1. 1. In what ways does your media product
use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?
2. • It is important to use some
conventions when
creating my magazine to
keep in pattern with what
audiences recognise
music magazines to be. By
following the stereotypes
adheres to what
audiences expect and may
like which would appeal
more to the target
audience.
3. • My media product both
challenges and uses
conventions of the real media
product - one way that it
challenges the real media
product is that all female artists
are used in my magazine - this is
different to the normal convention
of acoustic guitar being more of a
male orientated niche genre
with the stereotype of older men
being conveyed on the cover of
the magazine. The magazine
shown is a key example of how
my chosen niche genre is mostly
male dominated - by choosing
younger female artists I
challenged this convention.
4. • Another way my
magazine challenges
conventions is that I
used famous artists who
crossed over into the
pop genre so my
magazine was not
completely acoustic
guitar e.g. on my front
cover I featured artists
such as George Ezra,
James Arthur and
Passenger who have
been in the charts and
can be seen as more
pop artists.
5. • This crossover would appeal to a wider target audience
and would mean my magazine is not as niche as if it was
completely acoustic guitar. I did not want my magazine to be
just aimed at those who are acoustic guitar fans but rather a
wider audience which would increase sales and readership.
In my target research 60% of participants said my magazine
was acoustic guitar genre but 40% believed it was something
else suggesting I have not created my magazine to a niche
genre but have left it reflect a variety of genres.
6. • I took inspiration from another acoustic guitar magazine and used key
components from the magazine to incorporate into my own to ensure that I was
following the typical conventions
7. I took inspiration from the Ed
Sheeran cover and chose to
incorporate some aspects such
as the horizontal angled
coloured band going across the
front cover. It was eye catching
to me when I first saw the
Acoustic cover so felt it would
have the same impact for my
target audience. I used the
colour red throughout my front
cover as it contrasts between
the white aspects of the models
t-shirt and masthead and also
stands out against the green
aspects such as the leaves of the
background image.
8. I originally had the colour
palette as a light purple
lilac colour but after
consideration I felt that a
less gendered colour
would suit my magazine
better and appeal to a
wider target audience. I
found that a lot of
magazines I looked at used
very neutral colours such
as orange and red.
9. My masthead sits behind the main image which is a main convention
of music magazines - letters of magazines such as on magazine such
as Acoustic and Kerrang. It shows that the magazine is very well
known and even with letters covers the masthead is instantly
recognised by audiences due to brand identity of the typography
used. I did not completely cover my masthead but I small portion of the
‘O’ is covered by my models sunglasses in the main image.
10. My coverlines also use
the conventions - my
coverlines are
displayed either side of
my media product. I
have more/bigger
articles displayed on
the right as readers
would read from left to
right so would have
their attention drawn to
the right. I incorporated
my colour palette into
the coverlines to
create a brand
identity.
