Magazine names

Coming up with a magazine name is an important factor. It has to be catchy, be memorable (not just that but easy to remember), it must be simple, it must be effective and must relate to the genre. it could also relate to the stereotypical rapper idea. As my genre is rap, i must consider something based on this. I must think of iconic rap language and whether it could relate to the title. The name must also be easy to relate to a slogan which I will come up with after the magazine name.
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Possible names follow(More added once I think of more):

Killa
Da Hood
Raw Rhymes
Represent
Raw Shizzle

Fonts+ Colours

In terms of colours, I have decided to go with quite dark ones, as the genre doesen't support bright colours like pink and yellow. Colours such as crimson red or black might fit in well, but as I make my digital drafts this might change.

In terms of font, below are some thoughts what I could use. I decided on a graffiti like theme to represent the urban/sub-urban influences on rap and also tried looking at examples that were readable. If the font isn't readable, the magazine loses appeal.

Source : www.cooltext.com/fonts


 

   

Reader Profiles

This is a reader profile. These are used to assess who reads a magazine so the institution can seen where the majority of the target audience lies. For example, it identifies percentages of gender that read the magazine. This shows that the target audience is more focused on males. It also shows an age group and how much they might spread the news spoken in the magazine (circulation), so one magazine will be shown to nearly 41 thousand people. When considering my magazine, I should think In depth of age groups and their demographic region.

Although, the reader profiles go even deeper than just who buys it. It also goes into detail about what people who buy the magazine tend to purchase. For example, here it sat about how many of the readership buys DVDs, footwear, how many use the internet and details about what people like. All this information would have been gained from a survey given to the audience or to focus groups.

When I am making my magzine, it might be something to consider including. This would require me to design a survey, host another focus group and find out what people like or dislike.

This is important as it decides what content goes into a magazine. For example, if a lot of the audience like DVDs, then there will be advertisments put into the magazine to reflect this. Without this understanding of the target audience, the magazine could feature all the wrong content focused to the wrong audience, therefore losing appeal.

Mise en scene- Rapper locations and props

From these images, I can see that possible props i may need are money, bling, hats and a microphone. All this will create the model I picture as a rapper. In addition to this, I showed a couple of locations I could use. I chose quide indimidating ones as a part of the rappers ideal is to be threatening.

Rapper Costumes

Most rappers tend to wear jeans, some wear hoodies and most also seem to have some form of jewery or "bling". One exception is Eminem who doesen't have any bling and dresses quite plainly most of the time. Also most seem to wear some form of hat and have sun glasses on. I will have to consider all of this when doing my photoshoot.

Rappers- Videos and Images of my Genre

 

 

 

 

Here are some images of my chosen genre. I have rappers famous in the digital world and a mroe well known one. More images and videos will be posted in due time.

Price and Release

For my magazine, I want it to appeal to my target audience not just by content, but also by price and how often it is released.

The price will be relatively cheap, but no too cheap to limit how much money it could gain. With my audience being in the lower classes of the demographic table, a price of £2.99- £4.99 would be appropriate. I specifically chose to have the price a penny less than the pound as it makes it look cheaper and may entice people to buy it. 

Due to the price and demographic region I feel that a bi-weekly or monthly release for the magazine might be appropriate. This would mean the buyer wouldn't have to pay for the magazine too often and they will not have to wait too long for the next release. Personally Ithink bi-weekly would be best so the magazine is on top of all the "hot" new topics that are happening in the music industry.

Theory

The Theory behind social media dates back to the twenties. Back then it was believed that people just received media passively without any attempt to challenge the date. This was when mass media was a new concept and advertising had only recently become a good form of communication. For example, WW1 propaganda and recruitment posters influenced the masses to join the army, and to convince the public that what the war stood for was right. So people wouldn't challenge it as it came from the government. It is really quite a straightforward theory, thinking that people will just take in what was told to them, but years later, the theory developed.

In the 1940's came the two step flow theory. It was created during research during a presidential election in the US and showed researchers that information is communicated through other people. Below is a diagram I found of how it works.

The diagram shows that mass media is communicated to members or leaders of groups who share the same thoughts. These people then communicate the information to the members of their group. This still exists today, as social groups will communicate things they learn from the media to each other. This can be observed in modern society when someone buys a magazine and shows it to their friends and their social group.

 

Later, with the rise of television, another theory was formed about how audiences recieve media by a person named Laswell. He suggested it had four functions: entertainment, correlation, cultural transmission and surveillance. This theory was expanded in 74 by two people: Blulmer and Katz. This was the uses and gratification theory, which suggested that people might choose media texts for specific reasons. The first reason, as a diversion, to escape normal life and routine. This is why today we have magazines with other peoples stories and TV Dramas. The second, personal relationships, so that people can fell an emotional connection or substitute things for family life. This is also a use for TV Drama. The third is prsonal identity, which means some people learn about themselves and who they are from a media text. It shows them how to act or dress etc. Fourth is surveillance, bascily to recieve information such as the enws, weather reports and documentries.

In our modern times with new technologies, this theory has extended even further. People find an escape in video games and magazines, people get information from the internet and people can learn about themselves in whole new ways. I must consider all this for my magazine. I must give information, allow people to have an emotional connection with the people who are covered in the magazine and allow people to learn about themselves from the stories in there.

End

Sources

http://www.utwente.nl/cw/theorieenoverzicht/Levels%20of%20theories/macro/Two-Step%20Flow%20Theory.doc/   

 

http://www.mediaknowall.com/as_alevel/alevkeyconcepts/alevelkeycon.php?pageID=audience

Focus Groups

During our focus groups, we did two videos. One where we asked another group questions, and the second where we had a big group discusssion.


Big group discussion




Asking another group questions


Here are the questions my group used :

Focus group questions

1)      Would you prefer to buy a physical copy of a magazine or download it onto your phone?

2)      Do you like seeing promotions in magazines? If so what promotions?

3)      Do you like free stuff in magazines? If so what type of free stuff?

4)      Do you like free posters in a magazine?

5)      What type of music magazines do you read?

6)      If you don’t read music magazines what would make you read them?

7)      Would you prefer a mixed genre magazine where two genres are featured?

8)      How much are you willing to pay for a weekly music magazine?

9)      How often would you prefer a magazine to be released? Weekly, monthly, bi-weekly?

10)  How would you improve a certain music magazine?

 

Our group developed these questions in a group discussion.

 

Target Audience Research and Demographics

Demographics

 

Demographics are statistics and characteristics of population, normally referring to such things as what class people are, whether they work and where they “fit into society” so to speak.  There are different classes, with the lower classes being out of work or on low paid jobs, and high classes being paid a good wage and have a high up job, generally in a position of power.

The importance of demographics for my music magazine is quite high. The demographics allow me to identify target audience which in turn allows me to choose content in the magazine. For example, the higher classes will have more money to spend, giving me the chance to have a higher price tag on the magazine. But also, as higher classes can afford more, the advertisements would contain more expensive products as it is targeted at them.

This is a demographics table. It tells us what puts us in each social grade. As we can see the middle class are professionals and the lowest class have the lowest form of work or are getting money from other sources, such as being on dole.

I will be targeting my magazine at people within the D and E range, to make it affordable for people and because that is where my target audience is most likely to be due to genre.

My Music Genre Choice, Existing Products, Front Cover Conventions

After weeks of toil and thought, i have decided on my music genre for my music magazine. My music magazine is going to cover the rap genre. Firstly, so i can cover rap in the digital world, and secondly, because i just feel it will be more fun and engaging on my part. Below are some existing rap magazines.

Rappers tend to communicate the genre in an indimidating fashion. The look imposing, show no real positive emotion in pictures and generally look threatening. The language they use reflects this, using taboo language.

A couple of the more well known artists include 50 Cent, Dr Dre and Eminem.Enimem is one of the rappers that inspired me to chose rap as he breaks some conventions, and is just a great artist.
 an Firstly, we can see that generally, on the image, the rapper shows no emotion. This is important for me to know when it comes to my photoshoot. Also, they seem to have some kind of jewelery on, like neckchains or rings. This is also important for my photoshoot as it helps develop somebody into the character of a rapper.

The language i have to use is the lexical field of rapping. This basicly means I have to use words that rappers understand for it to appeal to the target audience, such as 'beats' and 'droppin'.

Music Magazine Brief

The brief for the music magazine is as follows:

To design a front cover, contents and double page spread of a new music magazine. All images and text used must be original, a minimum of four images must be used.

Evaluation

Liarr of my cover

Throughout the creation of the front page, I had to consider a lot of things. Firstly, the use of my image. I wanted the theme of the issue to focus on the gamers in the college environment, and so I donned my gaming related hoodie and asked for my picture to be taken. I made myself look relaxed in the picture as I wanted to convey the casual side of gaming on the cover, and not show gamers as their stereotypes.

The language of my front cover shows that the issue focuses on the gaming side of the college community. This is shown by the hoodie I am wearing in the picture. Also, to further show what the issue focuses on, I am centre frame and cover most of the shot showing that this is what is featured.  Also, I framed myself using the doors of Ash building to further enforce what the issue is about.

The institution is the “Student Life” magazine which was devised by myself. Of course this is shown by the title atop the page.

The ideology or message I am trying to convey is that gamers are just as normal as anybody else, and that they are not the stereotypical antisocial community they are made out to be. By choosing a place with artwork above me, I am showing that I am just like any other person, and that games can in fact be considered a work of art.

The audience is to a student at a college. The name of the magazine is one factor to show this, and a couple of other factors including the mention of coursework on the side with the features, and the use of a college building. The age group would be 16-20 due to this target audience.

I have represented myself as a stereotype of a gamer in the sense that I am wearing a gaming hoodie, but at the same time I am breaking conventions. By making myself look dominant and by cracking a smile, I am breaking the idea of an antisocial gamer who sits in the dark.

In conclusion I feel I have conveyed my theme across well and made a decent front cover. I am disappointed with my contents and wasn’t very organised with the planning. In response to this I feel I could improve myself in my next proje

Final FC and Draft Contents

This is my final front cover and my contents page draft. I feel happy with the cover, but the contents could have been better. As it is a draft however, there is always room for improvement.

Hand Drawn Mockups

These are my hand drawn drafts of my contents and front cover. These are to give me a rough idea of layout and what to include on my final front cover and my draft contents.

Mood Board



Mood board of magazines, my interests and college: the foundations of my college magazine.

Camera Angles and Framings

This is a low angle. It can be used to convey power or make the person or object in shot look larger than they normally are. It puts people in a position of dominance, whereas the high angle puts people into a position of weakness.

This is a medium close up. These are used to show half of the body, more importantly, the persons face. This is so we can see their facial expression and any distinguishing features they have on their face.

This is a long shot of my model. Long shots are normally used in conjunction with the idea of showing a background and will sometimes show a skyline in the top of the image. Also, the features of the person in shot tend to be hard to distinguish due to the distance.

This is a high angle. It is normally used to show that the person in frame is small or convey that they have little or no dominance. It puts people into a position of vulnerability compared to the high angle putting the person in power.

This is a close up. This is normally to focus purely on an object or a specific part of somebody, such as their hand or their face. it is to show us in more detail what we are looking at and makes it easier to see what message is being conveyed. this example focuses on a sign and could be an eyeline match or a point of view of what somebody is looking at.

Original Images-College Magazine

These are the images I took for my preliminary task. I took a variety of images to cover any purpose I may have needed. . This is because I wanted different images to work with if I ever needed them, the more I had, the more room I had to pick what sort if image I desired.