1. My magazine has a lot of conventions that are the same as real magazines, such as price, issue number, competition and a website. Magazines use these methods as it is designed to get more people to buy the magazine. A competition is used to attract customers as they feel when they buy the product they have a good chance of winning a free gift. Magazines have websites so people can go on the website for free and see what the contents, genre etc is for the magazine. Issue numbers are used so people who buy the magazine know if they have the most recent edition of this magazine. All real magazines have these features so I added them to my magazine to make it look more realistic. The free gift I have put on my front cover is an apple iPad as this is a gift that people would like to win so therefore would be willing to spend money on the magazine in hope of winning this prize for free. The main story on the front cover is the interview with ‘Josho’ and this is also the main part for the contents page and this is the double page spread. I have used this particular artist as he is a big star in the style of music and genre of the magazine, so I have used his star power to try and attract more customers to buy the magazine. I used this method as this is what happens on normal magazines (using the main cover as the main attraction to the magazine).

2. On the front cover the picture I used was just a standard photo of the artist, I did this because I did some market research and the thing people wanted to see on a front cover was a big picture of the artist. This is also used on nearly every music magazines front cover so it resembles the features of a real magazine. Many magazines have pictures of just the artist(s) posing for the front cover and that is the style that I have used. I have used this as this artist is a big influence on the genre of the magazine so therefore it would attract more people to the magazine as they know the artist and know he is a star and they respect him. I have used real artists for other stories in the magazine to make it look realistic and like the main artist they are big names in the style of music of my magazine. The colour scheme I have used is red, white and blue and I have used this because it is more appealing to a hip hop or R&B magazine. This works well as it contrasts and sticks out well enough on the background of the magazine so the audience can read it without difficulty. As well as these colours I have used yellow for the competition and this is on every page of the magazine so readers can identify if the page or the details are for the competition. The background(picture 1) I have added is to make it look better and also gives the magazine a unique feature to other magazines. Picture 1

3. The big title ‘swagga’ is to stick out the page so readers can immediately identify the magazine. The reason my magazine is called ‘swagga’ is because it is a word mainly associated with the R&B industry so people will see the word and straight away know the genre of the magazine. This works well as it sticks out and immediately tells the reader the genre of magazine. The price of the magazine is £2.50 and is a realistic price for a magazine of this genre and magazines in general. This is could be considered cheaper but my magazine does not come with a free gift except for an apple iPad which only one person will be able to. The competition is to win an iPad and this is the gift I have chosen as it would appeal to the type of people who are attracted to my magazine. An ipad can be used for music and to create music as well as many other things and although it appeals to the audience I am trying to attract to my magazine it also appeals to nearly every person as it is a gift that is worth quite a lot of money and a brand new gift which is a prize worth winning. The lesser stories on the right of the magazine are the names of real artists who are big in the genre of the magazine. This will attract people to read the magazine as they will see the big name artists and want to read about them and also know along the lines what the rest of the magazine will be about.

4. The main story being a different font means that it sticks out more and the reader can identify that it is the main story and main attraction of the magazine. These are the conventions of real magazine and conventions that all magazines need. The title ‘Swagga’ is the biggest part on the page as people need to immediately know the magazine and the blue outline is to try and make it stick out more. The competition is in yellow so it sticks out and people can immediately see the word ‘Win’ and know there is a prize Other stories related to the magazine to make it look realistic as the people are real and are big artists in this genre of music.

5. On the double page spread is the cover story of the magazine and also the main story from the contents page also, I have done this because this is what real magazines do also so it gives it a more professional look. Again it has a red, white and blue colour scheme as I have used this throughout and I think it represents the genre best and contrasts well with each other. The logo I have used is used on every page and is the symbol of the magazine, I have used this as it is a real convention that magazines use and this can be identified. The colours of it are red and white as it means that the colours stand out and again it sticks to the colour scheme. The main story pretty much covers the whole double page with pictures articles and sub headings. The picture is one of the artist with a brick wall covering up the rest of the pages, this is so it gives it a more urban look which suites the genre of the magazine as well as it contrasts well. The style of article I have used is a Q&A style, I used this because it is very easy for the reader to understand and also can ask questions that people may want to know about the artist himself. I think it works well because the colours of the font etc contrast well with the background image of the wall.

6. The Red is used in the Q&A as the interviewers questions and the white is used as ‘Josho’s’ answers. This is used as it is easy to identify as it is easy to tell when the question ends and when the answer begins. This is also used in real magazines and I think it works well as the reader can easily identify that it is a Q&A and where the questions and answers begin. The writing 'Debut single straight to number one’ is used to entice the reader into reading the article as it gives the reader an idea of how big and successful the artist is. It also stands out as it only thing apart from the article which is close to the picture so the reader immediately knows that the that the quotation is about the artist and nobody else.

7. The title in the top corner has its own space so the reader can easily identify the magazine and it stands out well. The Q&A is easy to understand and the colours are easy to identify. Tells the reader straight away how big the star is and stands out well Page numbers help the reader identify where it is and also helps them get to the page from the contents page.

8. On the contents page the logo of the magazine is on the page again as this is a running theme of the magazine as the reader identifies the magazine on almost every page of the magazine. This works as it looks like a standard logo in the corner so it is not to distracting for the reader. The title of the page saying ‘Contents’ is in a different font and is underlined so that it stands out as soon as the reader sees the page and they know the things that are on the page. The colour scheme of the writing is red, white and yellow and I have used these because they contrast well and also stand out on the grey background. Yellow has been used to make the sub headings stand out so it is easy for people to navigate the magazine from the contents page. Red is used for information about what is on the page, it is also used for the title so that it stands out. White is used for the page numbers and for the names of the artists. These colours work well as they are a good mix and they stand out. The pictures of the artist are a running theme throughout the magazine as it is the only picture on the contents page it shows again that he is the main attraction to the magazine and this is also shown on the front cover and the double page spread.

9. The tour dates on the right side of the magazine show artists tours who would appeal to people who would read and buy my magazine such as rihanna, tinie tempah, Black eyed peas etc. The artists names are in white so that they stand out at the first glimpse of the magazine. The tour dates section works well as it would attract readers to the magazine as they can find out when big name artists are touring in the country it would be sold in England. The word iPad and competition are both in yellow as it would stand out to the reader so they immediately know that there is a competition to win an iPad, this is also yellow on the front cover as this helps the reader to identify where the competition and the details of the competition are. This works well as it helps the reader to identify where the competition is and how to enter as they can follow the yellow writing to easily navigate to the competition. A website is used to give it a more realistic look and this is also what real magazines do. The good thing about having a website is that if someone is unsure on whether or not to buy the magazine they can visit the website to see if it is to there liking and worth buying therefore getting more customers to buy the magazine. All of the text is lined up along the same line so that the page looks more organised and therefore easier for the reader to find what they want.

10. The logo stands out to the reader The tour guide would make the magazine appeal to more people. The images to show the main artist and the main attraction to the magazine. The word contents stands out so the reader immediately knows what is going to be on the page. Big yellow writing for the words competition and iPad make it stand out so people know where to find the details of the competition. Website so readers can visit or possible buyers can go to find details about the magazine.

11. My media product represents particular social groups as the style and contents of my magazine means it only appeals to a certain age group and social group. My magazine appeals to people around the age of 15-24 and appeals to people who have an interest in hip hop or RnB music. This mainly appeals to peer groups as the whole community does not like this style of genre or music so it would put them of the magazine. All features of this magazine are trying to appeal to this type of social group, e.g. the colours used as most people who like this sort of music would consider red, white and yellow colours that are associated with the genre of the magazine. The images are very urban as they have walls and graffiti on them so this also matches the genre. The fonts are very unique and they are either simple fonts or fonts that match the genre.

12. The distributor of my product would be places such as corner shops and music shops, the reason for this is corner shops always have a lot of magazines in and also they have a lot of customers so there would be more people seeing the magazine so that should lead to more people also buying the product. Also music shops would distribute it(e.g. HMV) because they are very much about just music so it means that people would go in there knowing what the magazine is about if it is there and it would also be expected to be in there if it is a big magazine.

13. The audience for my magazine are people who are into hip hop/ R&B music as this is the genre for my magazine and all contents are based around this type of music. The age for this audience is anywhere between 15-24 as this is mainly a teen and young persons magazine. Also contents wise it is mainly for the male audience as this contents may not be liked by females because of things such as the colours images etc. The way I attracted/addressed this type of audiences is by the conventions and techniques I used, for example the font and colours of text identified it as being quite an urban magazine. The colour scheme being a mix of red, white, black and blue helped to identify it as urban as well and also as a magazine that would be mainly for males judging from this colour scheme. The images I have used also help to identify the audience it would appeal to. The images have in the background graffiti and brick walls etc and this shows that the magazine is hip hop/ urban and the audience it would appeal to.

14. The technology I have used to create my magazine is adobe cs4 Photoshop, I have used this for every part of my magazine and I have learnt a lot about it. The technology for my preliminary task was different as I used the editing program fireworks and using Photoshop was new to me and I learnt how to use it very well and I know feel I have the skills to do a good product and how to improve on anything I think needs improving. I have learnt that Photoshop is a lot better and more helpful to use rather the fireworks as it has helped me to produce a better more professional product as there are more things to do with the program and also better ways to do it. This technology has also helped me to manipulate my photos better and to get them to fit onto my magazine a lot better and match the rest of my magazine, fireworks was not a suitable program to edit photos in and Photoshop is very much based around manipulating photos and making things look better than they were.

15. I have changed my magazine a lot since my preliminary task and I have learnt a lot of new things that have helped me to improve on this. When producing my preliminary task I used fireworks but whilst producing my main task I used Photoshop, this was a big difference as they two programs are very different. Whilst using Photoshop I learnt a lot about how to use and how it could help make my product more professional and more realistic. Learning about this meant that I could better my product and make it look to a higher standard. Also I have learnt about taking photos more professionally and manipulating them to give them the desired effect needed to fit into my magazine, also using Photoshop rather than fireworks helped me to manipulated them better so that meant that i could produce the photos to a higher standard.