Evaluation question 3 - Re submission

One Institution which ive found is called 'Black Music'. They publish mainly reggae magazines but also have an audience in classical music. Ive researched into the company and ive found that they are a well respected organisation within the reggae industry and have a wide range audience. This is obviously beneficial for my magazine because it will reach more people and it's focused on a very niche audience.

Another distributor which I could use is 'worldreggae.com' These like to publish their magazines online meaning that the audience could potentially be greater. In the modern day a lot of people use the internet to view media, meaning that this could potentially be the best option for my magazine. They have a good history of successful magazines which is also another massive benefit.

Another potential distributor would be Bauer media group,  i researched these and they have had a no experience in distributing Reggae but they have the widest range of Genres meaning that they would be ideal for my magazine. 

Overall Reggae has been a tough Genre to focus on because of it's popularity in England, not many people read Reggae magazines who aren't from Jamaica which makes it hard for Reggae magazines to gain popularity.

Evaluation question 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My media product is aimed at an audience which isn’t massive in the UK therefore is a niche audience so it was difficult for me to find conventions to follow. Firstly I think my product represents the lower class because generally when I researched Reggae it was often associated with the ‘lower class ‘which is why my product only costs £1.50 meaning it’s not very expensive which is a benefit for the lower class who should be able to afford the magazine comfortably, if I could do it again I would try and make it more appealing to the lower class by maybe adding in competitions and advertisements which would benefit the lower class.

My magazine is gender specific towards male but if I could do it again I would make it less gender specific, however generally reggae is associated with the male audience which is why I thought it would be a good idea to make it more male orientated, if I was to do it again I would make it less male specified because there are female reggae fans in the UK, my product could also get females into Reggae in the UK so for this reason I should have made it less gender specific.

My main target audience is Reggae fans within the UK, people around ages 20-40; to get a more accurate number I could have done some market research where I conducted a questionnaire on the streets. Knowing what my target audience affected my magazine in different ways; it affected the price, the advertisements as well as competitions. From doing research on Reggae fans using social demographics charts and creating reader profile from the information I learnt, I could influence my products to their particular interests.

The colours of my font represent Reggae fans in general because they are widely associated with the Reggae genre, I used colours like Red, yellow and green which are seen as ‘Rasta’ colours, this highlights the fact that Reggae has a trademark of certain colours which must be used on a Reggae magazine to put it in the Reggae genre.

The clothing used in my magazine isn’t really associated with Reggae but I had limitations to what I could use as clothing, the closest I could get to ‘Rasta’ was plain black. If I was to do it again then I would try and find more suitable clothing which was associated with the Reggae genre. I did try and Photoshop the clothing with the colour replacement tool but I felt that it looked unnatural and ‘fake’.

Feature stories are one of the most important factors of a magazine because they are designed to help sell the product, they can decide whether the potential buyer buys the magazine or not so with that in mind I had to make sure I got my feature stories right and make sure I fitted them in correctly. One of my feature stories is “Bob Marley tribute act going on tour” this is associated with Reggae because Bob Marley is seen as the ‘king’ of Reggae and one of the most successful Reggae artists there has ever been so obviously this is going to attract my target audience and attempt to persuade them into buying the magazine.

Overall my magazine represents the ‘lower class’ and Reggae fans in general, I did this by adjusting the price to one that the ‘lower class’ should be able to afford whilst creating feature stories that can persuade the potential buyer into buying one of my magazines. 

Evaluation Question 1

1

1.       Front Cover

It was hard for me to create my product based off current conventions of a Reggae magazine; so I had to think of most of it by myself. There aren’t any Reggae magazines which are considered ‘big’. The front cover of my magazine uses the conventions of ‘NME’. I used the layout of the ‘NME’ magazine because it typically looks like another music magazine meaning that the audience will instantly recognise it’s a music magazine, I had my Logo at the top which is conventionally placed there. I had skylines which is another convention of a Music magazine, the skylines included offers and vouchers that are included in the magazine which is another convention of a music magazine, I had my main feature story in bold, larger than other text and in a different font and colour so it stood out more for the audience which is another convention of a music magazine. If I was to do it again I would make it look a bit more appealing and make the logo a bit more ‘recognisable’; I would do this by placing a background behind the logo, I would make this a Jamaican flag because Reggae is widley associated with Jamaica because it’s where it orignated.

The contents page was again based on the music magazine ‘NME’. I decided to use that layout again because there aren’t any ‘big’ reggae magazines to gain conventions from so I thought that I should use conventions from another music product. If I was to do it again I would definitely research more into the Reggae Industry; I don’t think I researched enough,  I could have tried to buy a physical copy of a magazine in an actual music store. I decided on placing the Logo ‘Dope’ at the top of the contents page which was again based on the Music Magazine ‘NME’; I think that having the logo on the contents page means that it has a higher chance of embedding the logo in your memory meaning that people will begin to recognise your magazine on shop shelves. Also on my contents page I followed the conventions of ‘NME’ by placing different headings for my contents page; this makes it easier for the audience to find the page they want to view, I used the headings ‘On the cover’ and ‘In dope’. If I was to do it again I would add another heading called ‘Exclusive’; this is where I would put articles like Exclusive interviews and Exclusive pictures. I would do this because a minority of the audience may want to read about ‘exclusive’ items which other magazines won’t have; overall it makes it easier for the audience to locate specific articles; this doesn’t follow a convention of Music magazine so therefore it would be totally new.

The double page spread was not based on any convention really; it’s mostly quite simple. One convention it follows is that the text is laid out into a column which is a common convention of any magazine; it makes the text easier to read and allows you to fit more information in. I used this because without it, it wouldn’t look like a normal traditional magazine. If I was to do it again I would still use this convention because it’s a crucial convention which makes it look like an ordinary magazine. Another obvious convention that I’ve used is page numbers; I have placed two page numbers on the Double page spread which are in the bottom corners of the page; this stops the reader from becoming confused and they’re there for obvious reasons. If I was to do it again I would still use page numbers because they are a must for all magazines for obvious reasons. 

DPS

Contents Page

Front Cover

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