Josh Balogun

1. Evaluation Josh Balogun

2. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? My media product challenges the form of a real media product because of its layout scheme. For in my front cover I use images on the side to show the reader what they are going to read next. This is commonly not found in normal media products so my front cover breaks the rules of a conventional real life media product. My front cover also uses the same layout of the text like the title and subtitle being at the top or middle of the page. My media product is using some areas of a real media product to make my product look more like a magazine. I have also developed the way some areas of normal magazine is positioned for example when magazine covers give small news on a subject it is usually on the side with other bits of information. This makes it harder for the reader to read it because other information is surrounding it. However with my magazine I have put the news at the bottom so it is spaced out from everything else and can be read easier. The pose of the main image of shaksz is bold and stands out because it takes the space of most of the magazine which is different to normal magazine covers as they have a small space for the main celebrity. Where as because big shaksz is the main man I wanted him to stand out even more.

3. Links to existing product analysis Colour Scheme My main colourfor my front cover was going to be red black and white. I decided to do this because these colour are linked in with the theme of rap especially which represents blood. This is also common in other magazines. So I decided to keep red as my main colour background throughout this product. Language The language used in this media product is short snappy language to really grab the readers attention. I try to keep the language more relaxed and informal to keep in linked with my target market of a teenager market. Z-line A z-line is very common in most magazines because they are used to make the readers capture what the magazine designers wants them to see. As you can see in my front cover the z-line goes from the mast-head to my barcode then to my price. This is done so that my audience can see the more important things in my magazine. Font The font that I have used in this product challenges the conventional covers because normally they would use simple font and sans serif to write. However I wanted my product to be more interesting and instead I chose something that would stand out more.

4. How does your media product represent particular social groups? My media product represents a teenage social group because they are primarily my target group. Also my magazine is more aimed at a male gender group as you can see from my product I only have men featured in my magazine. Even though there are some women in the rap industry. Rap is represented as more of male dominance. This is what I wanted to represent in the my magazine cover a male rap magazine because the teenagers I am aiming for to buy would be more boys buying it than girls. Also in the media today male rap artist are seen as violent gang related criminals. However I did not want to portray this in my magazine I wanted to show rap artist that have been successful through the use their talent and being successful business men. Which is why I have specifically chosen specific images for my magazine I have chosen artist that have really had it tough growing up as kids but making something for themselves artist like Maybach Music Group, N-Dubz and Jay-Z who is the most successful and richest rap artist in the world. This is why my media product has chosen to represent a high class of rap artist. Instead of following the normal trend of portraying gangster rap artist.

5. Comparing different representations? However as you can see in my magazine cover it tries t portray a more professional image as seen that the rapper are about business as well as being music artist. The difference between the 2 magazine covers is that in one there is a gun however in my magazine you can see just the artist no violent poses or props that may feel threatening to the readers. Also I made sure that I picked images where the artist are covered up. This ensures that people may not stereotype the magazine cover this ensures that my media product breaks the rules of following a stereotype As you can see from this magazine cover this is following the traditional rap magazine stereotype. It has a man pointing a gun at himself also the red writing could represent blood. This image is very graphic and is an example of how most people see rap artist today. Also because this image is quite graphic it may deter people from purchasing this magazine because they might see at as a bad influence

6. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? I had to research the best A good media institution that will distribute my magazine is Bauer this is a very good institution because not only do they specialised in the hip-hip, Rap and RnB there price for most magazines they sell is £2.00 and my magazine is priced at £2.50 which enables not only us but Bauer to make profit. This means that because they are selling t a cheap price it’s price will appeal to teen readers. Bauer is also aimed at 13-19 year old which is the same as my target market. Bauer are already a well known brand. It is also now the largest consumer magazine publisher in the UK. However having a media institution distributing a magazine cover means that they will get rights to change what we design. They get to design the layout IT’SARAP

7. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? Here is a magazine that is distributed by Bauer this is similar to ours because you can see that it is breaking the rules of a stereotypical rap magazine you can see that it shows the rapper Jay-Z wearing a suit instead of wearing gangster clothes. This is a similar to my magazine cover by having a rapper as my front cover that looks professional. This is showing that Bauer follows the same moral as my goal by braking the normal concept of rap artists.

8. Who would be your audience and why? My media product is going to be aimed at the teenage market. I have decided this is because rap is listened to more by this market as to any other age group. Rap is really common in the teenage group especially males. This is why I have decided to aim it at them. This will increase my publicity because now teenagers are always using social networking sites to connect with each other. Meaning kids will be able to share my magazine around. Aiming my magazine at teenagers means that a lot of things in my magazine will have to be altered to them like the price and image. This has been done to interest readers into to buying them. My teenage market will increase profit because it is mainly teenagers that buy rap magazine this will mean that they will help to increase profit if it is aimed at them.

9. How to attract and address your audience? During my secondary research I asked people a series of questions relating to my media product. I did this to see the different things they feel that needs to be incorporated into my magazine. By doing this I swill attract my audience because it means that not only do I have a good media product but it has things that my customers wanted to see. Having my consumers needs in my product it means that they will be interested I my product because they will be attracted to it because it has their ideas and what they want will be presented to them in my media product. When I looked at my survey people said that it will be beneficial if my image would be bigger so it would stand out. They also felt that this image really is able to represent the rap image because the pose is the same that a lot of teenagers use today so it will relate to them.

10. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product ? • For this media product I used various technology to complete this task: • Nikon Camera • Mac Computers • Photoshop • Microsoft Word • Microsoft PowerPoint • Wordpress • Survey Monkey • Internet In the project the main thing I used was the apple Mac Computers. I had to do also most everything using this equipment. When we first started I was new to the computer so I had to learn as the project went on. However as I started getting more use to the Mac I was able to become more familiar with it and its different software's. I learnt how to use Photoshop because my skill level has changed I am now able to create and alter different images using Photoshop and create a good piece of work and with more practice create something that is to a high standard. The different technology I used has allowed me to create something more professional and of high quality than if I used regular equipment like normal cameras. The cameras I used was of a high quality because the images I had were clear and professional they looked like pictures from a real magazine. So I also learnt that the different technologies can really make a difference to the professionalism I get from my work.

11. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product ? I was also able to create my own my blog through the use of wordpress. This enabled me to keep my work organised and allowed me and work to have a higher degree of professionalism because the blogs allowed me to keep posted with other classmates and allowed my work to be viewed by other people which gave it a higher degree of standard. As you can see from the image on the left my blog also allows all my work to be on one document so it is easier for viewers to flick through. This enabled me to learn how to post my own work on my blog. When doing this project I also had to give out surveys for my research. This meant I had to learn how to create my surveys online. This was fairly easy and it allowed to cut my work load because without the site I would of had to design each survey so this allowed me to quickly design my survey which was then posted on my blog for people to complete. The site that was used was Survey Monkey this allowed me to focus on other pieces of work.

12. Looking back at your preliminary task what of you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product

13. Looking back at your preliminary task what do you feel you have learnt in your progression from it to the product? I have developed a lot during my first task. As you can see from my previous slide you can see that in the start of this task my cover was not developed at all I did not use Photoshop to my full potential. Also my first task you can see that I did not really spend much time designing it and it lacked creativity. However to my final front cover you can clearly see that I have learnt a lot because the designer it better the rap theme is also clear. Also my image links to the theme and text. You can see that my front cover is much more developed than my preliminary task I have also used more elements of Photoshop and my design is much more profession than my first task. In this project I've have learnt a lot more skills to when I first started. This s due to the fact that I was new to Photoshop but now I am more developed and you can see that in the comparison. My front cover looks more of a magazine cover compared to my preliminary task. Through the use of my research I was able to look at different magazines which has enabled me to design a front cover that is more professional. I also gained much more confidence when I was using Photoshop because I go used to it as the project went on so I started exploring and playing with different modes on there like colour alteration or the image positions. My final product has broken the rules of conventional rap magazines because I wanted to stand out because I felt that this was very important. It allows me to be different to normal magazines and alter the stereotype of rap magazines and the artist portrayed in them. However in my preliminary task I followed the rules when designing the St Marys cover. You can see a big difference between the 2 covers because I have gain new knowledge with the different technology I used.