Week 24

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 double page spread. It uses, develops and challenges forms and conventions of real media products. 

On the left I have placed a professional product. It is a double page spread featuring Alexandra Burke. This cover is simple but effective, and uses a base of two colours; pink and black. The quotes and album information are presented in pink whilst the rest of the article is in black font. The article is only layed out on one of the pages from the spread, whilst the other is used to show the main icon. The main icons clothing is barely covers her bum and is purely goes with media theory, men look, women appear. women watch themselves being looked at. It also goes with Laura Maulvey's Male gaze.  
On the right is my final bhangra music magazine double page spread. I have included two images of my main icon. I have included an interview and heading, and question and answer. I have included page numbers and also based my spread on two base colours; black and purple. 

My media product shows the models images standing out, in order to catch the readers eyes and show her importance and status within the music industry.  

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

My media product is a bhangra music magazine double page spread. I am targetting both males and females of asian background. The age range may be from 15-45 years. I am designing my media product to represent these particular social groups by using bhangra related bright colours, culteral references and an eyecatching layout. My icon will represent asian people, and audience will be able to relate as she will be of an asian background too, and maybe around the same age range of the audience depending on their age

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

My media product is a bhangra music magazine front cover.My magazine is similar to many other magazines, therefore I believe that magazine distributers like Bauer Consumer Media might be interested in distributing my magazine. 

Bauer Media is a division of the Bauer Media Group. It is Europes largest privately owned publishing group. It has a worldwide 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. This way my media product can be accessed as both a hard copy and soft.

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

South Asia

My media product is a bhangra music magazine front cover. 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.

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

My media product is a bhangra music magazine double page spread. My audience are british/european of south asian descent. This means like my music magazine, my audience also have a western twist to them. This means they can relate to my whole magazine. I will attract/address my audience by adding a famous well known artist/icon within my spread. This will enable readers to want to read the story. I will also add album information and tour dates and email and online information of the artist. My audience most likely will be familiar with the internet so this will intrigue them further. Also  interview questions and answers will also draw in readers and artists fans also, they will want to know more about the artist and read on. Colours and layout is also an important factor to this, as it is visual and there needs to be something visual to attract the audience into reading the article or interview. 

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

My media product is a bhangra music magazine double page spread. I have learnt how to organise my work better. I have done this by using margins and guide lines within InDesign programme. This has enabled me to allign my work better and keep it neat and tidy. My media product is a bhangra music magazine double page spread. Throughout the procoess of constructing this product i have learned many technologies. These consist of the following; organising the layers in Adobe Photoshop and InDesign, locking and unlocking layers and editing my images within Adobe Photoshop using the Lasso tool.

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

Codes and conventions used within the double page spread compared to the front cover and contents page are similar. It is simpler to create a double page spread without having a first attempt as it is similar to the cover and contents page, except this product consists of two pages. The conventions needed within this task is far less compared to cover and contents. In the double page spread, page numbers, links for fans/upcoming album or tour information, title of article/main story, images of main artist/icon and interview with artist/cover story is needed. Overall, the progression towards the full product I have learned to allign my work better, and to have a neat and clear layout so that the reader can easily find information. Also a good layout enables the product to look better and gives it more of a professional touch. Effective images are very helpful as it aids the magazine be more visually attractive.