2. 1. In what ways does your media product
use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?
When I was creating my magazine I mainly stuck to the conventions
of real media products, for the from cover I used the rule of thirds
where I put more cover-lines on the left hand side due to knowing
that many magazines do this because when the magazine is placed
on the shelf in the shop it shows the left side of the magazine, they
put a lot of colourful interesting cover-lines to attract the audience
into wanting to pick up the magazine. When taking the photo of
the artist, I made sure that the artist gave direct address to the
camera so it makes the audience feel connected with the artist
which most magazines do because they believe that the audience
should feel that connection with the person on the front cover. I
used a masthead which was like a banner that took over the top of
the magazine, it is large and bold to make sure it stands out to the
audience. Another typical convention that many magazines
use, the artist/model is usually in the middle of the magazine to
show the importance of the artist/ band in this week’s
magazine, with my magazine I put the image of Gabby in the
middle of the front cover, with the cover lines etc around her to
show she is important in this weeks magazine like many popular
professional magazines do. Also I did the most conventional part of
a magazine, the barcode, the date, issue number and price is on
the corner of the magazine, usually at the bottom right
corner, which I have put at the bottom right corner on my front
cover, it is to show the audience the information they need about
this magazine, they want to know that it is the up to date magazine
that they wish to buy, the price which is always needed on
anything to show the audience how much the magazine is. I don’t
think with the front cover I did anything challenging or developed
anything to the conventions of real media product.
3. For my content page I made a black rectangle
shape to put the sub-headings/grouping titles of
my pages like for example: bands, news etc. like
many other magazines do to help out the
audience when trying to find something in the
magazine that they are looking for, it also gives a
preview of what going to be in the magazine. I had
two images on the right side to give a preview of
what would be in the magazine, like some other
real media products; they tend to have images on
the content page to make the page more
interesting and again the idea of giving a preview
to the audience. I have again put the date at the
top of the page so there is a link between the
front cover date and the content page date to
make sure they are the same date. Another
conventional part is having the title of the
magazine in the content page to show its
importance and show its their content page which
I did in my content page also having a sub heading
“content” to show it is the content page, to show
it is the content page. I don’t feel like I did
anything again in this that was challenging or
developing the conventions of real media
products again like my front cover.
4. In my double page spread I did actually
see a development, usually in double page
spreads there is one page took up of the
artist/band’s photo, they tend to be
usually doing something to link to the
article of the magazine, in mine
Wilson, my friend who is modelling as a
artist, is not doing anything really, he is
just facing the camera, we cannot see if he
is giving direct address due to the fact his
sunglasses are too dark to see if he is
looking at us or is not, also the text is put
around him, it isn’t on a separate page
also the background is just black there is
no props or background its just black, this
shows that in some ways I have developed
forms of the conventions of real media
products. I did put some conventional
things into the double page spread like a
heading and a sub heading, quotations to
give the audience a taste of what’s said in
the interview and also the credits, saying
who took the photographs and who did
the interview. So for my double page
spread I did develop forms of the
conventions of real media products but
not by much.
5. In conclusion of this question, I feel I haven’t really
challenged but I have slightly developed the
conventions of real media products, mainly in the
double page spread, but in the front cover and
content page I didn’t want to really develop or
challenge the conventions of real media products
because I wanted the audience to feel comfortable
with the front cover and the content page due to
them being the two main front pages where the
audience is going to look at.
