Week 11

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

My media product is a Bhangra music magazine. My product uses, develops or challenge forms and conventions of real media products. The two magazine covers I have used as research have helped me get an idea of the codes and conventions of a real magazine cover. Here they are below:

This is a fashion magazine called Bazaar. What inspired me about this magazine was the house style. The cover of this magazine is very simple and elegant, and it uses only 3 colours; black, white and pink. The models are placed centre of the magazine covering 3/4 of the page.  The clothing was also based on the house style and it made the magazine look more professional and appealing. 

On the right is invincible magazine. This is a music magazine. The cover of this magazine is very detailed and appealing. It also uses a base of 3 colours; black, white and orange. The thing about this magazine I found the layout interesting. It was more detailed and gave the reader more information on it's content. 

My magazine cover uses, develops and challenges forms and conventions of real media products as both these magazines have helped me come up with a hybrid. Therefore my magazine will use a colour scheme of 3 or 4 base colours like Bazaar magazine and have a detailed page layout like invincible magazine.

2. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

My media product is a Bhangra music magazine front cover. I have learnt a variety of things about technologies from the process of constructing this product. The software I have used is Adobe InDesign to create my magazine. I have also used Adobe Photoshop to edit my images. I wasn't familiar with Adobe InDesign but going through the process of creating my product I have learned to place images, and organise my work. Organising my work has helped me a lot, as this way I could move and edit my work easier. I organised it by placing everything in different layers and naming them. They also appeared in different colours, which also helped identify the layer I was working on.   

3. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

My preliminary task was to create a school/college magazine front cover. From what I have created, I have been given feedback. This helped me progress my work and give me more knowledge on what I can do better to improve my cover and future magazine covers I create. The feedback I have recieved from my preliminary task was very helpful.

Overall I learnt about the consistency of the house style and how this has a huge effect on the magazine. A good house style, a good colour scheme and image graphics, and fonts enables the cover to be more efficient and appealing. Also colours used should resemble the theme or genre of the magazine. It has helped me with the planning and helped me understand there is a lot of depth behind magazines and what it means and its resemblence. The layout is also very important, and should be done according to the theme of the magazine.  

Week 10

1. In what ways are you designing your media product to use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

My media product is a Bhangra music magazine front cover. I have used proffessional products like real magazine front covers to help me design my product. Below I have placed two different asian magazines which have helped me. 
On the left is Asian woman magazine, a fashion and lifestyle magazine. This magazine features Preeya Kalidas, (eastenders actress) on the cover. By doing this they may be trying to attract eastenders fans as well as asians and their usual audience. What I have noticed about this magazine, is the name and its top banner selling line. "Asian Woman" and "The magazine for the Woman who wants the world". This gives away the target audience for the magazine, which is women, and particularly asian women. However this magazine seems to portray women badly, as I believe it goes with "men look, Women appear. Women watch themselves being looked at" as the cover image shows the model to be quite revealing, eventhough cleavage doesn't seem to be showing, it is still the fact that she is dressed and shown in that way because she is a woman and men are trying to degrade us. The model could have been wearing more covered up clothing. I did not like this within this magazine, therfore I will avoid using degrading images of women within my magazine. The layout and colour scheme of this magazine is also quite inspirational, as black, red and silver is used and everything is organised smartly to the sides of the page.   
 
On the right is Brit-Asian magazine, which is also a Lifestyle magazine for asian people. The model featured on this magazine is Jay sean. He is shown fully clothed wearing black clashing with the background which is also black. The colour scheme used within this cover is black, white and gold. What I have noticed within this magazine is that it also has a top banner selling line, "The worlds leading interactive asian magazine". This helps persuade people to buy the magazine and also helps identify who the magazine is targetting. This magazine is layed out quite simply as there isn't any articles displayed on the sides, just top and bottom banner, a left third, masthead and an advert. 

This has helped me with codes and conventions to include within my media product as I want to avoid using images that degrade women. Also I want to use a top and bottom banner, a top banner to illustrate to the audience who I am targetting and also as a selling technique to persuade the audience to purchase my magazine. I will be using a bottom banner to state the subjects and briefly outline what my magazine holds. For example; Music, Reviews, Competitions, etc.    

2. How are you designing your media product to represent particular social groups?

As my media product is a bhangra music magazine front cover, my audience and readers will mostly revolve around south asian people. I am designing my media products to represent particular social groups by adding words and phrases that are bhangra related, and of which asian people understand. They will feel to read the magazine as there are cultural references and other factors that they may be able to relate to. Clothing and jewellery is another factor, as within bhangra clothing is very bright and jewellery is most often worn. 

Adding asian people to the magazine is also a way asian people may feel they can relate to the magazine. Featuring people of both genders, and having a variety of age groups featured within the magazine will also help me represent the different social groups. Bhangra itself is from the punjab, so punjabi people will be attracted to the magazine anyways, as music and dance is a huge part of their culture and traditions. 

I am designing my media product to feature asian people, and within the front cover I will place a british asian female with an age range of 18-30. I will make sure my cover is colourful and relates to bhangra. I will include culteral references within the articles featured on the cover. I will also lay out my magazine like other asian magazines in order to represent particular social groups within the asian audience.  

3. How are you attracting/addressing your audience?

My target audience are british or european people of south asian descent. The audience my magazine will target is both male and female around the ages of 15-45. My media product is using factors such as bhangra music and other references towards bhangra and its orgigins to target my audience. I will feature asian people, british/european asians to attract/address my audience. I am attracting/addressing my audience by using an effective colour scheme. Also my masthead is big, bold and clear, this enables it to stand out and catch the readers eye. My cover lines and text featured will be in a contrasting colour and will stand out for readers to see the headlines. I am addressing british and european people as I have designed my page to have the price in pounds and in euros.    

Week 9

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

My media product is a music magazine. The genre of my music magazine is bhangra, therefore it needs to meet the needs of a bhangra music magazine. Also I've decided to create my magazine modernised with a western twist which will allow me to appeal more to my target audience. My music magazine will challenge forms and conventions of real media products as bhangra is originated from asia, therefore I will include asian people and asian clothing and music types within the magazine. Below I will show what I've found out.

What is Bhangra? how it originated?
Bhangra originated from the punjabi culture within india in the late 1960's. 1st and 2nd generation immigrants from the punjab region of pakistan and india developed Bhangra in britain in the 1980's, linking westernised musical styles and the punjab region songs. Along with the bhangra music there is also a bhangra dance, the earliest Bhangra dance was developed as a folk dance conducted by punjabis to celebrate the harvest. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDPQZOcAQqs  

This is a printscreen of the link of the video I have placed from youtube.

This is a typical bhangra track and it is by PBN (Punjabi By Nature) and Miss pooja. This has helped me with the type of clothing which is worn within the bhangra/asian music industry and the colours bhangra is associated with. for example, Bhangra costumes are very colourful or decorated and videos and music tend to be upbeat, and attentive. It helped me understand what type of music it is. 

 

Bhangra Clothing

http://www.baisakhifestival.com/baisakhi-dress.html 
This is a Printscreen of the page I have linked, this website helped me understand more about Bhangra clothing for both men and women.

It is traditional within bhangra dances, the clothing worn by both male and female is fun packed with lots of colour. Bhangra clothing tends to be very colourful and attractive looking. below I will explain further the male and female dress code.  

Lehenga Choli

 


Saree

Women

Salwar Kameez

Within the traditional Bhangra dances women have a certain dress code. Either Salwar kameez or a lahenga choli is worn. Also Saree's are worn as it is also a traditional asian garment. Within Bhangra, I've discovered women do this kind of Gidda dance. For this dance, and other bhangra dances, women dress and wear certain things. 


Parts of the female Bhangra Dress includes the Dupatta (chunni or scarf), the kameez (shirt) and the salwaar (baggy pants). Also lets not forget the jewellery. 



Example of mens Bhangra garment -
Kurta & Lungi





Men  



Pajama

Men also have a certain dress code within the Bhangra dances. For men, the traditional garments worn are kurta (similar to shirt) and lungi (loose lioncloth tied around waist), or pajama (shirt and loose pants). The headpiece worn is called the Turla/torla, or a pag (turban). A jugi (waistcoat) is also worn with the bhangra outfits.   
Men also wear jewellery with their Bhangra costumes.   




Dhol - Drums

 

Bhangra Instruments

The Drums

The drums are very popular within bhangra. The drums are referred to as the "Dhol". The Dhol is held horizontally and then both heads (of the drum) are played with beaters. Bhangra is a type of folk dance from punjab, and the "dhol" is used within the music and provides percussion for the Bhangra dances.



Iktar

 

Chimta

 


Tumbi



Within bhangra and punjabs folk music various instruments are used. To accompany the Dhol and help the music sound more up beat and live, other instruments are used as well. Within Bhangra, there is more popular instruments such as the "iktar" (which means one string), the  "Tumbi" and the "chimta". 



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWCxDKOEAIk 

The Printscreen on the right is showing the youtube video of the link above. This is a modernised Bhangra track by H Dhami. This video is quite different to other traditional bhangra music video's as the clothing is more westernised. As i want to target a modern and westernised bhangra audience, my audience will be similar to the audience of H Dhami's music. It is westernised, but it still has its bhangra twist to it. This video helped me decide that I should include traditional bhangra elements but I can give it a westernised twist to it as well by adding certain elements that may help influence my audience. Music is very important within this culture and it is used very often.   



2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My media product is aimed at south asian people in particular, but it will be more westernised and  therefore my audience will be British Asians or citizens of the european union. 

The social groups that will be represented within my media product will be teenagers, kids, adults, Punjabi people, indian people, pakistani people, and south asian people on the whole, whom are interested in bhangra music with a western twist, for example the recent bhangra artists like PBN (Punjabi By Nature), Alyssia, H dhami, Richi Rich & Apache Indian.  

My media product represents these particular social groups as they are all of south asian heritage or may have an interest within the culture or music. As my magazine is aimed at westernised south asians, whom tend to listen to or may have huge interests in RnB, PoP and other subgenres, my bhangra magazine can cater to those interests with its bhangra twist. I may involve other famous westernised artists within my magazine that are creating albums with a bhangra twist or if they are collaborating music with bhangra artists. I will reach out to my target audience using my magazines and conventions I include within my magazine. I will include conventions like the colours - as they would be bright and colourful similar to south asian tradition as clothing tends to be really bright. I may use colours like oranges, reds, Yellows, Blues, Purples and Greens. Also the clothing colours would be bright too. My magazine would relate to my target audience as I may use south asian clothing within my bhangra magazine, also the audience can relate to the ethnicity of the artists in my magazine. The music type is bhangra and people who listen to that music genre will be generally interested also.    

3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

As my media product is a music magazine and it is similar to many other magazines, I believe that magazine distributers like Bauer Consumer Media might be interested in distributing it. 

Bauer Consumer Media

Bauer Media is a division of the Bauer Media Group, and is Europes largest privately owned publishing group. It is a worldwibe media empire offering over 300 magazines in 15 countries both printed and online. Bauer Media is a multi-Platform UK-based media group consisting of many companies colleged around 2 main division - Magazines & Radio. It is built on influential media brands with millions of personal relationships with engaged readers & listeners. They connect to their audiences with excellent content through their broad multi-touch point brand platforms, wherever and wherever and however wanted. Bauer magazine spans over 80 influential brand names covering a diverse range of interests. As Bauer media publish for a diverse range of interests, this institution will be the perfect match to publish my media product.

4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

South Asia

As I am creating a Bhangra music magazine, my audience will be south asians. On the left I have included the region of south asia, and these are my broad ethnic audience, and what kind of people will be targetted for my bhangra music magazine. On the whole, my magazine will be distribute within the UK and the region of europe. Therefore my audience may be citizens of the european union, or be british. 

The age range of my music magazine will be from 15-35. Also my target audience will be both males and females as within the asian regions, music is very important, and men are interested as much as women therefore i decided to broaden my target audience to men aswell as women. 
The

Week 6

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
My media product is a college magazine contents page. It is colour co-ordinated with blue, white, black and yellow, similar to the college magazine cover I have created. Within my college magazine contents page i have included an editors note on the left hand side. My contents page includes bold text that stands out to catch the audiences eye. These magazine contents pages inspired me in creating my college magazine contents page.

The image on the left is a music magazine contents page, and its layout inspired me to create my college magazine contents page. The contents page used blacks, whites and reds within its contents page, therefore i chose to use the same colours in my magazine cover for my contents page, to show a house style within my magazine. Also similar colours will show proffessionalism and consistency. The layout of this contents page inspired me most as it had the masthead/header at the top and its contents page details below it. Also it had a huge right hand centre of the page which made a huge effect and made the magazine stand out more. The pictures used within the contents page have similar house style to the contents page as well, which helped me decide the picture i will have in my contents page, will have to be a similar shade to my house style colours i will be using within my magazine. My media product uses, develops or challeneges forms and conventions of real media products because like this magazine contents page, my magazine also has a contents header, 4 or more images, and content pages and information stated. Furthermore my magazine has a house style and consists of four colours throughout the contents page.

The image on the right is a magazine contents page, and it has inspired me as it is eye catching and entertaining, also it is informative. This inspired me to include an editors note within the left hand side of my contents page, so it can be more informative as well as get a little bit personal with the readers so they can relate. My media product uses, develops or challenges forms and conventions of real media products because like this magazine contents page, my magazine also consists of a personal note, however instead of this, my one is an editors note. Also my contents page is informative and eye catching. It will relate to my audience.  

This is my college magazine contents page:

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?


My media product is representing teenagers and college students. It may also target teachers and parents indirectly as parents and teachers may also be able to use this to be more aware of college life and what students might be getting up to. college students and teenagers are also represented as my media product includes tips for exams and other factors. It captures what college students are interested in, striving in, and whats on offer. College students and teenagers are interested in a majority of things, therefore to represent their age group within my magazine I referenced facebook and twitter. Also I included the college magazine website so readers can keep updated. Social networking and the internet usage is very popular amongst this age group therefore by using these factors within my magazine i can relate more to my target audience. 

Within my magazine I have included things like examination techniques, extra curricular activities and fitness. These factors will interest readers as at this age, students are looking to get fit and healthy, therfore they may want some advice and help on how to go about it. The extra curricular activities will help build on UCAS points therefore students will be interested in this, and by including this within my magazine it will be able to cater to their needs and update them on latest and most popular, also the variety of extra curricular activities available. 
 
For example, they may want to know more about the Duke of edinburgh award which is very interesting and is popular with many people. The Enrichment activities, debate society, and LRC are mentioned within my magazine contents page and these may also represent the teachers within the college as well as the students, this is because the teachers may be interested in the debates, and some of the teachers may be leading the enrichment programme. Also some teachers may want to teach one of their lessons in the LRC or set some homework based on it, therefore they can find out more, as they can use the magazine website referenced within the contents page or get in contact. Social events are also mentioned within my magazine contents page, as most students are interested in socialising and having fun.  


3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

A number of Media institutions might distribute my media product as it meets the expectations of a college contents page, as it is colourful, bold and stands out. Also my media product is similar to other magazine contents page and will suit my previous media product, which was my magazine front cover. Media institutions like the National magazine company, IPC Media, Conde Nast publications, Bauer consumer media might distribute my media product.

National magazine Company
Hearst magazines UK is the trading name of National Magazine Company Ltd which was established in 1910 by William Randolph Hearst. The company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Hearst Corporation, one of the largest diversified media companies. One of their major interests include magazines. The types of magazines NMC publish is health related. My school magazine is quite health related and it includes the similarities and features, codes and conventions of a real magazine contents page. Therefore one type of media institution that may distribute colleducation is National Magazine Company.

Bauer Consumer Media

Bauer Media is a division of the Bauer Media Group, and is Europes largest privately owned publishing group. It is a worldwibe media empire offering over 300 magazines in 15 countries both printed and online. Bauer Media is a multi-Platform UK-based media group consisting of many companies colleged around 2 main division - Magazines & Radio. It is built on influential media brands with millions of personal relationships with engaged readers & listeners. They connect to their audiences with excellent content through their broad multi-touch point brand platforms, wherever and wherever and however wanted. Bauer magazine spans over 80 influential brand names covering a diverse range of interests. As Bauer media publish for a diverse range of interests, this institution will be the perfect match to publish my media product.

4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

The audience for my college school magazine contents page is college students, aged from 16-19 of both sexes ( Male and Female). My magazine is also aimed at all ethnic backhgrounds, religions and cultures, as it is not pin pointed to a certain one. My magazine should promote multiculterism and equality therefore everyone (16-19) can benefit from this magazine no matter their sex, or culture. My magazine may also target the pink pound.