1. Question 1- In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?
By Natasha Tandy
2. Front cover:
When creating my media product on the software 'photoshop' i followed a variety of different codes and conventions to help
create a magazine which is visually appealing and attracts customers. Although during this process i didn’t develop or challenge
any codes and conventions of real media products I simply just followed them. To begin with, the first code and convention
which I followed was the masthead of my music magazine which is 'Unplugged' I positioned this at the of my page
and stretched it out so it filled out the width of the page. As in any other real media product the masthead needs to be in big
font which stands out and catches the audiences attention, I also changed the font to one that conveys the genre pop punk
as i want my front cover to look as pop punk as possible. To help me achieve this i changed the color to red as during my
research process I did a questionnaire and asked what colors the public associated with pop punk and the most popular
suggestions were red green and black therefore these are the colors I used in my color scheme which followed throughout my
content page and double page spread.
Secondly, when creating my front cover of my music magazine 'Unplugged' I ensured that my main image was a medium close
up and conveyed the genre which my magazine conveys, I easily did this by asking the subject to looking directly into
the camera showing direct address to allow the audience to feel somehow connected to the artist I also ensured that the
subject was pulling a confident strong face as I personally believe the genre pop punk is all about confidence and looking fierce
therefore by doing a bold facial expression it allows the main image to look professional and interesting to potential
customers. Another code and convention which I followed was the main cover line which on my magazine says
'Heather bates touring with busted?' like any other real media product this is one of the main attractions of a front cover as
potential customers will be attracted to the magazine through this. When deciding my main cover line i wanted to ensure that it
was persuasive and something which would help attract more customers especially fans of the subject, Heather Bates.
3. Furthermore, on my front cover 'Unplugged' i added several different cover
lines which i positioned down the left hand corner of my front cover. When creating my
cover lines i wanted to ensure that they were interesting and would help attract more
customers to my magazine. Underneath each artists name I added additional
information to give the audience an idea of what the article is about. My positioning
statement says 'Once in a lifetime opportunity! Win VIP tickets to watch Mcfly live'
I decided to do my positioning statement as a giveaway to once again attract more
people to my magazine as my target audience is 16-25 year old's and gigs are a very
popular interest among this age group. The banner on my front cover is located at the
bottom of my front cover which iv changed to green to fit my color scheme, the banner
contains names of several different popular artist in the pop punk industry therefore it
is conventional. Second to last i added a splash on my front cover which I placed
underneath the masthead on the right hand side of the front cover. Once
again i changed the color of this to green to match my color scheme and to also stand
out and look visually appealing. In the splash I added another competition this time for
4 tickets to fall out boy as like I mentioned before gigs are a popular hobby for the
target audience of my magazine therefore if they see a competition they will be lured
into buying the magazine.
Finally the last code and convention which I followed was the barcode, price and issue
date which I positioned together at the bottom of the page near the banner. Every real
media product has these features as the barcode allows customers to purchase the
magazine and the price and issue date is information which customers may want or
need.
4. Contents page
When making my contents page on the software 'Quark' I once again followed many codes and
conventions to make it as professional as a real media product. The first convention which I
followed was adding a headline which reads 'Contents' at the top of the page in large bold font.
Like the masthead on my front cover I changed it to a unique font so it conveyed the genre pop
punk and made the contents page more visually appealing. After doing this I felt that it looked
plain and boring therefore i added a banner at the top of the page and changed the color to red
so it fit my color scheme. The reason I added this headline was simply so people could easily
find it and also to make clear what this page was. At the end of the banner I added a small image
of my front cover, the issue date and the month which the magazine is released in, i did this as it
is another code and convention which real media products follow and also just incase the
customers were interested in this specific information. Another convention which i followed was
adding several different images which would help interest the audience. Overall i added 4
different images all which linked in to my feature content. I added the more
popular bands/artists in the images so that the fans could see the large lettering on the image
and go straight to the page which they desire without having to navigate through all the text.
Moreover I added a column of regular content and two columns of feature content, I
then changed the colors to once again fit my color scheme which is red green and black. As
shown in the picture above of my contents page I added a caption underneath each
section which gives the audience an inside of what the article features. This information needs to
be vague as it should work as a tease instead off giving away to much information without the
audience even reading the article.
5. Double page spread:
When creating my double page spread on the software 'Quark' I followed many different codes and conventions to ensure it was
as similar to a real media product. To begin with the first code and convention which I followed was the main image which
features a band called 'Ceasefire Ink'. The main image is an important aspect of a double page spread as it needs to convey they
genre which they perform. As shown in my image I wanted the band to be themselves and show the audience that they are
comfortable with one another therefore I allowed them to do their thing which they did. Unlike the main image on the front cover
the subjects don’t have to look directly into the camera as direct address is not a code and convention of a double page spread.
This allows attitude to be conveyed.
Moreover, another code and convention which I followed was the headline which I positioned at the top of the page on the right
hand side next to the image. The headline says 'From nothing to everything' I decided to put this as my headline as it links in to
the lives behind the band members and allows the audience to understand how thankful they are. i changed the color of the font
to red to fit the color scheme and I changed the font to one which once again conveys pop punk and makes the double page
spread more visually appealing. Positioned underneath the headline is the byline. The byline should give the audience an inside of
what to expect in the article and work as a tease to make them want to continue reading. Although it should still be very vague
as its highly important that it doesn’t give away too much information. The main focus of a double page spread is the article itself
which is the next code and convention which I followed.
6. Finally my article fills up 3 columns and is in font size 9 which is the perfect size as it will be visible to everybody reading. In the
middle of the article i added an insert which is a pull quote from one of the band members. I made the font size bigger and also
changed the color to green so it stands out among the other text and the audience can read it before hand to once again get a
teaser of the article. Finally the last code and convention which i followed when making my double page spread was the caption
which I positioned at the bottom of my image. As shown the caption tells the audience who the image was took by and who
wrote the article. The purpose of this convention is to give credit.
