EVALUATION

How does your media product represent a particular social group?

-Appearance - In terms of appearance my magazine fulfilled the required demands for appealing to my target market because I incorporated a variation of elements such as; futuristic font choice, appropriate mis-en- scene (e.g. gold chain), suitable featuring artists and relevant articles, in an exciting and similar way to the rest of the leading Hip-hop magazines on the market to day. I also made sure that my magazine would appeal to both ends of the target market spectrum so that all of the consumers can relate.

-Similarities and differences -The similarities of my magazine and existing hip-hop magazines are the basic structure and layouts, the type of photo selection, similar article types and similar quality. The differences include how my magazine appears to be a bit feminine compared some Hip-Hop magazine due to my featuring artist and the use of Gold. The colour Gold gave an impression of 'glamour' as opposed to the norm which is 'Street'

-Costume- In terms of Costume, I think my magazine had an approximate reflection of the sort of social group that would read my paper because of certain mis-en-scene features such as my main artist's glasses and her Gold chain. These objects gave a clear indication of culture because typically within the genre of Hip-Hop glasses and gold chains show a form of attitude and style therefore I thought it was appropriate for me to have these objects on my main artist. Also In double page spread/ content page, my main featuring artist is wearing a black sweatshirt which also added to the image of Hip-Hop culture. 

House style (How is it displayed, special effects, and how is genre suggested,

I used a range of special effects such as drop Shadow, inner Shadow to enhance the professionalism of the magazine. I also used a technique of merging layers together to improve the aesthetics of my magazine artistically. In addition, as discussed above, genre is suggested in a moderate way due to the way my main artist is dressed (In terms of mis-en-scene). Aspects such as the artist's glasses, chain, sweatshirt and posing enforces the idea of hip-hop because traditionally and currently the whole image of hip-hop leans of the idea of standing out with the use of jewelry and street clothing making it unique in its own way. Therefore genre is suggested to a moderate standard because although my meets some of the specifications of a hip-hip image, because she is female, some of those aspects wouldn't have been suitable because she still needed to maintain her femininity.

What kind of media institutions would distribute your media product and why?

My magazine would be distributed through the IPC media group because through research, I found out that its a media institution which is well known for distributing some of the largest name magazines in England. After looking closer, I established that there is a small platform for music magazines (especially hip-hip) therefore distributing my magazine in that media institution would give the institution a chance for the company to reach out to a much larger market which they've not attempted to explore yet (Black people aged 14+) .
 

What have I learnt about technology from the process of constructing this product?
In terms of technology, I've learnt that there is a range of ways in which you are able to present your ideas from other that Microsoft PowerPoint. I was able to utilise the website Prezi.com to make presentations in a more effective and interactive way making my presentations include the audience more. Prezi also enabled me to make certain points in my presentation more highlighted because the way you are able to navigate through Prezi presentations make that possible.
I also encountered using the Photo-editing software, Photoshop, and because I already acquired Photoshop skills from my past personal experiences, I was able to strengthen my existing knowledge in the software by using tools I wasn't necessarily familiar with, therefore now I am able to do certain things which I couldn't do before. 

What could I have done better?
Planning- To make my project better I could have taken a more tactical approach towards planning my project by considering a larger range of the structure of the layout and showing examples/modelling of that.
 Practical research -I could have made my research more extensive by forming together a questionnaire which narrowed down my target audience on exactly what they would have wanted to see in a magazine of that kind.
Models + Setting variation - I could have also taken a photo shoot with a wider range of models rather than just sticking to one model, also, I could have experimented with the setting more by taking pictures of models out-doors.
Blogging Process - I could have taken advantage of the way a blog is set out in order to monitor my progress by looking at my peer's work, other existing media blogs and improving previous work I had done.