Joshua Savarymoothoo

AQA- Media Studies As

In what ways does you media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media

products?

Who would be the audience for your media product? • My group and I have chosen to do a music magazine based around modern popular music as we discovered that

the range of music genres covered was quite narrow as they are mainly Indie oriented such as in NME. When making our magazine we took into consideration: the target market, products that would go into the magazine and above all the layout.

• The audience for my magazine targeted are around the 15- 25 age group; this is typically the age assembly of any music magazine or this type of magazine. I focus on making it easy for everybody to read. I address to this target market in several ways. I give the audience what they want; artists, bands, and news on the music industry plus exclusive interviews: everything that music fanatic’s love, want to know and read about. Secondly the music magazine will now and again give out free giveaways like DVD’s on music documentaries, music album tasters/assortment albums or music CD’s of the greatest hits of the 90’s or perhaps discount coupons at leading retailers such as HMV or iTunes downloads. I myself have added on my front cover a free CD.

• It will cover everything in the music industry such as news in the industry, the latest updates on the charts: who’s on top, who isn’t and who’s dropped and feature articles, stories and interviews. It will also cover the industry biases such as the television, radio, CD’s, and DVDs.

• It will also have a website, Muzik.com, which will also feature video programming, including artist interviews, performances and event coverage. A web site is important for any type media of outlet today as it appeals to different audiences and can help provide a more rounded media experience for readers. For example in the printed publication there may not be room for a 5 page interview, so for the people that are interested in reading the full transcript they can go to Muzik.com and read the rest. Also websites are more easily accessible to find out information

• The website would offer full coverage of breaking music news and music chart toppers to music fans. Muzik will be the best print and online music magazine for in-depth music business news and access to an array of digital music, and music videos. Search music news articles about your favourite artist or research evolving trends in digital music. Keep coming back to discover new music, read exclusive interviews and watch new music videos from unknown and chart-topping artists. Readers will be rewarded if they visit each day as it will be updated daily so they can see what new song releases made it to No. 1 on the music charts. Online magazines such as this can generate revenue based on targeted search advertisements (ads) to web-site visitors and banner ads to retail web sites, classified advertisements, and product-purchase, capabilities, advertiser directory links, or alternative commercial purposes. This will mean that my Magazine should be just as commercially profitable as its website.

This is an example of what our website would look. It isn’t initially all my or our work, however, it is just to give a brief idea of the website. I have changed a few bits such as text: adding my own made up artist review on the bottom, changing all the titles to “muzik” and adding some of my pictures. I know we are supposed to use our own conventions and images however this is just an example of how our website would look.

FRONT COVER• The idea of a front cover is to sell the magazine and obviously to bind together the magazine. It should have a

large title going across: and in terms of a magazine, should always be the title name, size, font etc. Also on a front cover there should be one large main picture, sometimes there are more than one picture on a front cover however this varies and can make the magazine become very cramped and busy and it the one big eye-catching picture that magazines stick to. Not only is the front cover there to sell itself but also there to promote and sell the artist that is featured on the cover. A magazine will put an interesting subject on the cover as well as someone who is news worthy such as “Mariah Carey” or “Britney Spears”, someone that will catch the reader’s attention and draw them in to buy the magazine. Everything makes a story: if it’s Britney Spears failing in her last album, then it’s her making a huge come-back with her new tour, if it’s Mariah secretly getting married then it’s her new album out- any little story will draw the readers attention. The main picture is normally positive especially in a music magazine, as it’s to sell the magazine and the artist themselves. Whilst having the main picture up there the magazine will also have other sub headings and stories on there- so you could say the main picture is like bait, it catches your attention, you look at it, and you find that you have found a million things/stories there that you want to know. It’s always the picture the audience looks at first, that’s what catches your attention always: you never find someone who looks at a magazine and misses the main picture, let alone it is the biggest picture on the page but because that’s what our mind tells us to do- you can say a picture may be worth 2,000 words theoretically. What I have explained are basically the main conventions of a front cover.

FRONT COVERPage analysis: draft/cover 1• With my media project I have actually done two front covers,

one is my first draft and the second is my main and improved one. This is my draft copy. The reason for this is because my group and I analyzed it and thought that there were to many things going on in the page. However it still followed the conventions of a magazine. I have the big and bold title going across the page; straight away your eye is drawn to the picture. On the other hand I agree that it is a bit hard to concentrate on the picture because there is so much going on. Nevertheless this would still pass off as a magazine. It follows all the convention: a title that stands out, the main picture in the middle that draws your attention, the mini story on the bottom left hand side in the corner: like some magazines do, different stories around to give an idea of what’s going on in the magazine and the artist name in a different font and color to the others (that stands out), and a brief description of the artists for the magazine The date and issue number on top, the bar code along with a website which is very important for most leading magazines. I have also extended my convention by adding a Cover mount which is the name given to containing/or other products (ranging from toys to flip-flops- in this case it would be CD’s and DVDs and so fourth) packaged as part of the magazine. The usual method of packaging is to place the media or product in a transparent plastic sleeve and mount it on the cover of the magazine with adhesive tape or glue; hence the name.You can see my one on the top left hand corner of the page that says “free CD”.

FRONT COVER• Page analysis: improved front cover• This is my improved front cover. As you can see it definitely follows the

conventions of a magazine front cover. Unlike before were there was too many things going on in the cover, I have calmed it down making it less busy. Now when you look at the magazine your eyes can focus on the main picture including being drawn into it-it catches your attention. Like my group and I the title has stayed the same font, style and size-like any other magazine. You notice in some magazines the picture goes over the title, this is done a lot in publishing because it makes the magazine interesting, you see more of the picture and the magazine is already well known so there isn’t any worry about people not understanding the titles name.

• Obviously when first publishing the magazine they will stay away from that type of editing for the first few issues then after a short period of time they can start elaborating and messing around, editing/changing things to make the magazine better, more interesting and prestigious.

• I have the name of the made up artist “Marie Antoniou” in a big and bold font which is presented like the other subheadings however more conspicuous as it is bigger than the other sub heading titles and it has stars underlining it. This shows that this is the main story plus the stars also symbolize fame, stardom and so on. I have a brief description of my made up celebrity singer underneath her name so everyone knows that it’s about her- there’s no use putting it under or somewhere on the page like were it says “gaga for gaga” people would get confused, they may think its unprofessional and silly editing and may even think it has something to do with that particular story.

• The background is very easy to distinguish: it’s simple, effective and professional. The background doesn’t interfere with the main picture or anything else; it’s not too obstructing or buried with so many details, and not by any means plain and boring. I created the background with Photoshop, as you can see they are red curtains with spotlights from both top ends. You can say that the curtains represent fame-theatre curtains- stardom, something on the lines of celebrity/news worthy person. The background fits very well with whole convention and layout; you do see from time to time that magazines will make a unique yet simple and effective background instead of going with a plain colored background.

FRONT COVER CONTINUED• Our magazine isn’t just for one gender, as I wanted to target both genders, as this would increase my sells,

therefore I added images showing its unisex genre. Smash Hits used to use girls to attract the female teen audience and glam women sometimes added to attract the males other than the females too. However most magazines tend to use males on the front cover such as “NME”, examples date recently: 27/04/09, it has a band member of “The killers” on the front. In NME they tend to use a lot of male on the front of their magazines and it is hard to affirm an actual date they used a female artist on there as it has been such a long time. This is probably due to the fact that the magazines are focused around rock/indie, and there’s not a lot of female artist that come under that genre. It’s the same with “Kerrang” as it’s mostly intending on the heavy metal music fanatics but then you have “Clash magazine” and its genres is pop, RNB, rap indie and basically a mix. They have more than 30 issues of “Clash” published and only one issue, issue 26 with a female artist “Duffy”, you can see from that, magazines tend to use males on the front being that there’s a lot of female artist in the pop, RNB, indie genre yet they choose to use only males generally on the front cover. This shows a sense of male dominating females, but then again it isn’t the case-in terms of singing, a woman can hit more notes than a male artist and can even change the style and appearance of her music without being criticized as such, like being called “homophobic”- obviously all artist get criticized by the media, but what I am trying to point out is that females can dominate male more, as they do mostly in the charts- So why do they tend to add males on the front cover?

• It doesn’t make a magazine more feminine or girly adding a female to the front cover, that’s just being sexist; you would be surprised how many males prefer the female artist/are drawn more to the magazine by a female artist, not just because the female is attractive but because they are more interesting and in a way more diverse and better than the male. This is how I challenge the forms and conventions of a real; magazine by adding a female artist to my front cover unlike most people in my class who have added made up male artists. When the reader has been drawn in by the huge picture along with the magazine large, bright, outstanding logo, they are then drawn to the big bold title of the artist and the main story (which has stars underlining it) once that happens you are drawn to the exclusive, when the reader sees exclusive it will prompt them to pick it up and read it because if something’s exclusive the readers are going to want to know. However as I explained before once this happens the readers will find that looking at the page will make there minds crave for more: as they will see the sub-heading and stories and will want to read and know more. Another way my magazine attunes to the media convention of a music magazine is how it has a simple and effective slogan that cerebrates the title and selling point of the magazine “get to know you” is the slogan and the title is “muzik” therefore “get to know your muzik” the pieces fit together and the slogan and title fuse. “Muzik” sounds like music and “get to know” then is giving the message as well as a catchy slogan that fits together with the title, to buy the magazine and “get to know” it, the magazine has a website that is advertised on the top and lastly has the price and barcode together on the bottom, near the middle more to the right of the page, which would normally be the right spot to put it or more to the corner on the right or on top below the title. I personally think that with the slogan you can be a bit flexible with it: I don’t think that it always has to be the same font (although it would help if it was most of the time), I don’t think it needs to be the same color or place but obviously it should be somewhere on top, so it still reflects the message it should but I don’t think it always has to be on top in the same place.

EXTENDED COVER WORK• I extended and developed my magazine further by making a flap to go on it. The

flaps that magazines make and publish are designed to give more information or more stories and adverts to the audience without crowding the page. I developed and challenged the convention of a magazine by creating a flap. It’s a very smart way of advertising. The reason its convenient and smart way of advertising is because it helps sell the magazine as it gives the impression that the magazine has all kinds of hidden gems inside it. It meets the conventions of a magazine/magazine flap, it has the same details like the front cover however it’s like the front cover but half of it, so when it goes over it will fit together like a puzzle and show the front cover as it would be with out it. The background is a little different. I’ve still kept it to curtains but I’ve changed the way they look on the advert flap, which is often done to the flap on a magazine: they usually change the color of the background or something, were it will still fit the front cover background but making it stand out more. I have kept the “charts” sub-heading; the exclusive text is still the same, not as big as it isn’t the main piece to the front cover. Under that I have made my made up artist name differently that will catch the reader’s attention: it’s sort of like a shiny ruby effect with a glow to it represent how how/she’s in the spotlight-she’s a star. I have also added an advert showing my made up singer’s bogus album and finally another short story that was in my draft copy of the magazine if you notice. By looking at this you can see that the flaps are use to add stories and adverts on it so that it doesn’t clutter the front page.

On right are the flap and the front cover, and beside it are both of them together as a whole, as you can see it conforms to media conventions and style of real music magazines

< Left: Flap on top of magazine/Front cover.

CONTENTS PAGE• The purpose of a contents page is simply to address the reader or in other words escort the reader to a particular

article, stories or page(s) that the magazine has to offer. You do not want to go through a whole magazine or book, to find a specific page when you can have a contents page (which every magazine and book has) to breaks down the magazine, to give you the page numbers and were to find what page and so on. It’s like the map of the magazine.

CONTENTS PAGE

CONTENTS PAGE• I have made my contents pages easy to read, simple and effective. The reader needs to be able to read the

content page without struggling to see or understand what is what. Also you want the reader to be able to focus and concentrate without getting bored and put off moreover you don’t want to make it too busy, cramp and cluttered as this will put the readers off too. It has all the typical things a contents page needs/ is expected off such as date, year, issue number, the information and page numbers you need and pictures.

• What I have done to make pictures and the way I lay and set them out fun along with interesting are things such as: turn a picture so it’s slanting to a side or if not giving it a Polaroid picture type effect and making it look as if it’s peeling off the page or getting an outline of a body colored black: to show that it’s a mystery person- I didn’t just fling the pictures on the page, I gave them an edge, something to explore about and make them fun and interesting on a page. I try to give some pictures a meaning, for example, the picture in the corner of page 3, has “Christiana” another made up artist and her album. I place the picture of her in the corner as it is quite an alluring picture and when the reader looks at it they will be drawn to it and it kind of has the “puppy dog eyes” effect plus make them go on to the next page.

• I have given colored boxes to make some text stand out, and make the page less boring. I highlighted one thing on page 2; I did this to make that section stand out and that specific page has a short exclusive interview. For other areas I gave them pictures that symbolized that text for example in the section “artist” I created a “50 cent” type of coin (which isn’t that great but you get the gist of what it is when you see it) and I’ve placed it near the text that talks about “50 cent” the rapper. This gives a visual to what the article is saying-they connect “50 cent” rapper + “50 cent” coin. The mains story is my made up artist who is featured on the front cover, to show that in the contents I’ve made her picture the biggest out of all the other images, and I have given her a Polaroid effect making it also have a peeling effect. This gives it a stylish look plus adding her name with lip shape lipstick stain around her makes the picture more stylish and amusing. With another picture I have placed it on the page, in an up right position however this time I have added a glow to her. This represents the “new” in the title, when something is brand new and special it shines or has a glow. It also represents how she is famous, she shines and glows being a star.

• I have listed things under categories such as charts, artist etc, this will make it easy for the reader to maneuver around the pages to find things. The contents page includes common things like subscription adverts, page numbers and title categories, a brief description of the page, a date, issue number the title of the magazine inside along with the slogan and a simple, interest, fresh unique background which doesn't distract the reader but is unique and effective. The magazine expands on the different genre of music (not all magazines do) therefore my contents page fits entirely with the conventions of a real life music magazines contents page.

DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD• The double page spread is the

page that features my fanciful imaginary singer’s interview. This page does fit every convention of a typical double page spread: interview. It has the fancy picture on the first page that takes up all or half of the page. The picture will also have an abstract of what the artist says, something interesting and catchy that makes the reader want to think/read on, this is also a smart way of publishing and advertising as, the quote is normally catchy and interesting, for instance my one is “I don’t get it, I don’t even think I’m pretty even though I pose like I think I am” this is obviously an interesting and eye-catching comment, clearly to catch the readers attention. Looking at the made up artist she is beautiful and the picture helps and supports her in everyway, its elegant, calm, and unique: it is black and white with only her lipstick and eye shadow color

revealing itself sort of like pop art however with less colors. The picture is an extremely sharp and clear, it is both emotional and beautiful. This is what the originality of black-and-white-photography is all about, it has the gentle facial expression yet that general celebrity female pose, the “I am beautiful” pose regardless of what her quote says. The reason it is a smart way of advertising is because the quote is first of all interesting and the picture contradicts the quote (in this case) and when using the quote it is there to draw the reader and make them want to read more and find that bit, however that quote is normally somewhere near the end of the interview (which I have researched about and have notice myself) meaning by the time the reader finds that quote, they find themselves to have read the whole interview!

DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD CONTINUED

• There aren’t too many pictures but there are some to liven up the page and give the readers something to look at- you want to focus on giving the reader’s the interview and information they crave for. The title of my interview is “straight from the celebrity’s mouth”, like the saying “straight from the horses mouth” clearly saying or suggesting to the reader that it is a genuine interview with a famous celebrity, above all that it’s a “ all is revealed and told” story/interview. My questions are based on me, creativity and what I would expect or love to be asking in an interview (if I were famous). I have the typical “what’s in store for you next” questions but I also go deep and give more interesting boisterous and witty questions, questions and answers the audience want to know and hear about.

• My magazine was meant to be based on a season special/special edition issue, and I wanted the interview to be interesting and by promoting more with the interviewer who I say is “Ellen DeGeneres” who is a well known presenter and comedian/actress in the states, she has her own show and interviews many famous celebs. Whether you know her or not you see that my made up artist is getting interviewed by someone who is “news worthy” or famous/well known, otherwise the editor in chef would never publish her name-and make it clear in varies way that she is getting interviewed by this celebrity presenter/interviewer. It promotes the interview, promotes the magazine and moreover the artist herself.

• The text and question & answers flow/are down to earth, I point out who’s the interviewer by making the font bold and blue (Which is the color the interviewer is represented by in her logo/shows), the layout out, questions and answers together with the pictures make the interview quite alluring. This again follows the conventions of a real magazine. With other small pictures I have given them a Polaroid effect again however this in a type of collage way; I layer one of the pictures on top while both of those Polaroid type pictures are deposit gently over the larger picture which is meant to be her debut “album”. I have a 3d “M” that is her logo or by viewing you know it symbolizes her, underneath the interview as I explained before the website will also be there for readers to view the full transcript if there is no room for more, thus with this I have added a short note telling the viewers that they may “read” or better yet “watch” the full interview online via the phony website I give. This is good because I also challenge the conventions this way plus it helps me fill out the space, as they do not tend to leave spaces blank, especially with an interview.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media products and why?

• I’ve taken a look at 5 top 10 music magazine

• Q• Q modestly calls itself "The World's Greatest Music Magazine," and it is difficult to argue. Although it is based in

the UK, there is plenty of information in Q to keep an American pop fan coming back for more. Each monthly issue is a mini-book stuffed with loads of reviews of albums and music-related movies, DVDs, and books as well as current download lists, great interviews, coverage of key events in pop music history and writing that revels in an edgy sense of humor.

• Rolling Stone• Rolling Stone is the granddaddy of US rock music magazines, and it is still well worth reading. There have been

moments when it appeared that Rolling Stone was dipping a bit too far into the fashion world, but some of the best pop music writers still work for the magazine. Also, don't miss some outstanding writing on political and societal issues. A 5-star review in Rolling Stone still carries much weight in the music world.

• Billboard• If it's not on a Billboard chart, most of the music industry says it's not on a chart. Its origins go clear back to 1894,

but it is only since about the 1930's that Billboard has been a major player in the music industry. You don't go to Billboard for criticism in reviews or for witty writing. However, the data makes it the weekly magazine of record for popular music worldwide.

• NME• NME, short for New Musical Express, is a venerable UK music weekly. Publishing weekly since 1952, the

magazine is known for its sense of hype. Bands can be touted as the next big thing before they've even released a recording. NME is also known for a willingness to turn on a band just as they've begun to benefit from the magazine's previous support. If you like your music news breathless, check this out.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media products and why?

• Looking and researching about the different types of music magazines, and the top 5 pop music magaines, I have considered ‘Nielsen Company’ who publishes ‘Billboard’ would most likely to fund and publish my magazine. the reason being is that my magazine is similar to Billboard and this is not currently published in the UK. They both have similar features to each other however my magazine has more to give. It ranges from a wide range of Pop music and not just one specific type. It has many more activities, competitions and features in my magazine. I also go into some other genres such as RnB and Rock.

• Major stores such as Tesco's, Sainsbury's WHSmiths and news agents would sell my magazine, obviously due to the fact they are known for selling magazines. My magazine would sell because, althought being very much like a normal Pop magazine it has an edge and its more Universal. Many people are multicultural and unlike some don’t just settle on one type of genre of music. So my magazine being so Universal and diverse, will sell more, as it allows readers buy one magazine rather than one pop magazine, one rock, one indie magazine and so on, to fill there desired magazine, one magazine, for the prize of one for the catering of all. Another reason for it to sell more it will tempt and give/allow readers to taste the other type of genres wetaher they want to or not (as its in the magazine). So a major rock fan may deciede to peep through the pop genre pages then end up discovering he/she likes or has some interest in pop music. This leads them to buying more music from different genre, which then “Muzik” (my magazine) will have more and more different news, interviews etc form different music genres which then sells the magazine.

• There is a website for the magazine and a subscription page. This only means buying the magazine is even more simpler (doesn’t require a reader to go to the store- for whatever reason). It is obviously like everything else on the internet cheaper than stores. It will give the magazine more of a demanded for it, and will also mean we have hit the world wide market, extending sales, needs and fans!

• Why keep it like that? My magazine can sell out in music shops like zavvi’s and HMV, this will only mean that I am selling directly to the target market, and give the customers more of a choice and a broad choice too. If HMV can sell “Haribo” sweets in the store than they can defiantly sale a Universal music magazine which will appeal more to costumers and to the store itself.

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

• The combination of my main product in a whole and the ancillary text all fit together and develop and challenges the conventions of every aspect in a music magazine, Even the tiny details that make the magazine up, such as bar, codes, subscription adverts or funny ways of editing picture. The layout has a sense of realism, you’d think it was a real magazine along with the rest of my groups magazine (if there were better printers and quality paper) there wouldn’t be any second thoughts about its appearance; it not perfect but no one would agree it looked like it was made on a software such as word making it look very artificial.

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

project?• What I have learnt through this production is confidence, the reason for this is: our brief was to create a magazine

that was our “own” meaning we would have to have our own pictures and so fourth. Being fairly used to the fact that we usually go online and pick out pictures on the net make it a little difficult as we had to have our own picture, find a suitable location, lighting and all the necessary things that you need in photography but this gave us a challenge, were we soon overcome that matter and decided we’d either have to get our own picture and put ourselves in the magazine and get our act together- there was no way of getting real celebrities (we’d be waiting in Oxford Street for years).

• It was difficult but amusing; location was hard as we weren’t really in a location that you’d call “picturesque”. My group and I being talented on Photoshop decided there wasn’t anything to worry about and we would just have edit and manipulate pictures. Thins like lipstick stained kisses that I added on my contents were from pictures that my friend (who stars as the make belief artist in my magazine) kissing a tissue with lipstick on, therefore I to transfer it on to Photoshop, brighten and edit the resolution, adding color to it, lowering opacity finally to get the result I want. Other things such as making images peel was easy as you had to warp the picture and fiddle abut with its structure, making coins took a while but wasn’t hard (it didn’t look like a proper 50 cent coin, thought it did look like a coin so my aftermath was what I was heading for. In the production we used our intelligent and skills, the whole point of this product was so that we used and created our own piece of work so that meant little details such as barcodes, which we created ourselves unlike some who forgot or disregarded the point of this project. Creating backgrounds such as theatre curtains was fun and easy by rendering fibers (Photoshop term) I a square object, blurring it and changing the color to red.

• My group and I put a lot of effort and work into our project and we all realize how much time and effort we needed to put in, additionally being a group we had to work together and help each other, with skills, ideas etc. every object, text layout, were all 100% ours, whether we had to take time to cut lines through a square just to make a barcode-we did it. The only problem I had was that I want the picture used on my front cover however it looked quite blurring, so I feathered the image to make it have a sort of fade effect and by looking at the front cover I see no major problems now apart from the fact I could have used another picture. Using techniques that the music/magazine publishing industry do such as airbrushing helped with producing elegant, sophisticated, good looking and above all a dream of every woman wants: smooth faced pictures.

• During the production I had to/have learnt more on my Photoshop and photographic skill, manipulating images/object, placing an object or photo in the right place: to give it an edge and team work skills. All these ingredients helped make my/our magazines a professional looking and polished magazine. Studying what others needs were: what they liked and disliked, and what was my target market and so on had to go into this project too. We all have learnt how much time elbow grease and effect we/ you generally need to go into a project or production such as a magazine.

• I conclude by saying that I am happy and proud with my final piece. I have taken into account on all aspects of a real life music magazine, every feature I have added is with effort, and all my pages/photography and the way I set things out are simple but effective.