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

2. My magazine front cover, contents and double page spread portrays all the stereotypical codes
and conventions of a classic music magazine; for example my front cover has;
>main cover image- including
direct address which
encapsulates the reader
straight away, which will
increase the amount of sales I
make.
>masthead- which is eye
catching yet simple and
effective, I decided a
good way to achieve this
would to be use to
contrasting yet
complementing colours
which make each other
standout.
>main cover line- which is clear
and concise, which gives
information and his straight to
the point therefore readers do
not have to go looking for
information which is a big
characteristic of music
magazines. This is again in two
different contrasting colours,
and a different font which sets
that article away from all the
others.
>Selling tag line- which is ‘NEW
MUSIC FOR YOU’ which is
exactly what the aim of my
magazine is, to give up and
coming bands and artists the
publicity they need. And to
cater to my audience and
artists needs at the same time.
This is a theme which is
reoccurring through my whole
magazine
>sub images- these sub images are to make my front
cover look aesthetically pleasing to my audience, and
also to give and identity to my cover lines, (these
pictures are images I have took when going to music
gigs)

3. >Puffs- in this puff I decided
to include and incentive for
readers which is similar to
other leading magazines,
however I thought I would
try and incorporate the ‘new
music’ vibe into my incentive
and I used it to offer free
Itunes download vouchers
which will give my readers
the chance to give there
opinion on the worlds new
music, because I think its
important for bands to gain
feedback and also for the
public to be involved in the
making and marketing of
their countries future as
after all we are the ones
listening to it.
>cover lines- these sub cover lines
give information and put into
context the sub images, so my
readers know what to expect
when reading the magazine. I also
again created this writing in order
to be the same font as the rest of
my cover lines, so my magazine
would stay uniformed and
professional, because if they were
different it would make it look
messy and would not command
the readers attention.
>sub images- these sub images are
to make my front cover look
aesthetically pleasing to my
audience, and also to give and
identity to my cover lines, (these
pictures are images I have took
when going to music gigs)
>Issue information and barcode- are on the front of my magazine to give the reader data information
about my magazine if they need it for a particular reason, the price is also included in this as it is a
legal requirement that a price be on a product such as a music magazine, the barcode is also for when
buying it. I decided to place all of this information at the right hand bottom of the page as it’s the least
important in terms of aesthetically and the informations about the content of the magazine.

4. This is my music magazine contents page, in my opinion I think this includes all the normal
stereotypical codes and conventions of a magazine contents page should, for example,
>masthead- at the very top
of my page the skyline reads
‘REWIRE this week’ and is
designed in the style of what
its like on the front cover
this is to keep the fonts and
colour scheme uniformed as
this will be the noticeable
convention which will tell
the difference from other
magazines, however the
main masthead on this page
is ‘contents’ which tells you
exactly what this page is to
be used for, as if this wasn’t
there my audience would be
confused, I also used the
same font for ‘contents’ to
again keep my colour/design
scheme uniformed, yet I
coloured the word in white
in order for it stand out on
the black background.
>Main image- the main
image on this page is
related to the artist on my
front cover, in particular this
shows his new album cover,
this is similar to what other
magazines would do.
>columns- columns are very
big codes & conventions of
magazines in general, as, if
text isn’t put into columns it
becomes hard for the
audience to read, unclear and
lacks structure.
>puffs- this puff highlights
that there is an exclusive
interview with the band
‘honey honey’ which draws
attention to this specifically,
this is what most other
magazines do to also draw
attention to there biggest
articles.

5. >sub image- the sub image
incorporated on this page were
from a gig I went to see and took
pictures at, of a band called ‘honey
honey’ I thought it would be a good
idea to keep with in the theme of
black and white therefore I edited
them this way, in my head I had a
vision of them being similar to a
film reel or old looking photographs
scattered on top of the page this is
why they are placed in the positions
they are, and I think I achieved this.
>Numbers for pages- page
numbers are a vital piece of
information on any contents
page as that’s what they are for,
which mine includes however I
was weary not to put ‘pg’ or ‘1-
2’ when writing my numbers as
this is not typical of a music
magazine, this is why they are
just signal numbers in red to
stand out to the readers, as this
makes it easier for them to
navigate my music magazine, to
particular features they would
prefer to read.
>subheadings- on my contents
page the subheadings as well as
page numbers help my readers
to navigate around the magazine
itself, and highlight the name of
each section. These are
highlighted in yellow, as this is
one of the colours I wanted to be
incorporated in my colour
scheme.
>article information- all magazines
include article information which
similar to sub headings enlighten
what to expect in the magazine that
issue.
>Housestyle- the overall housestyle
must consist all the way through the
magazine, on front cover, contents
and double page spread which I
think occurs in my magazine,
because it keeps the same colour
scheme of black white purple and
yellow, but also the mise en scen I
wanted to take place which was for
it to look both raw and edgy.

6. This is my double page spread which I think both develops and challenges the main codes and
conventions of a double page spread for example;
>headline- the headline on
this page is ‘Busking his way
to the top’ which is in a rough
edgy looking font which I
though represented the link
between busking on the
streets, I also think it is
simple yet effective, I
retrieved this font from a
industry specialised website
called ‘dafont’ which helped
my magazine double page
spread to look more
professional.
>stand first- a stand first is
the introductory
paragraph to my article on
this page, which gives
information on what’s
being wrote about
specifically that week, for
example my stand first
talks about matt and what
to expected from the
interview itself similar to
most other stand firsts in
other music magazines.
>main image- I took this
main image while out
busking with matt,
because I thought
where better to take
pictures than where he
feels most comfortable
and at home, I also
thought this wouldn’t
be a stereotypical
background, this
picture develops the
codes and conventions
by taking up both pages
of my double page
spread, however it also
challenges them by this
picture not having
matts direct address,
because I thought it
looked more mysterious
and effective this way.
>house style and colour scheme- my magazines colours are; black, white, purple, silver and
yellow which I tried to kind of carry on, on this page, but I did feel that the colour red
complimented the page more, but I thought the whole page looked better in all black and
white because its unusual in my opinion.

7. >large quote- this large
quote is stereotypical of
most magazines, as I have
quoted something matt
says in the interview which
I thought would catch the
audiences attention, this is
coloured in white I order
for it to stand out on the
dark background but also
to keep in theme with the
main headline to keep
everything looking
uniformed, however I put
this in a different font
because I didn’t want to
take too much away from
the headline.
>columns- columns
are vital on any page
with in a magazine
because it just makes
the writing look more
uniformed and
professional and also
keeps the pages
balanced and central,
in my interviews case
I used 3 columns
however this will
depended on the size
of the actual article or
interview and how
much of the page you
wish to take up.
>drop caps- drops caps are used in all magazines in order to
illustrate to the reader where the article or interview begins,
by doing this it grabs attention but is also put there for
aesthetic reasons