In what ways does your Media product use, develop, or challenge forms of real media products?

In what way does your Media product use, develop, or challenge forms of real media products 

My magazine challenges and develops forms of real media products in many different ways.

Firstly, I feel I have challenged media products by the colours I have used. I have used very bright, modern and strong colours such as, bright blue, bright green, and very dark red colours. When doing research into some of the magazines currently on the market,  such as, ‘NME’, ‘Kerrang’ and ‘The Word’,  I found that many of them use very dark colours to represent their magazines. Before doing my masthead, NME was the main magazine I looked at in detail I found their masthead was effective, but I personally feel it looks very basic.  I have challenged this style by using different fonts and slightly more complex colours to make my own magazine more appealing and more noticeable.

In term of lighting, my images were very carefully chosen. I feel that I challenged some current images used by magazines, by adding my own image taken at a concert. My image was edited to be more darker, and contrast the right side of the page. I felt that other music magazines use a range of colours, and that this gave me the impression that using continuous colours throughout would make my magazine less appealing and less realistic. Therefore to challenge current media products, I edited my main image of my double page spread by reducing the exposure and noise of the image, making it darker and more of a contrast. 

Many of the images I have used on my magazine include low angle, long shots. The long shows are to make the image realistic and show more of the surroundings rather than just the artist themselves. This challenged media products, because although many media products do include images from past concerts, research showed that many do close ups of the artist. The long shots I have used in my magazine appeal the reader and challenge some of the current music magazines. I edited some of the images on Adobe Photoshop, whether this was editing colours, enhancing the images or reducing the noise and exposure. 

I have aimed to go for artists who represent the music genre indie rock.  I feel achieved this by using my own photographs of artists dressed for this type of genre. Although some of the images reflect different genres, particularly my front cover, I feel that the costumes can be associated with indie rock.

I terms of the actual people in the images, I believe I have done very well in challenging media products. For example, the majority of my images are of people aged 20- 25. When doing research into images used by media products, it was surprising to see the vast majority differ between different ages, and that many of the magazines didn't completely focus on their age group. I have challenged this by sticking to people of that age, and helping relate this to the audience of my music magazine.

The fonts and styles I have used do change as the magazine progresses. My main front cover doesn't completely change media products due to many current and modern music magazines using similar fonts and styles in order to attract the audience. Yet, it could be argued some of the other pages of my magazine, have styles, that do attract the audience, but are used to make the text look realistic and effective, also purposely used to develop on some of the media products. 

It may be suggested that my double -page spread challenges current media products, in the way I have ordered and layed out my page. Despite a full image being used on one side of the page, and this appears to be the main aim for many music magazines, I have used the right side of the page to try and make it more unique. Doing further research into media products, I was able to find that many media products have an interview filling the page. Although I have used and developed this idea, I have added a paragraph giving an introduction to the interview. I feel that this is unique and media products would include this on a different page.

My contents page could also be said to challenge media products, as normal magazines, such as ‘NME’ have text on the left of the page. Yet, I have put my image in this position, and put the words on the right side of the page.

I have also developed on modern music magazines by placing logos in the typical position (top-left corner).  It could be said that I have challenged this in some way, as I have dragged this all the way along the top of the page. Magazines such as ’NME’ place it in a set position with very little editing, so I feel I have challenged the form of real media products here. However, I feel that sticking it in the normal position of other media products is the correct thing to do, because it is where the reader will look first.

What I am happy to have developed in my double-page spread, is the ‘quotes’ that are used. Many double-page spreads use quotes from the singer, band or the person related to the story. I have used this in my own magazine, and although it hasn’t been faded into the text, I have used it in the magazine.