How does your media product represent particular social groups.

1. IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS ? I created my product, with conventions such as mastheads, barcodes, hooks and teasers, a main image and issue dates. I then decided to make a dub magazine, this featured conventions such as serious yet youthful look to the magazine, a sound related masthead and a rave culture blatant to the reader. I created the rave culture by taking a picture of a rave, and another of the main protagonist dancing, which suggests loud, funky music, then with the title DUBSTAR, the reader immediately knows this a is a magazine to do with UK dub, attracting dub listeners. The hooks and teasers are also related to Dub, “celebrating Bob Marleys birthday immediately attracts the reggae listening readers attention.

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups. • My media product represents the youth and in particular black youths in a positive light. In the media there have been generic stereotypes of these two groups as having and probably creating the asbo culture that is prominent today in certain parts of England. I have tried to represent both as a musically gifted, happy and colourful societies. I think my product does this by the use of colours and the context of the writing. “RAS KILO SKANKING IT OUT”, meaning the artist dancing, and the title dubstar, meaning someone who loves reggae, reflect this. It shows also in a deeper context how misguided youths can be put on the right track by music, and how it is a powerful being in itself.

3. What kind of media institution will distribute your media product and why ? • Since my magazine is based on a underground kind of a music, the distribution of it is going to be mainly through internet retailers, such whsmith.com, amazon.com, and other shops such record ships where the consmer will be very likely to have a interest in what is a niche market.

4. Who would the audience be for your product ? • The audience would be from the age group of around 17 to 28, and people who are into niche kinds of music or more particularly, rave culture and UK dub. I have tried to attract this audience through my use of colours and the image I have used, which suggest youthfulness about them and the masthead DUBSTAR also suggest a young, bubbly kind of magazine, attracting casual readers, which frequently turn out to be the younger audience.

5. How did you attract your audience ? • I addressed my audience by using a variety of bright colours, such as the bright colours used in my background for the front page and contents. This could immediately help the main image which should be striking in its own right stick out and consequently help the magazine stick out from the rest on the shelf, or computer screen. • The main image must be vibrant, and jump of the page, I have done this for my front cover by having someone who looks very into his music by the way he is dancing, this image is very vivid and original and makes the reader want to know more about the artist and his kind of music. • The masthead must also do this, and I feel the Dubstar masthead is something that ticks all the right boxes to attract my targeted audience. It sounds very dub related, while directed to the youth as star is a slang term for calling someones “mate”, the target audience will recognise this and appreciate it.

6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product. • From the process of using his I have learnt to use Photoshop from a complete novice to perhaps a further intermediate level. • I have learnt to use professional cameras and how to apply rules of photography to a better degree.

7. What do you feel you have learnt from the progression from your preliminary task to the process of constructing your product. • From the progression of the preliminary task I have learnt to use Photoshop to help make my magazine a more professional one. • The rules of photography, such as always keeping them in focus so the quality of the photo is always a high one. • Conventions, and how to apply them for my magazine and target audience, such as making sure the image is a vibrant one and the colours used are bright to attract a youthful audience. • How a magazine tries to look more professional thorugh the placing of things, I learnt to do this through the use of my flatplans.