AS Media Coursework

1. My
Evaluation for
my Hip Hop
magazine
Charlie Barwick

2. Conventions on Front Cover
I did research into the Hip Hop genre and
attempted to make my magazine as
conventional as possible. One convention of
my magazine is the colour scheme and layout I
used; this is conventional for the Hip Hop
genre because the colour scheme used in most
Hip Hop magazines are red, black and white.
The ordered layout used is also conventional
for the genre. In the Front Cover I added in
artist’s names on banners along the top and
the bottom, this is effective because it gives
more information to the reader and it is
conventional for the magazine to have lots of
artists and band names that are featured in
the magazine on the front cover.
On my front cover I also added a large
eye-catching masthead which is the main
convention for a magazine to have, they
have this because it is appealing to the
audience and makes the magazine stand
out more. Another convention that I
found from my research is that they
contain a list of artist’s names down the
side of the magazine. Also having the
masthead behind the artists head is
conventional. I think overall my front
cover includes many different
conventions of the Hip Hop genre which I
have created from my previous research.

3. Conventions of Contents Page
One convention for the Contents Page is the title ‘Contents’. The way I
have laid the word out, not all magazines in that genre have the title laid
out like this but they do make them stand out more than the rest of the
text on the page. The sub-title ‘Features’ is also conventional because
on all the of the research I saw on contents page they have these sub-
titles separating the contents listing. Another convention of my contents
page is the plain background only showing an artist featured in the
magazine and also the way I have made the font on the contents listing
different sizes to show what the page is actually about and a little
description about the page. Also the page numbers being in a different
colour is conventional for the genre because it stands out and makes
sure the reader see’s exactly what is on each page.

4. Conventions of Double Page
Spread
One convention of my Double Page Spread is the
‘drop capital’ used at the beginning of the article.
This is conventional to not just the Hip Hop genre,
or even just magazines but most articles have a
drop capital at the start because they catch the
reader and without looking to much into detail
they can see where the article begins. I have also
used a ‘pull-quote’ which is also conventional.
Having the artist’s name big and bold at the top
of the page is also conventional because the
audience can easily tell the content of the page
even if they haven’t looked at the contents page.
The page numbers on the bottom of the page is
different colours are also conventional so they
stand out to the reader.

5. Comparing conventions of the
Front Cover
One convention that I used was the colour scheme.
Both my magazine and the actual magazine have the
same conventional colour scheme of red, black and
white. Another convention of the genre is the large
masthead and eye catching artist’s name of the image
on the cover, these make my magazine conventional
and help to make it look like an actual magazine of that
genre. I also used a plain background for the front
cover which is conventional because they usually do
not have a background to make the text and the image
of the artist appeal more to the audience of the
magazine. By having a close-up picture shot of the
artist in the centre of the magazine cover also makes it
conventional because this is the main detail the
audience look at first on the cover so they make the
mage eye-catching and big.

6. Comparing conventions of the
Contents Page
One convention of the genre that is shown in both
my page and the actual page of a magazine is ‘The
Beatz’ logo added onto this page as well, also
including the date of the magazine which is
continuous throughout my magazine. I have only
included one featured artist on my contents page
because even though other genre’s, such as the
Rock genre, have a cluttered layout of their
contents page the Hip Hop genre don’t. by doing
this I have made this artist stand out from the
writing and let the audience know she is the main
spotlight f the contents page. Also the subheading
of the titles of each page are in bold capital letters
in order to make the magazine more readable, I
have done this because this is a convention of the
genre and it makes my magazine more appealing.

7. Comparing conventions of the
Double Page Spread
I have attempted to make my double
page spread conventional by; making the
image of the artist look as interesting and
as conventional for the genre as possible.
The image of the artist on this page has a
conventional facial expression of the
genre; looking like a rapper with a fierce
look. I also made the image conventional
by the costume I had my artist wear,
these types f clothes are often promoted
in the Hip Hop genre which then makes
the image conventional. One thing I could
of made more conventional in this page is
having the background all one colour,
most double page spreads of this genre
don’t contain a background of anything
just a plain solid colour.