The document evaluates how the media product uses, develops, and challenges conventions of real music magazines. It discusses researching genres and magazines like Kerrang, NME, and Q to understand conventions. Elements like the masthead, headlines, images, barcodes, and subscriptions were designed based on these magazines' conventions to look professional and appeal to the intended audience. The goal was to successfully apply codes and conventions from popular magazines to attract readers.

1. Evaluation
Rebecca Paterson

2. Researching current magazine front covers
I found that the popular genre of music
in my intended audience was indie/rock
music, therefore I needed to research
current magazines. I researched Kerrang,
NME and Q, as I thought they best fit in
with my magazine.
I used these magazines to look at the
codes and conventions, so that I could
add these features to my magazine so
that my magazine looks as effective as
the professionally published magazines.
I used the code and conventions of the
magazine on my magazine as they are
well known and would attract the
atten6ion of my reader as they have
worked for these successful magazines.

3. In what ways does your media product use, develop or
challenge forms and conventions of real media
products?
As my theme was Indie/Rock the best
suited magazines were NME, Kerrang and
Q. The code and conventions of these
magazine indicate what I should use in my
magazine to make it successful.
For my Masthead I used a plain simple font and
then used a spray tool over the white text to
make it look more in keeping with the indie/rock
theme, as the initial design looked more classical
music themed rather than indie. Q’s magazine sell line is “Britain’s
Biggest Music Magazine” I used this and
created my sell line “The best in
upcoming indie music” this is similar to
Q as it is promoting the magazine to be
big and popular. I used the same colour
and texture as my Masthead to keep my
theme and colour scheme going.

4. My main headline I set out in a similar way to Q, with a
bold, simple text across the page, with a pull out quote
underneath. I used a bold turquoise colour as black or
white did not stand out against the background of the
artists name and I used a bright red text to also highlight
the pull out quote so it stood out against the artists title
and background. I chose to use Arial Narrow, it was
simple and bold and like the layout of Q I wanted it to be
easy to read, plain and not over crowded.
I used the right side of my magazine to use further detail
to attract the intended audience, like the layout of NME
I used 2 colours, to differentiate between artist and the
sub-line. I tried to keep in theme with the code and
conventions of other music magazines and I think I did
this successfully also by fitting the information in the
tree bark so it went in line with the shape of the tree,
like in NME where the writing went in the shape of the
outline of the model

5. I also followed another code and convention, and added a sticker
type icon advertising and attracting the reader as it stands out on
the page and. The background colour is the turquoise colour, in an
embossed on the page so it looks effective, also so it looks le a
sticker, it makes it look more attractive and noticeable. I chose to
write “WIN FREE GIG TICKETS” because I saw that this was a popular
code and convention of other magazine such as this one on the
cover of NME. The font is simple and black so it stands out and add
to the idea that the sticker is stuck on.
As well as the sticker, I also added a banner at the top of my
magazine front cover like this banner on the front of Q, this was to
add addition information about more articles inside the magazine to
attract the audience as I saw this was also a popular code and
convention, I used turquoise so the add-on’s were the same colour
and used red and black text so it was bold against the magazine
background and also so it stood out.

6. When making my magazine I looked at other
magazines to see what was post popular in the
code and conventions they used. Firstly I
looked at the images, all my magazines I looked
at used mid shots of the model, the magazine
which used shots where the model looked at
the camera was more personal.
The magazines depicted all the
models are wearing grey, black
or white and I used this
convention of this genre of
magazine in my magazine
so the model is wearing a leather jacket and a white skirt
and a white top. I also chose these colours because they
fitted in with the colour scheme that proved most popular
in my survey when creating my research as these colours
were associated with indie/rock music. Also with the
layout of my magazine I put the text over the images like in NME(top right
hand corner) making sure that the text did not make the image unclear,
the mast head is in the top left hand corner above the image and this was
not obscured by the image like in the Kerrang magazine (middle image)
because as it is the first issue of my magazine the mast head needed to be
clear because the intended audience would be unfamiliar with the
magazine and it need to be clear and attention grabbing.

7. I put the barcode at the barcode at the bottom right hand
corner of my magazine to follow the conventions of other
magazines. The barcode is usually put in the bottom corner
because it is not intrusive of the magazine layout and does not
make a huge difference to the magazines appearance, however
it easy to see, and so the purchasing of the magazine is
effortless. Magazine such as Q, Kerrang! and NME also do this.
As well as this I noticed that the price and sate was also located
near the barcode so put this underneath.
I made a subscription bar like many other in
music magazines using the same colours that
were in my colour scheme, also using my front
cover magazine as a screen shot, as an example
of the magazine like other magazines had done
like this one from NME. As the price of the
magazine was £3.50 I made the monthly cost
lower so my intended audience would be
attracted to the offer.