New Era

New Era is the sponsor of my magazine and i chose it because of its urban image, which fits in with my grime genre.

Evaluation

The Audience
My core audience will be both male and female listeners of grime music and young teenagers who follow the grime scene due to my genre of music being grime.
I will be targeting youths between the ages of 16 and 19 as this is the age when I believe most teenagers are entering adulthood and therefore face many of the issues I wish to discuss in my magazine.
My audience is likely to be teenagers’ living in urban /ghetto areas as this is where grime music originates from. Most grime artists come from such areas and readers can relate to personal experiences as grime artists often lead similar lives to the readers.

My magazine will also be a guide for aspiring grime artists or rappers. Unsigned musicians can get guidance on pursuing a career in music through the advice section in my magazine.
Music has a great impact on society. In particular grime artists who originate from ghetto areas are usually youths who if they were not making music, would probably be out on the streets forming gangs. Grime music targets youths particularly those who live in notoriously known south east London where youth crime has being increasing over the years.

How I attracted my audience
I targeted my audience through various techniques. The model of the front cover wears a dope chain symbolic of the urban genre of the magazine. A dope chain is a thick heavy gold chain worn by American gangsters in the 80’s. However they have come back into fashion and are currently worn by retro teenagers as the 80’s old school becomes new school.
I also used language to attract my audience. The use of slang and informal language directly targets my target audience as they can relate to the everyday language they use daily.


Ways in which my media product uses develops or challenges forms and conventions of real media products.
I have challenged typical urban conventions of using graffiti or urban font for the magazine cover. I have instead used simplistic quite sophisticated font like that used in the Times newspaper to give my magazine that look that makes it different from other urban magazines.
Furthermore I have featured a female grime artist which is not common on most grime magazines as it is a male dominated industry with most artists being male.

How my magazine represents particular social groups.
In general my magazine represents teenagers and shows this by featuring typical teenage events and hobbies like music, art, fashion.
My media magazine represents young black youths with talent. It features successful black artists such as Chipmunk who prove that black youths don’t all live up to the stereotype of being violent and causing trouble.
What kind of media institution might distribute my media project and why
A well established urban attire brand like New ERA could publish my magazine.

About New Era
Founded in 1920, New Era Cap Company, Inc. is Americas leading headwear manufacturer and creator of New Era Apparel, bringing products to market that rise above time, culture, sport and fashion. New Era produces over 35 million caps per year and is the exclusive manufacturer of the official on-field cap of Major League Baseball.
Their mission
Since 1920, New Era has been the world’s premier headwear brand. Our products exceed time, culture, sport and fashion, and allow you to uniquely express your personality and style. Our focus is, has been, and always will be on creations that are inspired, designed and handcrafted to fit your life. (Source ; http://pressroom.neweracap.com/category/14/About_New_Era/page/119/New_Era_Fact_Sheet.aspx)
Why I have chosen New Era
New Era produce urban headgear that is worn by many various teenage groups particularly young black teenagers. Recently New Era stores have opened in London markets like Shepherds Bush were their target audience, young black teenagers regularly shop. New Era stores are not situated in high street areas next to Top Shop or New Look and are instead located within market areas suggesting New Era target lower income social groups. This is shown by the store location and the price of caps is relatively cheap.
Despite being mainly targeted at black youths, New Era head wear has even become increasingly popular amongst other fashion scenes for example emo’s have started wearing New Era hats. This means I will attract audiences from other fashion genres in addition to my core urban audience by having a sponsor like New Era.

What I have learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product

I have gained many skills during this project for example I have learnt how to use Photoshop. I have demonstrated my ability to use Photoshop by creating a front cover and article and using Photoshop to edit images and fonts.
One skill I learnt while using Photoshop is using the magic wand to make the background of an image transparent. The magic wand tool enables me to make the edges of a photo or image look softer therefore blending in with the text and create a more professional finish.
Another skill I learnt is manipulating layers in Photoshop in order to alter the appearance of my front cover. Using the layers I could change different parts of the front cover without affecting other areas. This was beneficial as it helped me save a lot of time. Furthermore I could build on each layer and experiment with various effects by changing them while keeping other aspects the same.

Review from Preliminary Task
I had to make many changes to my magazine front cover due to the opinions of my target audience. Initially I planned to feature a male artist on my magazine cover but after doing some research within my target audience feedback showed a high demand for a female artist featuring on the magazine cover.
I had trouble obtaining suitable fonts for my magazine cover due to not being able to download fonts. I experimented with other free graffiti fonts but after receiving some feedback I concluded that these fonts where a bit too stereotypical. By using the “Times New Roman” font, I was attempting to challenge typical views that a grime magazine is all about graffiti and urban styles. I believe my attempt to use the simple sophisticated font was one of my successful ideas.

My own advert

This is my own advert which I produced in photoshop and used in my double page article.

Final Front Cocew

1st draft of Star on Road article

This is the first draft of my article entitled "Star on Road." I later made changes to the colours and effects for example the text box is now black and the image of me and Chipmunk has a more 3D effect.

Lady Smila

This is one of the artists featured in my magazine. There is a niche in the grime industry for female artists. Female artists are under represented. In my magazine I have featured Lady Smila to represent aspiring female artists

Head Shoulders Knees & Toes Article

I based one of my double spread articles on the new dance and song called "Heads Shoulders Knees and Toes" by new artists K.I.G. Family. This further emphasises how my magazine promotes new artists and does not just focus on established artists.

Grime Artist Chipmunk

This is grime artist Chipmunk who features in one of my double spread articles. I chose to focus on Chipmunk because he is a young artist who represents young aspiring musicians. In his songs he promotes writing lyrics as oppposed to violence on the streets. Chipmunk is a great role model for the teenagers in my target audience.

Changing the text colour

In this front cover I used a purple for the text colour of my magazine name. The purple text contrasts with the yellow background however it does not stand out as much as the yellow title.

Glow Effect

For this front cover I used a glowy effect. I like how the effect makes the image brighter. The chain is highlighted by the glowing light around it. The glow effect smoothens the models skin and makes the cover look flawless suggesting perfection. However it is not suitable for my grime genre as a urban, rough look would be more appropriate.

Cartoon Effect Front Cover

I used a cartoon- like effect on this front cover. I really like this effect, it resembles pop art and gives the cover trendy artistic look. It looks good on screen however printed out the image looks rather unclear.

Your OOPs article- Top of the Pops

I chose to analyse this article because of all the feminine colours and

representations of pop music- Harry from McFly.

Article Analysis from Top of the Pops

Analysis of “Your Ooops” article top of the pops magazine

Language
There are many factors suggestive of the fact that the article is aimed at young teenage girls. Firstly, the sentences are short and simple ideally for a younger target audience and secondly, the author uses informal language and various colloquial terms and language.

Title of Article “Your oops!”
The word “your” immediately attaches the reader to the article suggesting that the article is about the reader’s experience.
The author uses colloquial language “oops” which is commonly used by young teenage girls to express an embarrassing moment. The author relates to a young persons reactions and thoughts to typical teenage embarrassing moments.
Colloquial everyday language is also used in the strapline “wanna” which again is part of the everyday language used by a typical teenager.
The author uses a play on words such as “bra-aargh!” to add humour to the text.
The author uses alliteration to add interest to the article. “Kit cringe” sums up the entire story in a snappy two word phrase which is much more entertaining than a longer sub title. “Top trauma” is another example of alliteration used by the author and it makes the text catchy and entertaining.
The author uses repetition “liar, liar” to further add entertainment to the text. This phrase “liar, liar” is commonly used by teenage children and is typical playground language used to describe someone who has told a lie. By using everyday catchphrases the author relates to an everyday teenage girl.
The author uses a rhetorical question “Wanna share your slip-ups with the world?” to get the reader involved. It persuades the reader to continue reading the article in order to learn of some of the slip-ups other readers have experienced.

Layout
The text is broken down into different sections using boxes. Each box has a different slip-up story sent in by the readers. Dividing the article this way makes the text easier to read for the young target audience.

Images
There is a cartoon image showing a visual interpretation of one of the slip up stories. The image adds humour to the article and appeals to a younger audience as it is a cartoon and not just an ordinary photograph or image.
The image shows a young girl looking embarrassed and her friends are laughing at her suggesting to the reader that embarrassing moments should not always be taken seriously and can be funny. The image makes the article light-hearted and helps girls who may have experienced such embarrassing moments to feel better about themselves and just laugh about the situation because it happens to everyone.
There is also and image of Harry from Mcfly; a typical teenage crush. He tells of and embarrassing moment and most of his fans would be keen to find out about his personal experiences. The author uses this celebrity feature to add excitement to the article as most people are keen to know about celebrity slip ups.

Colours
The main colours are light pink, dark pink, lilac and purple which are all feminine girly colours.
The subheadings are in a different colour to the rest of the text to make them stand out from the rest of the text.
There are floral patterns around the page which emphasise the point that the article is aimed at girls.

Adverts
There is an opportunity to win an iPod shuffle and a music voucher which appeals again to a teenage audience as music and iPods are a popular trend amongst teens.

Subject Matter
A celebrity feature of “Harry from Mcfly” makes the reader feel as if they are acquainted with the celebrity.
The slip-up stories have the individual authors name written on them so the reader knows the event has happened to an everyday ordinary person like themselves, enforcing a relationship between the reader and the author and keeping the reader interested.

Article Analysis

Analysis of “A Week in Grime” article

The article is a weekly feature in the RWD Magazine and features a reporter’s diary entry for their week exploring the grime scene. It gives a brief summary of what takes place from Friday of one week to Thursday of the next. The article states that a typical grime week starts on a Friday as artists gear up for the weekend. The random play on dates emphasises the point that in a typical teenage life timetables and schedules are not kept to and a teenager’s life is often mixed up to suit them and their wants and needs. In contrast, typically in an adult magazine the diary dates would be arranged in order from Monday to Sunday.

Layout

Colours and Images
There are not many colours in the article so as not to distract attention from the text. There is a simple white background and black text with some orange boxers highlighting texts of interest.
The simple low colour scheme is perhaps due to the fact that the RWD magazine is free to the reader therefore less colour is used to reduce printing costs.
However there are some high tech effects on the article which suggest professional photographic editors have worked on the article. For example the photo of grime artist Skepta in the screen of one of the Nokia N81 phones looks as though the phone has just captured an image of Skepta. However it only looks like this due to professional photo editing.

The article is heavily based on images. It is on a double spread with the images taking up about half the space. There are images of the Nokia N81 which is the main feature of the article. The article advertises the phone throughout highlighting its features.
There are also images of popular grime artists such as Chipmunk and Skepta which will attract readers to the article.


Language
The author uses everyday language that a typical teenager would use. At one point the writer even uses swear words to further emphasise the teenage target audience. The writer uses street terms like “Shh Hut Yuh STiinky Muhhh!!” which are typically used by the target audience of teenagers in London who listen to grime artists like JME who is known to use the “shut hut yuh muhh” phrase. The writer relates to the audience by using phrases like these of which only the target genre would know the meaning off.

Double Trouble article from RWD

This is an article from grime magazine RWD which I chose to analyse because it features female artists who are often unrepresented in the grime music industry.

Analysis of Articles-RWD Magazine

Analysis of “Double Trouble” article

This is a double spread article on featured artists T2. As part of the Britannia artists theme of that week’s issue of RWD, T2 are one of the celebrated British bands.
Just as most of the articles in RWD magazines the article features little colour perhaps to reduce printing costs.
The colours in the “Double Trouble” logo match the colours of the clothes worn by the band members and these are the only few colours in the entire article. There is not a lot of colour distracting the reader from the text.
The image of the band members takes up most of the double page so the reader familiarises themselves with the two group members. The members are dressed fashionably with the current in-look of skinny jeans and heels which would to appeal to a young audience and they are more likely to read the article as the girls are dressed fashionably.
There are a lot of quotes from the two artists themselves. The quotes are unedited with everyday language such as “veg” and “arses” that the girls use themselves. This makes the article personal to the artists and gives the reader a true unedited insight to their thoughts and feelings.
Like most RWD articles the language in this article is informal appealing to a young target audience.
The article features detail on the date of T2’s single release promoting sales of the CD. The web address for then bands MySpace music page is also available promoting web fans. The association with MySpace music further emphasises the target audience is teenagers as they are the main users of MySpace.
At the bottom of the article there are two brief articles which are completely unrelated to the T2 artist feature. This distracts from the main article itself but creates a variety of text for the reader to read on the same page. It may even draw the reader to reading the “double trouble” article after they have finished reading the other sub articles.

Dogs Trust Advert

I chose to analyse this advert because it really contrasts with the advert in grime magazine RWD. The magazines feature very different type of adverts. RWD advertises to attract its target audience whereas this advert shows that Top of the Pops also supports charity organisations.

Advert Analysis - Dogs Trust

Analysis of “Sponsor a dog” Advert
Top of the Pops Magazine
This is a persuasive advert for dog charity “Dogs Trust.” The advert is featured in Top of the Pops as the readers are young girls who are likely to be fond of puppies. Furthermore young girls are easily influenced emotionally and are likely to spend their £1 a week pocket money sponsoring a “furry friend” in need. The advert plays on the readers emotions by using various language and imagery techniques.
Language
A rhetorical question is used to immediately draw the reader into the advert as they are inclined to answer a question “How much do you love me?”
Further rhetorical questions are used to keep the reader involved as they have various questions thrown at them to answer.
Colours and Layout
A bright yellow background is used to catch the reader’s attention. It contrasts with the previous dull white backgrounds of the other pages in the magazine.
The yellow and black colour scheme is often associated with warnings and this alerts the reader that the advert is of a serious nature.
The main title is in black bold font making it stand out against the bright yellow background.
The number and email for the charity organisation are shown in big bold letters to make them stick in the readers mind.
There is a brief explanation on the Dogs Trust charity and what they are about to inform the reader. However there is little text on the page to keep the reader interested as too much text would not be necessary for a young target audience.
Images
The big image of the puppy takes much of the space on the emphasising the topic of the advert.
The image of the cute puppy with big eyes adds emotion to the advert. It is as though the dog is looking into the readers eyes and the direct eye contact helps the reader connect emotionally with the dog.
The image of the pound coin emphasises how much each reader is required to donate. The pound coin is shown as small in comparison to the image of the dog suggesting that £1 is not a lot of money to donate.
The logo of “Dogs Trust” familiarises the reader with the charity organisation.
The cut out section at the bottom encourages the reader to cut out the section at the bottom as the dotted outline makes it easier for the reader to do so. This promotes readers to then donate to the charity.

Advert Analysis- Time is Money

This is an advert from grime Magazine RWD. I chose to analyse this advert because of the clear urban representations for example the graffiti font andclothing.