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

2. In the construction of my magazine, I tried to use as many
conventional magazine features as possible in order for my
magazine to look realistic. On my front cover I included:
My masthead is in the top left
hand corner. The logo of my
magazine would grow to be a
trademark symbol and would
work to draw attention to the
magazine.
I used a tagline/unique selling
point. I put it under my
masthead. Because of the
masthead creating attention,
readers would then read the
tagline, so this would
encourage them to buy the
magazine.
I decided to include a left hand
third on my magazine because
this is part of the codes and
conventions of magazines, It is
also very informative about
what the magazine includes. I
also made sure to include
artists of my music genre, this
made the magazine seem
more real.
The barcode, issue number, date and
price are all situated in the bottom left
hand corner. These all help to make the
magazine look more realistic, as if it
was on sale in a shop.
I added a few puffs across the
front cover. These were to
supply extra information
about the content of the
magazine, but also to grab the
readers attention by
advertising relevant
information to their interests.
In the centre of the page, I
placed the image of my artist.
I made it as large as I could,
within reason, to make it
stand out off the page. I also
added the lead article/cover
story on top of the image, this
was to tell the reader who the
artist is and what he’s been
talking about.
Before I started constructing
this page, I decided that the
colour scheme was going to
be red, black and white. This
was because I had already
created my masthead and
taken the photo of my artist
and they matched well.

3. • My front cover uses conventional magazine features in many
ways. To help me with this I used existing magazine covers,
such as the ones below. Ideas I took from the other magazines
were, to have the masthead in the top left hand corner of the
page. To have a large close up of the artist in the middle of the
page. To use a set colour scheme throughout the page. The
colour schemes of existing music magazines seemed to be red,
white and black more often than not, this helped me in my
decision making for my scheme. I also picked up on such things
that there is never any space wasted on the front cover, with
that in mind I tried to create information to fill any large spaces
I had, but still keeping it relevant to the possible reader.

4. My contents page
included these
features:
For my contents page, I
decided to out my masthead
in the top left hand corner
again, this was to reiterate to
the reader what magazine
they are reading.
I gave the page the title of
contents as it is what is done
across other magazines and
has now became a
convention of a contents
page.
Across the page, I arranged a
few pictures and gave then
captions for readers to
understand. When sourcing
images to add, I ensured that
they were relevant to the
magazine genre.
On the left hand side of my
contents page, I decided to
follow a convention that NME
use, which was to add a band
index, this is for readers to
quickly locate specific bands
that they may be looking for.
I also think that it makes it
look more professional and
more like a read magazine.
At the bottom of the page, I created and
placed an advert for a subscription of the
magazine, this could increase sales of the
magazine and improve the turnover of the
company.
I placed sub-headings to
make it clear where each
section of the front page was
being separated.
Page references were added
whenever there was
information on my contents
page, this was done to
benefit the reader to make it
easier for them to read
through the magazine and
find the information that they
are interested in.
I carried the colour scheme
from the front cover on to the
contents page. I decided that I
would do this so that my
magazine would flow into
itself from one page to the
next.
In the bottom right hand
corner, I added a editors
note. I decided on this after
seeing it in a lot of other
magazines I came across
when doing my research. It
also gives the magazine a
personal feel to it.

5. • My contents page layout follows conventional magazine
features such as using several images, bold letters and
heading. My contents followed a very similar method of
layout to that of NME magazine. I followed a convention
of grouping text together to make it easier for reader to
view and read. I have given all of my sub-headings an
outline for the benefit of anyone that reads it, this makes
the heading much easier to read and stands out from the
black background.

6. My double page
spread included
these features:
At the bottom of the page, I included conventional things, such
as the page number and website address. These were for use
of the reader and to further advertise the magazine.
The headline was the artists’ name in big
bold letters, this immediately grabs the
readers attention and draws them into the
article.
The layout of the article is set into three columns, meeting the
conventions of a real magazine, also I thought it was
appropriate way to set out an interview. I used different
colours for the interviewers questions and the interviewees
answers, this was to make it clearer and easier to read for the
reader. The colours I chose for the questions and answers
were thought out and picked with the colour scheme in mind.
The blown up quote can be
seen in the middle of the
second column. This matches
the conventions of a real
magazine as this is involved
in the structure of the
interview and always
involves one of the main
points as the blown up quote.
I added a “DIP Magazine
Exclusive” in the top right
hand side of the page. I used
the masthead again in order
to keep reminding the reader
what magazine they are
reading. I used the word
exclusive to portray to the
reader that what they are
reading is special to this
magazine.

7. • Research into music magazines with double page spreads
showed me that they all follow a similar convention. These
being, a large image of the focus artist on one of the pages. I
also followed this in my double page spread. Another
convention I followed was having a enlarged quote from the
interview, in the middle of the article. I believe that this makes
the article look more realistic, as it is something you would see
in a real magazine. I challenged the typical magazine article
conventions by placing a few of the quotes and the introduction
on the left hand page, which is normally full designated for the
image. I believe that this helps the two pages flow into each
other, rather than having two pages that are completely
different from one another.