Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

For my preliminary task, I created a school based magazine that featured a model on the front cover. I used some simple effects on the text in photoshop to make them stand out, and used transparencies at a basic level for some vector shapes.

While for my main task, I used an entire range of new tools like masking, gradients and photography manipulation in order to create an interesting and exciting front cover, I feel I have learned how an audience reacts (by using peer review throughout creation of my magazine) and how to use certain content to suite that, such as my use of colours and association.

I have learned how to effectively make my model more interesting and engage and address the audience using contrast and colour editing, and I have managed to use special effects to make text stand out on any background. More specifically my extended use of the glow tool in Macromedia Flash.

All in all I believe I have learned a massive amount since I first created my preliminary, especially regarding layout and engaging the user through readability and colours. I feel that I have improved a massive amount from when I first began creating a magazine cover and contents page for my coursework.

This is my original picture for the front cover pre-editing

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

Prior to me creating this magazine I had hardly used Photoshop and had used Macromedia Flash occasionally, after creation of my magazine I have learned various things that can be done to help make my magazine stand out, keep it interesting and help my models fit better into the magazine.

The biggest things that I learned are to do with photo editing, I learned how to remove the backgrounds of photos to make them stand out on a background that I'd created on Macromedia flash using transparency. This was basically done by selecting which points that a line would crop from, all around the picture that was needed to be transparent. This helped my final magazine a lot as I managed to combine photographs using it, simulating locations such as the wall on the front cover.

I also learned how to make photos stand out more effectively. When using gradient backgrounds, I was having trouble getting the normal skin colour to be eye grabbing and interesting, the same with the clothes that my model was wearing. In order to fix this I drastically increased the contrast and the brightness, allowing lighter colours to become lighter and more focused for readers.

In Macromedia flash 8, I learned how to add effects such as outlines and glows to my text, and worked out how to use gradients much more effectively then in Photoshop. In Photoshop you must choose a pathway and the gradient follows it, but in Macromedia Flash I could manipulate the gradient as it is a vector based program. This also allowed me to add the transparent centre gradient over the wall in the front cover, giving it a more surrealistic feel.

In my magazine I used a left to right and top down pattern to help readers associate certain things with others, I would not of been able to do this without a tool that I discovered called "Masking". With this tool I was able to add gradient effects (such as the red to dark red gradient on the title) much more easily, and then use it to help my titles stand out in comparison to a solid colour.

All in all I have learned a lot from completing this magazine, and I believe that I used these methods effectively to create an outcome.

How did you attract/address your audience?

For my front cover, I used interesting and bold contrasting colours of black, white, red and gold in order to gain the readers eye. I used the colour gold as it is often associated with hip hop artists, and I used black white and red as they are traditionally used to gain and hold the attention of a potential reader. In order to attract my audience for my front cover I ensured that my model was wearing modern/current clothes and was looking directly outward of the magazine, engaging the viewer. He is wearing a cap which is generally associated with rap/hip hop, allowing fans of this music genre to associate themselves with him as fast as possible.

I continued this colour scheme throughout and for my contents page used a red colour in the background for featured articles, this combined with the fact that I used a red/dark red gradient for my title on the front cover was intended to allow readers to associate the colour red with interesting features that are exclusive/new to the Definition magazine. Other colours were used for the purpose of association as well, for example gold for interesting hints of snippets/information.

In order to address my audiences interests and needs, I used a questionnaire to interview and record data from fans of hip hop and those interested in it, and then based my entire magazine content on these answers. My special features were only that of the artists that my audience enjoyed, and I made sure that content was based around the decisions and popularity of certain choices in the questionnaire.

I arranged text to make sure that people saw certain things first, allowing my magazine to address the audience quickly and allowing my audience to identify the purpose of my magazine. More specifically, the use of the words "EXCLUSIVE HIP HOP INFO". This informs the user quickly that it is a hip hop based magazine, and is for information about hip hop and it's artists. The articles that follow then reinforce this, using popular icons such as Eminem to keep interest.

What kind of media institution might you want to distribute your media product and why?

What Type Of Institution?

My magazine is intended to be a non independant mainstream hip hop based magazine. Because of this, the company that I might want to distribute my product is a large, multimedia company, that has access to this kind of market and already has previous research and setups regarding a hip hop magazine. Despite my interest in using a freelance or a smaller company (which is recieving funds from a larger conglomerate) I have decided that because of the massive resources, a large company would be more beneficial.

What Company?

Specifically I believe a company such as Bauer Media would distribute my product, as with other magazines such as Kerrang and Q. They own more than eighty media brands spanning many different interests, and it seems apparent that the main area they are missing is a rap/hip-hop style magazine.

Bauer Media is a very large company that was founded in 1875 and started and still remains privately owned. Worldwide circulation of Bauer Media Group's magazine titles amounts to 38 million magazines a week. As this company also has access to media such as radio, and tv advertising, I believe this would help my magazine.

What Magazines?

An example of a similar style magazine that has the same style and base as my magazine is the source. This is a magazine owned by Hip Hop Connection, which is part of a conglomerate of Infamous Ink.

Infamous Ink is a private company located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. This company employes two people and is privately owned, and despite this company being VERY small in comparison to Bauer, it has the same content ideas as I intended.

Who would be the audience for your media product?/How does your media product represent particular social groups?

P1: Who are the audience for my product?

The audience for my magazine are young people that are interested in hip hop and are aged 16-23. This is because of the interesting colours and content within the article. The feature on the double page spread and the contents page is a young person of equal age to the intended audience, allowing them to relate to him.

P2: How does your media product represent particular social groups?


The main social groups represented are the ones that my magazine are aimed at, ages 18-23. The main featured rapper, "MC Chrime" is wearing modern clothing and distinctive black and red colours of the magazine. The cap that he is wearing is often related to youth, and the modern could suggest that he is current rather than old fashioned/out of the ordinary.

On my double page spread, he is shown holding a boom box, which is intended to show that he is to be associated with those in the music industry or he is interested in current music. His eyes are looking off in the distance, with a more serious/determined facial expression rather than an angry or a happy one. This is intended to continue with the theme in the article of young people entering the hip hop scene themselves, and also attracts attention to the article by following his eye pathway. He has a modern slightly waxed haircut that is medium to short length, this is a common haircut associated with teenagers/young people. As MC Chrime is meant to represent younger people by allowing himself to be associated with them through clothing, this would also suggest that the social group of young people are being represented as determined.

For the rapping community represented in this article, generic interviews with famous artists are used to attract attention on the front cover and the contents page. This allows them to easily associate themselves with it being a hip hop based article and represents the rapping social group as related to the articles shown, for example most articles are related to music rather then disruptive/party related behaviour.

For the interview, MC Chrime does not speak of any illegal activities or antisocial behaviour, which is the opposite to the current stereotypes of young people that are interested in hop hop, this helps represent the youthful social group as a dynamic interesting group of people that are interested in studio/the big time for music, rather then concentrating on immoral behaviour. MC Chrime is set up through the magazine as almost a representative of hip hop fans who have turned famous, and his views and determination are intended to be associated with this group.

In what ways do you intend your media product to use, develop or challenge forms and conventions?

Evaluation - Media AS Question

View more presentations from thomasager.

I used a presentation for this question, in order to use text and pictures together more effectively.

My Magazine

This is my finished magazine.

Click to enlarge any pictures