Topic 3: Print vs. Online

XXL Mag

Describe: XXL is a magazine for those who are avid fans of hip-hop music, fashion, and lifestyle. Most of the stories in this magazine are about new songs, new albums, or new artists, but there are a few articles on rappers life's as well. For example, on the online edition of XXL, the current "front page" story is about Wiz Khalifa and Amber Rose having their baby. 

Wiz Khalifa and Amber Rose Welcome Baby Boy Sebastian

French Montana

A$AP Rocky

Other articles include artist exclusives with rappers such as A$AP Rocky and French Montana. These exclusives feature interviews and sneak peaks into the artist's next album. These exclusives were in the March/April 2013 edition of XXL and are only available in the print version unless you have an online subscription.         

The XXL print version is organized like most magazines I've seen. It has a lot of ads in the front, which include Supra, Lng, Gillette, and Mauri. Then it has the table of contents, which in this magazine has two parts: The A Side and The B Side. The A Side includes the major articles of the magazine and the page number they can be found on, next to a large picture of the featured cover artist, A$AP Rocky. The B Side has some smaller articles and lesser known features, such as an article of the girl that is famous for being in a popular 2 Chainz music video. After that, the magazine has a Picture This page, which was a large photograph of Kendrick Lamar performing at a concert in Australia. The rest of the magazine included it's main articles, some ads, and oddly enough, some articles that were ads. For example, there is an article about Roscoe Dash driving around his hometown in a new 2013 Dodge Dart and the article features a picture of the rapper leaning on the car. 

The online version of XXL looks similar to the magazine in the sense that it has the same theme colors of white and red. The online magazine has six main tabs: News, Music, EyeCandy, XXLtv, The Life, and a search bar. One different aspect of the online magazine is it has a link to all of XXL's social media, which include Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Tumblr, Instagram, and a new social media source called Swaag. Also, online they have an Item of the Day, which includes music accessories like speakers and sometimes fashion items. One of the coolest features that the online version can offer and the print version can't, is the addition of songs. They can feature artists and talk about their albums and songs in the print version, but the online version uses SoundCloud to place the tracks into the articles so you can listen to the music the article is talking about. 

The advertisements in this magazine include Twenty Grand Vodka, about a dozen different shoe brands, and several hair products tailored towards black hair. One section of the print magazine is called Stylin' and it is basically a giant advertisement for several brands. Some of the featured brands are Vans, Blackberry, TrukFit, The Hundreds, and Pelle Pelle. On the online version there are only two main ads. One is for Jordan shoes and the other is for the BET Experience. 

Analyze: XXL competes mostly with Rolling Stone and Billboard. What sets this magazine apart from these other magazines is the fact that XXL is strictly hip-hop and rap music. Billboard and Rolling Stone both feature rock bands and pop artists, but XXL sticks to rap because it fits a niche audience that typically only listens to rap music. It is different from other magazines because it is a very specific magazine. What I mean by that is it would be like Sports Illustrated only covering basketball instead of all sports. However, I think there is a large enough audience of rap lovers for this magazine to survive and the beauty of music is that there is a new song, album, or artist rising up every day. 

Some differences between the online and print version are the online versions addition of social media links, the online insertion of SoundCloud songs, and lastly, the print version offers several articles that are not available online. For example, one of the coolest articles in XXL is an article called "Clique". This article is about all the crews in the rap game. There's the A$AP Mob (left), Taylor Gang, YMCMB, Odd Future, and Maybach Music just to name a few. This article listed the area the group represents, the major label they are affiliated with, the founder, the members, and some of their catch phrases. 

Interpret: The target audience for this magazine is typically young black males. This is obvious because of the fashion and the advertisements, which include several hair products for black male hair. However, the magazine can get any audience that likes rap music (including me, a white female). XXL does a really good job of advertising products in a subtle way. They don't just have one page ads with just the ad on them like most magazines. They integrate the ads into the articles and have rappers wearing, driving, or using the product they're advertising instead of using models. This magazine could be considered offensive and stereotypical towards black people since some of the artists are quoted using the N word several times. It also reinforces the stereotype that black males, especially rappers, use terrible grammar. 

Evaluate: One strength of the print version is the unique articles that can't be found anywhere online. One example I mentioned before was the "Clique" article. Also, the photos that are featured in the print version aren't available online either. These photos are definitely a strength of the print magazine because you can tear out the photos are use them as wallpaper or decoration. There are several large photos of A$AP Rocky in this magazine that would make awesome wallpaper. Another strength is the ads that you can't skip in the print version, especially since most of the ads are integrated into the articles and you are enticed into reading the article because of the use of famous rappers in the ads. However, a weakness of the print version is that all of the news is older than the online version. The Wiz Khalifa article mentioned before is a prime example of that. Another weakness is the lack of songs in the print version. If magazines could somehow find a way to insert the songs into the magazines, they would sell out of magazines every edition. 

One strength of the online version is the ability to "Like" and share the articles and songs online through Facebook, Twitter, and several other social networking sites. This gives people the ability to share new songs and any article found on their site. Another strength are the videos that are shown on the online version. There are dozens of freestyles and other videos that you wouldn't normally find just by looking on the internet for songs. These are one of a kind videos that allow insite into rappers thoughts, ideas, and new projects. One example is this A$AP Rocky freestyle on Westwood. One weakness of the online version is that older articles are difficult to find, whereas if you had the print version you could easily go back and look at older articles and magazines. The biggest weakness of the online version is definitely the absence of the in-depth artist exclusives and other interesting articles that can only be read in the print magazine. In my opinion, the online version better serves it's audience, only because the most important aspect of a hip-hop magazine is the music. But, like I said, if magazines find a way to play music in their print versions I think they would really be on to something.

Engage: One way I engage with this magazine beyond just reading is downloading the app. There is an XXL mobile app as well as an XXL magazine app that you can buy a one-year subscription to for only 12 dollars (the price of about 3 print magazines). Another way I engage with this magazine is sharing the music from the website with my friends. I find a lot of new music from this magazine and I love sharing it with my friends who also enjoy new rap music. 

Conclusions: I learned from doing this product that magazines have a lot more to offer than I thought. I thought I knew everything there was to know about hip hop and artists that are on the rise, but after reading this magazine and looking at the website, I learned that I didn't know anything! It really opened my eyes to new ways to find music and learn about new artists. 

Topic 2: Television as a Cultural Mirror

Bones Home Page

Describe:

I chose the show Bones because I wanted to pick a tv show that I hadn’t watched before. A lot of my friends and family watch it and have recommended it to me, but I’ve never been able to get into because I’ve never found the main characters relatable. However, for this assignment I decided to give it a shot. I watched the new episode “The Twist In The Plot”, which aired on January 28^th at 8:00 p.m on Fox. Bones is a drama about a forensic anthropologist (Dr. Brennan) and her FBI partner (Booth) who solve crimes that involve bones.

The Twist in the Plot Promo

In this particular episode, a human skull is found in the woods and when Dr. Brennan and Booth go to investigate, they find another body buried next to it. The first set of bones belongs to a woman, Monica Craig, who apparently died of lung cancer. However, the interesting twist is that the body buried next to hers belongs to a girl named Rachel, who was Monica’s “death consultant”. Rachel and her partner Akshay (played by guest star Vik Sahay) run a new-age funeral home that promotes green burial. Booth figured out that Monica’s husband, Dr. Craig, was having an affair with Rachel, but Rachel broke it off two days before Monica died. Then when Dr. Craig went to bury his wife, Rachel showed up. Dr. Craig lost it and smashed in Rachel’s head with his wife’s burial marker.

The two main characters in Bones are Dr. Temperance Brennan, played by Emily Deschanel, and Special Agent Seeley Booth, played by David Boreanaz. Emily Deschanel is the sister of another popular actress, Zooey Deschanel, who stars in the prime time show New Girl. Emily Deschanel has been in many popular movies, such as My Sister’s Keeper, Glory Road, and Spider-Man 2. David Boreanaz gained most of his popularity through the tv show Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Another main character in Bones is Dr. Lance Sweets, who is played by John Francis Daley. Daley got his big break as a young actor in the show Freaks and Geeks. The guest star in this particular episode, Vik Sahay, got his claim to fame in a very popular tv series called Chuck.

              

       Emily Deschanel                            David Boreanaz                            Vik Sahay

 Twitter: @emilydeschanel        Twitter: @David_Boreanaz    Twitter: @VikSahayFanCom

During the hour-long show, there were a large variety of commercials shown. Some of these commercials included Ford, H&R Block, Glade, KFC, Home Depot, Cheez-Its, Kiefer Mazda, American Family Insurance, Seven Feathers, Guaranty RVs, Bank of America, Turbo Tax, and Powerball. Also, some of the specific products advertised were a Samsung TV from Best Buy, two separate iPhone 5 ads for Verizon and AT&T, and a 2013 Lincoln MKX. There was also a trailer for a movie called “Bullet To The Head” and a Fox ad for a new show called “The Following” (which I ended up getting sucked into watching right after Bones).

Analyze:

The style that the characters of Bones project is very professional. Booth is always wearing a suit, as well as Sweets. Also, Dr. Brennan dresses professional throughout the show along with the other major female supporting actresses. The attitude that the characters project is also very professional. Although Booth and Brennan have an existing romantic history, during work they remain professional. Bones is filmed very dramatically with dark lighting to portray the seriousness of the show and is filmed in Los Angeles at the 20^th Century Fox lot. Some shows similar to Bones are CSI and Grey’s Anatomy. Both use forensic/medical terminology and have a serious side with a little humor and romance mixed in. What makes Bones unique however is of course the types of cases they do, which involve almost exclusively cases with bones. Also, it’s a unique show because the cast is almost exclusively nerds that are all experts in their fields. The characters are slightly humorous in their innocence and their nerdiness.

Interpret:

The only stereotype I saw in this show was that all of the females in the show were portrayed as slightly heartless on the outside when it came to relationships. In the episode I watched, the women were consumed with the case while the men were broken down or concerned about the relationship. There were two relationships going on at the time I watched Bones. One was between Booth and Dr. Brennan and the other was between Sweets and a girl named Daisy Wick. Since the focus of the episode was around burial Booth asked Dr. Brennan what her burial wishes were. Brennan proceeded to describe in great detail how she wanted her body to be carried to the top of a mountain and be crushed by a goat so that vultures could eat her body. Booth was upset because he wouldn’t want the last image of her to be vultures picking at her, but Brennan didn’t understand (until the end of the episode of course). The other relationship that was going on was the ending of Dr. Sweets and Wick’s relationship. They broke up in a previous relationship, but Sweets was still upset. When Wick came to work, however, she was very professional and acted like nothing had happened while Sweets was clearly distraught. Although the producers portrayed the women as heartless, for the most part there were very few stereotypes in the show. The cast was very diverse and there were no jokes about the women working the same jobs as the men and no comments about the black woman being one of the main bosses. If I was from a foreign country and I saw this show I would think that Americans have an obsession with the dead and killing people, since this show is one of dozens of murder television shows.

Most of the commercials were targeted towards a slightly older demographic. The target audience for the show is more mature and it’s not a very good show for kids, therefore, most of the commercials were similarly targeted. There were ads about insurance, gambling, and taxes, which are all targeted towards a fairly mature audience that would have good money management skills. There was also an ad for a Lincoln MKX, which is a very sophisticated car that starts out at just under $40,000. If I were a foreigner visiting America, I would think that America is very professional and wealthy. I would think that every one in America had achieved “the dream”.

Evaluate:

I would give this show a 4.3 out of 5 as far as entertainment goes because the cases are extremely unique and the best part is that they’re not predictable. I think another strength of the show is the good mixture of cases with the personal side stories. One of the weaknesses of the show I think is that the main characters are hard to relate to. They’re so serious and professional all the time that it’s hard to find the flaws in their character that are essential for the audience to be able to relate to them. As far as a cultural mirror of society, I would give Bones a 3 out of 5. Most people aren’t as serious as the characters of Bones are and have more personality as well. However, having said that, I do think that they did a good job portraying the work relationships and the mix between professional and personal life. Compared to most other tv shows, Bones pretty accurately reflects “real life”, but a very high class life. I mostly enjoyed the cases in the show and just tolerated the personal side stories, which were luckily fairly brief. If I had watched the show from the very beginning of season one I would probably be able to get more into the personal side, but as a new watcher it was harder to get into. What makes this show memorable is the interesting forensic techniques that they use, which are different from the typical crime scene techniques since this show deals exclusively with cases involving bones.

I read a review on Bones from an online California magazine called Kings River Life Magazine. The review was written by one of the magazines journalists, Stephanie Barnett. Barnett says, “When I first watched Bones, I wasn’t sure if I was going to like it. Always being slightly squeamish but very interested in investigative and science shows, I wasn’t quite sure what I would think about a show that deals with decomposed dead bodies. One show was all it took for me, because I was hooked ten minutes in. Combining a great cast, with hilarious characters and amazingly creative writing, Bones is a triple whammy.” I slightly agree with this review because I wasn’t sure if I would like it and I was quite surprised after watching it. I also agree that the cast is great and perfect for their roles. However, I didn’t think the show was very hilarious. Maybe I just watched a very sad episode, but I wasn’t very amused and I definitely wasn’t “hooked”.

Bones Review

Engage:

This was the first time I watched Bones and I did enjoy it, but I probably wouldn’t go out of my way to watch it on a regular basis. My mom used to watch it all the time, but I don’t think she watches it anymore. She started watching it because she was addicted to the books that Bones is based on. The book series, Bones, was written by Kathy Reichs who was actually a professor of anthropology at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. There are 15 books in the Bones book series, almost all of which were best sellers.

Conclusions:

From this project I learned that there are a lot of good tv shows out there that I haven’t really given a shot. I am very particular about the shows I watch and I usually judge them from the trailers, but the trailers I’ve seen of Bones haven’t done the show justice. Most of the trailers are about Booth and Dr. Brennan’s relationship, which I haven’t been interested in, but the rest of the show is actually very entertaining.