- The document is a reflection by Eloise Kenton-Barnes on how their music magazine product both challenges and conforms to conventions of real media products. - Some ways it challenges conventions include not showing the main artist's face on the cover and having a longer lead interview. - Some ways it conforms include using a three color scheme, clear labeling, and featuring images from articles to give context. - The student learned about technologies like Photoshop and fonts through constructing the magazine.

1. Music Magazine Evaluation
Eloise Kenton-Barnes

2. In What Ways Does Your Media Product Use, Develop or Challenge Forms and
Conventions of Real Media Products?
Cover Page
Challenges Convention Conforms to Convention
•There is a different shadowing image placed to the right of
the main picture it is slightly transparent and anchors the
•I used an image in which the main artist face is not showing phrase ‘battling her demons’ – this image complies more
instead she is looking away from the camera, which directly with convention as the artist is looking straight ahead –
challenges convention. This effect to produce a mysterious causing eye contact with the reader.
vibe which anchors with the story, of a new artist venturing • The placing of the articles featured within the magazine are
out into the music scene, this intrigues the reader and would located on the left hand side of the cover page, this follows
lead to the purchasing of the product. the structuring of many real media products.
• The readers attention is immediately drawn to the main
image, which is placed towards the left – complying with
convention.
• The text used is large in font and complies with the colour
scheme of purple, white and black, it does not distract from
the secondary header which is in line with convention.
• The logo is large in size and located in the left hand corner
of the page, this allows for easy recognition by the customer
and will ensure the magazine is easily identifiable by its
readership. This is a feature used by many established
music magazines.
•The secondary heading is white in font and placed on a
black background this gives a striking effect and catches the
readers attention. This is used by many magazines and can
be seen in magazine covers in my research.

3. In What Ways Does Your Media Product Use, Develop or Challenge
Forms and Conventions of Real Media Products?
Contents Page
Challenges Convention Conforms to Convention
•My contents page has a colour scheme of purple, white
• My contents challenges convention by not and black which continues from the cover page. This
featuring the main artist – instead the supports the conventions of a real media product as
exclusive interview with ‘Ella Fris’ is in the stereotypically they follow a 3 colour scheme.
features column.
•The contents page is clearly labelled with the masthead
at the top of the. page. Featured in this masthead is the
issue number, date and the magazines website. This
complies with convention although the issue number is
usually featured on the cover page of the magazine.
•The contents page features images from the articles
within the magazine this gives extra information to the
reader and enables them to locate the article with ease.
This complies with convention as images are used to
create intrigue and breaks up the text on the cover page.
• I developed the convention of clearly labelling the
articles within my magazine from real media products,
this enables the reader to effectively navigate through
the articles.

4. Double Page Spread
•
•

5. In What Ways Does Your Media Product Use, Develop or Challenge
Forms and Conventions of Real Media Products?
Double Page Spread
Challenges Convention Conforms to Convention
•My double page spread uses the forms of real media
products by using an image of the main star on the
• The main image of my artist although large in size does
cover page of the magazine.
not take the main focus of my double page spread.
• The article is also longer in length than many of those •Quotations from the interview of which are deemed
featured in the magazines I researched. most shocking or interesting to the reader is shown
across the star, it is of larger font and develops the
convention of real media products as many magazines
use this technique.
•The interview conducted is in a question and answer
format and uses the convention of real media products
with the question part of the interview being in a
different colour to the answers given by the artist, it is
important to note that not all music magazines use this
technique but it is an easy way to reduce the volume
of text.
•The images used on the double page spread anchor
the idea of the ‘high-flying riser’ whom is new to the
music industry, this adds intrigue to the article and
may provoke the reader to invest in the article.

6. How Does Your Media Product Represent Particular Social Groups?
• I believe my media product represents the younger generation. This is done through the:
– The use of a sleek colour scheme of purple, black and white which is considered ‘fashionable’ and would
represent the younger generation.
– The use of font types which are of a graffiti style of which represents the age of the artist the main article is
about whom of which is in the R’n’B industry.
– The articles featured within the article also reflect the younger generation of whom is interested in the current
events within the music scene such as the death of Whitney Houston.
The colour scheme is bold yet stylistic
appealing to an older audience. I have chosen to directly
challenge convention, by using a
female singer whom is not posed
or clothed in a seductive way. I
did this to show the female
gender that you don’t need to be
‘sexy’ to get attention, this
reflects the singers direction as
The inclusive of ‘on – trend’ well.
topics represents the
younger generation the
magazine aims to appeal to.

7. What Kind of Media Institution Might Distribute Your Media Product and Why?
• ‘Q’ Magazine is distributed by Bauer Media group. I believe they would also distribute my product to the main
magazine retailers due to its original format of news stories within the music world.
• My magazine will be released monthly enabling for the collection of news stories within the music industry to
accumulate.
• It will retail at the price of £2.99 making it accessible for my target audience.
• Newsagents will also be a • This is a well known
• My magazine will be distributed by location where my magazine company and therefore
the media institute to all major will be distributed to. My stocking the magazine in
supermarket chains. This allows for audience will live in cities their stores will give the
my target audience to access the (which reflects the urban brand ‘chant’ a reliable feel
magazine. theme to my magazine) and – boosting sales.
therefore will have easy access
to newsagents.

8. Who Would Be The Audience For Your Media Product?
• I am aiming at a teenage audience of which have a interest in the inner workings of the music industry. The raw
and straight to the point articles within the magazine clearly reflect the age group of 13-19 year olds who are too
old for younger pop magazines and wish to invest in a product, which has a professional and more adult look to it.
• From the questionnaire I gathered that the magazine had to be:
– Low cost – accessible for the younger ages whom have little/no income.
– On-trend with up to date stories and exclusives.
– A ‘Adult’ feel – to get away from the teenage pop theme magazines.
• I feel the magazine appeals more to a female readership due to the fonts, colours and articles featured. I could improve
my magazine by opening my target market to feature both genders through a change in the colour scheme, fonts used and
articles featured.

9. What Have You Learnt About Technologies From the Process of Constructing
the Product?
• This software enabled me to
•I’ve been taught to use bloc • I used this website to present my research around the
backgrounds to take pictures, this access fashionable fonts. successful institutes in the music
enables me to remove the backgrounds industry,
in Photoshop with ease. • I chose fonts that were
clear yet still stylish – this • It allows me to import images
• I learnt the effects of lighting on my and text to allow for a full
relates the magazine to my
pictures, having to choose the location target audience but still explanation of my findings and
of my photo shoot with a clear idea of enables for easy reading by construction.
how I wanted my images to turn out. the consumer. • From my preliminary task to my
main task I was able to fully
understand the conventions in
which PowerPoint should be used.

10. What Have You Learnt About Technologies From the Process of
Constructing the Product?
• I used Photoshop to edit the images on • Whilst creating my magazine I • This allowed me to upload all
my magazine as well as to construct the learnt of the programme of my research, planning and
magazine itself. Slideshare. This allowed me to construction PowerPoints to
upload my PowerPoint's to my one place.
• I’ve learnt the process of layering a
blog.
document, placing images and text on •It allows for the general public
separate layers to allow for easy editing. I •It allowed for my PowerPoint's to to view these PowerPoints and
also learnt to alter the opacity of each be viewed in a video format make their own assumptions of
layer, which I used to create the effect of accessible to all. my work.
an overlooking image on my cover and
• I have learnt that this website
contents page.
is a great hub to share
• I learnt to use the background tool, knowledge on existing
which enabled me to use a one bloc magazine creators and also
colour background with diminishing colour how other candidates go about
– this added a professional element to my constructing their own music
magazine. magazine.
• I learnt to effectively edit my images in
Photoshop with the removal of
backgrounds with the ‘magic wand’ tool. I
also used the ‘clone’ tool to heighten the
colours in my image.

11. Looking Back at your Preliminary Task, What do you Feel you Have Learnt in
the Progression From it to the Full Product?
• We can see the clear progression from my preliminary task to my main task. In my preliminary task I used
a simplistic font style as well as limited effects on the images and backgrounds of the cover and contents
page.
• I chose to use a black background as from my research I concluded that bloc colours were frequently
used. From my preliminary task I was able to deduce that this colour was to strong to use on a music
magazine and instead opted for a ‘gradient’ style background of a light shade of purple.
• The contents of my preliminary task worked well with a banner to label the page – I decided to carry on
this style to my main task.
• In my preliminary task I chose to use the logo ‘prospects’ this did not have a different colour from the
background and instead made the cover page appear to look more like a poster than a magazine. I altered
this in my main task using a black circle to separate the logo from the rest of the magazine – for easy
recognition.
• The placements of my articles on my preliminary task in the centre of the page also made the cover page
look like a poster – I changed this in my main task to show them on the left hand side of the cover page –
this complies with convention.