The document describes how the media product, a music magazine called "Pop'ular", uses and develops conventions of real music magazines for its target audience of 9-15 year old females. Some conventions it follows include using bright images, bold colors and fonts, and interviews and articles about pop artists. However, it also challenges some conventions by having a slanted title font, limited photos on the cover, and only featuring female models. The layout, contents page, and focus on the pop genre also aim to develop realistic conventions for this target audience.

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

2. The name of my magazine
• The magazine title that I have used for my music magazine I believe fits
the genre of a young, feminine , fresh magazine that attracts an audience
a female audience of 9-15. I decided to call my magazine Pop’ular, which is
a take on words that allows the audience to see that the magazine focuses
on the genre of pop, but also expresses a certain image for the magazine,
in which it appears to be successful and exciting. I believe this name would
attract the target audience because the concept is easy to grasp and the
theme is easy to understand.
• For my mast head, I developed the conventions of a real mast head on a
real music magazine that has the same target audience. To do so I used
the publishing programme photoshop. Here I created a bold *

3. How does it challenge the
conventions- colours etc.

4. Image
• My images are all very clear and bold. They all have bright, clear light to
reflect the theme and concept of the magazine. In most of my photos they
have a direct eye contact which follows the general forms and conventions
of a real music magazine. This allows them to attract the
audience, drawing them into the magazine and the articles. The
background of all my images have been cut out, only revealing the actual
object or model, this I feel creates a fresh, clean look which definitely
keeps in tone with the general conventions of a magazine with a similar
target audience. In addition to this the models all express a
happy, excitable mood by their facial expressions and body gestures. This
would again attract a younger audience, encouraging them to become
involved with the magazine.

5. The main title, style and font
• For the main title ‘Abbie S’ I used a Brush Script MT font and a very bold
pink colour. My title I believe is slightly un-conventional because of the
Italic, slightly slanted manner in which it is displayed. This challenges the
conventions of a real music magazine because they generally only used
bold, block text that is ordered, however I believe the style that I have
used, creates a slightly more ‘sweeter’ feel reflecting the artist that I have
interviewed, as well as attracting a younger audience. In contrast, the
colour and the dominant size of my magazine is conventional, in the sense
that the boldness of the title will immediately attract an audience towards
it, encouraging them to read on.

6. The models/objects I have used
• To create the conventions of a general music magazine, I choose to add
objects of certain parts of fashion, including nail varnish and shoes as well
as the general photos of various models. These were added to express the
various conventions of a general music magazine with a similar target
audience. They attract a female audience and create an expressive
magazine that addresses a various range of topics. These products are also
all associated with girls, especially younger girls, therefore really create a
conventional idea to attract the target
audience. The
models I have used on my magazine are all female, which is
unconventional, because they mostly feature a mixture of male and
female artists, in particular on the cover of the magazine, however the
target audience of my magazine are teenage girls, so the use of the
dominant female audience and the fact that they are all teenagers
themselves, will allow the audience to relate and aspire to be like them.
The audience will definitely be more interested in a young, fresh band

7. Written content
• For my article I chose to produce an interview on the new and upcoming
artist Abbie S, who featured on my front cover. This interview follows the
codes and conventions of a music magazine with a similar target
audience, by the use of language and content. Throughout I have used
expressive, bold language that highlights the happy nature of the article.
Some examples of these include ‘great success’ and ‘exclusive’. These are
conventional words that I have used and can all be seen in a generic
interview in a music magazine, because of their bright nature that will
attract the audience’s attention. I have also asked many questions that
would be covered normally, including ‘What we expect from them in the
future’, ‘Their experiences on tour’ etc. All these topics would be found in
a real magazine aimed at the same audience. Following this, the use of
pull quotes to capture attention of the audience is also key, creating a
realistic magazine that follows the conventions well.

8. Layout
• The layout of my magazine is fairly conventional. Everything that features
in my magazine has been displayed neatly and in order, although do have
a slight slant on each feature, for example the text on the double page
spread, this creates a clean but cooler style that would attract a younger
audience. Most of the photos have been placed on a slight slant which
generally follows the conventions of a real magazine, and on the front
cover the mast head has been placed on the top left corner, while the
main title has been placed in the centre of the page, this most definitely
follows the generic conventions of a magazine. However the lack of photos
on the front cover I believe challenges the conventions, purely because on
a magazine cover their is generally many photos that cover up the
page, but I have only added a few photos which leave my front cover clear
and simple.

9. Contents page
• I believe my contents page follows more of the conventions than the other
two pages do, this is because of its general layout, the context and of
course the colours. It features a very generic layout, with the title
‘Contents page’ on the top of the page, while the page numbers being
placed in the centre with the photos and the other various features
surrounding them. The colours have been carefully placed, being bold and
bright, making it easy to understand and see. The context of the contents
page is very similar to that of a music magazine, featuring all the general
information and articles that you would expect to see. Another main
convention of the contents page is the use of displaying the front cover, to
allow the audience to see where these articles feature within the
magazine.

10. Music genre
• The main genre of my magazine is pop. This is very clear throughout my
magazine by the use of the colours, text and photos. For example for my
page number I have used a heart to reflect the genre pop and its girly
nature. I have also used many light colours to create a the clear pop genre
in which this magazine focuses on, including pink, purple, white
(associated with the genre pop). Also the language that I have used
expresses a genre of pop, because they reflect the music and the artists
that are associated with pop. Real magazines suggest their genre by the
use of colour and style, and I believe that I have done this to.