The document summarizes the ways in which the media product uses and develops conventions of real music magazines. The cover follows conventions like including a masthead, cover lines, main image, barcode, date and price. However, it does not include a cover line or selling line. The contents page layout is based on NME magazine and includes page numbers, categories and images. The article structure includes a headline, subheading, quotation, main image and body of text, following NME magazine conventions. While the cover, contents and articles use the same colors and fonts to maintain consistency, the product challenges conventions by not including a cover line or selling line, which is acceptable for indie magazines that prefer

1. Q1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge
forms and conventions of real media product?
COVER

2. Cover Conventions
I based my cover on an Indie music magazine by NME, in particular I focused
on the general conventions a music magazine would include, such as; a
masthead, cover lines, main image, a barcode, a date, a price.
Whilst taking photos for my cover image I made
sure the artist clothing was conventional for my
magazine. I made sure they dressed in the style and
clothing, that models on an Indie magazine would
wear.
I didn’t always stick to the conventions with my cover as I didn’t
include a cover line and selling line. I think this was down to not
having enough time to think of either of these for my cover, also I feel
that for an Indie magazine it is hard to think of each of these for an
Indie magazine.
Artist eye contact is conventional
for a music magazine, to make the
magazine seem more personal to the
audience.

3. COVERFORMS
My cover forms follow an Indie style, throughout the page, this is
to make a connection with the readers, these form include:
Colours :
The colours I used in my cover, are the colours I continued to use throughout my
contents page and article. The colours I used are black and red.
I used the colours red and
black for my fonts so they tied
in with my colour theme.
Images:
I took my own images in the photoshoot, and then worked on them in photoshop so I
could then use an appropriate image for my cover.
Text:
I used range of sizes for the text as the larger and bolder text is the most interesting
and engaging to capture the audiences attention. Whereas the smaller text was used
for the date and price as that wasn’t an interesting part of the cover.
Font:
I used an unique, edgy and personalised font for my title and main important parts of
text on my cover, so they stood out.

4. CONTENTS

5. Contents conventions
The layout of my contents page is based on a NME magazine contents page. I did this
because NME are one of the few magazines that do a popular Indie magazine, and know
how to appeal to the appropriate audience. It is conventional of a contents page to feature
the name of the magazine, the date and issue number, a variety of images and follow a
specific colour scheme. As the contents is a navigation page, it tends to feature page
numbers, references and small snapshots of particular articles.
Title of page and magazine name.
Issue number and date.
Page number and
categories.

6. CONTENTSFORMS
My contents forms follow an Indie style, throughout the page,
just like my cover, this is so the magazine is connected
throughout.
Colours :
I used the same colours in my contents page as I did in my cover
to keep with the indie theme. I felt like it would give of a more
comfortable feel to the readers instead of switching up the colour
scheme.
Images:
I only used one main photo on my contents page, at the time I
thought this was the best thing to do because it meant that people
would focus an that image instead of looking at loads of
different ones. I now think I should’ve followed the contents
page conventions and used a number of different images, to
make it look visual and busy as possible.
Text:
The text is used related most to the information in context but
visually linked to the font on my cover. It is bold and simple, so
easy and clear to read. I focused more on the eye catching font
and feature line because I felt like that would grab the audiences
attention, I now think I should’ve added more images to make it
a lot more visual and fun.

7. ARTICLE

8. Main image used
for a serious
affect.
Bold eye
catching
headline.
For my article I stuck to the same NME Indie
magazine I followed the structure of a question and
answer article. My magazine article follows the
conventions of a headline, subheading, quotations, a
main image, and an article itself.
I used a
quirky
catchy
headline.
I also used a
quote from the
artist which was
quite personal so
the article could
personally
connect with
readers.
Article conventions

9. ARTICLEFORMS
The forms in my article page are pretty similar to those in my cover and contents page.
They allow the page to meet the needs of the target audience and appeal to them.
Colours:
I stuck to the same colours on my article as I did with my contents page and cover, I did this
because I wanted all my pages to be kept within the indie style, and it allows the pages to be
connected.
Text:
The text is the main focus of this page so I made
sure I used a clear and readable font in a colour
where it to be read against the background. When
writing a quote I made sure the font was in a
separate section to the rest of the article, and that it
was in a bolder font so that readers would not get
confused.
Images :
I stuck to one main image as it
is conventional to for a
magazine article to have on
main image. My image is
positioned to the right side of
the magazine and the majority
of the text is on the left hand
side of the image, but there is
also a bit of text to the right
hand side of the image. If I
were to improve it I think I
would add another image.

10. Challenging conventions
The aspects that make up my magazine cover, contents and article pages tend to follow the conventions
of an Indie magazine. It follows the quirky retro style. However , it does challenge the conventions of
music magazines in general.
For example I didn’t include a cover line and selling line, and it told us to follow all conventions of a
music magazine, I think the reason for me not including either of these is because it is really difficult to
think of one for an Indie magazine. I even had a look online at some Indie music magazines and in
store and I struggled to find one with a cover line or selling line. However I don’t think it matters too
much because Indie magazines don’t tend to have cover lines or selling lines, this is because publishers
like to keep this genre of magazine nice and simple because that’s what they readers like as they don’t
tend to get it with many other genres of music magazines. Most of them are all covered in text where
as people wanting to read an Indie magazine know they can get straight to reading the articles or
whatever interests them without getting distracted.