Note to the Examiner

Firstly, thankyou for marking my blog. I hope you enjoyed seeing how have I progressed over the last few months, and how my final coursework has come together. I have labelled all my posts to make it easier for you to navigate around the blog, and also included links to both my teacher's blogs and sources of inspiration I used/sites that helped to present my work, such as Slideshare. Looking back at my preliminary task, I feel I have vastly improved - and I hope this is evident when marking. Overall, I am pleased with my final cover, contents and double page spread and feel my research and planning reflect how I have produced it.

Alex Pocock

Final Magazine

Question 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Evaluation Activity 1

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Question 2: How does your media product represent particular social groups?

On the left is the artist I chose to use as my cover star, with the same image. On the right is the artist Eminem, who I feel is most similar - and therefore would appeal to a similar market. Both artists share the unique factor that they are white male rappers in a market dominated by mainly blacks. This perhaps breaks the convention of rap magazines, as 9 times out of 10 a black artist will feature - making my magazine unique and intriguing. I chose to style my artist in a similar way, with the 'hood up' look. Eminem often uses this image and therefore displays another similarity. The main difference between the two however, is the age difference. Eminem is now 38, whereas my artist is 17 - although I do not think this affects the appearance, as Alex does not look 'too young' to be a convincing rapper. My audience will associate the cover artist with rappers such as Eminem, or other white rappers like Mac Miller purely on appearance. This gives my magazine some credibility as due to the success of Eminem over his career a younger, uprising talent would be of interest to many of them.

Question 3: What Kind Of Media Institution Might Distribute Your Media Product And Why?

In my opinion, the media institution that would be best to distribute my magazine would be IPC Media. This is partly due to the fact that they are the UK's leading consumer magazine publisher - meaning my product would be able to be available to a wide range of people in different locations across the country. This then allows my target market can be reached more effectively, and my magazine should continue to rise in popularity simultaneously to the genre - which is already growing.

Another factor that would make this institution a suitable distributor, is that it is already an established publisher in the UK - meaning my audience will therefore have a pre-existing trust of the company as they produce some of the most popular magazines like NME. Whereas on the other hand, if the company was unheard of it would make the magazine disreputable from the start, therefore decreasing its potential to succeed.

However, a downfall with using a company this mainstream is the fact that my magazine is quite unique, and a fairly niche market. This could potentially mean that it would not be as appealing to potential buyers compared to other magazines. For example, a magazine like Complex is published by it's own, independant publisher - Complex Media Network. Therefore, everything is very focused on the target market of '20 something males' and other forms of media have branched off of this, which the audience has followed.

Another institution I considered was Harris Publications. These would also have been well suited to my magazine as they're products are fairly specific to individual target markets, rather than a mainstream producer - for example, some of their titles include 'Celebrity Hairstyles' and 'Men's Workout'. Another factor that would have made them a good institution to distribute my magazine is the fact that they produce 'XXL' magazine - a magazine similar in both genre and style to mine. This would mean people would associate my magazine with the distributor of an already successful product that many of my target market may already be purchasing. The only downfall is that the Harris may not want two of the same style magazines, as there is not a big enough market to keep up sales figures for their existing product. Therefore I decided against them as a potential distributor.

Therefore I have decided that I would want my magazine to be published by IPC Media. The unique selling point of my magazine (the showcasing of new talent within the hip-hop industry) would hopefully entice the company to distribute my magazine - as there is a potential gap in the market due to lack of similar products. 

Question 4: Who Would Be The Audience For Your Media Product?

Here is a typical example of my target market audience. Will is 16 years old, studying A-Levels at College and listening to music and playing sport in his free time. He is interested in many genres of music, such as Dubstep, Grime and Heavy Metal - however his favourite is Hip Hop. Reasons for which he would particularly be attracted to my magazine are that he is of similar age and ethnicity to the cover artist, which could possibly be intriguing to the audience member and therefore increase the likeliness of them to purchase it. Another factor is that Will has plenty of free time, due to not being in full time work - and therefore has more of a chance to read magazines than other possible audience members, such as 20 something males. Furthermore, the inclusion of up and rising UK talent being showcased in my magazine (the unique selling point) could interest or inspire audience members such as Will - as it appears down to earth and real, whereas magazines such as Complex which are mainly popular in the US only include top artists such as Kanye West etc.

Question 5: How Did You Attract/Address Your Audience?

Question 6: What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?