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

1. By Olivia Thorpe

2. I believe I have stuck to the convention of having the title
of the magazine at the top of the page. This is because it
is clear and easy to spot and will form familiarly when
spotting the magazine in shops. Also, the bold large writing
is used to make this seem the most important and
prominent feature on the magazine as the name is what
people will be talking about and telling others. The word
“pop” is very common in pop magazines, which I also used
to allow the audience to easy understand the music genre
of the magazine.
The main image is also a long shot photo, which is common.
This is because it shows the outfit of the model which will
appeal to the target audience as it is something similar to what
they would wear, or something that they would desire to wear. I
follow this convention as I believed it allowed more information
to be given out the model (the main focus of the magazine) by
the girly way both models are standing and give the audience
an image which they can relate themselves to.
There is also many cover lines on pop magazines as one
of the main reasons people buy them is for the gossiping
content which is too important to miss our of for the
readers. I also did a lot of these to draw the audience into buying the magazine as wanting to read
something inside which one cover line should appeal to all target audience. Also, they have different
shapes around them – circle/ star which I also followed to make the magazine seem more edge and a
different way, which isn’t boring to represent the information.
Also, they both have girly coloured boxes
at the bottom of the page to lure people
to this information and images. I did this
to give the most important information of
the magazine more notice and stand out
more clearly.

3. In what ways have you developed or challenged/changed the conventions
of front covers and why?
I have not added a main cover line, a piece of text other than the title
which is larger. I believe this features in most pop magazine as the
main feature of the article is highlighted to grasp the audiences
attention into buying the magazine. I believe I did not do this as I did
not want to take the main focus off the image itself and wanted the title
to stand out the most as I believe my title expresses all there is to know
about the magazine and therefore has a high importance.
There is also a lot more images on this magazine. I believe this is to
show the audience visually the content inside the magazine and
gives them preference to things that they will actually want to see
without opening up the magazine, this is very common with pop
magazines as it lures the audience easily. However, in my magazine
I only have 3. I believe this is because I was only shooting for 4
pages and therefore did not have the time to get other models to act
as other stories.
Also, the main image is very close up to show off the lovely makeup
design, grand hair and glamour side. This approach is used very often
as girls will take the magazine in order to try and look like the model
out of idolisation. It also gives the males something to look at. I did not
follow this tradition as I wanted the audience to gain more perspective
about the model, for example the way she is standing, as well as
seeing her facial expression.
There is cover lines all around
the page, including over the
main image. This is normal as
in pop magazines there is a lot on the front cover to draw the young
audiences attention by bright colours and bold texts. However, I have not
done as many nor over the main image. This is because I believe it can
start to look overcrowded and too much to look at and therefore may feel
there is too much information to read. Also the front page I believe is
meant to draw people in, not give all the content of the magazine away.

4. The colour scheme is very similar. Also, the reference to the
same colour scheme is used throughout both magazines. I
chose to do this as it highlights the girly theme and also it all
blends together, working well as the same colour, and is
easy to pick up on. Magazines follow this as it makes the
magazine blend more as using a wide range of colours may
make it look unprofessional. The colour purple is very dark,
bold and also links to the theme of girly pop teenage and is
therefore used all over pop magazines.
There is also space around the contents page. This is because
there is not too much information inside the contents page as
magazines do not want to reveal all in the contents page as that
is not its purpose. I did this as I did not want to confuse the
readers as to were to find the information, I wanted it to be and
easily navigated page, clearly fulfilling its purpose of where the
information is inside the magazine. However, I understand I
could have added more information as it may appear bland and
boring and not attract readers to carry on reading as they may
think all the pages may consist of this straight to the point
theme.
Lures of chances to win things, such as concert tickets,
holidays, meets a greets, are all features to magazines.
In pop magazine they are relevant to the target audience. In this magazine a large picture of one
direction is shown which implies that the magazine is giving the chance to see one direction away. In
my magazine, I followed this because I believe it is a good way to make people who are idolised by
this celebrity to buy the magazine, and also keep buying them with the chance of winning something.
There is also a clear reference to the
magazine title to keep up consietcnay. I follow
this so that it had familiarity and a brand
identity.

5. In what ways have you developed or challenged/changed the conventions
of content pages and why?
There is a lot of images, ranging it from small to large
with the page number in the corner in order to give the
readers more insight as to what is on each page and
can easily identity the image in order to find the page
which they want to find. Also, there is more appealing
things to look at rather than just mainly information.
However, I did not follow this as I did not have enough
images and time to prepare where I could take these
images in order to follow them through as other
stories.
The fact that it is a contents page is not the main
feature of the page. There is no main title, as there is no
main article/information on the page, instead it is on the
ones listed inside. However, the fact that it is a contents
page on my magazine is very obvious to spot. I believe
I could have made this smaller as it is already clear to
people what this page is. However, I believe I made this
big to see as I could not just start listing the information
on each page as it would not flow nor make sense.
There is also other information listen – not just the
pages numbers and what is on each page, brand
identity or lures. There is a “welcome” section which gives you insight into the magazine. Also, there
is much more information to read which makes it appear more thought out and informative. I did not
do this, however I could of. I did not stick to this as I believe the nature of my magazine is already
obvious and clear to tell from the front cover.
Box’s are around the subheading the break the
text up. I did not follow this as I did not add enough
information so therefore there was nothing to spilt
up.

6. An image of the model featuring in the double page spread is standing out, in
a girly pose fitted the pop magazine genre. This is because it draws the
audiences attention towards this photo, which fits into the page before that
and gives them more insight into this photo and how it fits in with the text. I
chose to have a large image as the main feature on the second page as
otherwise there would be simply too much information, which would not
appeal to my target audience. Also, it allows the audience to relate to the text
and see the person behind the text. It also highlights the exclusivity and
trusting the magazine as the information, like the picture has been directly
taken by us when we interacted with the model and therefore they will favour
more towards the magazine.
A question and
answer format for
the information is
very popular in
pop magazines
as people can
glance through
and get to the questions they want to rather than reading a whole piece of information
(it also breaks it up). I chose to follow this format as it is clear to the audience what has
been said and is not too much for them to take in all at once. Also, because of the
nature (slang used), this is better to show the context in which it is used as it would not
fit into a formal paragraph showing the events.
The text is bold, simple and easy to navigate through. There is a colour change to
show when different people are speaking and there is also an image in the centre
column. I choose to follow this layout it makes text clearer to imagine in head (picture
to link with text) and also is easy to navigate through without causing any confusion.

7. In what ways have you developed or challenged/changed the conventions
of double page spreads and why?
Pop music magazines may waste space and time giving the question and answer
article with a heading as it may take up valuable space where more content could
be added. This could have been done on the page which is used for the image, as
there is extra room where this could easily be placed as quick to spot. However,, I
chose to add a title as I believe this gives the audience more information about
some insight into the article, so they can judge weather they want to read this or flick
onto the next page. It may also be confusing for them to jump straight into the
question and answer. It is also easy to spot with a heading if they are wanting to
read this page, instead of looking at an image.
The background colour
is the same for both of
the pages to make it flow
and able to understand
that it is apart of the
same information and
that they link. However,
my backgrounds are
different. I did this as my
image was blurred and
putting a pink
background behind this
made the blur picture
stand out more.
However, I did try to
blend the two together to
show that they are
linked.
There seems to be much more content of information
inside the double page spread. I did not follow this as I felt
readers might get bored and also broke it up with images,
which the other does not, as I believe due to the age
range it would be more suitable to break up the text and
give the readers something to look at as well as read as
they may become bored and off topic.