1) The document identifies key conventions used in real music magazines that the author incorporated into their media product, such as a prominent masthead, tagline, cover lines, barcode/issue info, and direct model poses. 2) The author challenged some conventions by creating a unique wave-style masthead font to emphasize loud music and creating a montage of artist photos instead of a single shot. 3) Conventions were maintained like subtitles, contents listings, masthead branding, and bold page titles to help readers navigate while appealing conventions like images were challenged to be more aesthetically pleasing.

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

2. Whilst researching existing magazines such as NME, Q
and Kerrang, I was able to identify key features and
conventions which are generic to both magazines in
general, and music magazines of a particular genre.
Recognisable masthead
Tag line
Cover line
Puff
Bar code
Date and issue
number
Main cover line
Direct mode
of address
Plug
Cover line

3. The main convention of magazines is a large masthead in the
biggest, boldest font at the top of the page, usually on the
left hand side so that when they are stacked on shop shelves,
the customer can clearly see the masthead and therefore
identify the magazine brand. The masthead is the most
important feature because it creates a brand identity and is
what customers will use to identify the magazine. My
magazine includes a predominant masthead of ‘Amplified’
which stands out because I made a creative font that has a
music wave going through it to emphasis the theme of loud
music and to make it distinguishable and stand out from other
existing magazines. The creative, unique font also creates a
brand identity and helps the target audience recognise the
magazine.

4. A tag line is usually featured to create brand
identity and I decided to include the tag line of
‘turn it up’ because it is short and concise and
fits in again with the theme of loud music hence
the magazine name ‘amplified’.

5. From my research of existing products, I found that the best, most
effective magazines used a medium close up shot of a model who was
using direct mode of address, therefore I decided to have my model
look directly at the camera and this worked well because it is
attention grabbing for the audience and makes it look more intense
which fits in with the striking image I am trying to create of my artist.
The artist is important because it will be one of the first things that
the target
audience see when they look at the
magazine in a shop so it will be one of
the factors which will help them decide
whether they want to buy the magazine
or not, therefore I need to make the
artist relate to the target audience. The
artist is also important because they
create role models for the audience so I
must make sure that the artist is a
positive role model and doesn’t create
negative implications.

6. All existing magazines include a bar code, date and issue
number to make easier for the reader to see the price and
when the magazine was published so this is a convention
which was mandatory to include to make the magazine look
realistic and so that if it was sold in a shop, it could be
scanned through the checkout. This information usually
appears at the bottom right hand corner of the front cover
because it is not important information in terms of
interesting the target audience therefore it doesn’t need to
be in a predominant place on the page.

7. Another convention of music magazines is to have a
main cover line which stands out and is larger than the
other, less significant cover lines. My main cover line of
‘the real Raven Rose’ is easy to identify as the main
cover line as it stands out and has a bolder font and I
decided to do this because the audience’s attention will
be instantly drawn to it which is the desired effect
because it is the most exclusive article.

8. Other conventions from real media products
which I decided to use in my product include
subtitles on the contents page (eg. Features,
reviews, every month), a long shot of the featured
artist next to the list of contents, and some
additional smaller images which link to different
pages within the magazine. In order to make each
feature visible and the text stand out from the
background, I used layering to put black boxes
behind the text and overlapped some images
using the ‘bring forward/backward’ tool. I chose
to maintain these conventions because they help
the reader clearly navigate through the magazine
and the images help to advertise what else will be
featured in the magazine. This allows the reader
to quickly see if the magazine appeals to them
whilst in a shop rather than having to look through
the whole magazine.

9. On the double page spread, I maintained certain
conventions such as a bold title on the left hand top
corner of the page which stands out to grab attention;
a small paragraph introducing the topics of the
interview to tempt the reader into reading the full
interview; and a smaller version of the masthead along
with page numbers and a website link to maintain
branding and a house style throughout the magazine.

10. I chose to develop the convention of having one
medium long shot of the artist next to the interview by
creating a montage of 18 polaroid pictures of my artist.
I chose to challenge this convention because I feel that
the variation of images is more aesthetically pleasing
by creating a balance between text and pictures and it
gives the reader a more in depth representation of the
artist.