2. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?
Overall my product mostly follows the conventions and forms of existing media products. This was done so that my
magazine would look authentic and therefore more appealing to my target demographic and would be accepted by
publishing companies ect.
• The first way in which my magazine follows forms is the colour scheme. I used the conventional “rock” colours of
red, white and black. I found in m research that these colours are displayed throughout all “rock” magazine’s, so
therefore I thought it would be appropriate for my magazine to use these colours.
• I have challenged this form by adding the colours grey and yellow. Yellow is bright and adds a sense of danger whereas
grey is dull and helps elements to stand out.
•My media product also follows the form of using
staged/planned photos. All magazine genre’s use staged
photographs and this is typical of music magazines. All of
the magazines I researched did this and it helps add to the
professional look of my product. The costume’s worn are
also the same as that worn in existing magazines and help
the punk/rock culture to “live on” as denim jackets and
black jeans were stereotypical to the birth of punk.
3. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?
• The text used also follow the conventions of the stereotypical “rock" magazine. In my research I found that
informal text is used. The vocabulary used is often basic however swear words are incorporated. The
articles in magazines such as “Kerrang” and “Rocksound” often use similes to add humour which helps
connect to the younger audience and the dry sense of humour associated with “rockers” and “punks”. This
dry sense of humour is used throughout as the text often contains sarcastic comments and rhetorical
questions.
• The fonts used in my magazine also follow the conventions of real media products. My
market research showed that products similar to the one I wanted to produce used
aggressive, messy looking fonts. These reflect the attitudes of my target demographic
as they embrace loud, alternative things which is a concept associated with “rock”.
4. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?
• One form that I have challenged is the overall look of my contents page. My market research showed that the
contents page of rock magazines normally looks very formal and use white as the background colour to make the
page look clean-cut.
• Hectic's contents page isn’t as “tidy”(clean-cut) as the conventional magazine as I designed it in conjunction with
my style sheet and the idea of rebellion and destruction which ties into my ideal reader/target audience.
• However, my contents page follows a similar layout to that of “Kerrang” which relates to my target audience as
this is what is expected of a stereotypical contents page.
• One subtle difference is that my magazine has a black background whereas existing products nearly always use
white. I did this as the contrast between black and white could represent the idea of punk/ hardcore culture
being completely opposite to the norm.
