The media product uses and develops conventions of music magazines. It sticks closely to conventions like placing the masthead, barcode, cover lines and large headline on the front cover. The contents page follows conventions like numbering articles, including images and subscription advert. The double page spread uses a large headline and separates the article into columns but challenges the convention of including a quote. Sticking to conventions gives the magazine a professional look that will appeal to the target audience.

1. AS – Evaluation- Question 1 In what
way does your media product
use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions?
Robbie Dale

2. • My media product is a front cover, contents page
and double page spread of a music magazine.
• The genre of music my magazine covers is
alternative rock.
• My magazine is called Revelations.

3. • Before I started making my product, I
researched a variety of, similar existing
magazines.
• These magazines were NME, Q and Kerrang. I
looked at these to understand the codes and
conventions of these music magazines.

4. • I have stuck to many of
the codes and
conventions. The front
cover uses a large
masthead at the top of
the page, this is a
convention followed
by both the magazines
I looked at, as it
allowed a viewer to
see the magazine title
when it’s on the shelf.

5. • I placed the barcode
in the corner of the
page with the date
and price above it.
• This is a common
convention I have
seen throughout
Kerrang, NME and Q

6. • I also placed several
cover lines upon the
cover, which is a
common trait, along
with a large headline
and
strapline, advertising
the main story in the
magazine. This is a
convention used by
both the magazines I
looked into.

7. •
Using one large image to promote
the main article for the magazine I
stuck to convention, however
while the use of smaller pictures is
also utilised on the two
magazines, I challenged the
conventions by not having them as
I thought they would draw
attention away from the main
story. I didn't want to overwhelm
the reader so therefore kept the
cover clear of any other images.

8. • My contents page
sticks closely to
conventions as well. I
had the articles
numbered which is a
common convention.
I chose to put two
columns on my
contents page as this
was common
practice.

9. • As it is conventional to add images to
the contents page I included two
images.
• One is of a gig, a common image
found on contents pages as it shows
events the magazine covers.
• The other image is a subscription
advert. It is common practice to have
a subscription box at the bottom of
the contents page.
• The images filled the space on the
page well and looked professional

10. Finally, I included a headline, a convention seen in
the vast majority of magazines.
I did not add in an editorial column even though
they are common on contents pages, I did not
add one as I found it drew attention away from
the main articles.
I stuck to using the same few fonts throughout
the magazine to stick to convention and style.
This meant that the magazine looked consistent
and each page is recognisable as being from the
same magazine.

11. • My double page spread also sticks closely to
codes and conventions. My double page
spread has a large headline, keeping in line
with the conventions of the magazines I
looked at while revealing the band the
article is about. I separated the article into
multiple columns, as was the same in all of
the magazines I researched.

12. • I used one large image on my
double page spread, which
took up on of the pages – this
is a convention I followed as
many magazines only use one
page for text while the other is
a image about the article. I
thought that that article looked
effective as it wasn’t
overloaded with multiple
images. I think sticking to the
convention of not using too
many pictures worked well
here.

13. • The only major convention I broke in my double
page spread was by not adding a quote from the
article anywhere. I found that it did not merge
with my article well and therefore left it out. I
thought that my opening paragraph, image and
headline drew the readers in without the need of
the quote. It’s relatively common to see and a
moderate convention to break, but I found that it
suited my magazine perfectly without one.

14. • The reason I chose to stick to majority of the
conventions was that, stylistically, it gave me a
magazine that looked professional. The font
and pictures were stylised to appeal to my
target audience, they would recognise the
magazine as being relevant to their age group
and preferred music tastes.