Recent Changes to the Raggeek Magazine

As the end of my music magazine moderation is now over, I had recieved great feedback and things that I need to improve in order to reach my full potential. I was very glad to have this oppurtunity especially as as I didn't have to change that much but was a concern to the examiners.
I have made changes to my Front cover and Contents page.

Changes to my front cover:



                              Before                                                                                        Process

                                                                    After
 

I was told to change my front cover image as the picture before looked stretched and the half of the photo was cut off - this was one of my weakest points of my front cover as it lacked the achieveable look for a realistic magazine. I believe that the 'after' front cover image is better than the previous one as you're able to see the whole photo,the second photo has more colour and adds makes the front cover more appealing as it's contains vibrant colours to the audience. The background image of the 'after' image also mounts the text which makes the text more bold.
The masthead was also a change that needed to be done as the one before was small and didn't stand out as much as it should. 'NEON ENIOLA' had stood out more than the masthead which made it harder for the audience to decide which was the masthead/coverline. The font was also a problem as some viewers found it hard to read what the masthead said. I changed the font of the masthead so that it was a simple but yet a readable font; the size was made larger to make the brand name of the magazine stand out and make it clear of what the masthead says.

With the changes that I have made to my front cover, i feel more confident of my front cover than before and it also looks more of a prudent front cover that you would see on a news/magazine stand.


 Changes to my contents page:




















                    Before                                                                                              Process

                                                           
                                                                            After

                                              

My contents page had little changes to be made but i affirm that it made a difference to the way that my contents page had been presented. I had replaced the greeny coloured photograph of my model to its original photograph, colour tone. The photograph appears quite dark as the photograph was taken using natural lighting - i had tried to changed the brightness of the photo on photoshop to make the photograph have more contrast and more light to it. The change of colour didn't happen as the use of the black and white balance made the photo more of a greyish tone.

"I love music..music is powerful source..." - I was advised to change the quote to a more basic font to make it easier to read.
For the section that is named 'regulars', i had changed the colour of the text to a plain colour (black and white) as they are great combination of colours to mount images and especially text.


My new front cover and contents page was definitely worth making changes as i can see the difference of little changes can make a whole difference to the whole document. It also looks more much better and likewise more presentable. 

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

Task 11 - Question 7. what do you feel you have learnt?
by: tamika

Photography

During my photography session I learnt that eye contact is a key point, to engage with the audience and creates a different feeling to the photo. By not having eye-contact it can make the audience lost interest in the photo or the person however, if eye-contact is applied then it’s the main focal point of the photo and grabs their attention.

The front cover is the main attraction for a magazine as it’s the first thing that is seeing on a magazine. During the period of creating our magazine, we had did research on newsstands in shops. What I found most interesting is that some magazine had anchorages (text that relates to the image). If there wasn't text to relate to the image, the photo would give a subliminal message. I had learnt how to do this from looking at an example from VIBE magazine. Where the text says “T.I has the last laugh”, is related to his facial expression (smiling).

 

In my research I had recognized that the best camera shots/angles to be done when doing a magazine should be taken as a close up. Close ups enable the audience to feel up close and personal with the model. I had included this in my photography when taking shots of the model – as the photographs were taken later in the day, so doing lose ups was the best option to capture the model clearly and have enough light in the photograph.

1.   Journalism/research

In the DPS, it contained an interview with a new artist. For my interview research needs to be taken place to find out what viewers would expect or want to know about the artist. If the DPS contains what the readers want then, it would be interesting and more fun for them to read.

The Use of language features will make the text more appealing and eye catching. E.g. pull quotes are effective; they highlight/emphasize a key topic. 

2.   Target Audience

While I was creating my magazine , I had noticed that your target audience is very important as they are the people who you are directly aiming your magazine at and who are reading/buying them. Doing case studies on people who listen to the music genre you produce for will enable you to know what to include in your magazine. E.g. case studies will enable you to know: the age range of who reads or listens to that particular genre, what they may look like, their class etc. Doing research on my genre had help be a lot to understand what I need to feed to my audience. 
 

College and Music magazine comparison

FRONT COVER

                 College Magazine                                                                                 Music Magazine

 

Looking at my preliminary task to the music magazine, in my college magazine i had used less subheadings on my front over, subheading design and where text are placed on the contents page. I believe that i have more of a great understanding of where to place magazine features and how to make a particular page stand out. The front cover for my college magazine was very plain and had a lot of space that could've been filled up with, I think more should've been added to the front cover e.g. a freebie. By adding a freebie or sort of advertisement would make the front cover more interesting and probably more intriguing to the college students. The masthead on my music magazine is not very bold nor very appealing, despite the fact that the masthead has a little shade effect behind the text. In comparison to my music magazine it's quite 3D like, the colours used for the masthead makes it stand out from the rest of the front cover and the red box behind the masthead brings out the text more. The barcode on the college should've been away from the edge of the magazine. The front cover image of the preliminary task needed more light as its quite dark and would've balanced out the colours used for the coverlines.

CONTENTS PAGE

               College magazine                                                                                        Music Magazine

(College Magazine) The contents page looked as if there wasn't much research done, on how college magazines or any other magazine should look like. The Main Subheadings should've been more bold to emphasis and make it more clear to the audience to which are the main headlines of the magazine. The page number are not the same size and looks very unprofessional. 'Leyton Borough needs 100m...See head of sports' - there are no details for the students to contact the head of sports, especially if they don't know where to find the head of sports.  In comparison to my music magazine, the contents page has regulars and more information which is what the target audience want.  I also used a colour scheme which makes the page more organised and portrays my professionalism. I go into more detail about the main pages of the magazine to feed the audience with more information of what the page will contain.

My Improvements

•  I have learnt the main areas that need to be covered and planned before you create your magazine. Each area has to have a lot of thought and planning to it but especially the research, which is the main priority. Doing research makes you aware of what every other magazine does and allows you to know how to make your magazine different from others; having the knowledge and understanding of what is required on magazines enables you to expand your ideas. 
• I've improved on the layout of my images and text - there should enough space so that everything that is on the page is clear and visible.
• Choosing the right colours is important as you want the magazine to  be appealing and also be able to target your audience. e.g. if your target audience for your magazine is specifically for little girls, age range 7-12 then colours like pink, purple are suitable.
• Any type of data or information that you believe is important for audience, should shown clearly and be obvious that it is important for them.
•  Clothing that the model wears is also important to attract the auidence - For my music magazine I told my model what to wear for the shoot and i also provided some accessories also.
• I have also improved on Indesign and Photoshop, I'm able to change the contrast of photos, use rulers and fully align text and images.

6. What have you’re learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

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

Photography equipment:

1.       GE A1200 – is a digital camera that has 12.1 mega pixels. I used this camera to do a location shoot. I was confident about using the camera, but I also played around with the contrast settings as I had taken the photo during sunset.

2.   Iphone 4 –I had used my mobile phone to capture some nature and the surroundings of the location that I would've liked to add to my magazine. The iphone camera has 8 mega pixels and has a great focus. 

  

3. Computer/Laptop(iMac)- I used a laptop to upload photos, choose a selection of photographs that I would put in my magazine.

Desktop Programs
I also used a some designing programs to create my Front cover, Contents page and DPS. The programs I had used were Indesign and Photoshop. 

Indesign - is a desktop publishing software that can be used to make posters, flyers, magazines newspapers etc. I had learnt how the basics: crop an image, add text, use a ruler, create borders and add images. This program was manageable, it was also the first time i had used the program and i would definitely use it again for design purposes.  

Photoshop - is a graphics editing program used to edit JPEGS (photo files). I had used this program to create my front cover of my music magazine, this included adding subheadings as well as editing and placing images. 

Creative media technologies:

For each of the following creative media technologies I have used were different ways of presenting my work. Each website has a different theme and layout for my work and were used to present my answers  in a more youthful way. 

 

Blogger - I had used blogger to display my work in a simpler way. Blogger is very easy to use as it's layout is similar to the layout on Word Document.

Slideshare - Slideshare is a web 2.0 that is primarily based on slide hosting services. I was able to upload my Powerpoint presentations as your unable to upload powerpoint files on blogger. This was also another source that i used to answer one of my questions. I also found this website easy to use. 

Xtranormal - is a digital entertainment which produces DIY animation software for the web. It turns the words from a script into an animated movie using text-to-speech. This is particular type of technology that is new to me as I've never created an animated story. However, i think my final result of animated production was successful and a great challenge.

Blurb - is mainly used for users that want to make their own photo book (photo album) - But in this case i used this to show some of my pictures/evidence of my photos and annotation of the photos that i uploaded.  

Prezi - Prezi is quite similar to using powerpoint presentation - there's many types of templates that you can use; which each theme has their own individual movement of the slides and background.  

5. How you attract/address your audience?

Front cover

 

Contents Page

 

 

DPS

 

 

 

 

Mini Survey

 

What Could've been improved ?

Once i had the chance to gather all my postive feedback, i had also recieved on things that I need to improve on: The (front cover) could've been cropped so that the picture will be a mid-shot of the model and maybe place a coloured text box behing the page number listed on the left hand side- this would make the page number more bold.

 

Ways I attracted my auidence

 

Front cover - The model on the front cover magazine, looks directly at the audience which draws them in - the use of the eye contact to the audience creates a connection with them.

 

Colours - The colours I used in my magazine (yellow and white which is also the colour scheme) make the pages bright and more vibrant.

 

Journalism - My journalism was very good and I included very interesting information that would make viewers want to read more. I added big quotations at the top of my DPS, which where taken from the text below; these where interesting quotes taken from what the artist had said in the interiew.

 

Summary

 

I did a mini survey to know what elements of my magazine were the strongest and what I may have needed to improve on. From taking a glimpse on my feedback of all my magazine documents I believe that RAGGEEK was very successful and my research had shown through the work that i had produced. Overall i am please with the feedback I had recieved and next time i get to do a task like this i will have a great understanding of what a great quality magazine is.

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

4. Who would be the audience for your media product? (if you are not able to see the large text in the slide show, the text is provided below)

4. Who would be the audience for your media product? | Make Your Own Book

Raggeeks magazine age range is aimed at teenagers starting from their mid-teens to the early thirties – I believe my magazine is aimed at a realistic age range, as the front cover is young artists that take an interest in old school music. The people who are in the early or mid thirties would especially be apart of the target audience of raggeek as they may have grown up to this type of music, as hip-house was introduced during 1980’s. I would believe that my magazine would trigger to all different ages, backgrounds and most importantly ethnicity. I don’t want my magazine to be overused with the same race that produces the music.
My target audience would have great taste of music meaning that they listen to different types of genre and do research on music in the early 90’s. They would also be interested in doing research on their favourite music artists and who their inspirations were.

The price of the magazine is reasonable and precisely for those who taken an interest in genre would definitely purchase the magazine. £2.99 is the average price for magazine so it won’t be a surprise to buyers as it most acknowledged price. My magazine also has to be worth the price so, considering the price is £2.99 it's very worth it. 

The videos below are artists that the target audience listen to: 

Female 1. 2PAC - How do you want it ?

Female 2. Azealia Banks - 1991

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

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

How does your media product represent particular social groups?
from tamikayoooo

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

My magazine raggeek was conventions of real media products. I had done my case studies on RAP-UP and SPIN which suited my genre for raggeek. Rap-up and Spin are both hip-hop genres and I challenged both and all magazines by producing a magazine that has never been published before. But most of my ideas were from doing research on Spin.

The title of the magazine

RAGGEEK is the title of my magazine, the title was the taken from the word ‘ragtime’ which is another synonym of ‘music’; and then I had used the word ‘geek’ so that the masthead as a meaning to it. I had chosen this name because it’s unusual, out of the ordinary and I wanted the masthead to be simple – raggeek also conforms to the audience’s expectations as Hip house is a genre that is mixed with two genres, Hip-hop and House music.
The image above is the masthead for my magazine; it has the generic top, left hand corner positioning. By positioning the magazine there it allows the audience to see it precisely and section the masthead from the other features of the magazine. The use of the colours red, white and black makes the mast head bold and stand out – as you can see, it is more distinct and dominant than the rest of the front cover. The masthead shows a true indication that it’s the name of the magazine (this is important to make it clear to viewers).
Raggeek also adds meaning to the masthead instead of just be the sake of being a masthead.

 

Contents Page

 

In my contents page I have challenged the conventions of all music magazines, which focal point the main feature on the contents page. What magazines tend to do is have one large image of the main feature on the contents page to simply imply to the viewers that they are the main attraction for that particular magazine. I had first did this technique in my previous contents page before I had changed it – I had changed it because people thought that the front cover and contents page image, looked similar. I had used the comments that explained the changes that needed to be made to my contents page to develop it and improve the appearance. As you can clearly see in the screen shot of my contents page, I had used a range of images. By doing this it, showed that there is more high profile musical artists that will be featuring in the magazine and more for viewers to look at. I had sectioned my regulars and magazine extras by placing them in a bright coloured box and a white outline, this develops the idea of having adding the regulars and extras to the bottom of the texts that indicate what the pages contain. I found this more creative especially as the coloured text boxes have a vibrant green which can catch viewer’s attention that they must read it or maybe it’s more important.

“I love music. Music is a powerful source; it can penetrate through peoples mind and change them”– In the contents page, I thought it would’ve been nice to add in something that could be inspirational to others. This is similar to spins’ magazine as they add in quotes; this was a good way to develop their idea of challenging other music magazines. As I had used their idea, I had underlined the text to distinguish and add emphasis as to what the main feature said that made it so important to put it on the contents page.

For the background of my contents page I had chosen the picture that depicts an image of a ‘ghetto’ location or area, I believe this had moved away from the generic contents page for hip-hop magazines. This had also challenged the conventions of music magazines as I had selected a location image with no model as my contents page background. Most music magazine has a white space, a coloured background or large image.

Colours of the images

My image for my front cover is very simple to the fact of the colour and my DPS is more vibrant and colourful. The front cover image conforms to the conventions of a magazine because of the large image. In most magazines the front cover will probably never be black and white or you’ll hardly see the colour be used because of the dull contrast of black and white. In many cases the front cover image is colour and the DPS of the main feature that is on the front cover is also colour too. Nonetheless, it had happened the complete opposite between my front cover and DPS. I had made the front cover image black and white because I wanted it to tell a story between the Front cover and the DPS. The black and white image meant that she as like everyone else; aspiring to be famous or accomplish something in life when, the coloured images in the DPS signifies her happiness and her world becoming colourful as she’s now accomplished her ambition. Making the colours significant makes the imagery and magazines more interesting and means that the colours where chosen for a particular reason.

Written Context

 

In my DPS which contains the main written context, I have used colloquialism and slang in my DPS. The reason for using colloquialism in my DPS was because I had written the interview as if the reader was present at the time the interview was taken place. This meant that while the audience were reading the interview they would feel easy going, to give the written context more style and personality. The most important reason why colloquialism was used was to also enable readers to relate to the text – everyone uses colloquialism so applying this to the text will mean the viewer will have an easy understanding of the text. 

I had also used language features like pull quotes and short sentences. The pull quotes are frequently used in journalism. Pull quotes serves the reader into an article or highlight a topic. However, in my magazine I had used the pull quotes to highlight a significant comment that the featured artist said that will ‘pull’ the readers to read the interview to know the reason why she had said, what she said.  I had also changed the general state they would present the pull quote – magazines will make the specific text larger than the rest of the article or put it in the middle, of the  article so that its more obvious to see.  I did my pull quote at the top of my page and placed the text in a diagonal direction.

On the bottom right hand side I had made a little box ‘facts’ so that viewers will have a little insight about the main feature, instead of doing the generic conventions of having a DPS about a fact file of the new artist. In the box I had used simplistic language so that it’s understandable and capable for all classes to read the text.

Costume

 

As you can clearly notice from the image above, the costume was very simple and basic. I had chosen this outfit, as it would be something that a hip-house artist would wear – I clearly said this in ‘my chosen genre and how I showed it’.  I had designed this outfit from asking my mum about what was the latest trend in 90’s as well as doing my research. By researching on the outfits that females used to wear, the clothing was stereotypical to the genre. The item that I found most stereotypical was the bandanna; it was most symbolic in the ghetto and still is in the ghetto. The bandanna would either be used to represent a gang or a fashion trend that was set my 2pac (a hip-hop rapper). As my genre as hip-house (the combination with hip-hop and house music), it made sense to add a mixture of a symbolic hip-hop item to the main feature that is apart of the genre. Furthermore, the vibrant turtleneck jumper had adapted to the ‘house’ side of the hip-house. This development moved away from the conventional process of a costume designer that chooses outfits for the model to wear which either doesn’t suit the model or go with the suited genre.

My chosen genre and how I showed it – minimum of three technologies

My chosen music genre was Hip House, which is a mixture of house music and hip-house. This is a new type of genre that has a growing popularity in the United States I the early 2010s. I has chosen to do this genre as it different to other typical magazine genres (Hip-hop, rock, jazz, electronic etc.)By choosing this genre for magazine I was able to challenge the general magazines that are out there, especially as I have never seen a hip-house magazine been published. I portray the genre by the outfit that the model is wearing and the title of the masthead. Firstly, I will talk about the how the props and the outfit portrays the genre. However, in the UK, the first officially credited hip house track was 1987's ‘Rok Da House’ by UK producers the Beat masters featuring British female emcees the Cookie Crew. I chose to do this genre as this genre is not noticed that much as well as the more popular genres in hip-hop.

The model was wearing a bandanna, acid wash jeans, dr martens etc. All the items that she had worn are associated around the lifestyle and fashion around the 90’s. Hip-House artists especially females had worn these type of clothing to seem intimating and fierce- this type of 90’s style stereotyped black women as being strong minded and firm. I had done my research for this and I believe I had clearly shown this through the outfit and the poses that were done by the model.  The 90’s fashion was mostly funky and used vibrant or bold colours. There were very simplistic; I had made my model dress very simplistic but am able to related to the genre as having a simplistic outfit, would let the viewers have a focal point at the models facial expression as well as their outfit.

The masthead raggeek was also related to hip-house as the ethnicity that were a part of the music genre used colloquial language, slang and words that were made by a sniglet (a person that makes up their own words). Most of these slangs were made or used by artist in their songs. For example Azealia banks, who isn’t a hip-house artist but done a song to the genre. Her song ‘1991’ had many words that were made up by her or slang that she used with her friends such as: ‘lil bambi’ ‘illumina princess’ ‘young venom’ - all these words where used her song.

The word ‘raggeek’ wasn’t used or probably even invented during their time but I understood the concept of what hip-house or general people would do. I combined two words ‘ragtime’ and geek’ and created the masthead for my magazine. I thought this would be more appropriate to use for my magazine as it’s funky and unusual; RAGGEEK as it’s different and creative in compare to other magazine mast heads. I wanted a name that will appeal to young people and possibly make up a new slang word that will start a new trend.