1. Q1. In what ways
does your media
product use,
develop or challenge
forms and
conventions of real
media products?
2. When designing my music magazine, I chose to stay to conventions and
forms of real music magazines rather than challenge them. I felt there
are reasons for these rules sticking to them would make my magazine
look more professional as the audience can compare it to a real
magazine. I do believe that I used and developed the conventions
effectively.
So my music product links to genre of Hip Hop and the name of my
magazine is RAW, a slang term that hip hop industry and youth
community uses as an adjective describing something completely
hard core and awesome, anything truly amazing and cool.
As you seen most all of magazine that been published and people have
seen or have brought have a common convention is having the
masthead at the top of the magazine. My masthead is in the top left
corner relation with XXL masthead. Here I used the colour of white,
capital letters with a red background that associates with the genre.
At this point, I have followed the convention block colours from the
masthead.
3. On my front cover I have keep on to
several conventions......
5. A common convention of hip hop magazine is that the cover
artist is arranged central of the title and is positioned behind
the artist, here my cover artist is covering half of the ‘w’ and
to a scale difficult to understanding the name. I chose this as
it shows the dominance of the artist which has a direct mode
of address as the artist looks straight into the camera which
creates the effect that the artist is looking directly towards as
the audience. This is common in music magazine as the
publisher of the magazine wants you to build an instant
connection with the reader in order to help appeal to the
audience to interest them into buying it. This can be seen on
a few front covers but not all. Although my main image is
strongly developed representation of the conventions usually
found on a typical music magazine of the hip hop genre.
The image was taken as mid shot in order to create an
approachable image. My cover artist is also a male and
therefore using the conventions. Here I used
conventions around my props I used, from the artist
body position and facial expression. Here he has on a
black tee and with a crown and a chain. Here I used
links of hip hop industry fashion and style is connoted.
The chain and crown represents sign of power,
richness, wealth and authority. He is not smiling which
is expected of rappers who like to be seen to be tough.
6. Also the headlines surrounding the artist on
both sides to segregate the artist from the
rest of the magazine. I used the ‘Modern’
Font for the title ‘Major’ on the front page. I
have stuck to key conventions as the title,
being bold and large, since it is the biggest
font on the page.
My magazine would attract a masculine
audience - the desired preference of a
hip-hop magazine since its evidence for
this is the masculine fonts used
throughout my magazine.
The position and structure of the text also pertains to the
key conventions; but not in random places such as the texts
on the right hand side of the artist has all artist featured in
the magazine is positioned around the outside, giving the
magazine an organized format.
The bar code is a key convention for any
magazine. I challenge conventions of most
titles, appearing much more modernized and
complementing towards the style. The bar
code is located on the bottom left corner of
the magazine; this is typical feature of a
music magazine front cover as seen in
magazine.
7. The overall layout of my contents page is
shown to spark consistency and is kept in a
particular style so that it is easily
recognizable as a Hip Hop magazine without
looking at the front cover.
9. This can be noticed by the text and colour of my cover lines. I have
decided to follow conventions used by many similar successful media
products such as the colour; red, white and black are all found on the
contents. I have also developed my cover lines so that categories have
been introduced.
This is a typical feature
found in both Hip Hop
and mixed genre
magazines, and is used to
separate articles and
information within
magazine content,
providing numbers to aid
navigation. I feel this
organizes headlines
efficiently as it would be
easier for a reader to find
a particular headline they
are searching for.
Additionally, it suits the
hip hop for my magazine,
therefore looking more
appealing. The use of
these categories also
means that dividers are
unnecessary.
Regarding columns in my contents page, I have challenged
conventions found in other media products as instead of multiple
columns; I will have only two column, as I plan to have two pages of
contents. Doing so allows me to fill dead space with images which may
look attractive to readers and not repel them by an overflow of text in
one page.
The images used
are kept settled to
the right and also
the left, giving
another
unconventional
approach to my
magazine. I believe
that the images
being placed in this
particular way is
more effective as it
shows an organized
style and cannot
look messy as they
are not scattered
throughout,
instead being
carefully placed.
Furthermore my artist is seen on both of my contents, and double page spread. These two props highlight my use of key
conventions. My cover artist is wearing a hood jacket; emphasize the negative stereotype often associated with criminals. Other of
my artists is incorporated with same stereotypical. On my contents page my female artist is standing on a white background and
other one leaning down on the floor beside a brick wall this also used in the content page of XXL. Having the girls and jewellery
with the artists certainly portray the conventions of wealth, displayed throughout any hip-hop magazine. I think it was good to
include a female artist seeing as it's a hip-hop magazine, rappers are always pictured with women; it's a common convention for a
hip-hop magazine to have a section dedicated to female models.
10. Another aspect of my magazine that challenges forms and conventions
of Hip Hop contents pages are my bright, bold page numbers that are
equally as visible as any other text visible. They are placed in a bold
white letters directly next to the headlines, and fit well considering that
my magazine is targeted towards a younger audience.
The contents page follows the conventional
use of subheadings to introduce my stories,
followed by a description of what the
features will include. This feature has been
used in the magazines I’ve analysed and it
has helped to structure my stories in a neat
and in order by using the page numbers
besides the stories. I’ve also used the
traditional column structure to portray my
stories in a neat and simplistic way. This has
also been used in the content pages of the
XXL, The source and mix mag magazines I
analysed and therefore I’m following the
conventional use of more than one main
image on the contents page.
However I’ve also used made a original images I made myself to make a album covers for one of my stories for
of ‘YOUR FREE CD’. This is developing conventions, as the images of album covers are not usually placed on the
contents page, even if they are in relation to any of the stories. They are usually found towards the end of the
magazine and the albums covers magazines are going to review are not revealed on the contents page.
Therefore I’ve developed this convention and I did this because it is a way of gaining the readers interest, by
already revealing the album name and getting free things they are likely to be keen on finding out whether that
particular album got a positive or negative review.
The footer of my magazine includes the logo of
my magazine and ‘RAW’, which is the colour of
white, capital with a red box as the background,
placed on the right hand side top of the page.
Along with this on the right hand side of the
bottom of the page the credit of the
photographer and stylist, this took the image
and dressed the artist, used on the page. These
features of the footer are all conventional and
therefore I’ve followed them.
11. My double page spread contains many
conventions found strictly in magazines of
the Hip Hop genre. But it slightly less
conventional in terms of the layout and more
specific to the themes and message being
conveyed throughout this specific article I
thought this certain layout would be more
appealing and would be more fitting to the
theme being portrayed.
13. However despite this, throughout the magazine I kept to the typical codes and conventions of a music
magazine as the target audience for my magazine is quite typical so as well as appealing to my target
audience specifically in places I wanted to produce something that would be something conventional. The
overall layout of this feature was inspired by well-established products such as Mix Mag magazine. They
share some conventions such as the main image covering the whole of the page which gives an effect that
attract the readers by appearing attractive, and also at the same time informational as the text is on front of
the image makes it look like there is more body text than there actually is.
I have chosen to develop
an unconventional stand
first, this time I don't use
the colour scheme that
much which wraps around
the headline to merge the
all white to maintain my
strong style
and enhance the effect of
white . The fonts used for
this is the same font that
has been used for cover
lines and headlines on
both my front cover on
contents page. As I have
developed this rather than
using the same font for
body text it signifies the
importance of this stand
first. This is also
highlighted by the clash
with the headline to
suggest it is of equal
importance, which is why I
believe this
unconventional approach
is effective for my
magazine.
The mise en scene of the main image is revealed to be very subtle and relaxed, putting a main focus on the artist and not the
background, although the top of some buildings can be noticed. This could foreshadow the information in the article as it talks
about major being on top of the music industry. This image is covered on the top right by a quote which I have chosen to
follow as a convention used by some Hip Hop magazines that use a similar style. The quote adds an enigmatic feel to the
double page spread, as well as making it alluring to the reader. Here Major is leaning on graffiti wall, with a hat on and chains.
A very aggressive impression is created and the shadow created around his head and the graffiti, could represent the scene of
criminal such as selling drugs or violence of some sort. There is also a common thing between rappers about wealth.
I’ve used columns to
structure my article,
which is conventional and
is feature I used to create
a recognizable and simple
layout for the reader. The
article on my double page
spread is a biography of
the artist, which is
definitely following the
conventions as this is used
frequently in many
magazines and is
recognizable and familiar
feature. I’ve also added
the artist’s name besides
my texts on the right
hand side, which is
following the conventions
once again. The footer of
my magazine follows very
similarly to the footer of
my contents page as it
includes the name of my
magazine.
