2. IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT USE,
DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND
CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS?
Throughout this task, I researched about the key conventions that are found on a magazine and there
are plenty! below you could see I labelled this magazine cover with all the key conventions:
Anchorage text
This is writing relating to
the main image. It tells
the readers what the main
picture is about.
Barcode
This allows the magazine
to be scanned at the
checkout, its usually on
the bottom left or right
corner.
Central image
In every magazine, there has to be a picture in the middle that will link with the magazine
and then target audience so that the target audience could be attracted and therefore would
want to purchase the magazine.
Mast head
The masthead is usually found at the
top of the page and down the side of
the page. It also in a big font so that it
could be easily visible. Sometimes it
could be in front of the central image
and often it could be behind the central
image.
Tag lines
Writings which tell
the reader more
about the articles in
the magazine. This is
spread all over the
page.
3. This is my magazine cover and as you can probably tell it’s a primary school
magazine cover. In this magazine cover I have used the key conventions that you
will usually find on a magazine cover. In the next few slides I will be explaining
what key conventions I chose and why.
Mast head
As you can see I decided to position my mast head at the top so that its easily
visible. Not only that, but it’s a key convention of a magazine. From my
research I also found out that your magazine mastheads colours could link to
your central image and that’s why I chose the colour to be yellow and blue as on
my central image these colours are visible. While thinking of a masthead for my
magazine, the first feature that I wanted it to contain is that its short in length.
This is because, from my research I found out that the shorter the masthead the
more snappy and interesting it will be. Not only that, but it’s a key convention
as all the magazine that I researched online have short mastheads.
I had to link my masthead to my audience of course as that is another key
convention- to link your masthead to your audience. As you can tell, my target
audience are children so I have to think carefully about the different types of
fonts and what they could suggests. I ended up with this one because its bubbly
and bubble fonts can appear very fun to the children!
4. Central image
The biggest key convention of a magazine cover is the central image. This is because
its big and clear. Not only that, but its visible from far away and it could tell the target
audience so much about what t he magazine is going to be about and who is more
likely to enjoy it.
From my research, I found out that the model on the central image has to be a
representative of your target audience. That’s why I chose a little boy for this magazine
as my target audience are primary school children. Before I started my photo shoot, I
had to research more about the angles, shots, and the background. I learnt that
magazine central images often have to be of the models upper body only. There are
magazines which have a central image of a models full outfit but that’s from another
purpose- fashion, beauty etc…So, the shot that I chose for this photograph is medium
close up. I carried out other photo shoots so that I could experiment as you can see at
the bottom. I used medium close up for them so that the audience could see his facial
expressions clearly as it needs to be clear that the model is happy as my target audience
are interested in happy things! In terms of angels, I made sure that I didn’t use any
angles throughout all my photo shoots. This is because photo shoots are often used to
exaggerate the photograph. For example low angles usually makes the model look
powerful and high angles make the subject look weak.
For the background, its usually plain or blurred (depth of field). This is because we
want the audience to focus on the model in the foreground. Finally, I needed to think
about the location and lighting. I decided to carry out all my photo shoots outside
using natural light. I did this because the sun represents happiness, as children love
‘playing outside’. Not only that, but natural lighting will mean I will have the freedom
to choose my background and how much to show.
From my research and my gathered information, I was able to come up with this
photograph!
5. Taglines
Taglines is another key convention of a website. A tagline has
to give the reader more about the magazine so that the
audience could know or have an idea about what kind of
articles are on the magazine or what topics it will cover.
Throughout my research I found out that every tagline should
be short and snappy. It shouldn't’t be long because you don’t
want to tell the audience everything about the article as they
wouldn't’t want to read it then. I also learnt that when it comes
to taglines, you should use persuasive language. I did this as
you can see as I used rhetorical questions, for example “want a
trip to Disneyland?”. This will convince and persuade the
readers to read the magazine.
Also, from my research I found that the different taglines don’t
have to be the same font or color. Each color and font would
have to represent or suggest what the tagline is about. As you
can see I did this to my magazine as for the “fancy meeting a
minion” I made the font bubbly and in the color yellow and
orange which is the color of the minions.
6. As well as using some of the key conventions, I also decided to develop some
on my magazine. Below, you could see which one I decided to develop.
Footer bar
A footer bar is used to give more information and
highlights key points. The placing is effective
because of the rules of eye flow as people will
naturally read from top to bottom.
Usually the footer bar would have information
about what's inside the magazine, an article
perhaps. However, this time I decided to change it
and put words that children find interesting. The
words that I added were all positive and I thought
that would attract children to wanting to read the
magazine.
7. Finally, I decided not to use some magazine key conventions as I thought they
weren’t suitable for the purpose of the magazine.
Slogan
Another convention of a magazine is a slogan. A slogan is a
summary of the magazine. It’s a boasting statement claiming the
magazine is special or unique.
Throughout my research I found out that primary school or ay
children magazine don’t use slogans. This is because children are
not interested in any of the writing as it will be less likely they
will read it. Children will be interested in reading words like
“games”, “winning”, “fun”. This is why I made sure I included
them in my magazine.
Even though I didn’t use any slogan on my magazine, I still
found out certain things about it. I found out that a good slogan
shouldn't’t have any words more than 5 as it has to be short and
snappy. Not only that, but I also found out that a slogan is often
positioned underneath the masthead so that it could be easily
noticed. Also, its always best if you link the slogan to what the
masthead suggests.
8. Central image
My target audience is children so I had to think carefully
about what feature I am going to be adding to my
magazine cover, as children only get attracted by certain
things.
The first feature that I thought about when thinking
about mu magazine was the central image. This is
because the central image is the most focused at when it
comes to magazines. I know this because in my survey,
my target audience chose ‘image’ to what they notice
first in a magazine. The model was wearing a denim
jacket with a hood and a minion bag. I thought I had to
add the minion bag for a touch of innocence and fun, as
that is what children are all about. Even though the
model is not facing the camera, you could still see he is
happy, as there is a smile on his face to make his facial
expressions look positive. From this photo shoot.
HOW DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT
REPRESENT PARTICULAR SOCIAL GROUPS?
9. I also had to make sure that the second most noticed feature
represents the children (masthead). I did this by making sure I
first of all pick out the right font. Picking a font that is suitable
for the target audience is important as it could suggest many
things.
I wanted my masthead to have its own personality that the
children would easily relate to. This is why I thought a big, bold,
and bubbly font would be perfect! The edges of the font
weren't crisp at all as they had a very smooth and round edge
and that’s what gave the font a childish look to it.
To make the masthead represent my target audience even more,
I decided to use bright colors. As you can see, I decided to use
the color yellow and outlines it with the color blue. I thought
that these 2 colors are perfect as they are bright and also go
along with the rest of the magazine. I didn't want to use blue
alone because the magazine is meant to be for both young girls
and young boys and blue is usually associated with boys so I
thought the color yellow will change how it looks and make it
look a little more unisex.
10. In terms of the taglines, I had to think carefully about the language as I didn’t want to bore my target
audience. Not only that, but I made sure not to use complicated words as I wanted the language to be as
simple as possible.
Moving on from the language, the appearance has a big effect on the taglines. This is because children are
usually attracted by color and fonts and how the subject looks like. This is why I put a lot of effort on the
taglines appearances.
For this tagline I tried to make it look like what it is.
By that I mean using Disneyland's font and also
Disneyland's colors which are red and white. I did
this because I wanted the children to have an image
when reading the tagline.
For this tagline I also did the same as I did for
Disneyland, I used bubbly writing and colors
that suggested ‘minions’. This not only went
with the magazine, but also it would make the
children attracted to it as they will have a visual.
I used the color yellow and blue for this
magazine because I wanted the colors to be
bright so that the children could easily notice it.
I want them to notice it because children love
games and quizzes so when they see it they will
most likely want to get the magazine!
11. My
Target
Audience
Adults
(parents/teachers)
Children
WHO WOULD BE THE AUDIENCE
FOR YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT?
Children as they are what the
magazine will be about. it’s a
Primary school magazine, and
only young students attend
primary schools.
Adults are also part of my
magazine target audience because
the adults could be parents. The
child's parent would most likely
grab the magazine and read it
perhaps. Primary school
magazines also contain articles
that parents would be interested
in that will benefit their kids.
13. WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNT ABOUT
TECHNOLOGIES FROM THE PROCESS
OF CONSTRUCTING THIS PRODUCT?
N
Technologies
Blogger.com
Pros Cons
• You have access
to your work so
that you could
improve it
throughout the
year
• Simple as it
does not
require any
set up.
• Free
• Other people
could access your
work without
permission
YouTube
Pros Cons
• There is a wide
variety of
versions of
tutorials that
you want
• There is a wide
variety of
versions of
tutorials that
you want
• Free
• Adverts- could
waste your time
InDesign
Pros Cons
• Tools
specifically
made for
making
magazine
covers
• Need to watch
tutorials in
order to
understand
how to use the
tools
• Not
free
14. Looking back at everything I have done, I know that I have learnt a lot and the skills that I
have gained will definitely benefit me as I will move it on to the Music magazine task. I was
introduced into looking at technology differently. I have always looked at technology in a
simple way and I have never looked at it as how I do now. For example, Blogger.com. I
never looked at it for using work so that the teacher can access it as I thought it can ONLY
be used for blogging. The second technology part of this project was InDesign as I know
that was the main work. When the teacher first introduced me to InDesign, I struggled so
much as I didn’t know how to use it. To teach myself how to understand and use InDesign
I had to watch numerous tutorials to understand how to use the tools there. Also, I have
gained skills on the photography side of this project as I learnt the key conventions of a
central picture on a magazine cover. For example, the shots of the pictures must be either a
medium close up or a close up. However, using a long shot can still be used but its very rare
that magazine companies use this shot. Finally, I have also learnt how to research.
Researching about your target audience is a very important step before creating your
magazine cover as you will need to know their preferences and their lifestyle to fulfil their
needs on a magazine cover. All these elements I have picked fro the preliminary task I will
move on to the real task which is creative a music magazine cover.
LOOKING BACK AT YOUR
PRELIMINARY TASK, WHAT DO YOU
FEEL YOU HAVE LEARNT IN THE
PROGRESSION FROM IT TO THE FULL
PRODUCT
