IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA

PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP OR

CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS

OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS ?

FAHMI

• FIRSTLY MY FRONT COVER MATCHES WITH THE CODES AND CONVENTIONS FOR E.G. FROM MY CASE STUDIES OF THE FIRST MAGAZINE THAT I ANALYZED AS YOU CAN SEE THE FRONT COVER IS MAINLY COVERED WITH THE FEMALE ARTIST ONLY AND THERE ONLY FEW SELL LINES/TEASERS. AND UNDERNEATH IS THE MASTHEAD; ON THE WHOLE THE MAGAZINE CAPTURES AUDIENCE ATTENTION BECAUSE FIRST IT’S A FAMOUS NOTABLE ARTIST AND THE WAY THE MAGAZINE IS LAYOUT IS: THERE ARE FEW TEASERS AND THE USE OF ANCHORAGE (THE TITLE) IS SHORT, CATCHY AND EFFECTIVE AT THE SAME TIME. THE SKYLINE ‘COLLECTOR’S ISSUE” IS GOES OVER THE TOP OF HER HEAD SUGGESTING THAT IT’S MUCH MORE IMPORTANT THAN HER. THEREFORE THE WHOLE MAGAZINE PURPOSE IS ON THE MASTHEAD SINCE ITS FRONT OF THE ARTIST AS IT’S BIG, BOLD AND UPPER CASE LETTERS ARE USED TO MAKE STAND OUT. THE STRAP LINE IS UNDER THE ANCHORAGE TEXT (TITLE) AGAIN IT’S ENCOURAGING AND THE USE OF SPACE OUT MAKES IT MORE VISIBLE FOR THE AUDIENCE TO SEE IT ESPECIALLY WHEN THE TEXT COLOUR IS WHITE. IN MY FRONT COVER I’VE USED SOME CONVENTIONS AND CODES THOSE SET OUT BY PROFESSIONAL MAGAZINE BUT I’VE ALSO SUBVERTED AS WELL AS DEVELOPED CONVENTIONS IN CONSTRUCTING THE LAYOUT OF MY FRONT COVER AND I HAVE MAINTAINED THIS IN MY CONTENTS PAGE AND THE DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD. MY FRONT COVER FOLLOWS THE IDEA THAT NO MATTER HOW IMPORTANT THE ARTIST IS IN THE FRONT COVER THE MASTHEAD WILL BE ALWAYS MORE IMPORTANT BECAUSE TO ME IF IT’S ONLY ABOUT THE MODEL THEN THERE ARE THOUSANDS MAGAZINE OUT THERE WHO HAVE ALSO BEAUTIFUL/HANDSOME MODEL ON THEIR COVER AND THUS WHAT MAKES MY MAGAZINE UNIQUE IS THAT THE MASTHEAD IS THE MAIN ESSENTIAL AND IT’S NOT ONLY ABOUT THE ARTIST BUT OTHER STORIES TOO (COVER LINES). ONE WAY MY FRONT COVER FOLLOWS THE CONVENTIONS OF A MAGAZINE IS THROUGH THE USE OF MASTHEAD : WHEN RESEARCHING AND DOING MY CASE STUDIES I’VE NOTICED THAT THE MASTHEAD IS ALWAYS LARGE, BOLD, CATCHY TITLE AND QUITE SHORT, PLUS FROM THE MAGAZINE NEWSSTAND DISTRIBUTION TASK , IT WAS MENTIONED THAT NO MATTER WHICH OR WHAT POPULAR ARTIST YOU PUT IN YOUR FRONT COVER THERE’S NO GUARANTEE THAT AN AUDIENCE WILL DEFIANTLY BUY IT, THE ANCHORAGE AND THE MASTHEAD ARE ALSO THE HUGE COMPONENT FOR A SUCCESSFUL COVER.

The colour theme is also simplistic with having grey and white implying a formality and mature approach as in

target audience. This links back to my case studies ideas and the ways my magazine has used and developed

forms and convention of music magazine because like all the music magazine I believe that my artist image is

strong influential image as a front cover artist because when photographing I made sure that I use simple plain backdrop to make artist plus the anchorage text to pop

up to the audience eye by itself. Alternatively when looking at a British music magazine you will see in

majority of the magazine the masthead is behind the artist (some magazines like NME or Q are always at the

front to show the magazine is successful and dominant in terms of the issue of the magazine. But in British

Bollywood magazines sometime they either put the artist behind the masthead or the masthead front of the artist

this is because the issues depends how famous or attractive it is about the artist e. g If it’s a hot spicy issue then the masthead will be on the back of the model. As a result I choose to have the masthead

front of the artist because I didn’t want the artist to look like the main cover star as if it’s only about her because the anchorage text is different (the issue is

different) and in keeping the fact my target audience is also on professional people and qualified people even

though it’s aimed at young audience.

• ONE WAY MY FRONT COVER FOLLOWS THE CONVENTIONS OF A MAGAZINE IS THROUGH THE USE OF MASTHEAD : WHEN RESEARCHING AND DOING MY CASE STUDIES I’VE NOTICED THAT THE MASTHEAD IS ALWAYS LARGE, BOLD, CATCHY TITLE AND QUITE SHORT, PLUS FROM THE MAGAZINE NEWSSTAND DISTRIBUTION TASK , IT WAS MENTIONED THAT NO MATTER WHICH OR WHAT POPULAR ARTIST YOU PUT IN YOUR FRONT COVER THERE’S NO GUARANTEE THAT AN AUDIENCE WILL DEFIANTLY BUY IT, THE ANCHORAGE AND THE MASTHEAD ARE ALSO THE HUGE COMPONENT FOR A SUCCESSFUL COVER. THEREFORE REMEMBERING THIS TIP I CONSIDERED THAT AS WELL AS HAVING AN ATTRACTIVE MODEL IN MY COVER MY ANCHORAGE TEXT MUST BE EFFECTIVE AND THE MASTHEAD SHOULD BE DISTINCTIVE ( THE MODEL AND THE MASTHEAD SHOULD BE THE CENTRE OF ATTRACTION; THE MASTHEAD SHOULD APPEAR FIRST SO THAT THE AUDIENCE KNOWS WHAT THE GENRE THE MAGAZINE IS ABOUT). SO THEREFORE THE ELEMENT THAT I HAVE REINFORCED FROM MY CASE STUDIES AND THE ESSENTIALS ELEMENT OF A PROFESSIONAL MAGAZINE IS THE MODEL. WITHOUT A COMPELLING IMAGE IT WOULDN’T DRAW A POTENTIAL CUSTOMER’S INTEREST TO MY MAGAZINE WHILE SITTING IN A MIDST OF THOUSANDS OF OTHERS AT A SHOP. IN ORDER TO MAKE THE IMAGE OF THE MODEL POWERFUL BUT SIMPLE, I’VE USED A GREY BACKGROUND WHICH IS NEUTRAL AND APPEALS TO BOTH GENDER BUT AT THE SAME TIME I WANTED THE LAYOUT TO BE EFFECTIVE AND PROFESSIONAL BECAUSE I WANTED EACH ELEMENTS TO BE STAND OUT E.G. THE TITLE IS CLEARLY VISIBLE, BOLD, BRIGHT, FORMAL USE OF FONT WHICH SHOWS THE MAGAZINE IS DOMINANT ALONG WITH THE READER IS DRAWN TO THE STRIKING CENTRAL IMAGE WITH THE BRIGHT PINK AND BLACK ANCHORAGE TEXT.

FRONT COVER I wanted to give the teasers in the magazine space out to stand out clearly for the audience to notice and more

organized since I’ve used formal fonts. On most of the music magazine target audience profile younger audiences are the Centre attention thus they have model with whom they can identify in the front cover. In my magazine I’ve also tried to maintain the interest of young audience ( since its mainly on female audience) but at the same time showing that it’s also aimed at a formal and older audience from 16+ as you can see it in the cover lines. Therefore the masthead is subverted as its front of the artist and the teasers are space out and bold so they can easily be seen. But at the same time the artist is in the Centre of the cover meaning she’s the important curiosity in the cover. The detonation of the whole magazine that I wanted to create in the magazine is that to emphasize that it’s a Bollywood music magazine and usually in any Bollywood magazine they never have all the teasers being stick to it in one place, and they have only few teasers in the cover. So another way I’ve also develop the idea that all the cover lines should be next to each other. I have given more space and made it noticeable to see along with the main anchorage text. When creating my magazine one thing I wanted to depict is the uniqueness and brightness of Bollywood music magazine that it’s more diverse and exceptional in its own way. It does follow the codes & convention of a magazine but also develops and challenges forms of conventions in a magazine. The detonation of my front cover is about a new young star who’s made it top of the Bollywood music industry but at the same time she had some issues

CONTENT PAGE I have tried to maintain the codes and conventions of a real music magazine. I have used double page but however I didn’t use any other images except my model images. Usually in a contents page there’s more than one different artist picture but In first side I used the mainly the model within in a grey backdrop with pink subheadings to balance out the feminism idea that it’s only a female target audience it’s also aimed at males audience . By mixing pink and black fonts in the grey background balances out the feministic since it can appeal to masculine too. In the feature section I’ve outlined the lead articles as you can see the lead articles are brief, snappy and there is a short explanatory giving the reader more choice whether to read or not this is because the text being justified is one of the common conventions of magazines. The most striking difference in my contents page is that it’s only the same model pictures being shown more than once not to show that the general focus should only be on her but I wanted to accentuate the fact in this content page there is more than another issues to read and it gives the audience more easy choice; it almost lures the audience to read about it more as there’s isn’t anything particular highlighted to read “especially/must”. Rather than having images with number I decided to have numbers separately in a square box. As my magazine colours were based pink and black, using these two colours again would give a feeling of elegance, formal, sophistication, bold, confident and create a classy mood especially as it’s for qualified and professional middle class as in social group audience.

• THE FIRST MAGAZINE THAT I HAVE ANALYZED IS A BOLLYWOOD MUSIC MAGAZINE AIMED AT FEMALE AUDIENCE. IN THIS MAGAZINE “FILMFARE” THE DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD ONLY USED WHITE BACKDROP AND PLACED THE IMAGES OF THE ARTIST. IT USED PULL QUOTES, THERE WAS NO PARTICULAR EFFECTS THAT MAKES IT LOOK BRIGHT AND VIBRANT. BUT THE MAGAZINE DID IT IN A SIMPLE EFFECTUAL WAY AS ALONG WITH THE TEXTS THE IMAGES ARE ALSO GIVEN MORE ATTENTION TO READ. THE IMAGE ALMOST EMPATHIZE THE STORY IN THE PAGE. FURTHERMORE, THERE’S A BIG CAPITAL LETTER A (DROP CAPITAL) AT THE START OF THE FIRST PARAGRAPH AND THEN IN THE NEXT PAGE THERE’S A BIG CAPITAL LETTER W AFTER THE 3RD PARAGRAPH. IN BOTH OF THE PAGES THERE’S MORE TEXT THAN IMAGES AND THAT’S TO KEEP THE AUDIENCE HOOK SO THEY DON’T TURN THE PAGE WITHOUT FINISHING THE READING. SURPRISINGLY THERE’S SO MASTHEAD AT THE START TO TELL WHAT’S IT’S ABOUT; THIS IDEA SHARPLY GRABS AUDIENCE CURIOSITY TO KNOW MORE ABOUT THE STORY PLUS SINCE IT’S A BEAUTIFUL FAMOUS ACTRESS IT AMPLIFIES THE CURIOSITY OF A READER SPECIALLY IF IT’S ABOUT HER ACHIEVEMENT. WITH THE IMAGE THERE’S BACKGROUND INFORMATION ON WHAT’S THE IMAGE IS ABOUT, IT STRAIGHT TELLS THE AUDIENCE WHERE AND HOW THE IMAGES LINKS WITH THE TEXT. AT THE FRONT OF THE PAGE SINCE THERE’S NO MASTHEAD TO INTRODUCE THE TOPIC, THE IMAGES ALMOST INTRODUCE WHAT IT IS GOING TO BE ABOUT AS WE CAN SEE HER OLD IMAGES BEING SHOWN. THE RESEARCH FROM THIS MAGAZINE ,HAS CHALLENGED AND DEVELOPED THE CODES AND CONVENTIONS IN DIFFERENT AND SIMILAR WAYS AS IN ORDER TO KEEP THE INTEREST OF FEMALE AUDIENCE THE MAGAZINE HAS TO GIVE OR INTRODUCE OR CHANGE THE CONVENTION IN ORDER TO MAKE IT LOOK INTERESTING BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY TO MAKE SURE THE AUDIENCE DOESN’T BUYS ANOTHER MAGAZINE. IN CONTRAST THE DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD IN MY MAGAZINE SIMILARLY FOLLOWS THE CONVENTIONS SET FROM MY CASE STUDY MAGAZINE FOR E. G IN THE DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD YOU CAN SEE TWO PULL QUOTES BUT HOWEVER IN ORDER TO HOOK AND SUSTAIN AUDIENCE INTEREST I MADE IT SHORTER AND ALSO I WROTE IN PINK AND BLACK , THE USE OF PICK AND BLACK FOR THE PULL QUOTES SHOWS THE ARTIST STRENGTH AND SYMBOLISM FOR HER FEMININITY AS THE STORY MAINLY TALKS ABOUT HOW SHE DOESN’T SPENT HER TIME WORRYING WHAT PEOPLE SAY ABOUT HER, WHICH AGAIN SHOWS HER MENTALLY STRONG . ADDITIONALLY, I’VE USED A DIFFERENT FONT BECAUSE TO SHOW AS IF SHE WROTE IT BY HERSELF AND CREATES A DIFFERENT MEANING TO READ IT AS IF IT’S FROM A DIARY OF SOMEONE, THIS FONT KEEPS THE PAGE MORE NEAT AND TIDY WHICH GIVES THE PULL QUOTES MORE TO STAND OUT.

Double page spread

THEREFORE I HAVE REINFORCED THE ELEMENT PULL QUOTES AS IT GIVES AN AUDIENCE AN INSIDE OF THE ARTIST WORLD LIFE AND WHAT THEY

THINK ETC. AS WELL AS I HAVE NOTICED THAT MOST MUSIC MAGAZINES HAVE SOMETHING DIFFERENT SPLASH IN THE FRONT FOR THE REAL STORY

AND THEN IN THE DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD THEY HAVE ANOTHER MASTHEAD/ TITLE/ SPLASH, THIS IS BECAUSE IT TELLS THE NEXT PART OF THE

HEADLINE AND THUS IN MY MAGAZINE THE HEADLINE IN BRIGHT BOLD FORMAL MODERN PINK AND BLACK COLOUR GIVES THE AUDIENCE AN

INSIGHT AS TO WHAT THE INTERVIEW IS GOING TO BE ABOUT. THE USE OF IMAGE SHOWS THE TYPE OF GENRE , THIS IS CAN BE SEEN BY THE

COSTUME OF MY ROLE MODEL, I HAVE ONLY USED TWO IMAGES BUT ALSO IN THE OTHER PAGE RATHER THAN HAVING THE IMAGE TAKING OVER THE

WHOLE SPACE I HAVE EDITED DOWNWARDS BECAUSE IN THE STORY THE MODEL WANTS TO PORTRAY THAT SHE DOESN’T WANT BOLLYWOOD MUSIC

INDUSTRY TO DOMINATE HER LIFE AND HER CHOICE OF MUSIC , HENCE PUTTING THE IMAGE DOWN IN THE RIGHT SIDE MAKES IT MORE EASIER TO

READ THE TEXT; THIS LINKS WITH THE IDEA THAT THE MODEL ALSO WANTS TO FREE HERSELF AND GIVE HERSELF MORE TIME RATHER THAN

CARRYING ON ONLY WITH MUSIC IN HER LIFE. THERE’S A BIG DROP CAPITAL LETTER “I” IN THE TITLE TO SURPRISE THE AUDIENCE ABOUT HER AND

SINCE IT’S REALLY BOLD, FORMAL, BIG IT SYMBOLIZES HER IDENTITY AS IN THE FRONT COVER THE ARTIST NAME IS ALREADY GIVEN “YOU THINK YOU

KNOW FAHMI THINK AGAIN”. THE DROP LETTER “I” LINK WITH THE IMAGE AS IT SHOWS THE SERIOUSNESS IN HER FACE WHICH CLARIFIES WHAT SHE

WANTS TO SAY. I HAVEN’T SPREAD OUT THE HEADLINES IN THE DOUBLE PAGE BECAUSE THIS IS WHERE I WANTED TO CHALLENGE THE CODES AND

CONVENTION AS WHEN AN INTERVIEW TAKES UP A DOUBLE PAGE, THEY ALLOW THE TITLE TO BLEED ONTO THE OTHER PAGE IN ORDER TO SHOW

THE READER THE PAGES ARE LINKED; I HAVEN’T FOLLOWED THIS ELEMENT BECAUSE I WANTED TO IMPLY SOMETHING VARIED RATHER THAN HAVING

SPREAD IT OUT NOT BECAUSE OF THE AMOUNT OF TEXTS BUT TO EMPHASIZE THAT IT’S A BOLLYWOOD MUSIC MAGAZINE AND BOLLYWOOD MUSIC

MAGAZINE CAN CHALLENGE AND DEVELOP ITS OWN CODES AND CONVENTIONS ( BUT SAME AS BRITISH MUSIC MAGAZINE ) AND THAT IS WHAT MY

MAGAZINE IS ABOUT , IF I FOLLOW THE SAME CONVENTIONS THERE’S NOT GOING TO BE NOT MUCH PROFIT FOR ME AS A PUBLISHER BECAUSE

THERE ARE THOUSAND MUSIC MAGAZINE OUT THERE AND TO MAKE MY MAGAZINE STAND OUT I HAVE OUTPERFORM SOME OF THE CODES AND

CONVENTIONS . NEVERTHELESS MAGAZINES ALSO TEND TO USE A STRIKING IMAGE OF THE SINGER TO CATCH THE AUDIENCE ATTENTION OR THEY

WILL PLACE MORE THAN ONE ICON IN A DIFFERENT PLACE OR IN DIFFERENT POSE IN A DIFFERENT WAY. THIS IS BECAUSE THE TYPES OF PICTURES

BEING USED ARE A METAPHOR ABOUT HOW THE ARTIST IS AND HOW SHE IS IN REAL LIFE LINKING WITH THE TEXT. AS A RESULT I HAVE ALSO TRIED

TO USE A STRIKING IMAGE AND THAT IS CREATED WITHIN THE COSTUME DRESS PINK WITH PINK SCARF, THE EFFECT BEEN CREATED THROUGH

THESE ICONS IS THAT IT HOLDS THE AUDIENCE ATTENTION ESPECIALLY IT’S A BRIGHT COLOUR HIGHLIGHTING SHE’S AN BOLLYWOOD SINGER. THE

USE OF COSTUME OF THE ARTIST PINK REPRESENTS HER CONFIDENCE AS A YOUNG FEMALE SINGER, THE RESPECT THAT SHE DESERVES AND

PRESERVES, HER ASSURANCE AS BEING BOTH BRITISH AND BOLLYWOOD FEMALE SINGER, HER MATURITY AT SUCH YOUNG AGE EVEN THOUGH SOME

PEOPLE SEE HER NEGATIVE WAY( WHAT PEOPLE THINK ABOUT HER ).

• Plus the colour pink shows how her relaxation and how happy and mentally strong she is even though ignoring what people say about her, it almost reveals her tension that she lets go as you can see a smiley happy face in a chair, meaning that at the end her choice reflects who she is, as the artist is a young British singer and a Bollywood singer the pink represents her passion for her music because of the colour brightness, youthful and sensations. The atmosphere that is created in this double page is about how she deals with people without being aggressive and how she deals with calmly. So therefore I have reinforced the element that a double page cover story should almost explore about the artist lifestyles along with telling the story, it should more reflect on them.

• Yet, however I haven’t used the stand first where underneath the headlines there’s a short explanation to tell the article summarization. Using this convention I believe almost blocks the space to read, it chunks up everything in one space, which I didn’t want to as the long story I haven’t highlighted the questions but I left it so the audience would want to know more if they read what’s it already going to be about. Besides I haven’t change the style of writing frequently thought out the text, the text has only few little questions, the page numbers aren’t in the bottom corner of the page because I have wrote the page number on the contents page, and to keep my audience hooked into it I infer that it would be better to have the main cover story only in the contents page. Lastly the whole house style has used pink and black that is initially to match with the artist, it links with the title, the use of big bold black font for the title symbolizes that she’s British Asian singer and the pink shows her Bollywood side. The combination of these two colors characterizes her feeling of strength (her music talent) and shows her seeking appreciation as she tells us in the story. So overall I have followed some codes and conventions but I have also developed and challenged some codes such the page numbers and so on, although I have reinforced the element of quotes/pull quotes in the magazine.