AS Media Studies Foundation Portfolio: 2015

Evaluation:

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Front cover

For my front cover it was important to me to use a woman who is representative of the female part as well to make the readers buy my magazine. As the genre is “RnB”, I dressed her with a white fell jacket which symbolises wildness and power. Her make-up and hair I kept it in a classic scheme and in the style of the 50s to link it back to the “old RnB”. Her lipstick colour fits with the colour scheme, jacket and hair colour as well. The way she stand shows that she is confident and know what she is doing which is an attitude a “RnB” singer needs. Alexava looks directly into the camera to catch the audience attention and to make them feel addressed.

My masthead is placed on the top. It got all the three different colours of the colour scheme; dark red, white and blue. The masthead is placed in front of the main character. I liked the font of the masthead and to let it stand out more was the only way to put it on top of the main image.

The plug is placed next to my main image. The fact that they are placed next to each other makes the plug equal to the main image. Obviously the first glimpse, if you look at the front goes to Alexava and I guess the second is the plug because it is bigger than the other features in comparison.

My main feature is about the main image which is the biggest font on the page. The quote I used is a statement made by Alexava. It is meant to be a little “ironic” because Alexava is not black but still can say “I am more black and soul”. This shows that by buying this magazine everybody can be part of the “RnB” no matter what their skin colour is.

I also used a skyline to make the magazine more special because I used the pronoun “you” in “songs you must download”. This gives the reader the feeling to be more attracted to the magazine. It looks like the magazine is speaking directly to the reader.

My features reflect a lot of “RnB” singers like Rihanna, Chris Brown, Beyonce, Kanye West and Nicky Minaj. I felt that these singers are really popular and fit to my genre and I think people are interested to read about them.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My magazine is focused on an audience aged 16 to 25, so all of the features are easy to understand and more interesting for people of that age. The price of the magazine is obviously higher than £ 2.99 if this is the special price. This shows that the audience of my magazine got an A, B and C1 Profile. The scheme of the magazine is kept quite classic. My main image is a young woman. The fact that she wears a fell jacket made her wild which links her to the young generation.

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

I think the magazine institution “Hip-Hop Connection” might distribute my magazine product because both magazines have a lot in common. When I started to construct my music magazine I analysed the magazine from “Hip-Hop Connection”, so I used a lot of their ideas which I then applied to my magazine, for example the features, the way the character looks and the posture. So both magazines are quite similar, the features as well, that’s the reason why I think it would appeal to young people as well. So it might be if you are interested in reading Hip-Hop Connection, you might like RnB as well.

Who would be the audience of your media product?

Blues-Bhythm magazine is focused most on an audience in aged 16 to 24 with 61%. Because more than half of the readers are under 24 years the magazine is focused more on the younger generation with features like “Rihanna and Chris Brown”. Most of the readers are male but it maintains a good balance. I think because I used Alexava as my main image there will be more female audience who feel attracted to the magazine.

How did you attract your audience?

For my media product I used a language which is easy to understand; this gives my audience an idea about what my magazine is about. In this issue I created a special price which means it is cheaper than it used to be it might be a good deal to buy it. The fact that this a collector’s issue as well gives the audience the feeling it is more worth to buy and to keep because it is the 20^th anniversary special edition. I attracted my audience through Alexava who posed for my magazine as a celebrity. Her name is written in a bigger font than Nicki Minaj’s. That means she is famous and known by the audience as well.

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

While I was working on my magazine, I used different types of technologies. To take a photo of my main character I used a camera. The photos I saved on a memory stick. With the help of Photoshop and PhotoScape which I could find on my computer and at school I edited the photos. To show the work I had done I had to work with Blogger. There I posed all the work I had done.
During the time I was working on my media product I learned to develop my Photoshop skills so I felt surer when editing. I learned how to change the skin colour to make it more muse. How to change the eye, hair and lip colour. Besides I used the advantage of Photoshop to create a new face shape to make her fits to the expectation of the beauty role model of the 20^th century; smaller nose, bigger eyes, perfect eye brows, smaller ears, bigger lips, high cheek bones, a smaller neck and a perfect skin.

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

If I look back at my preliminary task, I feel like I learned not much because to edit my media product I have been using the same steps to edit my photos. But for this time I tried to use a better quality for my photo and to edit my magazine more professionally with fonts that fit better together.