1. Media Evaluation Question 1
‘In what ways does your product use,
develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?’
Ella Harding

2. How my music magazine uses
conventions of ‘Top of the Pops’
magazine…
Both my magazine and the
‘Top of the Pops’ magazine are
very bold and colourful. My
magazine also uses
components that attract a
young female audience such
as the cover lines used
because they involve both
fashion and boys; common
interests of young teenage
girls. My model and the group
used on the existing magazine
both look happy rather than
serious. This is also in order to
attract the target audience.
I also made sure that all of my
cover lines were to the left(as
you look at it), to enable
consumers to be able to see
what’s inside the magazine
before even picking it up. This
is a common convention found
with existing magazines.

3. My contents page and
the existing
magazine’s contents
page both use very
girly colours again to
attract the target
audience. They both
also use a few
pictures other than
the artist/s on the
front cover, this is
good to show variety
to the consumer. My
music magazine and
the existing music
magazine both use
different sizes of
numbering to
highlight the main
pages of the
magazine. I have also
put my pages under
particular headings,
which I was inspired
to do by researching
other ‘Top of the
Pops’ magazines.

4. My music magazine double-page spread continues to follow the colour scheme of the rest of my magazine which
is a component of the existing music magazine ‘Top of the Pops’. Both my magazine and the existing one uses an
interview in the double-page spread. Apart from those points, my music magazine is pretty different to the
existing music magazine, I haven’t used the same components of this particular ‘Top of the Pops’. My double-
page spread also uses quotes from the interview in and around the actual text. This is a convention that’s used
in most informal articles.

5. How my music magazine develops
conventions of ‘Top of the Pops’
magazine…
I have made my music magazine
less busy because I wanted the
focus of the front cover to be on the
artist and the name of the
magazine. Unlike the ‘Top of the
Pops’ magazine, I have left the
background white and used
splashes of colour to prevent the
cover from looking boring. The
colours I have used on my front
page clash with each other whereas
the existing music magazine’s front
cover uses colours that are
complimentary to each other. I
hoped that using clashing colours
would make the front cover more
eye-catching and unique.

6. The development I realised I had
made when I analysed my music
magazine against this issue of ‘Top of
the Pops’ was that my contents page
includes a column by the editor. I
think this is an improvement to the
magazine because it shows that the
editor cares about how the audience
consumes the product.

7. What I have developed in my double-page spread from the usual forms of music magazines is the colour of the
images I have taken. When I researched ‘Top of the Pops’ magazines I realised that a lot of them only used colour
images on the double-page spreads. I wanted to make mine unique and therefore decided to use one black and
white image and three smaller colour images. Compared to this particular double-page spread, taken from ‘Top
of the Pops’ magazine, I have made the layout of mine slightly different too. The existing music magazine has
placed the images at the top of the pages and text underneath. I placed the images to the sides and wrote across
the middle of the double-page.

8. How my music magazine changes
conventions of ‘Top of the Pops’
magazine…
My music magazine has changed a few
conventions of a typical existing music
magazine. For example, my magazine doesn’t
have the artist on the front cover taking up the
whole background. I wanted the background to
be plain so that the cover lines would catch the
attention of the consumer.
I also changed the usual convention found in
existing magazine that is to make the main
cover line stand out the most. I did make sure
that my main cover line used the largest font
size but, I didn’t want it to take over the front
cover because I already used a picture of the
main star of the magazine on the front. I
thought this made it obvious who this music
magazine was going to be focused around so,
there was little need to make my main cover
line anymore bold.

9. My music magazine changed a
very commonly used component
found in all types of magazines.
My contents page doesn’t include
an annotated picture of the front
cover. I decided not to use this
because I wanted to add in a box
from the editor. If I had used both
that an the annotated front cover,
I would have had very limited
space for the rest of my contents.
I also thought that this annotation
made the magazine look a little
less sophisticated and to attract
the higher end of my target
audience, I needed to add in
components of sophistication. I
thought that by adding the box
from the editor, it made my
contents page look less child-like.

10. My music magazine’s double-page also changes conventions used in existing music magazines. I tried to tone down
the bold colours for these pages because I didn’t want my magazine to look too over-whelming. However, this ‘Top
of the Pops’ magazine has bright, colourful pages throughout which maybe lowers the target audience. I think that
this change made to my double-page spread makes it more appealing to an older audience. The use of
monochrome colours against the hot pink looks informal but sophisticated which is quite unique to other music
magazines as well as my front cover and contents page. I think this change still entices the same target audience
because it still includes the ‘Pop’ genre within it.