The document discusses how the student's media magazine "Flow" uses, develops, and challenges conventions of the inspiration magazine "XXL". It summarizes that "Flow" repeats many conventions of "XXL" such as layout of the masthead on the front cover, inclusion of a barcode and issue number, cover lines, and separate contents and editorial pages. However, it also develops conventions such as adding social media links and changing the masthead font. The contents and editorial pages also repeat conventions like bold subheadings and placement of images and text, but challenge "XXL" by adding exclusive tags and larger page numbers. In summary, while "Flow" imitates many structural aspects of "XXL",

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

2. • For my magazine ‘Flow’ I chose ‘XXL’ as my
inspiration. I mainly wanted to ‘repeat’ (Steve
Neale – 1980) the conventions of the ‘XXL’ Front
Cover, Contents and DPS as well as the separate
Editorial page, however some conventions I
developed and some conventions on my own
magazine challenged those of ‘XXL’. For example a
puff promotion and social media links. I decided
to base every one of my pages on ‘XXL’, as I like
their contemporary style and unique pages,
which I took on and recreated.

3. • The first feature that I used and ‘Repeated’ (Steve Neale – 1980) on my media product from
my magazine of inspiration was the layout of the masthead. I used the conventional ‘XXL’
masthead of the rectangle box in the top left hand corner of the Front Cover as well as
replicating the red background and contrasting white coloured text to make it stand out and
therefore when people are scanning through magazines my masthead will catch their eye.
The colour of the red background connotes passion and the passion that my magazine has for
producing the best music magazine in the world, with the reader being able to ‘personally
identify’ (Katz Uses and Gratifications) with this and become passionate for my magazine and
therefore be more likely to purchase it. Furthermore adding in an “All Rights Reserved”
legislation in the top left hand corner of the masthead as ‘XXL’ incorporate on their front
cover to present my magazine as more professional and is an indication that my magazine
has copyright privileges over the entire product. However I did also develop my masthead for
my magazine from the ‘XXL’ masthead as they have the abbreviation as their masthead
whereas I have the entire word of ‘Flow’ instead in the font ‘Sebastiana’, which flows in terms
of its style and therefore matches the name of the magazine. This adds some diversity from
the magazine of inspiration and also I believe the word ‘Flow’ is more suitable for a music
magazine as the word has relevance to music hip-hop beats, with hip-hop being my chosen
genre and is therefore more likely to attract the readership I am targeting for my magazine.

4. • Furthermore, for my magazine Front Cover I ‘repeated’ (Steve Neale –
1980) the barcode shape from my magazine of inspiration. My magazine
of inspiration includes a vertical barcode with the web address and issue
number above the barcode. Therefore I used the same shape for my
barcode on my Front Cover and included the issue number however unlike
‘XXL’ I added in social media idents as an example of synergy. With today’s
generation spending so much time on social media, especially those in
their late teens and twenties referred to as ‘digital natives’ (Prensky 2001),
which is a majority of my target audience, my magazine is more likely to
appeal to this age range. Next, on the Front Cover I chose to ‘repeat’
(Steve Neale – 1980) the cover lines and background as the cover lines are
professionally laid out and are a main convention of a magazine and
moreover, the background is very unique being a mixture of pink and
green, these colours connoting delicacy and freshness, as my magazine
combines delicacy with the ‘freshest’ content and as a result my magazine
will stand out from the rest.

5. • On the Front Cover of ‘Flow’, as seen on ‘XXL’ the
model is wearing a cap with the addition of a gold
chain on my front cover, to further reinforce the Hip-
Hop stereotype, making it abundantly clear to the
customer that ‘Flow’ is a Hip-Hop product. This also
falls under Katz’s Uses and Gratifications theory as
the reader is able to ‘personally identify’ with the
clothing that my artist is wearing and therefore build
a ‘personal relationship’ with the artist, this will also
hopefully entice the reader in to buy the magazine
to check out more pictures of the artist. Lastly, the
main image seen on the Front Cover of ‘Flow’ both
uses and develops the main image seen on the Front
Cover of my ‘XXL’ magazine of inspiration. The shot is
a close-up on both pages so the facial expression is
easily readable. This being a blank facial expression
connoting the struggle the artist has in their career.
Additionally both artists are wearing a cap, a prop
stereotypically associated with the Hip Hop gang
scene but my artist also wore a gold chain to
reinforce the ‘street ‘ culture of Hip Hop. The artist
on ‘XXL’ is instantly recognisable as Kendrick Lamar
(Star Appeal – Richard Dyer) and therefore on my
Front Cover I wanted a similarly striking image. Also,
as seen on ‘XXL’ the main image overlapped the
masthead for am added complexity, in addition to it
being a regular convention of numerous media
products, not only ‘XXL’, so therefore I chose a
similar effect.

6. • As well as these repetitions ‘Flow’ also challenged some forms and
conventions on the front cover unseen on ‘XXL’ front cover. Namely,
it included a strapline in the masthead, as a strapline is a key
convention that ‘XXL’ has failed to include on this edition, however
they do include it in most other issues of the magazine. The
strapline of “Catch the flow” connotes how the reader is able to
consume all the latest music news from reading my magazine. As
well as this ‘Flow’ also challenged ‘XXL’ by having a puff promotion,
which is a main convention of a magazine front cover. It also
denotes how the reader is able to win a prize for free and therefore
is more likely to purchase the magazine. Additionally an ‘exclusive’
tag under the main headline challenges the conventions of the ‘XXL’
inspiration front cover. This denotes to the reader that the
interview is ‘exclusive’ and will not be found anywhere else and
therefore the customer will be more inclined to buy the magazine
as ‘Flow’ is the only place in where this content can be found.

7. • The Contents page and Editorial of
‘Flow’ magazine also ‘repeats’ (Steve
Neale – 1980) from the ‘XXL’ contents of
inspiration. ‘XXL’ incorporate a separate
page for their Contents page and
Editorial and this can also be seen in my
magazine. The main Contents page in
‘Flow’ sees a repetition of the pink and
green background from the Front Cover,
which can also be seen in ‘XXL’. This is
because for my magazine I wanted a
consistent house style throughout of
the same coloured background so the
magazine looked professional and all
the pages were relevant. Furthermore
the sub-headings and sub-lines on the
Contents page of my ‘Flow’ magazine
were written in the same style as ‘XXL’.
First of all the sub-headings are in bold
writing and are also a larger font size
than the sub-lines denoting that they
are more easily recognised by the
reader when they are scanning the
page. As a result the large sub-headings
draw in the attention of the reader and
the smaller sub-lines give less important
information on the story. These
conventions are also placed on the left
hand side of my page with the medium
shot main image on the right hand side
of the page as seen on my ‘XXL’
contents of inspiration.

8. • Next, both ‘Flow’ magazine and ‘XXL’
incorporate the masthead in the top
right hand corner of the Contents page
and Editorial. This gives the magazine
brand identity, as well as the red colour
of the masthead continuing to connote
the passion the magazine has for
including the best content. As well as
the Contents page, the ‘Flow’ Editorial
also incorporated forms and
conventions from the ‘XXL’ editorial.
Namely ‘repeating’ (Steve Neale –
1980) informal language to match the
cultural stereotype of Hip-Hop so
‘Flow’ will be more likely to sell. As well
as this I added in a wrap text so the
editorial writing went round an image.
However I developed from ‘XXL’s’ use
of a wrap as mine is of a large main
image on the whole left hand side of
the page whereas ‘XXL’ only use it for a
small image in the corner. This denotes
a more professional appearance to the
reader as it is a more complex design,
connoting to them a lot of care has
been taken with the design and
therefore they will be encouraged to
buy the product.

9. • On the contrary my magazine Contents and Editorial also challenged a range of
forms and conventions seen on ‘XXL’. I added in numerous social media idents at
the top of the page on both the Contents and the Editorial to denote synergy with
Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. Moreover this advertises the magazine to a more
mass audience resulting in more copies of the edition being purchased.
Additionally, ‘Flow’ differentiated to ‘XXL’ by having an exclusive symbol on the
Contents to denote the reader that the content is ‘Exclusive’ and will not be able
to be found anywhere else. This connotes to the reader that they have to buy this
magazine because they will not be able to find this information in any other
magazine. Thirdly, ‘Flow’ differentiates to ‘XXL’ as on the Contents page I made the
page numbers in a larger font than ‘XXL’. This is because as a result of this the page
numbers stand out straight away and are easier to read so the reader can straight
away navigate to the page without the need to carefully look to see what page
they need as this could put them off my magazine. Lastly a small
challenge/development seen on my media product from ‘XXL’s’ product is the title
of the Contents page. I changed the colour of the hyphen in the title to red to add
more variety than a standard black title, which may have been viewed as being too
simplistic. The colour red also reiterates the passion we have for producing the
best music content, also seen in the colour red of the masthead.

10. • The DPS from ‘Flow’ used, developed and
challenged forms and conventions from the ‘XXL’
DPS. In terms of using forms and conventions
from a real media product, my DPS included
differentiated questions and answers, a pull
quote, a stand first, a drop capital and a page
number/web address at the bottom of the page.
The first step was to insert my interview with the
artists. The differentiation of question then
answer denotes how each person took it in turns
to speak connoting how the interview flowed
well and means it is easy for the reader to follow.
A stop start interview that didn’t differentiate
question and answer would not flow due to the
poor structure and would put people off from
buying the magazine. Following this I inserted a
pull quote in the middle of the article. This is an
essential convention seen in nearly all DPS
interviews because it is effective in breaking up
the interview so prose writing does not consume
the whole page. Moreover the pull quote details
the most important information from the article
so the reader sees it first, due to it being in a
larger font, and then is drawn in to read the rest
of the article. The pull quote is also the same as
the pull quote from the Front Cover of the
magazine, which denotes consistency throughout
the magazine connoting the professionalism of
‘Flow’ magazine, encouraging people to buy the
magazine.

11. • Next, the DPS from ‘Flow’ ‘repeated’ (Steve Neale – 1980) the
convention of a stand first before the start of the article. This
convention introduces the topic of the interview as well as briefly
summing up the article. This also aids in a more professional
structure because similarly to the pull quote, the stand first breaks
up the continuous prose of the interview, meaning that the DPS is
not just long paragraphs. Lastly the convention that I ‘repeated’
(Steve – Neale 1980) was to incorporate a page number and web
address at the bottom of the page. This is following on the same
from the Contents page proving consistency of my magazine and
also conveying professionalism. Moreover, it also denotes to the
reader the page of the magazine they are on so they can easily
navigate through the rest of the edition as well as the web address
which expands brand identity so the reader knows where to go to
find out more.

12. • Adding on to this the DPS also developed and challenged ’XXL’s’
product as well as the page number and web address I also added
in social media idents at the top of the page. This, similarly to the
rest of the pages in the magazine is an example of synergy and
expanding the brand of my magazine ‘Flow’ to a larger audience,
due to the amount of young people using social media these days,
my magazine is more likely to be shared and therefore purchased
by a larger number of people. Additionally this age range, that of
the young adult aged between 16 and 35 (Digital Natives – Prensky
2001) being my majority target audience, my magazine is likely to
sell more copies. Furthermore, I challenged the background of my
‘XXL’ inspiration by keeping the background of my DPS the same as
my Front Cover, Contents and Editorial with the pink and green
background, contrasting the black background of my DPS of
inspiration. This is to keep my house style consistent throughout,
connoting a professional magazine that people will buy.

13. • In conclusion, ‘Flow’ magazine used,
developed as well as challenged conventions
from my magazine of inspiration so that the
magazine both repeated (Steve Neale – 1980)
conventions and then developed them to
attempt to make my magazine even better
than real media products.