1. In what ways does your media product use, develop, challenge forms and codes and conventions see in real media products?

Amar Singh Perihar4555

When creating my media product I did not challenge many forms and conventions, as I wanted my media product to look as professional as possible and look similar to real media texts. This was also done so that my product is recognizable to my target audience as music magazine.

When looking for inspiration for my main task via my Similar Text Analysis I looked at magazines such as XXL, Vibe, Billboard, FADER, and Uptown, which would be well know by my target audience and they cover similar genres of music to my selected genre (Grime) such as: R&B, Hip Hop, and Rap. I also researched multiple important areas during my planning and research such as ‘Similar Text Analysis’ which helped be me learn the codes and conventions of existing music magazines which helped me when it came to creating my media product.

When it came to my masthead I developed what had been done by real media products as they use big, bold, mastheads to introduce their publications and for my masthead I drew inspiration from FADER magazine as they leave the inside of the letter blank showing the background to make my publication unique. I have also used codes and conventions by having my model/artist using direct address to make a personal connection with my target audience and this also makes my artist look dangerous and formidable.

I also developed the use of following a set house style that my partner and I have followed throughout both of our magazines a set style in which everything is placed more specifically a colour scheme that is followed throughout the magazine. When I did my Similar Text Analysis and Target Audience Research I learnt that all the majority of real media products predominantly have black and white on their magazine with one colour that contrast and stands out and is used as a statement colour that is used to highlight important straplines and headlines. So when it came to my target audience research they told me that they would expect to see black, white, and purple on a music magazine.

However I have challenged forms and conventions as multiple real media products such as: NME, Q, and Rolling Stones, have editor’s letters on their contents page told introduce this issue and the editor thoughts and feeling about the magazines however I originally decided not to include and editor’s letter as real media texts that are similar to my genre follow a very simplistic style and do not have a lot of text on the page, and that although this goes against codes and conventions of stereotypical music magazines it agrees with real media text such as: Vibe, Billboard, FADER, and XXL.

But when it came to my double page spread I did not break many conventions as I still wanted my magazine to look similar to existing media text and I developed the idea of integrated text as because of the outline of my model/artist was very complex it caused me to think and try different ways of intergrating my text to my image.