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1. Question 1
In what ways does my media product
use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?

2. Typical conventions of a magazine:
Front cover:
• Masthead
• Main Image
• Sub Stories
• Price/Barcode
• Feature story
• Plug
• Skyline
Contents page:
• Title/Masthead
• Main feature stories info
• Main image
• Plug info
• Page numbers
• Sub Stories info
Double Page:
• Title/Masthead
• Main image
• Page numbers
• Main story (columns)
• Drop cap
• Pull quotes

3. My Front Cover:
Feature Story: An interesting
thing about existing magazines is
that the main feature story is
made very clear from the sub
stories. To try and replicate this I
placed it at the top just under
the title so that it’s the first story
that comes into sight.
Plug: Almost every magazine has
a plug to try and attract the
attention of their audience.
Some tend to make it look like a
sticker or tag and almost always
make it a completely different
colour from the regular colour
scheme so it’s more bold and
noticable
Main image: My main image is shot
very typically of a magazine. Usually
either medium shot to medium close
up I made sure to frame him so I had
plenty of room to add all my
conventions. I also decided on a
black and white image which a lot of
other magazines do as it really helps
bring out the colour scheme. I also
gave some depth to the image by
placing my subjects head in front of
the masthead like a lot of other
magazines do.
Sub Stories: A key convention of
every magazine is to inform the
audience on all the other stories that
are featured inside, 3 is a good
amount to make the magazine seem
full of exiting information.
Barcode/Price: As a must have I placed the bar
code and price at the bottom of the cover as it keeps
it tidy and less distracting
Masthead: Following the basic layout of a
magazine cover, my masthead is most
prominent and featured at the top. It’s unusual
and rare to see on anywhere else so I decided to
play it safe and go with the basic positioning.
Skyline: Not all magazine covers
contain skylines but I decided to add
one to mine as it brought my colour
scheme higher up. It was also a
useful bit of extra space to fit the
date and website of the magazine.
Colour Scheme: Every successful
magazine has a colour scheme that
works well. One that represents the
product and is aesthetically pleasing
that makes the target audience want
to purchase it.
The majority of colours schemes
consist of 3 main colours and usually
contains black white or grey.
In my case I decided to use both
black and white and then a bright
red so that the red is the most bold
thing consistently through my
magazine.

4. My Contents Page:
Title: I decided to go a little bit
different with my contents page and
follow over the exact same type and
layout from the masthead to keep
consistency. I did however decide to
add the extra ‘This Week’ part to
make it distinguishable of a contents
page.
Main Feature Story: I made sure
my main feature story was the first
one you see on the page as its often
the one that the audience are
looking for. Slightly different to
regular contents pages I decided to
include it with the sub stories
instead of giving it its own section on
the page as it ended up looking a lot
tidier as well as being just as clear.
Main image: My main image takes
up half the page which only a few
contents pages do. Often the main
image is in a box somewhere in the
middle but I figured my subject fit
nicely around the information whilst
still relating to the main feature
story.
Plug information: I added the
same information from the plug on
the contents page in its own
separate area as it’s more
independent from the stories. A lot
like regular contents pages it’s at the
bottom corner on its own.
Social Media: I added what
might be considered as a little bit
different, the social media links
to my contents page because I
think that in this age of
technology a lot of people are
likely to be using these websites
and the information is a bit
informal to put on the front
cover but fits in nicely on the
contents page.
Extra stories: Not a lot of information is added
about the extra stories on the contents page but
because I had some extra space I decided why not?
Some of the audience may consider it just as
important as the main stories.
Apart from that I did decide to go with a typical
feature and make these stories smaller and different
to the others.
Page Numbers: of course I had
to add the appropriate page
numbers next to my stories. I
decided to make them a lot
larger and of different colour so
it’s easy for the readers to find
and understand.

5. My Double Page:
Text: I went with a regular column structure for
my text and added a drop cap. The drop cap
brings the reader’s attention right to the
beginning of the story. I made the drop cap
bright red so it sticks to the colour scheme and is
easily found.
Page Numbers:
Corresponding to the
contents page I added the
correct page numbers at the
top of the pages. The size and
positioning makes them easy
to see when flicking through
the pages.
Main Image: My main image takes up a whole
half of the page. This is done in a lot of
magazines and I decided to go with the trend as
it not only makes it look more appealing but
means that the page isn’t overflowing with text
upon text. It gives the page a nice balance.
Title: The title is what
describes the page briefly.
Some use quotes that the
subject said or is trying to say.
It hooks the audience in on the
page and convinces them to
read on. I decided to not give
too much information through
the quote so the audience has
to read on to know more about
the story.
I also made sure that the text
was large and different to the
rest as it needs to be clear that
it is the stories title.
Summary: In some magazine s
they write a small summary of
what your about to read. This
can be to help the reader
decide whether or not it’s
worth their reading. I put the
most important information in
bold red so that it’s even easier
for them to pick out all the
important bits