q1 - media evaluation

1. Question 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?
It is important that conventions are followed as they set out an idealistic way in which something should be done. Regarding my front cover I believe that several conventions can
be seen, as set out and shown below.
My front cover uses bright and vibrant colours
to a certain extent. The colours pink, green and
red are used, with other colours cropping up in
feature article photographs. As my magazine is
a pop magazine, it is expected to have more
bright and vibrant colours, as mine lacks this, I
believe this is a downfall of my front cover.
However, the content is still slightly followed,
but could be adapted more to fit the concept of
the ‘pop’ theme.
With the majority of pop magazine the background colour is
usually white – my background colour for my front cover is
also white. So my magazine does in fact follow this
convention. I believe that this is a strong point within my
front cover, and makes it look more professional. If I used a
different colour background, such as purple, I think it would
make my front cover look less professional and “tacky”.
The use of celebrity nicknames are also used
often. A prime example is One Direction being
referred to as 1D or Justin Bieber as ‘Biebs’. In
relation to my artists, Katie is referred to as
“Kates”, Nicole is referred to as “Nics” and
Melanie as “Mel”. This allows my audience to
feel as if they know the artists personally, in
order to call them by a nickname.
The name of the magazine usually includes the word “pop” in
it as an indication of the genre of the magazine. I decided to
follow this convention and name my magazine “Pop It”. The
name in itself is pretty basic, and I think, if I had more time I
would have come up with something more creative. It is also
bold and eye catchy - just like the We Love Pop masthead.
Commonly, the use of a puff is used to present
to the audience information that they will find
interesting or useful, for example it might
mention an upcoming competition. I have
followed the convention that there is a puff on
my front cover; and that it has relevant text so
I am therefore not breaking the convention. I
believe that my puff fits in well with the sell line
and the feature article photo well.
A skyline is used a lot, containing recent gossip, or artist
names or what the magazine includes. In my magazine I
have used it for the use of recent gossip. It contains the
text “Christmas edition exclusive – are Conor and Hannah
really dating?” I think this sell line suited the skyline well
as listing artist names is more common in Rock
Magazines.
A pug is always placed at the bottom of the page, whether it
is in the bottom right hand corner or in the centre, as it is
the last thing the audience see. It also includes the barcode.
I have placed mine in the bottom right hand corner with the
barcode, issue number, price and the website address. I
placed it here as it is then not in the way and interfering the
rest of the magazine and is away from everything else.

2. One of the main
conventions is that
the image dominates
the frame and is
positioned to the left
so that the sell lines
can be placed in the
left hand third. This
featured is used in
already successful
and well established
pop magazines such
as We Love Pop. I
followed this
convention as it
makes my magazine
look like a real pop
magazine.
Another convention
is the fashion section
in the bottom left
hand corner, I
followed this
because it is tucked
away and allows for
lots of space for
fashion without
disrupting the other
content of the
magazine which is
also a convention
shown and used of
the We Love Pop
front cover.

3. Sell lines always include the artists names, I
have stuck to this as it is not always obvious
who the sell line is speaking about especially if
puns are used within it. I have wrote the artist
names in differently in every headline, for
example Triple Alliance is written in code font in
pink in one headline with the rest of the sell line
written in coolvetica in black, whereas in
another sell line Rate or Date is written in code
in pink and the artist names are written below
in coolvetica in black which is “Nic an Mel”.
Seasonal features often appear. An example of this
is the we love pop magazine with Olly Murs on the
front with the main sell line saying “merry x-murs”
includes seasonal features such as snowflakes
throughout the background. My front cover includes
a ball ball in the bottom left hand corner, instead of
a circle shaped puff on top of this some of the
fashion features promote the winter season such as
the Christmas jumper!
Feature articles photographs appear a lot on
magazine front covers, especially pop
magazines, on mine I have two. I think I
should have included a few more personally,
as it is for a younger age group, I believe it
should be more visual than have more text.
Question 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?
The masthead is always written in the same
style and the same font is a convention of a
front cover. This is a convention and one I am
to stick by to maintain brand consistency.
Also to help the audience spot the magazine
straight away.
Pop magazines are renowned for their use of bright
colours, I think my magazine uses a range of enough
bright colours but could do with more in order for it to
reach its full potential in order to fully satisfy the target
audience. I don’t believe this is challenging a
convention of pop magazines, I believe it is merely
adapting it slightly.
Puff’s usually include prizes or tips - mine is to make
sure that people vote for their “selfie of the week” this
is not necessarily challenging a convention but is not
strictly following one. I did this because it was more
relevant to my front cover and made the feature
article photo’s and sell lines look less basic.

4. By looking at other pop magazine front
covers, I believe that I could've used
more buzz words throughout my front
cover to appeal to the target audience
more. Such as “OMG” and
“PHWOAARR!” that are apparent on the
likes of We Love Pop.
Question 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?
Despite using a puff, more than one is
often used. But rather than using two I
adopted it to the Christmas theme and
used a ball-ball to put text in instead.
There is usually an announcement of what
photo’s are going to be inside the
magazine. Due to a lack of space on the
front cover I had to put this on the contents
page instead. I thought this would be
better as otherwise there would be to
much going on on the front cover.
Front Covers usually have plenty of
feature article photo’s in order to attract
the intended target audience - based on
the age. My front cover only has three
feature article photo’s. Despite not having
many and probably should've added
more.

5. Question 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?
Contents pages are usually set out in
columns, in which mine is set in two. I
believe this makes the contents page look
more organised so the audience can skim it
to easily and quickly retrieve the
information they require!
Other smaller images are usually placed on the
contents page, this is because it splits it up from
being text only. I have followed this convention as
at the bottom of my contents page there is two
images placed at the bottom. Even though I have
followed it I do believe I could of added a few
more!
Contents pages also have a structured layout,
I have used this because it looks more
professional and the audience can easily
retrieve the information they require to
navigate themselves around the magazine
with ease!
Page numbers are written on the images or
text which links to the written contents. I
have done this as this is the sole purpose of
a contents page, to list the content of the
magazine and it is obviously more helpful if
the audience are presented with the article
and the page it is.
On the top of the page the name of the magazine
is usually mentioned. I stuck to this by naming my
contents page “Inside Pop It” instead of just
“Contents Page” as I think it makes the contents
page more related to the magazine in general.
The same idea is used in Top of the Pops which is
where I got the idea from because I believe it
works in standing out more.
An editor’s letter is usually present in order for the
magazine to be more personal to the reader and
to summarise the edition. I have followed this
because I think it is a nice touch to the magazine.
In some magazines like Top of the Pops the have
a small image of the front cover with arrows
coming out of it with the page numbers of the
main article and feature articles. I did this to help
fill the space on my contents page and I also think
that it makes it look more modernised.
The contents page is usually divided into
categories and headings to make it easier for
the reader to find what they want. It also gives
the reader a quick and brief idea of what the
magazine includes by just looking at the
headline - which is why I used this as my
layout because that way the audience don't
spend too much time reading it.

6. Question 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?
A convention of pop magazines is that a
contents page uses similar colours to the front
cover. This is used to an extent on my front
cover, but I believe it could be adapted more
which is why it is a developing convention of my
magazine.
Sublines are used to give more details about
what the article is about. This is used a few
times on my contents page such as “Win a
£200 shopping spree… with a celeb guest of
your choice”
On the contents page there is usually a main
image relating to a main article. My contents
page does not have this as such.
On the contents page the issue number and date
is usually present, however, I put this on the front
cover instead because I believe it is more useful
on the front cover rather than the contents page,
as the audience will need to know this information
before purchasing the magazine. By placing it on
the contents page it could become impossible to
retrieve this information - especially if the
magazine has a covermount.
The word contents is usually used as the title of
the page. I did not do this as I preferred “Inside
Pop It” making it stand out less more, and making
it less dull.
I did not publish subscription and contact
information on the contents page as I am going to
dedicate this to its own page instead so it is not
rushed and shoved into a corner, I would like it to
be more of a bigger deal in order to publicise the
other media levels of the magazine.

7. The general
inspiration behind
my contents page
was by looking at a
Top of the Pops
front cover.

8. Question 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?
All text on a double page
spread is a size 11 and is
usually in arial font, which
is want my double page
spread font style and size
is. I did this because I
knew it looked good, and
is easy for the audience to
read. I also thought that it
suited the age of the
audience as it didn't look
to formal.
By making the text of my
magazine informal, it
allows the reader to relax
more and escape from the
rest of their surroundings
(Blumer & Katz).
A short headline is usually
used because it tends to
be more catchy and to the
point. Which is why I
named mine “All About
Daniel” because it informs
the reader what the article
is about in as less words
as possible, yet it does not
completely tell the
audience what is
contained within the
article.
Columns are used to
organise text, I have done
this in order to make sure
it is clear to the reader
which way the text should
be read.
With images on double
page spreads, they give
direct address to the
audience, but in my case
not all of mine are as some
of them can be classed as
“mugshots” of Daniel
messing around reflecting
his personality.
Throughout a magazine the colour scheme should match. Mine varies slightly as pink features a lot throughout my front cover and contents page but does not
throughout my double page spread. However, green (which is the main colour of my double page spread) does happen to feature on my front cover.

9. Question 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?
On the images I did not
place a by line below it
giving credits to the author
and the writer because,
obviously, I did both
myself and this would look
a bit weird. However, if it
obviously was an exciting
magazine, these both
would be present.
In the introduction I didn't
add a drop cap. I didn’t do
this because I think it looks
better without one and that
drop caps look better in
magazines such as ‘heat’
or newspapers, instead of
in a pop magazine.