question 1 of my evaluation

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

2. Before I created my media product I researched what you would typically find on a
magazine cover, contents page and a double page spread so I knew how to make my
product look conventional, I found examples of music magazine covers and compared
them to see what is typical in all magazines, I found a variety of conventions including:
On my magazine I tried to follow these conventions throughout so my
magazine looked conventional and realistic, on my magazine I used a
bold masthead at the top of the magazine as that and the artists
image should be the main factor and the masthead brands the
magazine so people can easily see what the name is especially as it is a
new magazine, I used this image on the magazine to get the
audience’s attention to make them want to buy the magazine and to
appeal to my target audience which is why I followed these
conventions

3. I also made the name of my music artist in bold as well to make it easy
to recognize who my artist is; this is typical on a music magazine cover
so my target audience can easily spot the magazine as my artists name
is obvious and she is a new artist so I wanted people to notice her
name so they are interested in reading the magazine, I stuck by this
convention as I think it is crucial to a magazine as this is the main cover
line on my magazine I made it in the middle of the page and a different
colour to the other cover lines so my audience could see what the main
focus is on the magazine, I did this otherwise the magazine would not
look realistic if I had changed it.

4. When creating my magazine I used a colour scheme
that would appeal to a young audience as I've used
bright a bright blue colour to be more appealing
instead of using subtle colours which would appeal
to a older target audience, I used 3 main colours
(blue, black and grey) I used two dark colours so the
blue would be more noticeable over the plain
colours ,when creating my product I stuck to the
generic convention to make it look suitable

5. In my research I found a music magazine cover ‘Billboard’
and saw how they represented their music magazine and
they used the same genre of music as I had, this gave me
examples on where I should place features on my
magazine, I wanted to stick to the conventions on which a
magazine should have especially the conventions for a pop
magazine so mine looks real I tried to put everything my
target audience wanted in the magazine so it would appeal
to them.

6. Overall I followed all the generic conventions as well as I
could because I wanted my magazine to look
conventional and for my target audience to easily
recognize the magazine, following these conventions
made it easier to produce so I knew I wasn’t changing an
important feature would make it not look realistic and to
appeal to my audience. I made all the text from the left
to the right as that is how people read text, I followed
this because it’s a generic convention and makes it easier
for people to read.

7. For my contents I looked at other magazines so I could
see how to lay out my contents, I looked at conventions
on content pages and found;
These generic conventions are important for my magazine
to look realistic and professional, these are basic
conventions which majority of magazines will follow as it
appeals to my target audience, for example I have to have
the page number next to the topic story so the readers can
easily find the page they are looking for so they would want
to buy the magazine and read the articles.

8. I made all the topic numbers clear and added
topic headings so it is easy for my audience to find
the page number and able to read the story they
are interested in. When researching content pages
I tried to follow them as well as I could make
them look like a real magazine and to appeal to
readers who will buy my magazine.

9. I followed most of the generic conventions; I changed
the picture at the bottom of my artist by putting the
double page spread on top to advertise it and make it
look more creative as I think just having a photo by itself
doesn’t look as good this would also appeal to a young
audience, I also left the background colour of the photo I
took as it went really well with the colour scheme and
the lighting looked good as it was darker round the sides
but the light focused on the artist.

10. Finally when creating my double page spread I researched
examples so I knew how to lay out my page, I found
different conventions for double page spread including;
In my double page spread I followed all the conventions as
well as I could as I wanted it to look real and I wanted my
target audience to be interested in the double page spread
so they would want to read it, I did my double page spread
in a different colour scheme so it had a different feel to my
other pages I decided to do this to make the magazine
more interesting for the readers.

11. I changed the image so I thought I would make the
double page spread a bit lighter to have more effect on
the artist and the interview, I also wanted to use a variety
of colours in my magazine.
I also changed the way my artist looked in my other
pages I made her serious looking, in my double page I
changed her attitude so my target audience would see a
different side to her and made her look fun and happy to
attract more people to buy the magazine as most pop
artists are fun loving and happy.

12. I didn’t change many conventions as I wanted to stick by
how it should look and I felt I didn’t need to do anything
else to change it, my double page spread looks different to
the Lady Gaga one as I have a masthead and a quote on
the top where the other one does not, I did this so the
buyers could read the pull quote and be interested which
would make them want to buy the magazine.