2. 1:
IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA
PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE
FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL
MEDIA PRODUCTS?
When I began the planning process of A2 Media production, I felt that the codes and
conventions research was especially important, giving me the foundation to base my
initial ideas off. The ability to first identify key codes and conventions and understand
why they are used allowed me to thoughtfully plan and construct my regional magazine,
drawing inspiration from and incorporating real media industry techniques.
3. MAIN TASK:
FRONT COVER
One of the first typical conventions that I identified in my
research was the bright, bold images that regional magazine
front covers often have. The image is often of a particularly
scenic area of nature like a wooded area with a stream
running through for countryside regions. For more urban and
built-up areas it was more common for the image to be of
picturesque, usually old buildings.
As my magazine is focused on a large town, I deemed it appropriate
to utilise this convention of featuring visually appealing buildings
and other notable local areas on my front cover. I ensured that the
sky was visible in the image that I used, showing my audience the
good weather. The purpose of this is to make my audience associate
good weather and therefore positive feelings with the town and
magazine. I believe that I implemented this convention effectively as
I included the good weather and displayed an attractive and unique
area of the town.
4. MAIN TASK:
FRONT COVER
I feel that if I were to take the
images for the cover again I
would include some people in it,
smiling and laughing and having
fun. Because the purpose of a
regional magazine is to sell and
even advertise the area to a
target audience, including
people on the cover would give
my audience something to
relate to and visually show them
how fun and enjoyable the town
is, as evidenced here
Cover lines are an extremely
important convention for
regional magazines to make it
clear to the read what the
articles and magazine are
about. I developed this
convention by capitalising and
underlining the names of the
articles to draw the reader’s
attention to them as they are
more important than the small
5. MAIN TASK:
CONTENTS PAGE
I felt that it was important to
include the name of the magazine
in the contents page as it is
convention to maintain brand
image and remind the audience of
what they are reading. To develop
this convention, I used the same
Bell MT font that I used for my
masthead previously on the front
cover as the title for my contents
page. This helps create a coherent
magazine and maintains continuity
throughout.
It is also a common convention to
place the title in the top right of the
page as this is the initial area of
I used the same
font to maintain
continuity
Looking at other regional magazine
contents pages, I fount them to be
hard to navigate and challenging to
read. I felt the focus on images took
up too much of the page and
therefore made the actual contents
too small. To challenge this
convention I changed my
background to an image which still
retains its usefulness as a visual aid
without interrupting the content.
Having the text in clear columns is
conventional but I developed this by
featuring one stand-alone article at
the bottom of the page. Finally, I
divided the contents page into clear
sections, like Food & Drink or
6. MAIN TASK:
DOUBLE PAGE ARTICLE
A common convention in
many regional magazines is
to have a whole page
dedicated to an image
relating to the article. I have
applied this convention due
to the research that I
collected; my target
audience are attracted to
images. Therefore I also
made sure the image was
full of interesting, showing
the shopfront with two
different lighting conditions,
highlighting how it can be
Pull quotes are also
commonly used in not
just regional magazines
but magazines in general
as another form of
attracting the reader as it
is eye catching and aims
to make the reader read
the rest of the article.
Similarly to this Bath Life
magazine here, I have
used a pull quote
convention to attract the
reader to the page.
7. • My advertisement has
used a popular
convention of having the
name of the brand /
business at the top of the
page so this is the first
thing that the audience
reads. I have used a serif
font to connote a sense of
class and sophistication.
MAIN TASK:
ADVERTISEMENT
I have used a large image of the
product that the advert is selling take
up a vast majority of the centre of the
page. This is a typical code and focuses
reader’s attention on the product being
sold/
I felt that I needed to add extra
information for my readers so I added a
small banner at the bottom for contact
details and to showcase various awards
that the business had one. This is not a
typical convention but I challenged it
because the information it adds is
8. ANCILLARY:
BILLBOARD
• When constructing my billboard ancillary, I used many
of the same codes and conventions that I had included
in my magazine. This is because the purpose of the
billboard is to sell and advertise the magazine. If the
theme, codes and conventions did not match my
magazine the target audience may be confused.
• It was therefore important that I used the same colour
palette and fonts in my billboard. It is conventional for
billboards to focus on selling the physical edition of the
magazine. However, based on my audience survey
feedback I knew that the online editions of the
magazine were equally, if not more important than the
print editions. I developed this convention by making it
clear that ‘BA11’ is available digitally.
• To develop this convention, I added logos of popular
social media websites with the intention that my tech-
savvy audience could follow the magazine on social
media platforms to explore new magazine formats. To
further encourage this and expand on the conventions, I
added images of the magazine itself appearing on
someone’s smartphone and laptop. This challenges
typical billboard conventions which are primarily used
to simply sell print editions. My billboard encourages
my audience to engage with new and exciting online
9. ANCILLARY:
WEBSITE HOMEPAGE
I also added exclusive features and articles to my
homepage. This is to encourage my audience to
explore the new digital format, synergising with
my billboard which advertises this digital format.
I used large, bright images to highlight these
exclusive articles – this was as a direct result of
my survey feedback as my audience wanted a
50/50 split between text and images.
Furthermore, I have included the green accent
colour that features throughout my product to
enforce the brand image.
At the top of my website homepage I included a brief
description of what my regional magazine offers its readers.
This is because it is conventional for websites to inform its
audience what the website is about to avoid confusion. I used
the same Onyx font for my masthead, linking this ancillary
task to my other, as well as the main product. The
background image is also the same as on my contents page,
creating a sense of continuity for my audience.
10. ANCILLARY:
WEBSITE HOMEPAGE
I also felt that it was important to feature
important aspects from my main product
in my ancillary tasks. This is a common
convention of magazine websites and
effectively links my main product and
ancillary tasks. I developed this by adding
an ellipsis (…) in the preview to entice
readers and added a ‘read more’ button
to take them to the full article.
I also added some extra exclusives
articles for my website. I differentiated
these articles from the previous ones by
expanding the size of the images and
adding a ‘parallax’ animation effect to
make the website visually appealing for
my audience.
11. ANCILLARY:
WEBSITE CONTACT PAGE
It is important for my audience to be able to directly engage with
the magazine. I have maintained the same theme throughout my
website to maintain a strong brand image that is instantly
recognisable to my audience. The contact information is an
essential convention for the reader. The contact form box is easy
to read and navigate and uses big, bold text with contrasting black
and white colours to make it very easy to read.
To encourage my audience to explore new online formats, I have
included the code of re-using images from the billboard. The
magazine appearing on the laptop and mobile phone help visually
tell the audience how they can view the magazine.
I further developed these conventions by embedded a Google
Maps link for Frome. This serves to show potential tourists
Where the town is located and is a useful tool for my audience
to use, showing the region that my magazine covers.
12. 2:
HOW EFFECTIVE IS THE COMBINATION OF
YOUR MAIN PRODUCT AND ANCILLARY
TEXTS?
I knew that it was important to create a magazine with ancillaries that were clear and
coherent. I understood that the combination of my main product and my ancillary tasks
would have to maintain a consistent theme with colours, fonts, images and tone. Based
on my primary and secondary research, I needed to synergise my main product and
ancillary tasks.
13. WEBSITE
I have used the same fonts
and colours in my website
that feature in the
magazine itself, so that
the two product’s visual
appearance synergise. The
serif font is formal and
sophisticated and will
therefore appeal to my
target audience.
The title at the top of my homepage is the same masthead
that features on my front cover and across my main product
and in my other ancillary task. I achieved this by importing
the Onyx font into the website builder. This continuity helps
create a clear and aesthetically appealing combination of my
main product and ancillary tasks.
Including the main article from my physical print magazine
on my website and digital magazine helps link the products
together to show the audience that they are the same
publication. This helps create an effective link between and
gives my audience a range of formats to choose from.
14. WEBSITE
As the producer of this magazine, I felt that it was
important for my audience to be able to leave their
opinions and suggestions for the magazine.
It is essential for the media industry to listen to and
act upon audience feedback in order to stay relevant
and useful.
Real media texts often have contact forms embedded
onto the website, so I added one of these to my
contact page so my magazine’s audience can interact
with the magazine. I added a small paragraph about
why readers may want to get involved with the
magazine to suggest that my audience should
“contact us”.
To further the synergy between my online website and my print magazine, I added images of the
main magazine itself. To link the products, I made sure to feature the magazine in a digital format
to better compliment the website. This shows my audience that the magazine is available online,
both on computers and smartphones.
15. BILLBOARD
On my billboard I have brought over the
masthead from my front cover. This serves as the
logo for the magazine. This repetition helps
maintain and continue the brand identity across
the ancillary tasks.
Aspects of the billboard are also feature on the
website pages, like the phone and laptop
displaying the digital formats of the magazine.
This synergises the two ancillaries together,
showing the audience that there are two halves of
the same product. Therefore, I am not only
promoting the magazine in my ancillaries, but
also showcasing the other ancillary in each
respective task.
With my target audience research and survey
analysis, it became clear that social media and use
of digital technologies are very important to my
audience. I have therefore included opportunities
In creating my billboard I wanted to
make it clear that my magazine is
available both in physical print AND
digital formats. This serves to link my
main magazine to my website ancillary
task and digital aspects of the
16. 3:
WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED FROM YOUR
AUDIENCE FEEDBACK?
Feedback is essential for the media industry. It allows media producers to constantly
improve their products to adapt to certain changes in factors like culture and technology.
Feedback can be given directly to the producers from the audience through contact
forms like I have included on my website, or from market research like focus groups. The
industry can also analyse sales of their product, noting that a decrease in sales would
mean that something in the product needs to change.
Audience feedback also helps media industries adapt to changes in technology, like
digital technology and the advent of online media.
17. CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM
• Whilst I enjoyed receiving positive
feedback, constructive criticism was
essential and allowed me to develop
my magazine and ancillaries after
getting someone’s second opinion on
them. Originally, I had placed my
masthead on my cover to the right of
the page. I had at first felt that this was
an effective challenge of conventions.
However, it became clear that it felt out
of place, adding lots of blank space to
the cover as well as making it hard to
read. My teacher put forward the
suggestion that I move it to the left and
fill the blank space with my circular
banner. I was hesitant to do so but
when I did adjust my cover, my peers
told me that it looked much more
coherent and more conventional of a
regional magazine.
18. CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM
Further, in my article page the
text was not aligned properly.
After seeking feedback from
my peers and my teacher, I
decided to justify the text.
This made the text appear to
be in perfect columns. As well
as being conventional of
magazines and newspapers, it
made the text much easier to
read. After changing it, I
asked my peers to review the
changes once again and they
told me that it looked much
more professional and much
neater than it had been
before.
Before
change
After
change
19. CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM
Whilst my peers enjoyed my first
draft of my billboard ancillary, my
teacher noted that it did not make it
clear that my billboard was
advertising a magazine. Rather, it felt
like it was advertising a website.
To improve and act upon this
feedback, I added the word
‘magazine’ throughout my billboard
to reinforce the theme of the
billboard. I also re-arranged
elements of the billboard to make
this more clear for my audience.
Above is a short time-lapse video of my improvement process.
This illustrates how I improved from my first draft ancillary task
to my final product.
20. POSITIVE FEEDBACK
Audience feedback is extremely important
for the magazine industry because the
audience bring in the revenue and are the
deciding factor as to whether the product
becomes popular or not. My main aim as
an editor/producer was to appeal to my
target audience. The way I achieved this
was through a questionnaire as it provided
me with clear ideas of what would appeal
to my target audience.
I received a lot of emotive feedback from
my peers. Many people said that they liked
the use of a simple colour palette and serif
fonts. They said that this creates an
attractive flow across the pages of my
magazine, so that each page connects with
the next. People also really enjoyed the
bright images of places in the town that
they recognised. This showed me that it is
important to include relevant references to
the local area in a visual format.
21. POSITIVE FEEDBACK
I emailed my billboard ancillary to
a group of fellow A-Level Media
Studies students. They particularly
enjoyed the header at the top of
the page, as well as the laptop and
mobile phone images.
People really enjoyed my website
too, saying it was a great
compliment to my website. They
said the design with the
complimentary colours and the
animations made the website
seem more fun and exciting,
aiming it perfectly at younger
people.
22. 4:
HOW DID YOU USE MEDIA
TECHNOLOGIES IN THE CONSTRUCTION,
RESEARCH, PLANNING AND EVALUATION
STAGES?
23. RESEARCH
I primarily used the Google browser to conduct my initial
research. I used Google to gather information and deepen my
knowledge about the features of regional magazines and who
they are aimed at. Google also allowed me to research
common regional magazine codes and conventions in great
detail easily.
An important part of my research was to focus on an
institution that published regional magazines. I chose RMC
Media, a medium sized company that publishes and
distributes a wide range of region-specific magazines with all
magazines available in a digital format, known as VIBE.
My essential target audience research was also conducted
online. I utilised digital technology by using Survey Monkey,
an online survey development tool, to host my survey. This
software allowed me to construct a digital questionnaire which
could take advantage of multiple answer methods, both
qualitive and quantitative. I could input my questions so that I
could receive a simple Yes / No response, multiple choice
response or a detailed written answer. Due to the digital
nature of the questionnaire, I was able to easily distribute it to
people within my target audience via email, instant messaging
platforms and social media sites, making my answers more
24. PLANNING
I used a WordPress blog
throughout my process and
planning stage. One of the
advantages of this is that
everything was in chronological
order, so I could easily track my
progression and stick to my time
schedule. A very useful feature of
WordPress is the ability to go back
and retrospectively edit blog posts,
allowing me to update any posts
when I had made progress. As
WordPress is cross platform, I was
able to access it from school, home
or even out and about on my
phone - making it a simple process
to keep up to date with my blog
posts and help me understand my
25. CONSTRUCTION
I used my Google phone’s camera to
take all of the images for my magazine
pages and my ancillary tasks. The
flexibility of having a powerful camera in
my pocket was greatly beneficial. I was
able to go to any location in any
weather without worrying about the
bulk of a delicate camera. The ease of
use of the phone allowed me to review
my images immediately and crop them,
whilst still on location.
One new software that I had no prior
experience with was Wix. This is free
website development software that I
constructed my magazine ancillary on. I
had never made a website and Wix
allowed me to create a fully-functioning
website.
I used Adobe Photoshop to construct my magazine and
ancillary tasks.
I was keen to develop
my abilities with the
Photoshop software,
as I had some previous
experience during my
AS Production. The
powerful cropping
tools, image manipulation, text editing and margin
management were key in creating a professional
26. EVALUATION
• I chose to use Microsoft PowerPoint to format my
evaluation as I could easily divide different answers and
topics to different slides. PowerPoint’s tools, like the
ability to add shapes, images and arrows allowed me to
create a more effective evaluation. By using software
that was familiar to me, I was better able to focus on
my actual evaluation.
• To illustrate my improvement in my billboard ancillary
task through my evaluation, I used Adobe After Effects
CC to create my time-lapse. This is professional-grade
software that was very difficult to use. Luckily, the
process of creating a time-lapse was simple as I only
had to change the framerate to 10 frames-per-second.
