Q1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? AS media coursework evaluation question 1

2. The masthead is at the top
left of the front cover to
make sure it stands out to
the audience and is easily
recognised for branding. A
masthead is used to give a
magazine an identity. To help
with the branding of the
magazine the masthead is
continued throughout the
magazine., which helps the
magazine to flow and makes
it seem more consistent.
Typically a masthead is placed
at the top of the magazine front
cover to make it the most
important part of the front
cover. This makes it more easily
recognisable to the audience.
However the analysed front
cover places its masthead in the
top left corner, this is for the
same reasons as well as the
audience reading from left to
right so giving it more
importance. The masthead is
also layered over on this
magazine because the magazine
is well known so the masthead
requires less attention and the
layering makes the front cover
look more interesting.

3. Similarly to my analysed
front cover of a music
magazine I layered over
my main image on my
front cover, but kept the
face clear and uncovered.
I decided to use this
convention to make the
magazine look more
interesting and therefore
more appealing.
I left the face of my artist
uncovered to draw
attention towards the
face and to make the
image stand out more as
well as attracting the
potential audience.
The analysed front cover uses a
group photo as the main artist is
a band. They’re not all looking at
the camera which shows how
close they are and shows them as
a tight knit group. This shows
them to be a happy friendly
group.
I tried to reciprocate this vibe
with my solo artist by making her
seem more relaxed and
[presenting her with a happy
facial expression. I decided to use
a direct mode of address as she is
a solo artist and this makes it
more engaging for the audience.

4. A banner was used to plug
more content, helping to
show the magazine as being
full and busy, this would
attract the audience as the
magazine would look full
and interesting with lots for
the audience to view and
interact with.
By using a range of fonts the
magazine is made to look
more interesting and
appealing, as well as
highlighting more important
and more appealing content
with more attractive fonts.
The range in the font styles
and sizes is used as a
differentiation tool for the
target audience.
I decided to follow the
convention of layering my front
cover make it seem more
appealing and attractive to the
audience. I wanted to keep
attention to the important
content of the magazine,
persuading the target audience
to buy the magazine.

5. Most magazines follow a
colour scheme of three
main colours. On my
analysed magazine this is
black, red and white; this
creates a house style that
is consistent throughout
the magazine.
To help my magazine to
flow I decided to follow
this convention and
focused on the three main
colours, white, blue and
grey to help my magazine
to flow.
I decided to plug artists across
the top to help make it more
gender inclusive, and to help
persuade the audience to
purchase the magazine. My
analysed magazine didn’t do
this but I wanted to appeal
more to a wider audience and
to be more appealing with
more artists from the genre.

6. I decided to follow the
conventions of
subheadings for my
contents page, this is to
help with the organisation
of the contents page and
therefore the navigation
of the magazine.
They are in different fonts
and colours to create a
differentiation and to
stand out as being
subheadings.
I used the subheading
‘features’ like Q
magazines example to
display the content on the
front cover, as it is familiar
for the audience,
A short bio on each article
in the magazine is used,
which helps to navigate to
what the reader finds most
interesting. It helps
advertises parts of the
contents of the magazine,
making them seem
appealing to the target
audience.
I decided to write the bios
in a similar way to my
analysed contents pages so
that is familiar to the
audience and is therefore
attractive to them.

7. I used the left-hand third
convention, keeping the
main text on the left as well
as the title ‘CONTENTS’. This
is because people read from
left to right which makes the
text most important on a
contents page, this
convention is used by both
of my analysed texts.
Numbering the images
used on the contents
page helped with the
navigation of the
magazine because of the
direct links to the page if
the audience is
interested. This helps to
create consistency for the
magazine and also helps
to make it flow
throughout.
I followed the technique of
structuring the information
on the contents page in a
column format. This is to
keep it clear and easy to
navigate and read. The use
of the column structure
also gives the magazine a
more professional look. It
is not only a familiar
convention for the
audience but makes the
contents page
conventional as well.

8. The main image on the
contents page links to the
main article and focus of
this issue of the magazine.
The main image refers to
the main content of the
magazine to help with the
advertisement, it is aligned
to the right to follow the
left hand third rule. This is
because it is not the most
important part of the
contents page.
Smaller images are less
important but still help to
advertise the contents of
the magazine. I decided to
align my smaller image
with the text to give a
more professional feel as
well as following the
column structure.
A three colour consistency
was used to help create a
house style and to help the
magazine to flow smoothly,
this followed typical
conventions of music
magazine contents pages.
Bold but simple font choices
are used to keep it clear and
easy to read and therefore
navigate through the
magazine.
Different font sizes are used
to differentiate between the
importance of the contents.

9. Eye contact with the camera makes
it personal, gives a bit of a
connection with the reader, I used
this convention to appeal more
towards my target audience., and
to also make the interview/article
more inviting.
The image takes up a whole page
of the double page spread as this
draws attention to both the image
and the interview and therefore is
persuading to the audience and
makes them want to read the
article.
I decided to use a colour image to appeal to the target audience,
this is because it suits the genre of music more than a black and
white image. The use of colour makes the image look more laid
back and happy as it gives more of an insight into what the artist is
like.
This goes against my analysed double page spread, as the image is
in black and white to look more classy and to present the artist as
more mysterious. However my artist is from a different genre of
music so this view wouldn’t suit it.

10. A quote is used to get the attention of the audience and to make
them want to read the interview so that they can find out more and
to find out the context of the quote.
The quote is placed in the top left corner to follow the left-hand
third rule, which means that it will be one of the first things seen
and therefore can be used effectively to attract the audience.
This convention isn't used on my analysed text, but I decided to use
it to appeal more to the audience and make the double page spread
look more interesting.
Placing the artists name in the
top right corner of the double
page spread is a persuasive
device. By using different fonts,
it stands out more and therefore
is attractive to the target
audience. It also makes it clear
as to who is being interviewed to
the audience.
I decided to use this form for my
double page spread as it would
be familiar to my target
audience and is a good
persuasive device also.

11. I followed the three column
structure to create order to the
interview. It also makes it look
neater and more presentable as
well as easier to read and a
convention that the audience is
well used to with magazines. The
three columns gives the text
balance and is an orderly way to
present the text.
A bold drop case letter brings
the readers eye to the start of
the interview straight away.
This a technique used to
encourage the audience to
read the text.
By placing a web address at
the bottom of page it shows
the use of different
technologies. This appeals
to the target audience to
show easier access and use
and to make the article
more interactive for the
audience through different
media.
A smaller version of the masthead
with the page numbers is used in the
bottom corners of the pages, this is a
branding technique and creates
consistency, helping the magazine to
flow. The page numbers help with
navigation through the magazine,
again helping the magazine to flow
neatly.

12. The interview is relayed more like a past conversation than just a Q and
A, this makes it more interesting to read as well as more appealing to
the target audience. It reads more like a story and gives a more
professional look to the magazine.
I followed this convention from my analysed interview so that it was
more familiar to the audience as well as being more attractive and
therefore persuading the audience to want to read the interview.

13. It is important to adhere to the majority of the general conventions as they are
familiar to the target audience and familiarity appeals to an audience as it is more
trustworthy and appears more professional.
Most of the generic conventions the audience expects to see, e.g. a masthead,
main images, structure, subheadings
I decided to conform with most of the generic conventions so that it would suit
the target audience more and would be appealing because of the familiarity.
I challenged some conventions to make my magazine more interesting and to give
it more of an individual feel so that it has the attraction for the audience of being
a little different as well.
I decided to challenge the idea of putting another pull quote on my contents page
and placed it on the double page spread instead. Although pull quotes are used to
advertise the contents of the interview some more on the contents page, I
decided not to inlcude it there but instead on the double page spread so that
when the audience turns to the interview instead of flicking past they see the
quote and decide to read the article to find out more.