7. Looking back at my preliminary task, what do i feel i've learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

 

Looking back at my preliminary task, I think I have mainly learnt how to give my magazine cover a more authentic and realistic look by using different tools within the "Canva" program, and concentrating on the finer details, like choosing fonts that sync well together and a colour scheme that suits my genre and speaks to my target audience which is teens and young adults. I would also say I have improved on the visuals and my cover photo from my preliminary task, I took a lot more care selecting and editing a photo which would convey the message of my magazine whilst also giving a clear depiction of my genre. Overall I think my music magazine cover outshines my school magazine cover based purely on the authenticity of it, this is down to the more carefully chosen colour scheme, fonts and finer detail that I did not think about the first time around.

6. What have I learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

During the time I have taken producing my coursework and ultimately creating my magazine, I have used a variety of technologies, computer software's and programmes, and also props and equipment. They have all aided the production process of my magazine and over time I have required new knowledge and skill I previously was unaware of, whilst also developing and expanding the skills I had already when it comes to computers and IT.


I primarily used blogger to publish and showcase my whole coursework. It wasn't the easiest thing to use at first due to it being completely new to me, however over time I started to get the hang of it and began to find features that enhanced my written work and make it look more presentable, I am pleased with how my coursework has turned out I couldn't of achieved it using a different site. It was effective and there was no hassle if I wanted to edit posts or move them around.



Canva was another programme I used during my coursework, I first used it for my preliminary task and later used it to construct my final product. This was also completely new to me and unlike anything I have used before so it took my a fair while to get to grips with it and how it works, you can see this with the difference between my preliminary task and final outcome. It had loads of different styles and editing features you can use and many magazine covers you can use for inspirations.




I used Photoshop which is unarguably the best editing software out there, I am quite familiar with this programme prior to this task, so this was not hard to get a hang of. Especially as my photos did not need that much editing anyway, just a few colour alterations and cutting out of the background, this is by far my favourite editing software and the one I enjoyed using the most.

5. What kind of media institution might distribute my media product and why?

A media institution is defined as a company that makes and distributes media products, specifically for my chosen media product, magazines. This can be undertaken using various methods for example, marketing or the actual production.

On my previous blog spot I briefly spoke about two different magazine publishing companies, Bauer and Time Inc. Both are arguably the biggest publishers in the industry, so which one would I choose to print my magazine? Bauer have produced such magazines like "Q" and "Kerrang" whereas Time Inc. produce less music magazines however are still responsible for the production of "NME". My target audience is a niche audience because grime is seen as an underground genre of music that only a select group of individuals can listen to, although that is changing and grime is becoming more and more globalised. Bauer publishes a range of music magazines all varied with genres, I feel as if my magazine would add to that range however Bauer are known to publish to mass audiences and they rarely deal with smaller scale magazines like mine would be. On the other hand Time Inc. are known for taking chances on lesser known publications and media products, the biggest and most inspiring to me would be the hip hop magazine "Vibe", founded by Quincy Jones in 1993 (see History of Vibe post for more detail). At the moment the market is over saturated with too many mainstream or "pop" magazines in my opinion, in fairness "pop" stands for popular so everyone is just printing what's popular, however I see there to be a current gap in the market for which my genre of magazine can fill, there are so many fans of grime out there today that would love to read the content my magazine has to offer. As culture has taught us in the past, sometimes its the least popular things at that time that turn into the most popular later on. I think my product will satisfy though who are fed up of mainstream and trendy magazines and offer a fresh outlook and style we so desperately need.

I took a lot of inspiration from "Vibe" and see them as a similar style of magazine to mine, for this reason I would favour Time Inc. as a publishing company that I would trust to produce my product, they've had many successful prints in the past and present and I believe they would take my magazine to the top.

4. How does my media product represent particular social groups?

My target audience would be referred to as being in the social group of "roadmen". These are individuals see themselves as outcasts and extraverts; they consist of lower-class young people who use grime and social media to express their opinion which otherwise would go unheard in society. Although, I believe my audience are a sub-group, they tend to stay on trend with the things they feel are trendy or acceptable which to others would seem not, and aren’t focused on mainstream music as my audience stray away from this type of music and find new and unique styles of music many other individuals wouldn’t enjoy and find beats that many people would find odd. Therefore, my magazine will speak to and reflect their taste in music however they can be careful when selecting other forms of media to enjoy or use to express and so that is why I included a varied choice of artists and MCs to appeal to all sub-genres of grime, from freestyle to garage. My artist on my final front cover of my music magazine is defiantly representative of my chosen audiences social group; he is wearing clothes that many of my readers would consider regular clothes and this will in turn call out to them and give a personal vibe, he is also standing arms folded with one finger pointing upwards, this is quite a common pose when my chose social group take photos. The social groups I have not included within my audience would be those of whom are the "mainstreamers", these are individuals just follow trends, and whatever is pop grime at the current time, which means grime tracks that would be in the official charts, for example Skepta, rather than finding their own sound and artists who aren’t as well-known but have considerably better beats and lyrics. These people are excluded because my magazine only follows on or two mainstream artists as to appeal to a wider audience whilst also staying original and keeping that underground craftsmanship.

2. Who's the audience for my media product? & 3. How did I attract/address my audience?

2. When choosing my genre for my magazine, one critical factor I took into account was what music I enjoyed listening to and what spoke to me as both an individual and my social group. For this reason I chose to do grime/UK rap, as this is the genre of music I personally enjoy the most along with my group of friends, it is something we really connect to. So in order to decide the target audience for my magazine I had to first identify the demographic of grime music as whole as this is who I expect and want to buy my magazine, due to the terminology used and subject matters which will in turn only mean something to as select group of individuals. As it so happened, I found this group to be both males and females between the ages of 16 and 25. This is also partly why I chose grime as my genre, it is not gender specific and although the younger generation will only tend to enjoy it, the music has such a wide net of all ages, genders, ethnicities and religions. 

(see Ideal Reader post for further detail on the specifics)

Penumbra Effect

The penumbra effect is basically an individual or group of individuals buy your product even though they do not fit your target audience. As the grime genre is an ever expanding and growing genre in this modern day, with more and more listeners daily I have prepared for this effect as to reduce cause of discrimination against any social groups or demographics. My magazine is targeted at a smaller audience then many other products as to give it a more personal and less saturated feel, so for the penumbra effect to take place is unlikely however it could happen, as history of rap has taught us, anyone can get into the music and it speaks to everyone.

3. I will attract and address my target audience by making the prose and content seem as if it speaks to them personally, based on their own experiences and lifestyle, I have made my magazine offer an outlet to escape from many of my audiences life struggles or problems, immerse themselves and get lost listening to their favourite MCs whilst having them speak directly to them via the words on the page. The content is such a vital part of a good magazine, and I have chosen particularly captivating font types, word choices and colour schemes to draw the audience in. I want my magazine and the music genre of grime to go hand in hand, so in order to capture this I wrote the mode of address seem as they could be lyrics in a track, whilst this was hard to do in places I feel in particular the interview really spoke a story that could easily have been real lyrics in a real rap or grime song.