AS Media question 1: In what ways does your media project use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

1. In what ways does your media
project use, develop or challenge
forms and conventions of real
media products?

2. Conventions are the way in which something is usually done. Although there are many different
types of magazines of different genres and for different audiences, they all follow similar
conventions. Every magazine will use conventions such as a masthead, a large central image,
features, headlines and the date/ price of the magazine. Although, music magazines may have
some slight extra conventions, such as album reviews, artist interviews and references to music
throughout. Each magazine’s conventions will slightly vary, depending on if and how they decide
to use them and what genre the magazine is. Even throughout different music magazines the
conventions will vary as there are many music genres, such as pop, indie, rock etc. Each separate
type of music magazine will use different conventions to attract the attention of their target
audiences, for example pop magazines will use bright, vibrant colours such as pink, yellow, blue,
etc. whereas indie magazines would use muted colours such as pastel colours.
CONVENTIONS

3. FRONT COVERMASTHEAD
I decided that I liked the look of having the masthead behind the head
of the model in the main image. This way I was able to make sure that
the whole picture was visible, whilst also taking adding a slight 3D
affect to the magazine cover. I saw this convention used in many
different pop magazines and decided that it would add an appealing
effect to my own magazine, whilst making sure that the audience of
my magazine would still be able to clearly read and identify the name
of the magazine.
GRAPHIC IMAGES
I really liked the use of the plus sign
symbol that I saw used in many magazines,
especially pop. I used this group the two
features together that features female
singers, as well as also using it as a way to
fill up any dead space down the side of the
magazine.
Compared to Billboard
magazine, who has their text
placed around the image and
sometimes slightly behind it, I
had my text over the image. This
was because I had too much text
that I had to work with and if I
lowered the font size any more
than it would not have been
visible. Therefore, I placed my
text on top of the image instead
of around it, although I still
placed them in certain spots to
achieve a sophisticated, un
cluttered front page.
MAIN IMAGE
I used to a mid shot for my main image on the
magazine because I think it connects to the audience
more. The audience can clearly see the model’s facial
expression and identify who they are. From my
research I found out that a lot of people bought
magazines depending on who was on the front cover.
This was a way of the audience being able to clearly
identify the singer on the front.
Another thing that I
incorporated into my
magazine was footer.
In my footer I mentioned
social media because it is a
well used, essential part of
many people lives, especially
for my target audience. It is
widely used all over the world,
therefore by giving out a
twitter and instagram page on
the magazine, it will appeal
and encourage the audience to
personally get involved with
the magazine. Billboard
magazine gives a link to their
website, however I included
twitter and instagram because
it appeals more to a younger
audience
As I identified in my research, I think there are definitely
two sides to the pop genre – a “childish” side and a more
“mature” side. I tried to make my magazine reflect the more
mature side of the pop industry as I believe that a lot more
of the pop audience is slowly transforming into adults/
young adults. Whilst conducting a survey I found that
people of all ages enjoyed pop as their favourite type of
music, therefore I knew that I was able to create a magazine
that was for an older generation of late teens – adults.
I decided to incorporate this
into my magazine. I did this
because I wanted to draw
attention to this specific
piece of information
without using a plain white
box like most magazines
do, so instead I used a sort
of paint brush effect which
also helped to make sure
my house style was
sustained (e.g. the colours).
KEY
Green = uses
Orange = Developments
Blue = Challenges
Throughout the front cover
of my magazine I switch
font colours. I used a code
of writing important key
words/phrases in pink so
that they stand out easily,
and wrote everything else
in blue. I did this so readers
could easily identify key
information if skimming the
front cover in a shop.

4. CONTENTS PAGEFor my mast head I decided that in order to
retain my house style throughout the whole of
the magazine, I would again put a line through
the word ‘CONTENTS’ as I did on the front
cover.
Instead of having a category full of ‘regulars’ I
decided that I would include a category called
‘Hot Topics’. I did this because I believed it
would appeal to my target audience who like to
know all the ‘hottest’ gossip etc. This way it
would sound more ‘juicy’ and interesting. This
category includes are debates over the best
artists etc.
KEY
Green = uses
Orange = Developments
Blue = Challenges
LAYOUT
Magazines generally have a similar contents page
style. Contents pages are usually very boxed off into
sections with subheadings directing the reader where
to look. I incorporated this idea into my own
magazine contents page and also included lines
underneath each title to make it look organised and
easy to navigate.
IMAGES
Many of the magazines that I looked at used one
main large image on the contents page and then
either a few or one smaller image. I also did this on
my magazine, as you can see the main image is of
the girl and there is a noticeably smaller image
underneath it/ I have included another example
above which uses one large image and one smaller
image.
I used teaser text at the bottom of my contents
page that included a competition to win
tickets. I did this to ensure readers that they’re
getting their moneys worth in content and to
also ensure that they carry on buying my
magazine as they can see competitions are
regularly included.

5. DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD
KEY
Green = uses
Orange = Developments
Blue = Challenges
LAYOUT
On a double page spread, the article is usually written in columns. I incorporated
this into my magazine not only because it is used widely across many magazines
but also because it helped to make the text look more interesting and like there
was less of it – therefore my audience would be more likely to read it if it
separated out into little paragraphs, rather than long lines of text.
IMAGES
To make my double page spread more interesting, I added one photo to each side.
I also made the photos blend into the background of the DPS, in which I meant
there is no background to the images. The text also goes around the images which
makes them stand out more.
TEXT
I used a different colour text for writing that I thought was key information
such as quotes and the album title etc. Although I didn’t specifically see this
used in a magazine, I thought it would benefit my audience so they were able
to identify key information if they were to skim read the text and then go back
and read it fully. This would also help to attract the reader as it doesn’t look
like big bulks of text and you can see where vital information to be read is
situated.