Q1

Q1. What kind of media institutions might distribute your media product and why?

At the start of my coursework unit we were asked to create a textual analysis of a music magazine front cover. What I chose to evaluate was a ‘billboard’ magazine.  I chose this because it attracted my eyes well and it had a photograph of a very popular music artist that I admired as the front page. I analysed the denotations and connotations of the magazine and how it met the conventions of a real music magazine. In creating my magazine i have used many conventions of a real magazine to attract my target audience well which are young black teenagers.

Firstly in comparison to the bilboard magazine front page, the size of my masthead is slightly similar, this is because of the use of bold fonts.The reason why i have chosen to use thick bold fonts is to reflect on the powerfull nature of my magazine and this relates to my genre which is ‘badgirls’ . A typical ‘badgirl’ keeps up to trends,tough and they can also be ‘tomboyish’.

Looking at my masthead  ‘boss’ you can see that I have started it off from the top left corner of my magazine which then makes it way to the right hand side, this is very common with American magazines such as billboard ,scratch and vibe. I had decided to follow these common American conventions because of the genre of magazine so i had to make it a mixture of American and British just to give it a little more taste than using the typical left third convention. The whole point of this type of convention is so that it would be seen when stacked on the shelves in local shops or supermarkets, doing this meets the real conventions of real magazine this is because it helps them attracts their target audience.

In my front page I have used many font and sizes just like the real conventions of magazine to connote a variety. This is done because many teenagers find it boring sticking to one thing as it does not interest them, but with me meeting their expectations of a magazine this will really attract them more

I have also included a website link of my magazine just to add that extra spice unto it making it more realistic, this type of convention would be also important because it helps the audience keep on track with the different features of the magazine and also updates.

With my main cover line of my front page ‘ Rona’   i made sure that this took up a quarter of the magazine cover this is done to show the importance of the artist on the front page as it promotes them as current. I used bright and engaging colours such as yellow and black to attract my audience , I came up with this when looking through real magazines what I did was looking through the colours ,font size and also the type of font that was used to present the artist. I used this type of font to flow along with the style of the artist, if I used a much more feminine type of font this would not fit in well together so I had to use my common sense in choosing the style of the font and also colour.

My barcode is on the right side of my front page just like the real magazines

Im a fan of using strokes on font, if you have noticed i have used the stroke effect in most of the fonts . I believe that using a stroke helps beautify and also makes a font much more engaging than it already is. When using the stroke I had to be very careful this is because of the fact that it would be too into your face. I have used colourful titles well in my front page, I have done convention to catch my audiences and also meet my genre well , doing this will relate more to the teenagers and also make them spend more time on my magazine than anything else.

 I used a banner at the bottom of my front page which reads ‘ interview/review/news/fashion/features, I made sure that it was short ,sharp description of my the titles main marketing point. This was done as a visible status which helps convince my target audience into purchasing my magazine. I made it look just like the real conventions of magazine such as buzz magazine, substream etc

I have also used a puff on my front cover, this is done in a style of a sticker, this opposes the real conventions of magazine this is because I decided to use the selling line description on the puff as a made up convention of my own and I have no reasons for this. However puffs are common in some magazines and I have done this to attract my audience and give them an interest with my magazine.

In my contents page I have used a few conventions that meet many real magazine as way of attracting my audience. Firstly I have used a continuous colour scheme that will help match my front cover this is because it helps give that ‘the boss’ nature and also remind them of my magazine. It very important to use a colour scheme this is because it helps the audience keep track of a specific magazine, without the use of a colour scheme it would make them forget about the theme of your magazine and eventually make them loose interest and this is what I did not want. I had to be very carefull although it was very difficult for to make it continuous.

I have also used a mix in my contents page I made sure that I used an equal amount of photos and text boxes that suited my audience , I made sure I did not use to  many text boxes so that it would  not bore them.

In my double page spread i made sure that the heading ‘People compare me to lil mama and i hate that’ go across the page on the top of the page, this was done to catch the attention of my audience and also make both pages interesting. I also used pull quotes on the left hand side of the page to pull the reader unto the text more .The column of the text on the double spread is very neat and it helps show how organised my magazine looks.