The document compares the conventions used in the front cover and contents page of an existing pop music magazine to those used in the student's magazine. It discusses how the student incorporated typical conventions such as masthead, artist image, and barcode, but also developed conventions through choices like smaller text for the artist name and a unique main image. The student challenges some conventions by including only one front cover image and adding social media links to the contents page. Overall, the document demonstrates the student's understanding of magazine conventions and their creative adaptations and developments for their own publication.

1. Q1,
In what ways does your magazine use,
develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?
By Nicole Tomlinson

2. Typical Conventions of a Pop music
magazine (front cover)
• Masthead
• Main image
• Pop style
• Advertisements
• Cover lines
• Issue date
• Barcode

3. Here are the conventions of an existing
music magazine (front cover):
Masthead
Main Image
Barcode
Promotion
Style page
Cover lines
Name
Cute image
(attraction to audience)

4. The forms and conventions of my
music magazine (front cover):
Main Image
Masthead
Name
Cover lines
Style page
Promotion
Cute Image
(attraction to audience)
Barcode

5. How have I used forms and
conventions of real media products?
I have placed the existing pop music magazine and my pop music magazine side by side so that you can see the similar elements and how I have used them from the existing
magazine and interoperated them into my own. I have joined up with a purple line the similarities for example:
• On both magazine the Masthead has been placed at the top of the page on the left hand corner, this shows it to be an important feature on the page as it is one of the
first things you can see and it helps it to be more visible for the target audience. The text is also of a similar size, one of the largest texts on the magazine itself which
further proves the importance of it as you can see we have done this by both using a bold text to help it stand out.
• Another thing our magazines have in common is that we have included the Pop Stars name on the front cover, this links to the image on the front cover and helps the
audience to recognise who and what will be included in the magazine. The font colour of the name’s is both in pink, I did this because it is stereotypically associated as
a girls colour and it is also used a lot in the pop culture as it is bold and bright.
• I have used a bright, yellow star shape on my magazine to help promote and advertise what was being given away (1D poster), I also had found this on the ‘we love
pop’ magazine, however, I was not surprised to see this as they are found to be on multiple media products and magazines and they use this technique as it is very
eye catching.
• The main feature we notice straight away on the magazine is the main image, both images are placed more to the right even though it takes up most of the page, I
have used a mid shot of my model Hannah where you can basically see the waist upwards which I find to be similar to the shot that has been taken of Tulisa. As you can
see Hannah has both hands holding the animal teddy bear and Tulisa has both hands holding the animal of a dog, holding a prop can allow the audience to feel an
emotion towards the image, in these cases loving and think the props are cute, the theme of cuteness helps create the teenage genre of pop.
• We both have cover stories that have been set out in the same way, I have used blocks strips behind the writing to help highlight what is being said and the colours that
have been used are similar, for example the pink and white.
• The storylines, articles and gossip is all of a similar nature, for example, fashion, freebies, bands, gossip and love and the reason for this is because that is what teenage
girls are into at that time in their lives
• One last thing that all magazines have in common not just ours is the barcode, the only similarity I could say, is where it has been positioned and it is the same.

6. How have a developed forms and
conventions?
Although there are many similarities from the existing magazine to mine there are
also places where my magazine has developed on its own and has differences, here
are some examples: The masthead is not in large writing, it’s actually quite small
and the reason I did this was because I felt the image did
itself justice and did not need a large text saying her name.
Fans would recognise her straight away, people that are
wondering would look for her name anyway. Another thing
that is different is that it is also in a different text style, I
chose a style that I thought looked a little glamorous to
indicate that Hannah herself is glam.
My promotion star is a lot bigger as I thing the freebie
is very important to the audience or fans, this is a
feature that could help sell the magazine to the
audience.
My magazine and the ‘We love pop’ magazine has
both included a page dedicated to fashion, where
as, I have presented this information different, I
have wrote mine down into a circle as I had seen a
similar design on a different magazine, however,
WLP magazine has used images of the clothes ect.
Even though both our magazines have used
highlighted boxes behind the text of the story
lines, I have used coloured strips of pink and
blue, I chose these colours as they fit well with
the genre of pop and they work well together.
Where as on the other magazine they have
used white strips with coloured writing.
Obviously as you can tell we haven't used the same prop, WLP magazine
has used a dog where as I have use a teddy bear, the reason I did not use a
real life animal is because at the time the only access I had to an animal was
Hannah’s cat, however, was proven to be difficult when the cat did not
want to stay during the photo shoot. The best replacement was the teddy
bear, it still went well with the magazine as Hannah was talking about her
love life in the exclusive interview and the bear does have a love heart on it
symbolising love.
Another thing that is different is the hair, Unlike
Tulisa, I wanted Hannah to have her hair down in
loose curls as to me this shows that she is in fact
‘letting her hair down’ and having fun, this is shown
to be proven in past research that I have done.
In general the colour scheme is different, it has similar colours such as
pink and yellow, however, as a whole my magazine has blue involved and
as a whole is a much brighter magazine, where as the existing one is a lot
more dark and has a lot of darker colours such as black. The costume an props are similar but the colours are different which also help add to
the colour scheme. Tulisa is wearing a dark dress, her make up is dark shades and her
dog is a dark colour, where as in my magazine, the teddy bear is bright, Hannah’s
clothes are lighter and her make us is very natural therefor showing bright rosy
cheeks and her eye make up is clear,

7. How have I challenged forms and
conventions of real media products?
As you can see, one thing that is different is
the way the names have been presented on
the front cover, on the ‘we love pop’
magazine Tulisa’s name has been presented in
large block text, this was most likely done to
attract the audience where as, on the
‘stardust’ magazine I presented it in smaller,
more stylish, upmarket writing, and I did this
because I felt that the title was more
important than Hannah’s name because there
is actually a picture of her.
Another thing I have included on my
magazine that is not on the ‘we love
pop’ is an informative page number on
the front to lead you straight the most
important storyline in the magazine,
placing it on the front made me think
that perhaps the audience would want
to know what is actually on that page,
therefore they will want to buy it so that
they can see.
Unlike the We Love Pop magazine, the Stardust front
cover has only one image, it does not contain another
image of a celebrity, it only tells you that there are
pictures inside the magazine, in a way, this could
persuade the audience to go inside the mag and look.
As you can see on the other magazine it shows various
pop stars and which I also think works well as it makes
the mag look more info packed and not bare.
The pop star I have used (Hannah) is clearly a lot
younger than Tulisa, I have used a much younger
person and I also think that she is quite the
opposite to Tulisa, Tulisa is experience,
sophisticated, sexy woman and has a lot of
experience within the industry where as, Hannah is
just starting off, she’s young, cute and having fun
being a teenager, you can notice this just by
comparison of looks.

8. The use of forms and conventions with
my contents page
Here I have placed an existing contents page from the TOPOFTHEPOPS magazine and compared it to my own on the right. When I was researching contents
pages in pop music magazines I realised that most of them are set out in similar ways. There are many similarities between these two magazines. Underneath I
have placed arrows from both magazines to easily show the similarities. A few of these are:
• Both magazines have a pink masthead box at the top of the page, I did this to neaten out the page and to highlight the white speech which is also another
similarity as we have a similar masthead.
• They both have a picture of our front cover on the page with highlighting numbers to show the audience what page number the interesting stories are on.
• There is another picture on both pages, of another celebrity (One Direction & Carrise) I did this to give a wider variety of people within the magazine.
• Both pages consist of boxes, mostly everything is boxed off to help contain and make everything look neat.
• Also, I noticed that our numbers down the side of the contents are not in order and have been mixed up.
• One thing that is noticeable is that both colour schemes are similar with a lot of pink, yellow and blue.
Picture of
front cover
Picture of front
cover
Picture of
other
celebrities
Pink masthead
box
Rectangle contents
box
Rectangle
contents
box

9. The development of forms and
conventions with my contents page
On the contents page I have written a title
for each number. On stories that I thought
were especially interesting, I have included
a little extra underneath to help persuade
the reader to find the page and to carry on
reading.
Both magazines have used a bubble styles
font for the numbers down the side of the
contents however, the colour scheme we
have used for them are different they have
used pink, however, did not I used blue as I
felt there was too much pink included in the
magazine already.
On the We Love Pop magazine their main
second Image is of the popular group One
Direction, I think they did this to attract the
girls into buying the magazine where as, I
have used a pretty girl instead as I feel girls
aspire to be these women role models out
there, they want to be the pop stars, so
why not give them someone to aspire to!
On the picture of the front cover I have
written the most interesting page
numbers and also highlighted them all
in a bright yellow circle, I did this to
help out our fans as everyone loves a
little bit of help!

10. The challenge of forms and
conventions with my contents page
One thing that is different is the social
media sites I included at the bottom,
teenagers today are all on technology and
are all using social media sites, this helps
the audience to keep updated about the
magazine and also helps me to sell the
magazine as more people will get to know
about it. I included the two most popular
social media sites used to this da. I have
included the well known logo and the
addresses to follow.
Instead of just writing the name of
the page, I have made little notes
underneath the important stories to
help attract the audience and keep
them interested.
On the we love pop magazine they
have titles for each section of the
contents where as, I have just
jumped straight to the point to
inform the audience basically by
saying ‘the contents is here!’
Here I have included a bright blue
background highlighting Carrise, this
highlight her and makes her stand
out, also above her there is a quote
that she has said that will be
included somewhere in the
magazine

11. The use of forms and conventions with
my double page spread
Here are two double page spreads, one being an existing double page and the other I have made myself. I am placing these two pages
together to find similarities between the two, so far I have found a few. The first thing I noticed is that for our double page spreads we
have both decided to use an interview rather than a story including a large quote at the top of the page of what the pop stars have said
during the interview, the reason I did this is for the audience to read and basically get a small sample of what the article is about.
Another thing that I noticed was the larger letter at the start of the wording, this is used a lot in magazines, as it shows you where to
start off reading and it’s really effective and looks good.
Both images of Cher and Hannah have been placed on the right hand side of the page and even though they are not the same you can
see that both of the double page spreads have images and that they are not serious images by their, face and pose, it’s clearly images to
show that they are messing around and having fun. I have also noticed that the colour scheme we have both included is the colour pink,
this goes with the theme of pink throughout our magazines.
A few last things noticed was with the interview, both magazines have two different colours to highlight between the questions and the
answers of the celebrity, for example, the question in purple and the answer in black and the last thing was the structure of the
magazine the interview has been set out in columns.

12. The development of forms and
conventions with my double page
spread
One thing that has definitely
changed is the amount of imaged
used on the double page spread,
on the existing double page, there
is one large images of Cher across
the page, where as, with mine,
there are multiple smaller images
of Hannah in different styles to give
of the effect of a photo booth
theme.
On my double mage the quote is
an extra feature underneath the
masthead, where as, on the ‘We
Love Pop’ magazine the quote
from the interview, is used as
the masthead for the page, also
their quote is in bright colours to
stand out from the white
background where as with mine,
it is the opposite way round with
the white writing against the
coloured background.
On the existing DPS the se tout is basically, the interview on one
side and the picture on the other, however, because my images
were much smaller I included text on both pages to make it look
more fuller, this also makes my interview a lot more bigger than
theirs, providing more information which is always better fro the
readers that are interested.
DPS= Double Page Spread

13. The challenge of forms and
conventions with my double page
spread
On my double page spread I
have included a title saying,
exclusive interview in block
letters, I did this so that the
audience would be able to tell
straight away that this was the
page with the exclusive
interview on, this is different to
the other double page spread as
they don’t really have a
masthead, they have a quote
that they have basically made
into the title of the page.
The most largest difference
between both of these DPS’s
are is the image set out, as you
can see I haven't just used 1
image as a main, I have used
multiple images and placed
them into a film template to
give off the effect of a photo
booth. I did this because I feel
it gives the impression of a
fame look and there also really
fun too!
Here as you can see I have used a background colour of pink, I did this
to help fill out my page and to stop it from looking bare, where as, on
the existing DPS they have not included a background colour and have
actually just kept it white.