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

1. Evaluation

2. In what ways does your media product use,
develop or challenge forms and conventions
of real media products?
I have looked at the music magazines Q and
NME as they were the most popular in my
audience research surveys and the conventions
they use. Due to this I knew I wanted my
masthead to appear in one corner of the
magazine rather than taking up the whole width
of the page. This is a common convention that
both Q and NME use. Having my masthead in
capital letters is also a common convention
because it allows it to stand out and appear
bold on the front cover. I also added a 3D effect
to make it stand out of the page. I have aimed
the colours of my masthead to the female
market as they are the people I am wanting to
attract so therefore I have used the convention
of appealing to a specific audience.

3. I used the common convention of
using puff words on my magazine
front cover. I knew this would
entice my audience to buying the
magazine, especially because I
aimed these puff’s towards their
likes and interests. In my
interviews I found that my target
audience liked festivals and liked
listening to their music on
Spotify. Therefore I used words
like FREE Spotify subscription and
EXCLUSIVES on my contents page
‘V festival line up revealed’. In my
market analysis I found puff
words to be used often and a
good way to draw your reader in.
This is why I used this convention
in my music magazine.

4. One convention I followed was only having one
image on my front cover. Most music magazines have
one main image and then sub images to appear more
visual. However, I wanted one main focus on one
artist as this would take up the whole background off
the magazine. This is why I looked at magazines with
this feature.
Also, the artist is the main selling point of my
magazine so I wanted her to stand out. I wanted my
magazine cover to be simple and lots of images add
clutter to a magazine cover. Top of the Pops magazine
have lots of images on their front cover however,
mine is aimed at the older age bracket of teenagers
therefore, they don’t need lots of images to explain
things to them. However, the size of the image makes
it look dominant and so therefore other images
aren’t missed.
My contents page also follows the common
convention of having a few images on the page. This
broke up the text and made the contents look
interesting and visually pleasing.

5. A common convention I used was the use of a
colour scheme. This allows my magazine to have a
continuous flow and allows the reader to have
another way of remembering the magazine. I aimed
my colour scheme at my target audience. Older
female teenagers. Therefore used pinks and purples
as well as black because in my interviews the girls
said they liked to keep it plain and simple. The
bright pink borders allow cover lines to stand out.
The colour scheme was quite simple and repetitive
because I wanted the audience to be able to
associate the dark purple, light pink and grey with
my magazine just like readers associate with red
and NME with red and white. I kept the article text
black because it’s simple and easy to read on most
background colours. It’s a common convention
because people are used to text being black and
don’t like change. For example when analysing
magazines people liked the simple layout and
colours of the NME double page spread but they
didn't like the big L on the Q double page spread as
it clashed with the ease of reading the article.
People like to easily read articles and that is why I
kept this common convention.
I changed the female’s lip colour on photo
shop to match the pink in the colour scheme.
I also chose the live image to match the
purple in my colour scheme.

6. Nearly all pop magazines have studio photos running
through out especially top of the pops.
I challenged this common convention of pop magazines
because my audience wanted a range of images.
However, the majority are studio images because I
couldn’t take lots of live images. I included studio and
live images. This adds interest to the magazine as it’s
not all the same. The majority of images used were
taken in a studio however taking away the background
of two images made them appear more natural on the
page.
Most magazines only have one image on their double
page spread and the majority of the time this image is
taken in a studio. I followed this common convention
because it is simple and liked by most people. For
example the most liked layout from my survey was the
NME double page spread where a whole page is taken
up by the image. This also is the case with the Q
magazine. This convention makes the page look
organised and very easy to understand. This is why I
used inspiration from the NME double page spread for
my magazine. Studio photos provide a professional feel
to a magazine and therefore is a common convention to
all music magazines.

7. Finally, another common convention I used was
headlines. They are used on all music magazines as they
organise the page and make it easy for the reader to
view the information they’re wanting. I had one main
headline taken up in the centre of my front cover, which
again is a common convention used by most music
magazines. I made cover line heading bold with pink
borders in order for them to stand out. I used headlines
as the name of artists. For example my main headline
was ‘BEYONCE’ and the cover lines were names of other
artists. This is also a common convention used, especially
by MOJO and NME magazine. I felt this would be a good
way of enticing in my readers because they ultimately
buy the magazine to read about their favourite artists.
I also used the heading ‘Contents’ on my contents page.
Which from my magazine analysis wasn’t a common
convention. Instead words normally used are ‘This week
in…’ or ‘Inside this mag’. I decided to use the word
contents as it tells the reader exactly what type of page
it is and doesn’t make them think about where they have
to get the information from. Also, I used the masthead
on the contents which is a common convention. It makes
the reader more brand aware as they are repeatedly
seeing the masthead.