EVALUATION OF “BOOM” MAGAZINE

1. EVALUATION OF “BOOM” MAGAZINE By SheetalDabasia

2. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge the conventions of real media products? The “Vibe” conventions for the eyebrow is, majority of the “Vibe” magazines will have an eyebrow at the top of the cover. The “Vibe” conventions for the masthead is the large bold writing, being covered slightly by the central image The “Vibe” conventions for the central image is, they are mostly placed in the middle or occasionally to the side, with the “model” looking directly at the camera. The “Vibe” conventions for the cover line, is that the main article is mostly the largest text on the front cover, relating back to the central image as well, giving more of an insight to the audience The “Vibe” conventions for the barcode is, they are mainly placed at the bottom on the cover on either side, sometimes on its side and sometimes straight

3. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge the conventions of real media products? I went along with the convention of an eyebrow, this shows the readers what may be inside the magazine as they are all RnB artists I placed my central image to the right of the page, leaving room on the left to promote what is in the magazine, I used a female so that my magazine would attract both genders and made the image large showing that the female plays a big part on this edition of the magazine. On my magazine cover, I went with the tradition convention of a large and bold masthead behind the central image. Another convention that I followed was that the largest text on the front cover is the main article inside the magazine and relates to the central image. “Vibe” has their barcode rotated in several ways in new editions of the magazine, but I decided to go against the convention of the sample cover that I used to make it look different.

4. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge the conventions of real media products? “contents” is in a large font, bold and also black so that it stands out from the grey background. The word has been broken down into chucks, which isn’t very conventional for regular magazines. The “Vibe” conventions for the central image is a long shot, placed on the right side of the page, they are looking directly at the camera which is quite common in the vibe content pages. The central image of the content page would attract males readers just as much as female readers as the 2 ladies are wearing rather revealing clothes making themselves look quite sexual and appealing to mean. The “Vibe” conventions for the sub heading is that the font if different compared to the rest of the font used on the page, making it stand out showing that it is a sub heading.

5. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge the conventions of real media products? I followed the convention of a large font for “Contents” and I also went along with the idea of an unconventional way of writing “Contents”. Something I did different was add an outline to the text and used another font compared to the sample contents page. As for the central image I followed the conventions of having the image to the right of the page, putting two images of the same person together instead of two different people. I made him have an intense look on his face to attract the female audience to read the magazine. Another thing I did was cut off the legs of the model rather than having an full long shot. This is not present in the contents page sample that I used, I went completely against the conventions and added an extra bit of text to the right corner of the page and made it large with an outline in order for it to draw attention from the audience. The “Vibe” conventions for the sub heading is that the font if different, so I went along with that convention, changing the font to something more script like in the sample that I have analysed, but this time I gave it an outline to make it stand out.

6. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge the conventions of real media products? The “Vibe” convention for the page number is put on the top corners of the pages, one on the left and one on the right, along with their website too. This is the heading of the double page spread, the convention of the heading is that, each word is in the same font but in different font sizes, they have also used 2 different colours. The first page on the double page spread has a full bleed image of the artist, the artist is not giving direct eye contact to the camera either, the artist has a speaker box as a prop in the image giving up an hint about what it is that he does. The article is set in 3 columns, this article is a interview, hence the reason why the questions are in bold. They have separated the questions and answers together leaving space in between. Credit has ben given to the photographer at the bottom of the image in very small text, something that is conventional with a lot of magazines, not just “Vibe”.

7. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge the conventions of real media products? I followed the convention of the heading for my double page spread, but did not use other colours, I only used black, which goes partly against the convention. I also have an full bleed image on the first page of my double page spread, following the vibe convention of the sample that I earlier analysed. I have made my model sit on a music box, with headphones in her ears making it look stereotypical of an artist and again my model is not looking directly to the camera either. The double page spread that I analysed did not have an Discography, it was just an interview, so I went against that convention and added an discography for Nicole Scherzinger into my article. Here I went completely against the typical conventions of a double page spread and added an image in the middle of my article. I thought I would be a little rebellious and make it my own. I challenged the conventions of the page number, by placing it in the bottom right corner of the right page along with the website for my magazine. Credit has been given to the photographer at the bottom of the image in very small text, something that is conventional with a lot of magazines, not just “Vibe”.

8. How does your media product represent particular social groups? Outfit: Image 1) My model is in a black top showing her arms and shoulders, blue skinny jeans and heels that are not present in the picture. I didn’t make her wear something too revealing as I want it to be appropriate for the target market, ages 16-25 years old. Image 2) I have made my model wear a blue baseball jacket with a top inside and blue jeans, basically casual wear but still looking stylish and attractive. Pose: Image 1) The pose that I have made my model do, is look straight at the camera and smile. It’s a positive pose, showing no signs of aggression, as she is meant to be a female RnB artist and look attractive to attract males to read the magazine. Image 2) The pose that I made my model so something a bit neutral, raised eyebrows and looking directly at the camera to capture the attention of female readers. He has a slight intense look on his face, pulling down the top corner of his jacket again to draw in female attention. 1 2 Location: I used the TV studio in college to do the photo shoots, In image 1 I used a white background as it would match with the whole positive vibe that my model is giving off and for image 2 I used a black background so that his jacket would stand out against the black, also along with his fair complexion. Social groups: The target audience for my media product is ages 16-25 years old both males and females, hence the reason why I have chosen models in that age category for my magazine. The language I have used is a mixture of formal and informal as I don’t want to make the magazine too “Ghetto” like Vibe is.

9. How does your media product represent particular social groups? Design construction… The colours I have used for my contents page are, Black, blue & red. I kept this theme going on from the front cover and made very few changes. The reasons why I picked these colours is cause they work for both genders, they are all pretty dark colours and stand out as they are bold. I have used a variety of fonts, representing that nothing is the same in the music industry, everything is different and everyone is different individually. The colours I have used for my double page spread are again, Red, black and blue, with a hint of white in the text. Red is a good representation for a girl, red is the colour of “Love” and this way it shows that the artist obviously loves their career. I haven’t used many different fonts on the double page spread as I wanted it too look a little neutral and not over done as this is a magazine for 16-25 year olds and not for small kids. The broken up “contents” represents that the younger generation are willing to try new things and not make everything look so simple.

10. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? My magazine would not sell unless I am joined to a publishing company and a company that is willing to distribute my magazine. If I want my media product to sell I will have to go to a institution that sells a lot of magazines and know that they are doing so, I would join forces with “Future media with passion” in order to distribute my magazine. They have been in the Media industry since 1985. The magazine example that I used “Vibe” Is published by “Vibe Media|Access network” . As my magazines is a music magazine, I would like for my Magazine to be sold in places where a lot of people shop, such as The super market, news paper stands where people walk past and can see my magazine on the shelf. Shops such as “WHSmith” would be a great idea too, as they sell a lot of magazines daily and my target audience would be seen there regularly as majority of them would be students. News agents would definitely be ideal, as they are everywhere and easy to access by all ages between 16-25 years old.

11. Who would be the audience for your media product?