For Media Studies.

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

2. When creating my magazine, for research, I looked at “Kerrang” magazine chiefly (This is amongst “NME”
and “Q” to a lesser extent). Firstly, looking at just the front cover of the magazines I could spot the codes and
conventions that all these rock music magazines adhere to by comparing the magazines to each other. One
of the most important aspects I think is the colour scheme, which consists of primarily reds, blacks and
whites, this is as these are very masculine colours, so fit in well with the idea of rock music, the connotations
of black and white in particular is that of importance, “this magazine has something to say” (Usually about
anti-establishment ideals).
All 3 major rock magazines adhere to reds, blacks and whites

3. Therefore, when creating my magazine I did indeed follow the same colour scheme idea as it
seemed important, in the terms of the colour scheme, to remain strictly close to the same
colour scheme as the connotations of these colours are important to the rock genre in
general, as a genre that promotes anti-establishment ideals and emphasises them through it’s
use of colours. Here’s my front cover of my magazine:
Here, my magazine is strictly adhering to
the colour scheme of red, black and
white. This is so my magazine is sure to
stay to the conventions of a rock
magazine. The reason it needs to follow
codes and convention is so my target
audience can glance at it and know
exactly what type of magazine it is.

4. They both have a cracked
glass effect, this connotes
masculinity and violence.
Another way my magazine sticks to the codes and conventions is by the header. The
header “SHOUT”, as you can see, is extremely similar to the “Kerrang” header. The header
is a very important part of the magazine, so I wanted mine to be similar to other headers’
out there, therefore the audience can see it and can relate it to the “Kerrang” magazine,
therefore they know quickly that it’s a rock music magazine.

5. Another area where my magazine utilizes the conventions of a rock music magazine is in the
pictures I have included. The pictures used for the front covers, and indeed inside the actual
magazine, are very varied. They range from close ups to long shots, usually depending on
whether it’s a photo shoot of a band or a single artist. However, though the camera-work is
often varied, the poses that the people depicted in the magazines is usually roughly the same
type of thing. They will try to look strong or masculine if it’s a man, and if it’s a woman, they to
will try to look strong and masculine as well, the poses have connotations of violence or
masculinity and indeed in some cases have denotations of violence/masculinity. Here’s an
example of violence being denoted in a rock magazine (Kerrang)
The cracked glass connotes violence, my
magazine also has this effect on it’s
header (Like the Kerrang header)
Here’s a code that my magazine also looks
at, the idea of having “something to say”

6. Another point to make about
the pictures used in rock
magazines is that the people
are looking at you. This
addresses the audience and
includes them, therefore the
idea of loyalty and being a part
of a community is again
represented here. I found this
idea of loyalty in the research
of rock magazines.
As you can see here, both
magazines have people inside
who conform to this idea of
trying to look strong/masculine.
Kerrang audience bio

7. Another area where codes and conventions are present is in the language used. The language is
usually used to include the audience, and to make them feel inspired.
“Kerrang” “SHOUT”
The points made by artists in the double-page spread are
usually informal, reinforced by the use of exclamation
marks. The language like “What the hell” in the Kerrang
magazine indicates how informal they can be. The
connotations of this line is of course death/informal
(Maybe even teenagers, as they are the target audience)
So, similarly in my article I have the lines “We will never
let rock die!”, this uses both an exclamation mark and the
word “die”, which are often found in rock magazines.

8. The colour scheme is still the same, red, black and white. Both my magazine and the Kerrang
magazine’s contents page adhere to this. Traditionally, the contents page offers an
advertisement for subscribing to it within the contents page, my magazine also has this as an
important part of buying a magazine is wanting to buy the next issue, so I thought that it’s
important to keep this in.

9. “Kerrang”
Here my magazine challenges the codes and
conventions somewhat. You can tell that in the
“SHOUT” “Kerrang” magazine a lot more information is
put into the date. However, my magazine
simply put the date, this is because I think this
part of the magazine is often overlooked, and
it’s on the barcode on the front cover anyway,
therefore it’s a futile item.
“SHOUT” “Kerrang”
Here’s the barcode labels from both my
magazine and an average “Kerrang”
magazine. As you can see they’re
sufficiently similar, yet differ in prices, my
magazine is more expensive, this code has
been challenged as my audience research
said that £4.00 is about how much they
are willing to pay.