Key elements I will include in my website to conform to the expectations of the genre

Key elements I will include in my website to conform to the expectations of the genre

Logo

The logo I have created is very unique and stands for something which is very typical of the current affairs genre. Most Current Affairs magazines have logo's with complex and depth meanings behind them, often at times taking careful thought and consideration in order to decipher them. My logo will be similar to this, as my logo stands out, it is very pleasing to the eye and it also represents the voices in society that are not heard or listened too and quite often ignored based on who they are and what they stand for. 

Mise-en-scene

In order to highlight the systematic racism in the US government and justice system, I will consider intertextuality elements like the black lives matter movement logo, the fist in the air. Immediately this will appeal to the target demographic as when they are looking at the website, the socially-aware people will recognise this symbol and knows it stands for change so will be interested in what it has to say. This will be done using a long-shot image of a model holding her fist in the air with her back to the camera. This shot will be at an old ruined location, in this case, a ruined castle, in order to represent the past and how racism should stay in the past.

Audio-Visual elements (AV)

I will include different AV elements the first being exclusive content with a 'behind the scenes video' of one of my models (molly) dancing when we were capturing the photos, this will hopefully let the user know that she is a real down to earth normal person like them and hopefully will enjoy some fun out of the serious element of the website, appealing to their inner young self. The next will be a video of my second model (Hattie) saying how she feels and how she feels empowered which will purposefully contrast with the fun aspect of the earlier slide. The next will be a trailer and a clip from a podcast, which are a growing trend amongst younger people. The trailer will be around 40 seconds long and will feature me and Hattie talking discussing what we will be talking about and the clip will also be around 40 seconds and will be towards the end where she is giving out advice to the listeners. This clip will hopefully appeal to the socially-conscious aspect of the target demographic and will make them want to listen to the full version if they liked the tips and advice they heard.

Location

The location of some of my photos will be at sunset as not only is it aesthetically pleasing to the reader but it also represents the very thing that keeps us all alive and without it we would likely die, so this essence highlights unity. The models I will use will be mainly white people campaigning about black lives to show to the reader that everyone should be aware of this and that the white people are the privileged ones in society and they need educating about racism. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic and multiple local lockdowns, it meant I could only use the people in my house to model. So, if the pandemic was not occurring I would be able to get photos of other and more appropriate models. However, I have had to utilise the current situation and make the best out of a bad situation.

Socially conscious aspect 

As a website, I will also feature an entertainment story in the top story's of the month section on the home page in order to appeal to the young, savvy audience. As the audience is socially conscious I have to bear it in mind when producing a story. In this case, it will be a story regarding clothing and the contributions people clothes have on the environment and what it means for climate change. As the target audience is socially-conscious they will pick up on this story and will become more socially aware, meaning my brand would have successfully tapped into this market.

Target demographic

As my target audience is somewhat young adults, 16-25, they will be bored with long amounts of text, meaning they will not be interested in reading large chunks of information. Therefore, in order to reduce this risk, I will reduce the amount of information the user has to consume making them more likely to read the shorter and more summarized bits of information. Additionally, most of those who are in my target demographic are either students or just have entered full-time employment, with a large proportion having part-time jobs whilst studying. This means they may not have a lot of time to browse the internet, so having short and snappy titles with the user only having to consume short amounts of information will appeal to the busy student type, making them more likely to read the information. This can be best shown through the use of the social media platform snap chat as most news corporations now use it for young people to easily consume news as users can scroll up if they want to read more after seeing often moving pictures with a snappy colour title. Something, I think will be essential for my website in order to target a young audience.

Social Media

Another key element my website must conform to in order to meet the expectation of the genre is a social media link. This being the direct hyperlinks to the social media platforms for my brand Outcast. Which will be done via two methods. The first being a social media link featuring the different icons of my social media platforms in the menu bar which will be displayed on each page. The second being a hover box which will show a picture of a model which will automatically stand out and will be the first thing the user sees on the page. Once the user hovers over it, it will display a blue screen with the same social media icons as the menu bar, this will not only look consistent but will appeal the user to click as their age range makes up most of the demographic for all social media platforms I will use. This will be displayed on the Exclusive content page as it will link my contents page's call to arms with this page, which will be visible to the user if they have experienced both the website and my magazine.

In order to appeal to my target demographic, I will use the social media platforms, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. All of these platforms have a young target demographic with a large percentage of each users being between the ages of 16-25. These platforms are the most used social media platforms with Facebook having over 2 billion users, Instagram has over 1 billion and Twitter having over 400 million users, meaning at least 2 in 7 people on the planet have some form of social media, with the majority of young people being active on multiple platforms, not just one. This means by using those particular social media platforms it will attract the target audience wanting to visit my accounts on those platforms.