Conventions and Questionnaire

My questionnaire has been a great influence and a great helping hand. The survey resulted will allow me to ackowledge what my target audience would expect to conventionally see in a Hip Hop magazine. This would be a great achievement, as from the results I would be able to build and devlop on codes and conventions in order to meet the needs and wants of people.

An example of how I would use this to my advantage is that normally you would see an existing well known artist. I will be using an image that would be related to the Hip Hop industry but would not consist of what we would normally see in a Hip Hop magazine, I will also be keeping it simple in order to connote with my target audience.

Questionnaire Analysis

I have created a questionnaire in order to gather key information that would contribute and help me when producing my own magazine. In my questionnaire had asked a series of questions which included personal preferences of people filling in the questionnaire to what there likes and dislikes are in a hip hop magazine, this was done in order to get their opinions and help build my understanding of what needs to be included in my own magazine in order to make it as effective as possible.

In my questionnaire, the main purpose of the questions where to get an insight on the hip hop culture and have an understanding of what people prefer to see in a hip hop magazine. In my questionnaire I had used music related questions, as the magazine that I will be creating would have a hip hop genre. The questions were also based on the magazine itself such as the pricing and the different types of fonts that attracts the eyes of the viewers.

For my results of the questionnaire I have asked a total of 32 people linking my questions to the music genre of R&B/ Hip-Hop. The answers that I would get from the questionnaires would be a great help and influence to me planning my magazine on what the likes and dislikes are of people on different magazine covers. My aim from the results I get from my questionnaires is to help my magazine succeed. I asked different age groups in order to help get different answers and views; from this it would also help me to identify my target audience. These are the 14 questions that I had asked in my questionnaire.

1)      What gender are you?     

2)      What age group do you find yourself in?

3)      How often do you purchase a hip hop magazine?

4)      If you made a hip hop magazine what you include?

5)      What is your favorite magazine?     

6)      Which magazine cover do you dislike?

7)      Who are your favorite artists?

8)      What would you like the hip hop magazine to include?

9)      What is your preferred genre?

10)  At what price do you think the hip hop magazine should be?

11)  How do you prefer the character used in the magazine to be presented?

12)  What type of layout would you like to see when you open a magazine?

13)  What type of font do you prefer?                                   

14)  What do you think is the most important element in a hip hop tune?

Conclusion of questionnaire:

1) What gender are you?

I had a total of 32 people taking part in my questionnaire. Out of the 32 people that took part in my questionnaire, 18 of the 32 where male and 14 of the 32 where female. It was highly important for me to ask this question and make sure that the questionnaire was not one sided. I wanted to get responses of both male and female on the Hip Hop culture. By having both male and female taking part in my questionnaire it would allow me to get responses that are not bias and one sided. 

2) What age group do you find yourself in?

This was a question that was highly important for me as I wanted to get responses from different age groups, as by asking different age groups it would allow me to get different answers as different aged people have different likes and dislikes. The age was also the key element to my questionnaire as from this it would allow me to identify my target audience. Out of the 32 people that I had filled in my questionnaire majority of the people where in their 16-20, this would be a great helping hand as from this piece of data I can work on who I would be targeting when I produce my own Hip Hop magazine. 

 

3) How often do purchase a hip hop magazine?

This is a question that is key to my findings, as my main aim from this questionnaire is to identify if my magazine cover would sell or not. This question is a key to my findings and research as in order to identify the different aspects of when I produce my own Hip Hop magazine, I would need to know before making my magazine, if people would be interested in purchasing a Hip Hop magazine. 

4) If you made a Hip Hop magazine what would you include?

This question is a question which is highly effective for my research. This question makes the people filling in the form think about what they would like, this would be a great help for my research as I would be looking for what people would like to include in their Hip Hop magazines. These results would be highly crucial and effective for me as in order to make my magazine sell I would need to identify the needs and wants of people before I can produce a Hip Hop magazine. 

5) What is your fravourite magazine?

 

For this question I asked 32 people to pick out there favorite R&B/Hip Hop magazine cover from the selection above. This is because these entire magazines have different types of styles and I wanted to see which one my audience would prefer so that I could link them to my own Hip Hop magazine. From my findings from the questionnaire I found that people mostly picked the “VIBE” magazine cover because of the creativity and the boldness it used which it look eye catching. From my findings that I have gathered from my questionnaire, people also answered that they liked the magazine “VIBE” because of the strong image that was used of a well known Hip Hop artist. I think that “VIBE” stands out from the rest of the Hip Hop magazine covers as it is eye catching through the bold letters and because of the image used as well as the fact that it is not over crowded. From asking this question in my questionnaire I have learnt that in my Hip Hop magazine I need to add bold fonts and typefaces and use a eye catching image in order to make my magazine as effective as possible. 

6) What magazines do you dislike?

 

Judging from my questionnaire there were some people that liked the magazines covers that others disliked. Most of the people that I had questioned did not like the colour schemes used in “MOJO” as they felt that the image that was used was too old fashioned and it did not create any affect, as it is in black and white. Along with MOJO people also where not that keen on “XXI” as it had an effective image but it lacked headings and features on the page. The magazine cover hand looked blank as there was not enough information on the front cover. After monitoring the responses of the 32 people that had taken part in my questionnaire, looking at the magazines that people did not choose and favor as much, I have learnt that I am not going to leave different parts of my Hip Hop magazine blank, I will use the free space to use promotional methods or headlines and features. I am also able to make decisions such as using modern colours in my Hip Hop magazine in order to make it stand out and look styli.

7) Who are your favorite artists?

This question was used in order to identify the type of Hip Hop artists that people like listening to. This would be a great influence to helping me create a effective Hip Hop magazine, as by understanding who the favorite artists are of a sum of people would help me to identify who I should use in my magazine as featuring characters, for example from the majority of people that had filled in my questionnaire, 10 out of a possible 32 chose Eminem as there favorite artist. This question has been a great help as I would not be using Eminem as a featuring artist in my Hip Hop magazine. 

8) What would you like the Hip Hop magazine to include?

This question has been a great influence in helping me understand what must be included in my Hip Hop magazine to make it effective and successful. In my questionnaire the results from the 32 anonymous candidates that took part in my magazine had opted to choose new releases to be included in a Hip Hop magazine. This has helped me make a decisions on what must be added in my magazine in order to create awareness and keep viewers happy in reading on. In my Hip Hop magazine I will be using new releases as one of my headings as I judging from my questionnaire, it is what people want.

  

9) What is your preferred genre?

This is a key question in my findings that would contribute to me making a Hip Hop magazine. It is highly important for me to understand what type of genre people like to follow. Based on the questionnaire I had given to 32 to fill in, the results show that the majority number of people prefer the genre to be Hip Hop. This is a great for me, as I will be creating a magazine that would consist of a Hip Hop genre. 

10) At what price do you think the Hip Hop magazines should be?

I have looked at a wide range of R&B/Hip Hop magazines, there main prices are in the regions of £2.50-£4 which is think is fairly reasonable. In order to expand on my knowledge and get a better answer I asked this question in my questionnaire in order to find what people would think is the most reasonable price. Judging from my questionnaires results most people thought that £2.50 was the right price to buy a Hip Hop magazine. This has been a great help as it has helped me to decide that I will be selling my Hip Hop magazine in the regions of £2.50/£2.75.

11) How to do you prefer the characters to be presented?

This is a question that would help me make decisions upon how my main image on my Hip Hop magazine would be presented. I had asked 32 people to give their opinions on how they prefer the characters used on a Hip Hop magazine to be presented. Judging from the results I can conclude that that I will be presenting my character as being powerful, as I want to create awareness and help make my magazine eye catching. 

 












12) What type of layout would you like to see when you open a magazine?

This question would allow me to create a Hip Hop magazine that would have a layout that would meet the requirements of people. Most people that took part in my questionnaire had decided that they would want a natural type of layout of the magazine, they would not want too much writing on the Hip Hop magazine and they would not want too many plain spots on the magazine. I will use this information to create an efficient Hip Hop magazine. 

13) What type of fonts do you prefer?

I received different views for this question. Most of the people that had taken part in my questionnaire had chosen to use a more effective and modern font:

 

This font creates great effect as it is bold, parts of it are fading away and it looks eye catching. They also said that I would be better to use this font as it is easy to follow yet it creates great emotion. People had said that this font would look great on a Hip Hop magazine, as it would great with the Hip Hop genre and allow creating great end product. After taking into account the different views of people that took part in my questionnaire I am able to conclude that I will be using this type of font in my Hip Hop magazine as people like it, it creates great look to the page with the bold effect and fade. 

14) What do you think is the most important element in a Hip Hop tune?

The final question that I had asked in my questionnaire was what do you think is the most important element of a Hip Hop tune? The responses that I had got back from the people that took part in my questionnaire have opted to choose the beats as the most important element of a Hip Hop team. Along with this people also chose to like other elements like creativity. Taking all these in board I will be using beats and creativity in my Hip Hop magazine in order to meet the needs and wants of people and help to make my magazine a success. 

Social Networking Findings: 

In order to expand my knowledge and findings on people’s responses of my Hip Hop Questionnaire, I had used a socializing site called “Facebook”. “Facebook” is an online socializing website where you can communicate with a mass amount of people. I had also used this socializing website to taking into consideration that we are in the 21^st century and there is more modern technology that most of the population uses. I had uploaded my Questionnaire on “Facebook” in order to gain more information on my target audience and give me more responses on questions that may help me when creating my own Hip Hop Magazine. As shown through the screenshots I had received different answers from different friends. This would have a great influence on my findings as these results would help me to make a Hip Hop magazine that would meet the needs and wants of people. I had responses from both male and female in order to make my findings fair not make it one sided.

Questionnaire

This questionnaire will help me to evaluate what people think of Hip Hop Magazines, as my main project will be to make a magazine which follows the genre of a Hip Hop/ R&B. i will use these results to make decisions upon what must me done in order to meet the needs and wants of the people. I will use this questionnaire as a tool of helping me create a succesful and effective Hip Hop magazine.

Case Study "Q" Magazine

 

  

For my case study I have chosen a British music magazine which is called “Q”. “Q” is a music channel and in this particular music magazine it is showing the music artists known as “U2”. Q is a music magazine that is published each month in the United Kingdom by the publishing group known as Bauer Media Group. In my research of the “Q” music magazine business I have found key pointers such as the first issue of the “Q” music magazine was in 1986.

The in heritage of the magazine where made by the founders Mark Ellen and David Hepworth, who were dismayed by the music press at the time, as these two individuals felt that the press was ignoring a generation of older music buyers who were purchasing CD`s. Ever since “Q” was founded in 1986, they have developed and set themselves a high reputation with the monthly production and also the higher standards of photography and printing. When “Q” was founded in the market, the magazine was names differently, as it was called “Cue”, but this was soon after changed as the company did not want to be mistaken for a snooker terminology, as a “Cue” is the name of the stick that is used to play snooker. In order to avoid confusion the company changed the name from “Cue” to “Q”.

The “Q” magazine has a target audience of the older generation, to be precise in the regions of 25+. This can be compared to another music magazine company called “VIBE” magazine where the target audience for them would be lower in the regions of 13-25. The reason being for this is that the music that is being released currently has been created for the teenagers who are most likely to be affected and influenced in ways such as buying tickets for concerts in order to go meet their music artist live. We look at a “VIBE” magazine we would see a well known character used in a powerful manner. This can be done by the expressions the character shows or the layout of the page for example parts of the image covering the Masthead. 

 

  

The magazine fits the in the category of music, as we can see from the front cover of the “Q” magazine, we can see that a “U2” would be involved in the magazine, as they are the main image on the cover, the cover also suggests that the magazine would also include interviews and reviews, as on the right hand side of the front cover is a list of artists which indicates that they would have some part in the magazine.  As we can see on the bottom of the front cover it suggests what we can expect as it says “their ultimate interviews their greatest albums. 

What the Q magazine looks like?

The “Q” website is well presented and is fairly reasonable to navigate through. The website has a navigation bar which helps to move around the website and look at different parts of the website. The website is fairly busy, and uses a range of colours that contrast well. The layout of the website is clear, and has many advertising bars to choose from, such as the Virgin Media advertisement. 

 How the website can be accessed?

The website can be accessed using a number of devices such as computers, laptops, I-Phones, mobile phones and any other electronic devices that allow having access to the Internet.

Did the magazine sales increase or decrease when the website launched?

The sales figures of “Q” magazine where on the rise with the launch of the website, as the website had created great awareness and had started to build on its reputation in the media. In my research I have also found that “Q” radio is a current radio station that consists of 282,000 tuners that listen to their radio station, this would have a great influence in the sales figures of “Q” being on a rise.

Adverts vs magazines:

In my view I do think that adverts are more influential as you can use various aspects such as animations and are more interactive.  On the other hand the magazines are visually there, and are more relevant to the question.

There are a number of methods that need to be taken into consideration when considering online and alternative publishing methods. I do agree with this, as i think it is important for all magazines to take into account the different publishing techniques in order to be as influential as possible.

There are many factors that need to be taken into consideration for magazine publishing. However the changes and alterations that I would make would be to make sure that the magazine is more interactive with the reader. in order to create an effective magazine I would also use planning before making the magazine product, as I would need to identify my target audience, as well as other factors such as the likes and dislikes of people, so that I can make changes to my plans and try to meet the needs and wants of people. The promotions of my magazine would also be an important aspect as I would be looking to sell my magazine in local shops and retailers or using different Internet sites to advertise my magazine. I strongly believe that these factors would help me improve the publicity of my magazine. 

"Q" Magazine Website  CLICK ME

 

Conventions of Hip Hop

The conventions and techniques that we would see in a hip hop magazine cover is that there would a hip hop artist or character used in the centre of the page to emphasize that the magazine follows a hip hop genre. 

Small elements on the magazine cover, such as the barcode, text and in some cases montage of images are situated around the central image. This connotes that the main image is representing the magazine itself, for example:

The “Vibe” magazine presents “Eminem” in a superior manner, from being in a central position of the hip hop magazine shows a direct approach towards the audience.

This is enhanced from the conventional serious facial expression, “Eminem” shows. In further detail from “Eminem’s” piercing eyes, this constructs a visual involvement between the hip hop magazine and the audience, as a result of human eye contact. 

Similarly the denotation of this “Vibe” hip hop magazine shows the cross worn by “Eminem”, which creates a sense of religion purpose and reflects his personality. Hip hop is a genre consisting of many artists who are from the Christian faith; hence the item of the cross can be symbolized as a piece of jewelry as well as communicating with religious audiences. Thus balancing the youth hip hop culture with a more experienced and mature appeal.

The other major conventional aspects are the colours used in the hip hop magazine cover. The majority of people are attracted to hip hop magazines mostly by a direct visual route. This being the common colour of a hip hop magazine, such as red, black and white. These are bold colours connote a masculine attitude towards the audience. However on the other hand these colours do complement each other as you can see from the “Vibe” hip hop magazine. Specifically the mast head uses a mixture of red and black tones in relations a white background which makes it look effective and intimidating to an extent.

Main conventions:

·         Image

·         Mast head

·         Institutional logo

·         Website

·         Barcode

·         Selling line

·         Colours

After carrying out various researches on the real product analysis, I have been able to understand the different types of conventions and techniques that have been used. In my research I have come across different genres such as “hip hop” and “rock”. In my research I came across many different typefaces that looked attractive and intriguing, and there were a couple that did appeal to me and helped me to make a choice on the type of typeface is was going to add in my main project.

When assessing different types of Hip Hop magazines I have come to an understanding that there are many common conventions such as:

There is usually one character used in the image who is a well known artist, and the background is not crowded making the character used the main subject. The camera angle that is used most commonly on the character in the image is a close up shot to show the emotions on the face of the character used or a mid shot which shows the body language, the facial expressions.

The colours used in the magazine are also well worked as the different colours contrast well, for example in some magazines that I have come across have black backgrounds with white writing, this creates great contraction and makes the page look eye catching and attractive.

In some magazine covers parts of the Masthead can be covered by the image that is used. This shows that it is conventional of a Hip Hop magazine.  The other common convention that I have come across is that the Masthead is mostly written in bold and clear writing.

The cover lines are usually placed in the left hand side of the magazine cover, as this is because it is the first place where we look. In my research I have come across other common conventions such as the cover line being used on both the left hand and the right hand side.

In the contents pages that I have analyzed I have come to an understanding that they follow the conventions of having a main image with text written around the character used.

The contents page is not to plain and not to overcrowded it is natural, which balances the contents page out.

In my research of the double page spread I have witnessed many common conventions and techniques such as the title on the page going across both sides of the page.

There is always an image used in a double page spread which is shown in a fairly large size, this allows the double page spread to look more attractive and not have too much writing or fill in the plain spots.

Based on the common conventions and techniques I will be using these for when I create a Hip Hop magazine. For the main cover I will be using an powerful and effective image, with bold cover lines. The Masthead of my magazine cover will also be in clear bold written and one or two letters will be overwritten by the image I use in order to make my magazine look more attractive.

 

For my contents page I will use an image that would be suitable for my Hip Hop magazine and write the key feature of the magazine such as who the magazine would include, the interviews, and what pages to go on in order for full stories. 

For my double page spread I will be using more images in order to balance it out with the text I will be adding. The other aspects that I will be including in my double page spread is writing a title that would go along the double page spread, avoiding to put any texture or image in the spine, as I would not want to lose text or image to the spine of the double page spread.