant even more appeal, the cover lines and matters discussed constantly throughout the magazine gave the reader exactly what they wanted. I also used a few already established names in that industry to engage the market even further, for example one of the cover lines read "Chipmunk- Diamond Addiction" the simple phrase diamond addiction will appeal to the audience i have targeted and make the audience want to read into it including when linking this with chipmunk. Diamonds are an object associated with chipmunk, my knowledge of this made me decide on using this in creating promotion of the magazine. Although all cover lines were not about already recognizable artists, and in order to keep it both original and current i decided on using a new made up artist as my main headline.

During my media product i used different fonts to give the magazine a modern, present look, which is an aspect of the genre of music i had decided on. My fonts were a mixture of both fonts downloaded from DaFont.com and ones already installed into word. The font that was downloaded was actually called headline this font definitely helped in creating a trademark, noticeable look. this was another way i used to attract the audience whilst creating uniqueness and making the magazine look singular.  

Q4 who would be the audience for your media product?

As I decided in my audience research, beat magazine would be targeted at teens to early twenties in the British audience. Britain currently has a rap audience possibly at its peak due to the numerous new artists achieving success. British rappers and R and B artist have a tendency to be noticed globally the popularity success brings is a benefit to the success of the music magazine.

Although my audience consists of early twenties it can be described as a very young audience as the artist I have tried portraying attract this sort of audience and new rap acts coming onto the hip hop scene like play dirty. However my magazine also targets a slightly older audience also as the magazine doesn’t only focus on hip hop but r and b also, which I believe is a very wide genre liked by a lot of people in their twenties. R and b music expresses issues of love and the stress that comes with it, which is involved in this genre.

The magazine will be a music magazine expressing issues in and around these genres where all R&B and hip hop fans can be involved in some way. In terms of ethnic group hip hop music is usually related or connected to black people who used this sort of music to express a struggle or show others how they were feeling at the time. Though saying this I would say my magazine also targets other audiences equally with more people actually listening to this genre of music. This magazine targets those who have a great passion for music greater than listening to the music on the net or mobile.

Q3 what kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

I analysed several media publishing houses in order to decide on which publication would be right to publish my magazine. I chose the Bauer media brand to produce and distribute the magazine I had created.

When choosing I believed it was a good decision for a few reasons, first Bauer was a great choice do to the features of the audience; Bauer has experience in creating musical magazines. This is an advantage as they are knowledgeable within the magazine layout and are very skilled when magazines are involved. However although magazines are already in place, the magazines in the music category have no relations to R&B or hip hop music which is the genre for my magazine. This means that the business will move into a new market, which is expansion for the organization. This new market may be a very large part of the population the magazine could be very successful in this case, resulting in a large some of money coming in from this idea. The magazines already existing including Q, MOJO and KERRANG are focused on the rock and pop genre this is likely to be an upper class, white audience. A hip hop/R&B Magazine will open fields for black audiences which take up a lot of the English population. The audience I have aimed at are also teenagers the majority of the magazines in the music section are aimed at an older audience which is another benefit to why it could sell within this publishing house. The introduction of my music magazine or any within the music genres hip hop or R&B will help expand the media industry selected.

Next, there will be a large financial advantage included with the magazine I have created. The audience that I have picked is unlike any of the audiences within the music category in the media group. The publishing off my magazine within this company could enhance popularity of the business. The audience which could be aimed at black, hip hop music loving teens could be a very trendy positive amongst the costumers.

I would like to distribute my magazine in corner shops across the country, these are not only easy to get to and on nearly every street, but are used a lot by the audience I have chosen. Teens find themselves around corner shops a lot and this makes it even more likely for the magazine to attract the eyes of the audience. Next I will encourage subscriptions to the magazine so that I could get a brief on how many people are repeat customers and how much the business is growing. 

Q2 how does your media product represent particular social groups?

My magazine was focused on a young teenage audience particularly those with a strong R&B/ Hip Hop music influence. The magazine was mainly aimed at male whilst it also appealed to females. The images used in my music magazine both represented those teens but also appealed to that exact group of people. The model on the front cover represents a variety of those in the chosen section.

The clothing that was chosen for the image was very stylish and eye-catching at the same time; the look suggests attraction and customers may want to read the magazine because of this. Stereotypically beautiful and striking girls are associated with female girls in Hip Hop and R&B. the dominant pose showing both power and control is typical in the genre chosen and determination is almost required in order to fit the boots off being a Hip Hop artist. An attitude is a characteristic of this genre of music and I believe this picture suggests the attitude necessary. The ethnicity of my model was also another technique in capturing my audience, Latino artists are very prominent within the hip hop R&B scene today and progressively more are getting involved in this genre, the use of this model I felt represented and passed of the look well.

The hairstyle used is very free flowing and bouncy this was consistent within the chosen genres models and I thought this should be a characteristic I used.

Q1 in what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Magazine Front Cover
When beginning on this task I used a number of existing magazines to base my assignment on and also see how magazines should be presented. Certain things seen when looking at these media texts gave me ideas on how to target my chosen magazine audience. Firstly the magazine masthead at the top of the page is a convention; this convention is typical of a magazine, all magazines I can think of have their magazine name (masthead) at the top of their page and I thought it would be a good idea to put it their also to distinguish this as a magazine. The use of some of the conventions already established allowed my magazine to look more existent. An important method of a typical music magazine is a large masthead at the top of the page and most times to the centre. This helps to make the magazine name stand out and be noticeable showing extra significance to the other writing on the page. The font used in the title was downloaded from dafont.com and chosen to be prominent on the page and also attract customers when on display in store. I used a sans serif font these have no flick parts to them and generally suggest current, which I wanted my music magazine to have.

In my magazine I chose to use a pop-up this was an Idea I picked up from a music magazine I analysed. Inside the pop-up it says "the mega music facts issue", this done many stuff including confirming that it is a music magazine, showing what a main focus would be in this issue, as well as being a way of promotion in order to attract the selected audience even further when they see that the magazine will include additional information on their favourite topic.


A magazine will have a barcode on the front page possibly in the bottom left corner. I put the barcode here as I believe it stood out, it also fills the blank space and it is another principle of a music magazine which helps recognize it as that type of media text. Although not visible above my date was placed above the barcode to stand out on the shelf as the newest or most up to date product right now.

Cover lines were also a way of attracting trade, cover lines are an obvious convention for music magazines and without these a front cover would look bland and without features. These cover lines give an insight into what will be featured in the magazine with these we can see exactly what will be included in the magazine when at the same time adding colourfulness to the page. The same font was used for all cover lines although I changed the colour of the main cover line so it could stand out more. The image and the main cover line need to be central in your media product as this is what is selling your magazine, if your audience isn't happy with the image or what will be a main article the customers are very unlikely to buy. Like most magazines the cover lines are arranged vertically down the sides of a cover this could be left or right depending on choice, I chose to put cover lines down the right side, as the music magazine I analysed did so and It came of well and I also decided in putting the main cover line lower down the page and making it larger to other writing, meaning attention wasn't taken from the image whilst as always it stood out. Everything on this page is spaced out making each line independent and all lines grab the attention of its audience.

When learning about creating a magazine I was told that most magazines use medium close up type images. I didn't want that sort of shot and when analysing a magazine cover I saw that not all magazines used these shots and does without these looked eye-catching. Therefore I decided in using a medium long shot of my model here you can see more of the model including the posture which will attract readers even further.

Magazine Contents Page
My contents page also took ideas from real magazines although it allowed me to experiment with a few original ideas also. This magazine included one image placed central on the page. The image is a medium long shot the person on the contents page implies that other issues will be discussed in the magazine and it also is another way in making readers continues reading. In order to fully attract my audience I used an attractive model like the front page which showed consistency. My contents page like the content page I examined had a symbol representing the masthead shown behind it. This not only lets the model stand out but adds extra interest to the page and fills blank space.


My actual content is broken into two categories, features and fashion I believed my audience would like a music magazine that also focuses on other popular fields. The vertical arrangement of my writing made it look both neat and organised the writing doesn't cover or warp the image and all writing is written around it, so all attention is on the image and everything around it is separate making it clear in itself.

Magazine Double Page Spread

As always my double page spread used and developed recognized conventions of a music magazine. Here I used the same background colour to the set on my front cover this is because the article is about the same person on the front cover. The colour scheme I used creates a modern/ professional look to it, as the background allows the font to be clear. These two colours really boost each other and come together to make a stronger expressed page. The title is larger and has a phrase written underneath to attract the audience and make it more eye catching. A familiar convention of a magazine is the larger first letter which enhances the page slightly and also makes it more presentable. I used the original idea of using another image under the writing for extra attraction.

Music Magazine Double Page Spread

Music Magazine Contents Page

Music Magazine Front Cover