1. In what ways does
your media product
use, develop or
challenge forms
and conventions of
real media
products?

2. The title of the magazine
This is the masthead which conforms to the conventions of a
music magazine because it is bold and in capital letters. I chose
to do this because it stands out and catches the reader’s eye. I
also positioned the title at the top of the cover and put it over the
pictures so the title anchored the image and therefore allowing
the reader to know what the title is and to see it clearly.
It challenges the conventions of a music magazine because I
picked a vibrant colour which is red. Vibrant colours are often
used but not generally for the masthead. I used a drop shadow
so it anchored the image.

3. Mise-en-scene of images
I am looking at the front cover of the magazine again for the mise-en
-scene of the images. I think this conforms to the music magazine’s
ideology because the front covers always have the model who looks the
best. However I used the conventions of typical magazines to get my
model to pose in a way which would attract my target audience.
I got the model to stand in front of a white background so I could easily
edit the photo on Photoshop. Also it makes the background not look
crowded and it also makes the photo look more professional as a typical
magazine would also have the models on the front cover to stand in front
of a white background.

4. Costumes and props
I used my contents page to conform to the conventions of a typical
music magazine by getting the models to have props and I used their
costumes to conform to my target audience. I got the people in the
photos to wear these type of costumes so that it could convey the
genre of music that my music magazine is. I got the models to wear
casual clothes so that the readers could relate to them and have a
connection rather than the stereotypical image of people on the
contents page to look their absolute best and wear clothes that the
readers can’t afford. This makes the magazine more attractive to the
readers by having this connection with them.

5. People
I used the conventions of music magazines to present the people on
my contents page. I used the dominance of females on this page as
it challenges the typical genre of music which I have chosen to base
my magazine on. This also shows who the target audience is. I
challenged the conventions of the male stereotype in a music
magazine because it shows that my magazine isn’t stereotypical and
shows a various amount of information and attracted the audience
which I targeted.

6. Title font and style
I used my front cover page to present the conventions of the title font
and style. I used a bold and sans serif font because it challenges the
typical conventions of a music magazine. I used this type of font and
style because it is strong and vibrant which conveys what the contents
of the music is like inside.
The colour of the title also challenged the conventions because it is
red and makes the title more vibrant to therefore stand out to the
reader. I used this because it follows the conventions that I wanted to
use. I wanted to have a vibrant magazine which uses a various
amount of colours to convey the conventions in what I want to present.

7. Written content
I used my double page spread to show the conventions of written
content. This is because this is the main pages which has the most
written content within the magazine. I used the use of columns to
divide my content so it makes the magazine look more organised and
well laid out. This allows the reader to read the content easily. I also
used pull quotes to grab the readers attention by having them a
different colour to the rest of the colours that were used on the page.
I used this because it makes them stand out more and also follows
the conventions of my magazine by using vibrant colours.

8. Music genre and how your magazine suggests it
I used my contents page to show the conventions I used to present
the music genre and how my magazine suggests it. I used the use
of props to present the genre I wanted to convey in the magazine.
The props of the bottom left picture presents that the magazine has
acoustic or a guitar related context within the magazine. However I
based my magazine on an alternative genre so I used the
conventions of a various amount of magazines the convey this. I
used the use of the models in the way that they pose to suggest
some characteristics that a stereotyped band would do to convey
the music genre on the top picture.

9. Layout
I used my double page spread to present how I used the
conventions of layout for my music magazine. I used the
conventions of columns to separate the text and make the pages
look more organised. I also used the conventions of typical
double page spreads by having the first letter of the contents in a
bold capital and larger than the rest of the text. I used this so the
reader would know where the content started. I also used the
conventions of the title by having it bold and vibrant to follow the
house style of my music magazine.

10. Contents page
I used the conventions of contents pages on my magazine by
using columns to separate the pictures and the text from each
other. This makes the page look more well organised and well
laid out. I also used the conventions of the drop shadow tool by
using it on main titles and of the sub headings of the pictures so
it gave a 3d effect and made the page look more attractive.
I also used the conventions of going along the rule of 3 and
separating the contents page into thirds by using columns to
separate it into thirds.