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

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

2. My magazine ‘Replay Magazine’ is targeted towards a young, pre-teen female audience (between the ages of 9 and 13). The main influence of my magazine was
‘We Love Pop’, as this targeted a similar audience and included similar artists, such as Taylor Swift, Justin Bieber and One Direction. This influenced my magazine,
such as the use of language, the features of the magazine, the structure of it and the particular style of both the magazine and the models I chose to use in my
images. Moreover, I have included images of the types of magazines that influenced my final production in the research stage. My initial ideas lead me to create a
pop music magazine for pre-teen girls, and through this initial research I found influential products ‘We Love Pop’ and ‘Top of the Pops’. I also found that my
product targets a mass audience and that the main social demographic of my product is 9 to 13 year old girls who live in cities and have interests in popular
music and popular music artists.

3. Front Cover
When creating my masthead, I decided to use a background behind the text that was different, bright and primary colours. I chose the font of my text on my
masthead to be very square and modern, as this targets a young and modern audience. As well as this, the shapes behind the text were different shaped
rectangles placed very disarranged, because each rectangle was a different size and each was placed at a different height. The main image of my front cover
was my model, Jodie, with a globe. This relates to her quote about touring America, so the images and text that I have used both relate well to each other. I
looked at Marjorie Ferguson’s theory of facial expressions, which states that there are four types of facial expressions on front covers of women’s magazines:
Chocolate Box, Romantic, Super Smiler and Romantic/Sexual. In my media product, I followed this convention as my main image is ’Super Smiler’, as my
model has a wide smile with visible teeth, which gives positive connotations about herself and the magazine as a whole. The enjoyment on her face suggests
that the magazine is something interesting and exciting, which attracts the audience and invites them to read the contents and articles included in my
product. As well as this I included a speech bubble coming from the main image saying “I’d love to Tour America!”. This tagline further grabs the attention of
my audience, as the quote is saying something new and exclusive about the celebrity. In many of my influential products (such as ‘We Love Pop’), the main
issues talked about are very informal and stories that young readers will find interesting and, occasionally, relatable, such as friends, boys and school.
Because of this, I included a puff which also informs the audience about the article of my main image, Jodie, and two coverlines about real popstars ‘The
Vamps’ (gossip about their worst breakups) and ‘Justin Bieber’ (his crazy secrets exposed). When researching similar magazines and also my target audience,
I found that both of these artists are admired by and idolised by the young, female audience that I am targeting. I also included a secondary image on my
front cover, as this is a regular trend in similar magazines. This is because younger audiences want to know all about what they are buying and, particularly, if
they see an artist who they are interested in they will buy the product. Therefore, including lots of images of artists on the front cover, the product is more
likely to be purchased by fans of lots of different musicians. The colour scheme of my entire front cover is very bright, particularly I used lots of blue, pink and
yellow as these bright colours are used in many real media products to easily attract and grab the attention of their target audience.

4. Issue Number and Date
Masthead, bright primary colours to stand out
and attract a young audience. The modern and
square text reinforces the target audience.
Exclusive quote from celebrity to shock
and surprise the reader, regarding her
tour.
Tag ‘Exclusive’ suggests something
special and complete.
Real popular musicians who are idolised by
my target audience and regularly included
in this style of magazine.
A brief description of each article to
intrigue and interest the reader to buy
the magazine. However, these
descriptions do not give too much
information away.
Pug and Price tag
Main Image – Model looks happy and upbeat,
to reflect the fun nature of this style of
magazine. Her attire is very bright and vibrant –
reinforcing the fun style of the magazine.
Cohesion between text and image through use
of the globe.
Puff clearly related to the main image of the
front cover, suggesting exclusive news story
which will be expanded upon in the magazine.
Secondary image of another musician as
this is a typical feature of this style of
magazine. The use of an acoustic guitar
creates cohesion between the text and
images.
Barcode
Bottom strip of the front cover informs readers of what topics will be covered in the magazine.
Single words to inform the reader of
the types of categories included in the
product.
Top Strip

5. Contents Page
The first feature I decided to include on my contents page was a message from the editor, as this is regularly used in this style of
magazine to invite and make the reader feel welcome. When writing this message, I used lots of modern and colloquial
language – such as ‘hottest stars’, ‘hot prizes’ and ‘juiciest gossip’. This use of colloquial-lexis allows me to directly communicates
with the target audience. To complete my editor’s message I signed it from ‘Emily XOXO’ in a signature font, this gives the
magazine a more personal touch and also makes it relatable to the reader, as it is signed in a similar way they would finish a
message. The colour scheme I have used is similar to the front cover, it uses bright colours, such as light blue, pink, orange and
white – but also uses white for the background and black for some of the text to contrast against this white background.
Furthermore, I have used emoji’s – a small sticker of a face that displays an emotion – to give audiences an understanding of
the contents of the magazine (the heart faced emoji tells readers that the product covers relationships and the shocked face
emoji gives the reader an impression that the magazine is scandalous and shocking. In the actual contents of the magazine, I
have continued to use the light blue and pink to contrast against each other and make the contents stand out. My main image
on my contents is Ben, who is using a Snapchat filter as this creates cohesion between the image and text, as the quote I have
used is “I’m always Messaging my Fans on SNAPCHAT”!, this tells fans of this musician that they can communicate with him on
his Snapchat, a social media application which is used particularly by young, females – my target audience.

6. Image of the editor
Editor’s message to tell the audience what is
included in the product and to make them
feel comfortable and invited.
Signed off by the editor, as well as this the
editor is a female to make the target
audience (young females) feel reassured in
the content of the product.
Brief description of all of the contents of the
product, so that the audience will have to read
all of the magazine. Features such as
interviews, posters, quizzes and prizes are
regularly used in this style of magazine so I
chose to include them.
Further reinforcing the target, female
audience and informing the reader
further of the contents and style of the
product.
Heart-face emoji to directly
communicate to females and a
younger audience group.
Shocked-face emoji to directly
communicate to a younger
audience group.
Informal introduction to reinstate the style of magazine.
Quote from popstar, Snapchat makes the
audience relate to this celebrity as it an
application regularly used by young females.
Main image – Model using a Snapchat filter as
this relates back to the singer’s quote about
messaging his fans on Snapchat .
Quote from popstar to attract and
intrigue readers and fans.
Secondary image of popstar at a gig,
relating back to the article’s title.
Prizes to win in this issue, a regular feature
included in pop music magazines.

7. Double-Page Spread
When creating my Double-Page Spread, I split my pages so that the left page was the main image of my popstar and anything
to the right of this was the interview. In the image, the popstar looks fun and happy, as this reflects the message and style of my
magazine. I have continued to use similar colour schemes throughout my product, such as repeatedly using light blue and pink.
These colours reinforce the target audience of young females, as it is vibrant and looks appealing and stands out to a young
generation. Moreover, the interview with the popstar is very informal and uses lots of colloquial lexis. The questions and
answers are not very serious, and therefore successfully target young people. I set questions as dark blue and answers as black,
as this easily allows readers to find the difference between the questions and answers in the article. Furthermore, there are two
headlines on each page. The headline on the left page is a quote from the popstar which is directly taken from the interview,
and the right page headline clearly tells the readers that this page is the interview with Jodie. On the bottom of the left page, I
included a prize which readers could win, this is an exclusive pre-release of this popstar’s new album. Moreover, this creates
continuity between the article and the prizes, as her album is something that has been discussed in the interview. The puff in
front of the main image once again reinstates that this interview is very exclusive and recent, and the arrow at the bottom right
of the double page spread informs readers and fans that they can find more images of popstar ‘Jodie’ later on in the magazine.

8. Quote from popstar about
her fans, as they will be the
readers of my product.
Interview questions
deal with young
people’s issues – it
is fun and informal.
Prize that the readers can
win in this magazine from
this singer.
Title and tag tells the
reader that this
article is new and
exclusive.
Main image of popstar
looking happy and upbeat,
reflecting the fun style of
my product.
More content of this
popstar later on in the
magazine.
Puff reinstating that this is an exclusive and
important article in the magazine.

9. How does my media product challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?
Front Cover – My Front Cover only contains one secondary image, whereas many of the influential real media products that I looked at
contained several secondary images. As well as this I only included three coverlines, but real magazines of this style would be much more
cluttered with many coverlines and secondary images. Moreover, I included the price tag of my magazine in the top strip in a pug,
however the price tag is usually located in the barcode in the bottom strip of a front cover.
Contents Page – Similar to the Front Cover, I only included one secondary image. But real media products of this magazine’s genre would
include lots of secondary images on a contents page to give readers a detailed insight into the numerous artists included in the
magazine. Furthermore, I did not choose to include any previews of posters at the bottom of the contents page, but this is a typical
convention of pop magazines. I did not include my magazine’s masthead on the contents page, just a title that says ‘In this Week’s Replay
Mag’. Using the masthead on the contents page is a typical convention of this style of media product, as it regularly reinforces the target
audience throughout the magazine.
Double Page Spread – My Double Page Spread challenges the typical conventions of real pop music magazines for pre-teens, as no prop
is used in my main image. This has been done often in several of the double page spreads I looked at from ’We Love Pop’, so I challenged
this convention by not including or using a prop on my. Moreover, I only chose to use a main image and did not include any secondary
images, but this is done quite often in real media products. I chose not to include any secondary images as I focused my double page
spread on the interview, suggesting fans and readers are very immersed in the contents and exclusivity of the interview.