AS media question 1: In what ways does your media project use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

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

2. Conventions are the way in which something is usually done. Although there
are many different types of magazines of different genres and for different
audiences, they all follow similar conventions. Every magazine will use
conventions such as a masthead, a large central image, features, headlines and
the date/ price of the magazine. Although, music magazines may have some
slight extra conventions, such as album reviews, artist interviews and
references to music throughout. Each magazine‟s conventions will slightly
vary, depending on if and how they decide to use them and what genre the
magazine is. Even throughout different music magazines the conventions will
vary as there are many music genres, such as pop, indie, rock etc. Each
separate type of music magazine will use different conventions to attract the
attention of their target audiences, for example pop magazines will use bright,
vibrant colours such as pink, yellow, blue, etc. whereas indie magazines would
use muted colours such as pastel colours.
CONVENTIONS

3. FRONT COVER
Compared to Billboard magazine, who has their text placed around the image and sometimes slightly behind it, I had my
text over the image. This was because I had too much text that I had to work with and if I lowered the font size any more
than it would not have been visible. Therefore, I placed my text on top of the image instead of around it, although I still
placed them in certain spots to achieve a sophisticated, un cluttered front page.
Another thing that I incorporated into
my magazine was footer.
In my footer I mentioned social media
because it is a well used, essential
part of many people lives, especially
for my target audience. It is widely
used all over the world, therefore by
giving out a twitter and instagram
page on the magazine, it will appeal
and encourage the audience to
personally get involved with the
magazine. Billboard magazine gives a
link to their website, however I
included twitter and instagram
because it appeals more to a younger
audience
As I identified in my research, I think there are definitely two sides to the pop genre – a “childish” side
and a more “mature” side. I tried to make my magazine reflect the more mature side of the pop industry
as I believe that a lot more of the pop audience is slowly transforming into adults/ young adults. Whilst
conducting a survey I found that people of all ages enjoyed pop as their favourite type of music,
therefore I knew that I was able to create a magazine that was for an older generation of late teens –
adults.
KEY
Green = uses
Orange =
Developments
Blue = Challenges

4. MASTHEAD
I decided that I liked the look of having the masthead behind the head of the model in the main
image. This way I was able to make sure that the whole picture was visible, whilst also taking
adding a slight 3D affect to the magazine cover. I saw this convention used in many different pop
magazines and decided that it would add an appealing effect to my own magazine, whilst making
sure that the audience of my magazine would still be able to clearly read and identify the name of
the magazine.
GRAPHIC IMAGES
I really liked the use of the plus sign
symbol that I saw used in many
magazines, especially pop. I used this
group the two features together that
features female singers, as well as
also using it as a way to fill up any
dead space down the side of the
magazine.
MAIN IMAGE
I used to a mid shot for my main
image on the magazine because I
think it connects to the audience more.
The audience can clearly see the
model‟s facial expression and identify
who they are. From my research I
found out that a lot of people bought
magazines depending on who was on
the front cover. This was a way of the
audience being able to clearly identify
the singer on the front.
KEY
Green = uses
Orange =
Developments
Blue = Challenges

5. Throughout the front cover of my magazine I switch font colours. I used a code of
writing important key words/phrases in pink so that they stand out easily, and
wrote everything else in blue. I did this so readers could easily identify key
information if skimming the front cover in a shop.
I decided to incorporate this into my magazine. I did this because I wanted to draw
attention to this specific piece of information without using a plain white box like
most magazines do, so instead I used a sort of paint brush effect which also helped to
make sure my house style was sustained (e.g. the colours).
KEY
Green = uses
Orange =
Developments
Blue = Challenges

6. CONTENTS PAGE
Instead of having a category full of „regulars‟I decided that I would include a
category called „Hot Topics‟. I did this because I believed it would appeal to my
target audience who like to know all the „hottest‟gossip etc. This way it would
sound more „juicy‟ and interesting. This category includes are debates over the
best artists etc.
KEY
Green = uses
Orange =
Developments
Blue = Challenges

7. CONTENTS PAGE
For my mast head I decided that in order to retain my
house style throughout the whole of the magazine, I
would again put a line through the word „CONTENTS‟
as I did on the front cover.
KEY
Green = uses
Orange =
Developments
Blue = Challenges
I used teaser text at the bottom of my contents page that included
a competition to win tickets. I did this to ensure readers that
they‟re getting their moneys worth in content and to also ensure
that they carry on buying my magazine as they can see
competitions are regularly included.

8. LAYOUT
Magazines generally have a similar contents page style. Contents pages are usually
very boxed off into sections with subheadings directing the reader where to look. I
incorporated this idea into my own magazine contents page and also included lines
underneath each title to make it look organised and easy to navigate.
IMAGES
Many of the magazines that I looked at used one main large image on the contents
page and then either a few or one smaller image. I also did this on my magazine, as
you can see the main image is of the girl and there is a noticeably smaller image
underneath it/ I have included another example above which uses one large image
and one smaller image.
KEY
Green = uses
Orange =
Developments
Blue = Challenges

9. DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD
LAYOUT
On a double page spread, the article
is usually written in columns. I incorporated this
into my magazine not only because it is used
widely across many magazines but also because
it helped to make the text look more interesting
and like there was less of it – therefore my
audience would be more likely to read it if it
separated out into little paragraphs, rather than
long lines of text.
IMAGES
To make my double page spread more interesting, I
added one photo to each side. I also made the photos
blend into the background of the DPS, in which I
meant there is no background to the images. The
text also goes around the images which makes them
stand out more.
TEXT
I used a different colour text for writing that I
thought was key information such as quotes and
the album title etc. Although I didn‟t specifically
see this used in a magazine, I thought it would
benefit my audience so they were able to identify
key information if they were to skim read the text
and then go back and read it fully. This would also
help to attract the reader as it doesn‟t look like big
bulks of text and you can see where vital
information to be read is situated.
KEY
Green = uses
Orange =
Developments
Blue = Challenges