BY SANDRA AGGREY

I wanted to keep with the cultural code associated with the origin of RnB music by using a black artist. How does your magazine represent particular social groups and sub-cultues through the representation of genre, age, age, ethnicity, sub culture etc? As the genre of my magazine is RnB, it depicts the representation of a culture that is predominantly of black ethnicity, although it is starting to become more widespread through its changing sound and artists of with different ethnic backgrounds (e.g. Jay Sean of Asian origin singing RnB). The target audience for my magazine are those between the ages of who tend to have the sub-culture of beginning more into modern technology as a means of socially interacting. This is what I tried to incorporate through the stories used in my magazine, for example a story in my contents page looks at the readers comments about features of the magazine on twitter and facebook. The cover artist posing with her hands on her hips sends the meaning of attitude but in a way that shows that she wants to be taken seriously as a new artist and as a woman since they tend to be portrayed as objects of the men’s desire within this genre. She means business.

 Who would be the audience for your media product? The audience for my magazine would be music lovers of particularly RnB and soul music. Their age group would range from 15 to 21. For these particular individuals, they have just past the stage of childhood and early teen hood (13 and 14), so they are looking to grow up fast and aim to fit into various social groups as well as create their own identity away from being controlled by their guardians/parents. Although RnB tended to be culturally for people of black ethnicity back in it’s now more widespread which i hoped to do with my magazine. The magazine has a chic soft edge due to its soulful element, therefore it may be more focused towards women. Also it tends to be women who listen to soulful RnB or RnB that they can dance to whereas males lean more towards rap and hip hop side within this genre.  What products might they consume? I would say that within this age group, products tend to be specific in terms of their personality and what they know they personally like. In contrast with someone who is like 10 years old who will be interested in what their social group is into at that time or what the media advertises to be the latest coolest product, which will consequently switch from week to week (e.g. The latest doll). I would think that the readers would be into their gadgets, such as iPhones, iPods/ MP3’s, blackberries, all the things that act as a communication outlet (e.g. A laptop for social networking sites). For females in this age bracket, they may lean towards buying products based on their image to reflect their individual identity or social group, so in this case it may be make up, lots of jewellery and stylish clothing that may look quite urban and stylish but in a sophisticated, “adult– like” in a bid to look more mature.

How did you enter in to a relationship with your audience? I decided that I wanted to make a magazine for a genre that is quite understated and sometimes heavily frowned upon due to its perceived view of the degrading of women in lyrics and videos. I wanted to show that RnB music is not all negative and there is a side to it that hasn’t been shown properly in the media. That is why my magazine doesn’t have the main conventions associated with RnB music, like males and females with little clothing and lots of jewellery. I wanted the feel of the magazine to show female empowerment to the audience which is why a chose a female solo artist who was also of around the same age of my target audience. This sends the message to the audience that young people can be taken seriously and be successful, it is someone they can relate, see as a role model and aspire to be. The message decoded by the audience would be that this is a typical “FAITH” reader; serious in what she stands for but youthful, fun and unique which is depicted through her styling. I wanted to encode the message that even though my cover artist was of black ethnicity, all readers could still relate to her as young independent female. The figure could be represented as their future self if they continue to stay dedicated to the magazine by reading it and learning from it. The fact that her facial expression looks serious and also reflects the title of the magazine as “FAITH” has serious meaning and is regarded as important. Most RnB artists do not pose in this way but seem to be more laid back or in a flirty/sexual manner. I believe that this will also target my audience who are between the ages of 15 and 21 who may be aiming to read a music magazine that looks more sophisticated and less aimed at little childlike in terms of its look and context. The fact that the artist here is blowing a bubble gum encodes a meaning of being quite girly and child- like. Although as she is not looking at the camera it could suggest a not caring attitude and being impolite which may be decoded by an adult audience, that may view this as delinquent behaviour.

CONVENTIONS OF LAYOUT. OF FONT, OF COLOUR, OF LAYOUT, OF LANGUAGE, OF STYLE, OF POSE YOUR MAGAZINE The different font colours used (blue, yellow etc) cover create a funky look (that links with the graffiti background) and style to my magazine, so at first glance it may not be seen as your typical RnB music magazine but more retro. The different font styles also give the magazine a different edge rather than just being standard and serious which may be reflected in the title. I knew from the start that I wanted to have a female cover artist that would especially target females and act as positive role model for them (as they are not particularly shown in a positive way for RnB music). I didn’t want her to be dressed in the typical clothing that would be associated with my intended genre. I wanted her to be in something stylish but relatable to my audience (which is predominantly female). The female readers will therefore not feel threatened by her as she is not only targeted to the male readers by wearing seductive clothing. Her style looks kind of casual and something that the audience might have in their own wardrobe. The title of my magazine “FAITH” has many connotations attached to it. For example I wanted to send the message that the audience has faith in the magazine that what they are writing about and saying is true, like the magazine is their loyal leader. I got my cover artist to pose next to a graffiti wall which reflects the urban tone and gives it a bit of a gritty, fresh look. It stays true to the audience of RnB music fans and its generic conventions by not being set within a studio that has been artificially constructed for an elite photo shoot. It makes the cover artist seem more real and down to earth to the readers. I tried to give it a stylish, sophisticated and fresh look through my artists used and the main look of my magazine (e.g. Colour).

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product? Before constructing my magazine, I wasn’t aware of the various programmes that could be used to correct aspects of an image. The fact that there is a variety of choice allows for imperfections to be smoothed out to make for a more clean cut, polished finish. Therefore I don’t think that its a bad thing that there is too much choice although I do find that nowadays we are too dependent on digital technology as its often easily used to retouch things to present the ideology that everything is “perfect” in the media. For example on one my pictures the exposure came out too dark, but the image didn’t have to be discarded as I was able to alter the brightness level. There were also a number of pictures that benefited from being cropped due to its background.

I learnt how to use all the computer programmes to edit many images that I felt weren’t of high- quality. I also learnt the many conventions of a magazine that I both incorporated and challenged to depict my intended genre and also relate to my target audience but in addition, those outside of it so that no particular social group would feel left out but that they could read my magazine and relate to something inside in terms of the stories presented.