The document discusses how the author's country music magazine product uses and develops conventions of real music magazines. Specifically: - The masthead font, simple title, and plain background images develop conventions commonly found in country music magazines. - Costumes that depict the models as casual yet wearing jeans reference country music style while challenging stereotypes by including a British Asian model. - The question-and-answer article format and focus on country music genres, artists, and reviews follow conventions. - Neutral colors and inclusion of price, plugs, and barcodes on the front page develop conventions found on most magazines. - The contents page and double-page spread challenge some conventions while still drawing from

1. Megan Sanders
Evaluation

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

3. • My country music magazine
uses many different forms and
conventions of music
magazines throughout all the
four pages I have created,
being the front page, article’s
double page spread, and
contents page.

4. Masthead
• The masthead of my country music magazine was created
using Minion Pro Font. This font I felt compared to other
country music magazines, as it gave a relaxing but interesting
welcoming to readers. This was the font I wanted my
masthead font to relate to, and develop it to be similar, but
not the exact same.
<- Country Music Magazine’s
Masthead.
My country music magazine’s
masthead.

5. Masthead continued...
• I also wanted to keep my Country music
magazine title (COUNTRY TIMES) simple and
straight to the point, like other country music
magazines are (Country Music, Country
Weekly, Country Style, Country America)
• The title of the magazine meant it let readers
know exactly what type of music magazine
they would be looking at, and what they
would find throughout the magazine.

6. Mis-En-Scene of Images Continued...
• I have then used the main image against a
plain white wall, as I found in a lot of country
music magazines, that the model has a clear
background behind them.

7. Costumes
• I kept the costumes of the models in my magazine in quite casual
clothing, yet in jeans or chinos, as I felt this kept the style of
looking “country” in the magazine, to remind the reader that even
without looking at the masthead, they would have some idea of
what genre of music they would be reading., which is
conventional for the style of music my magazine is based on.

8. Models
• I actually went against a typical
stereotype of country singers
being White Americans, and I
wanted to challenge this
stereotype by using a British
Asian, as I felt it gave country
music more of a chance of
expressing it’s views on “equality”
which is actually a main point in
country music, considering it
actually emigrated from Britain to
America in the first place. I felt it
gave a moral whilst using
appropriate conventions. I have
also used a White British male for
the subsidiary images too, as I
wanted to challenge a stereotype
whilst using a convention, yet still
use a typical convention.

9. Article/Written Content
• The written content of my article follows the
codes and conventions of a real country music
magazine as it uses a typical “Question and
Answer” structure. This was to follow and use
the codes and conventions and I felt it fit the
article and the magazine in a positive way. The
interview follows the same style as any other
music magazine, and questions the artist and
lets the readers know about his inspirations,
future plans, and country role models.

10. Music Genre
• The music genre of my music magazine is country music. I
felt this was presented clearly throughout the magazine as
the artists used are clearly country artists, the costumes
and written content is based purely on country music,
which is also reminding the reader what the genre of the
music is. I have only used bands/artists of the same genre
of my magazine in the front page, contents, and double
page spread when asked about the artist’s role models. The
colours used on my front page are purple, light blue, peach,
and black, which I felt the light colours contrasted with the
country music genre as they are calming colours, but then
the black makes the colours stand out and makes the
magazine look more bold.

11. Contents Page
This was my Contents Page. At first, I
wanted to be a little creative with my
contents page, but then realized that it
would be best to keep it subtle and original
as possible. This is because the genre of the
magazine was a laid back type of music
genre, therefore I felt the music genre
should represent my contents page
completely.

12. This was the contents page I used
as a template for my own. This
was because it had a simple
layout, but also gave an
interesting layout too. I wanted
mine to have a similarity. If I were
to go back, and change anything,
however, I would use the
convention that Q Magazine have
used in this contents page of have
the background at the top in a
different colour, and also writing a
Review box.

13. Double Page Spread

14. This was the double page spread I wanted to
challenge. I wanted to use a full page for an
image of Austin like Q magazine has, and put
the article on one page. I challenged a
convention of using a pull quote, and also
putting Austin’s name on his image, rather
than on the article side, as I wanted to
challenge some conventions that Q had used,
because I didn’t want to use the exact same
layout Q has used.

15. Front Page
The first convention I used that is on
every magazine that is sold in shops is
a barcode and the price.
The next convention I used was a
Plug. You usually see offers like
these on most magazines, but it
increases the population and the
chances of people buying the
magazine.

16. • I have used also neutral colours in each and
every page of the magazine, such as light
purples, reds, light blues, peach. I used these
colours to attract the audience who would be
a neutral audience, and attract them with light
colours that would appeal to them. I also used
black to stand out in the colours and it is a
convention magazines use as one of the main
colours, which I also wanted to use.