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, and within this I have created three media pieces. These 3 media pieces are the magazine front cover, contents page and the double Page spread. Below I will discuss ways in which my media product uses, develops or challenges forms and conventions of real media products.

Firstly, my music magazine genre is bhangra, therefore my magazine has to look and be designed in a certain way to attract my target audience. I have designed my magazine to be of a bhangra genre with a western twist. An example of what type of music will be featured in the magazine and what kind of artists is H Dhami’s music. This is because he sings in Punjabi, having the bhangra factor as well as that western twist to his music.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsdoC5NvVI0

This music video consists of H Dhami, singing a bhangra song with a western surrounding and mise-en-scene. It shows how new bhangra artists are and how they portray themselves. This helped me as I used this to portray my artist in a similar way within my magazine.

Due to this; I have designed my magazine to use bright colours within the magazine. I decided to use 4 base colours within the magazine, using black, white, pink and purple. Black and white was used as due to the western twist within the music, bright colours aren’t used as much, and artists tend to wear dark colours. However I decided to add pink and purple as they are popular clothing colours within bhangra and I wanted to add a traditional vibe to my magazine. Clothing wise, I have left the front cover artists clothing to be westernised but made sure she was wearing purple to match my colour scheme and house style of my cover. I had left the clothing to be westernised as I thought my cover’s mood and mise-en-scene already gave out that bhangra vibe.

The Magazine on the right is of Asian Woman magazine which is a fashion and lifestyle magazine. This magazine hugely motivated me as the house style and cover is attractive, also the target audience is similar to mine, as they target Asian people too. This magazine includes forms and conventions such as masthead, selling line, date line, main image, main cover line, left third, barcode and price, cover lines and more. The text stands out in this magazine as they have used many fonts and typefaces. The front cover of this magazine is really inspirational, the mise-en-scene, colour scheme, house style and the layout. Therefore I have designed my magazine front cover to use, develop and challenge forms and conventions of real media products like the Asian Woman magazine cover. This cover is similar to my cover, and what I have included within my magazine cover and my layout is also quite similar. This cover image is an extreme long shot of the three models whereas; I have placed a long shot of my artist on my cover image.

The artist on my cover is 22 years old, and is wearing a purple maxi dress. The model on my cover isn’t showing cleavage, and is covered apart from her arms. ‘Ways of seeing’ 1977 - J Berger identifies the viewing experience for women as being masochistic. The phrase that comes from this is, “men look, women appear. Women watch themselves being looked at.” I dislike the way women are portrayed in the media; therefore I didn’t include a revealing image on my front cover. I have also avoided using anything relating to sex as “visual pleasure & narrative cinema” 1974 - L Mulvey explored the “male gaze.” The theory ascertains that women are objectified by patriarchy/men because women represent a lack of the phallus i.e. the castration threat. This is why; the camera – predominantly controlled by men, for men – objectifies/punishes women as passive/sex objects for male pleasure. This has helped me decide the codes and conventions to use within my media product as I want to avoid using images that degrade women.

The model has dark eye makeup and her hair is curled from ears downwards. The body language portrayed is relaxed and she is posing with her hands leaning on the curved wall. The artists’ facial expression is a secretive smile, as well as that; there is eye contact between the artist and reader. Eye contact enables the model to reach out to the audience. My artist is female and she is of south Asian origin, and British Punjabi background. She is a business woman who produces her own music.

The house style colours are purple, black, white and pink. Purple and pink are both bright colours, and the background colour of the magazine is a dusty creamy grey, as this is the colour of the curved wall she is sitting on. This is a similar way in which Asian woman magazine is designed, as their background also has a gradient effect on which they placed their text and cover image.

I have inserted a top and bottom banner within my magazine front cover as other real media products use this. It is also quite effective, a top banner to illustrate to the audience who I am targeting 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/topics to briefly outline what my magazine holds. For example; music, reviews and competitions etc.

I have adjusted or challenged the generic conventions in respect of my product and target audience by adding cultural references. The band names and music and other styles are all Punjabi, therefore they represent bhangra.

I have placed my Bhangra music magazine Front cover below, on which I have annotated and stated the conventions I have used. My magazine is similar and challenges forms and conventions of real media products.

The contents page on the left is Asian woman magazine contents page. This contents page is a double spread; however I have designed and constructed my magazine contents page to be only one page.

The contents page features future and past Asian Woman magazine, which is a selling technique as above it there’s an offer of only £12 to purchase them all. Within this contents page, there are four images that are featured. The contents page is neatly organised, as on the first page there are two columns and on the second page there are four.

My contents page includes four images. There is also another image placed on the top right hand corner, of my cover page. This is one way in which my contents page is similar to real products. None of the images featured within my contents page degrade women, as they are all fully dressed and aren’t showing any sexual gestures or signs.

I have placed house style and colour scheme within the contents page, this means that the colours used within the cover is consistent within the contents page. As I have decided to use black, white, pink and purple within my cover, I have also used these same colours within the contents page. These colours have made the contents page stand out more, and draw in reader’s attention. The colours were a good combination and go well with the page and the layout. The colours also compliment the images well.

Similarly to this contents page, my contents page is equally as detailed, but more as I’ve added text and links to my images and there aren’t any links to the images within the professional product above.

I have adjusted or challenged the generic conventions in respect of my product and target audience by adding cultural references such as clothing. Within the contents page more of the clothing is Asian and represents Asian people. It is also more colourful and eye catching; also the artist’s names and music are western but have Asian twists. For example, Dimple Delight.

I have placed my Bhangra music magazine Contents Page below , on which I have annotated and stated the conventions I have used. My magazine is similar and challenges forms and conventions of real media products.

On the left is Asian woman magazines double page spread. I have chosen this media product as it is the music spread and it looks quite appealing, and personally, I would read this.

This magazine includes 13 images and is visually attractive. It automatically attracts readers as this spread is Asian with the western twist. This magazine is based on two base colours, black and white, on which the images are placed. As these images are colourful, they stand out from the formal black and white text that’s featured. This enables the spread to be more appealing.

This spread is similar to the theme of my magazine. All the images included have text links to them which illustrate the image. From just glancing at the image, I can see some huge stars in the music industry, Rihanna, Rita Ora, Raxstar and other Asian artists.

Similarly, my magazine also features an artist; however I have based my magazine cover on one artist. I have used only two images, but I have enlarged the images and placed them to catch the reader’s eye.

Like this professional media product, my magazine is also based on two base colours; black and purple. By having a simple and smart looking text and colour coding, adding images with hints of colour will stand out.

I have included quotes and album information, tour and album dates. I have made sure these details stood out from the rest of the black text by using a different font and colour, but still keeping within my colour scheme.

I have adjusted or challenged the generic conventions in respect of my product and target audience by adding cultural references such as the main icon and colours I have used. Within the double page spread, the language and cultural references used represents Asian people. It is also colourful and eye catching; also the artist’s names and music are western but have Asian twists. This links to the previous spread as it shows how my spread shows the western Asian twists.

I have placed my Bhangra music magazine Double Page Spread below, on which I have annotated and stated the conventions I have used. My magazine is similar and challenges forms and conventions of real media products.

2. How does your media product represent

particular social groups?

My media product is a bhangra music magazine. My media product is aimed at south Asian people in particular; 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.

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. Just by adding an Asian person to the magazine will help make the audience 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. 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.

To represent social groups 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 cultural 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.

To represent social groups within the contents page, I will insert more than four images so I can attract my audience visually. Contents pages are more informative so therefore include loads of text, even though this is the case, I will make sure it is colourful, and follow the bhangra conventions to attract the audience. I will add 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.

To represent social groups within my double page spread, by using bhangra related bright colours, cultural references and an eye-catching 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 Europe’s 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 based around 2 main divisions - 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?

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 targeted for my bhangra music magazine. On the whole, my magazine will be distributed 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 as well as women.

The socio-Economic categorization of my audience may come under E (the unemployed/casual workers/ students/pensioners), D (semi-skilled/unskilled manual), C2 (skilled manual) and C1 (junior management/professional). This is because these are the people that are likely to have time on their hands to be listening to music or be interested within music magazines. Another reason why these have been chosen as my target audience, my magazine isn’t that expensive and is a monthly magazine. So people really will be getting value for money.

The psycho-graphic categorization my music magazine falls under is aspirers (people who want a better life), Carers (people who have a social conscience) and mainstreamers (people who prefer to be like most other people).

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

Magazine covers have to be visually attractive in order to appeal to their target audience. Since I have created a bhangra magazine front cover, in order to appeal to my audience, forms and conventions included within my magazine, that relate to my audience are artists, colours, and clothing.

I am attracting/addressing my audience through the front cover by using factors such as bhangra music and other cultural references. I will feature Asian people, British/European Asians to attract/address my audience. I am also attracting/addressing my audience by using an effective colour scheme. The masthead is big, bold and clear, this enables it to stand out and catch the reader’s 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 Euros.

I am attracting/addressing my audience through the contents page, by making sure the images I use are effective and stand out. The images will address my audience as the image icons will be Asian or representing bhangra and Asian ethnicity by clothing or posture. Another way I will be addressing my audience is through the colours used. It will be bright and colourful to catch the reader’s eye. This will draw in the audience to continue reading the magazine, as it is about the visual content as well as the text displayed.

I am attracting/addressing my audience through the double page spread .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 will be familiar with the internet so this will intrigue them further. Also interview questions and answers will draw in readers and artists fans too, they will want to know more about the artist and read on. Colours and layout is 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. 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.

6. What have you learnt about technologies from

the process of constructing this product?

In the process of constructing my full product I have learnt to use software’s such as Adobe Photoshop and InDesign. To help me understand more about both of these software’s I used online tutorials.

http://mashable.com/2010/04/11/youtube-photoshop-tutorials/

Above I have placed a link of the website I visited to for the tutorials I have used. These tutorials help to show basic and hard skills within Photoshop. With these skills it will be easier to edit images. The print screen above is showing the tutorial I have watched which illustrates the tools and its functions, and how to use them.

http://vector.tutsplus.com/tutorials/designing/how-to-create-a-music-magazine-cover-in-indesign/

The link above is of the other website I have visited. This website was more help as I found InDesign really tricky to use. Within this website, it has print screened step to step instructions on how the cover was made. This helped me as I was more familiar with the tools. The print screen shows me scrolling through the instructions.

The software I have used to create my magazine is Adobe InDesign. 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.

Throughout the construction of my front cover I have learnt to edit my images in the process of constructing this product. Before I used to edit my images using the quick select tool on Adobe Photoshop, but then throughout the process of creating my product I have found that using the Lasso tool is a far more of an effective way to edit my images. This tool was easier to use and my images looked way better edited when I used it, and I also had to remember and feather the edited parts every time I used the lasso tool so the edges came out nice and smoothed out.

Throughout the construction of the contents page, I have learnt to use many tools within these programmes for example, in Adobe InDesign I have learned to make my images look better by selecting then right clicking the image and making it better high quality. Throughout the process of constructing this product I have also learned to organise my layers. By this I mean more than naming the layers. By this I mean, background and bottom layers go all the way at the bottom, this way they do not over lap other layers. The higher the layers are, it means they are overlapping other layers. It is best to organise and place all the bottom and background layers to go at the bottom and then lock them in place so you can fiddle about with the rest and put them in place. Locking layers and unlocking is simple but very fiddly, however this comes in very handy as it helps to keeps layers in place.

Throughout the construction of my 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 align my work better and keep it neat and tidy. I have also learned to organise 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?

My media product is a bhangra music magazine. My preliminary task was to create a school/college magazine front cover. From my constructed college magazine, I’ve 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 received from my preliminary task was very helpful. 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 enable 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 resemblance. The layout is also very important, and should be done according to the theme of the magazine.

Within my preliminary task, I also created a school/college magazine Contents page. I had received feedback on it, which has helped me progress my work and give me more knowledge on what I can do better to improve my contents page and future magazine contents pages I create. The feedback I have received from my preliminary task was very helpful. Images are very important and so is the content of the magazine. I have to plan ahead so in the long run I can link my images and articles together. Also more content was needed, and more tasters and other features in order to persuade the reader to want to flick through the magazine.

I learnt about the imagery and how I need to use efficient and original images in order to achieve a successful magazine contents page. As the contents page is "content", I have to make sure that those needs are satisfied too as well and include lots of information and images where needed. The layout is also very important, for it to be a good organised contents page. A good house style, a good colour scheme and image graphics, and fonts enable the cover to be more efficient and appealing. The colours used should resemble the theme or genre of the magazine. The imagery, and content are very important, and the preliminary task has helped me with the planning and helped me understand there is a lot of depth behind magazines.

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 are far less compared to cover and contents pages. 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 align 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.