This document summarizes the ways in which the student's media product uses and develops conventions of real media products. The student developed their logo over multiple iterations to make it more professional. They changed the front cover image to better reflect the genre. Elements like the barcode, price, and date are included per magazine conventions. The contents page is organized by genre and includes typical elements like the editor's letter. The double-page spread features the text wrapped around a large central image, with varied fonts. Research informed conventions like pull quotes and Q&A article formats. Overall, the student aimed to replicate real magazine styles while adding some original elements.

1. MEDIA EVALUATION
Question 1
Eleanor Birtles

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

4. For my front cover of my magazine I wanted a logo that was a similar size
to the Q magazine logo, I wanted a logo a bit like this because it is
a clear representation of the magazines name and it provides a
recognisable logo that is easy for the readers to identify. My first
initial idea for the logo was the jukebox logo shown below, I liked this logo
To start of with as I believed that it reflected the genre and the
name of the magazine very well, however I later went on to
change my mind in the fact that this logo wasn’t the one I
wanted to put on my magazine. I then developed my ideas
further and came up with the logo that I have used for my
final magazine design. I like my final logo a great deal more
As I think it looks more professional and it could be similar
to a logo that would be featured on a real music magazine.
By developing my masthead ideas throughout the process
of making my media product I have consistently been able
To develop my ideas in order to come out with a successful outcome.
My inspiration for the logo was a neon sign that were often seen in
diner’s where jukebox’s were so I thought that the name supports the
reasoning behind the looks of the logo.

5. I knew that I wanted my two
band members from
Epileptic Daydream on the
front because I had originally
discovered the NME
magazine cover of Alex
Turner and Miles Kane
(featured on the right)
.bearing this in mind the
image that I originally had on my front cover was a mid shot of my
models (featured top left) which is similar to the NME cover,
however I didn’t like the way that the image looked, as a result of
that I decided that I wanted to change it to a different image, the image below is what I came
up with the second time round, although this image was a lot more
awkward to cut around, I felt that it was worth I as think that the vibes
that you get from this image fits my Rock and Roll genre a great deal
more than the first image, however the second image that I chose to
use for the final edition of my contents page isn’t that similar to the
NME front cover I have still got my two band members from Epileptic
Daydream on the front cover and I have also shown clearly that it is a
music magazine through the use of props. Again I have shown how I
have developed my ideas again because I have not used my original
image but I have used my practical skills and developed my first ideas
into something I believe has more potential and reflects my genre
better, in the same way I did with the logo designs.

6. The cover line for my magazine contains a small piece of information about one of the featured
stories that is in my magazine. The colour of the strapline fits in well with all of my other
conventions on the front cover and the overall magazine covers colour scheme.
The plug for my magazine
is important because it
informs the audience of
another key bit of
information that is
important to the reader
and it is also designed in a
way that adds more detail
to the front cover with out
it looking to crowded or
messy. I wanted a
different colour for the
plug as I thought that it
would draw more
attention to the additional
information (Top image)
I also have a promotional
voucher that I have made in
Photoshop, the voucher could
be classed as a plug or as a
sticker. But this also contains
extra information about
things you can win in the
magazine it is good to have
one of these on the front
cover as it attracts and
persuades the reader to but
the magazine because there is
a good freebi that you could
win. (Bottom image)

7. The barcode is something that is always
featured on magazine publications. Usually
the issue number, release date and price is
featured in a space above or below the
barcode. The barcode to the left is from the
music magazine ‘KERRANG’
The price is also a key piece of information
that my magazine must contain as it is highly
important that the audience must clearly
know the price of the magazine or they might
be put off from buying my media product
The date that the magazine was
published on is a component of great
importance as this is something that all
magazine MUST have, so I had to make
sure that this was something that was
easily recognised and featured on my
magazine.

8. From conducting my focus group I found, what my audience thought the colour
scheme should be for the magazine. The colour scheme that the focus group
voted that would fit best and reflect my genre the most for the magazine, was
silvers, greys and pinky-purpley colours. So throughout the magazine I have made
sure that these colours have been the most dominant and appeared the most all
the way through the magazine.
The unique selling point for a magazine is something that you think makes your
magazine unique. Such as the Price, an offer or an artist type?
The unique selling point of my magazine is the give-aways because the majority
of Rock and Roll magazines don’t normally give out promotional gifts, or
competitions, however I incorporated these into my magazine because, when I
conducted my focus group, the audience all said that they would prefer and be
more attracted to my magazine if there was a promotional gift, or competition
that they could compete in. They said that this would persuade them to buy my
magazine over the usually Rock and Roll magazines that didnt have goodies to
give away.

10. The main inspiration I used for my contents page was from the
following two contents pages, they are both from music magazines
that are not completely focused on Rock and Roll but often both
features this genre in their magazine.
The NME contents page is where I based my ideas for the columns
for the magazine. I chose this contents page because I liked the way
that each genre was neatly set out and specified under a sub-title.
My magazine contents page also has the subscription box in a
similar place (bottom right).
My contents page is also fairly similar to this contents page too.
However I believe that there aren’t as many similarities as the other
contents page above. Although both pages only have one main
image which is one of their featured stories, I chose not to
just have one main image, instead I wanted to have my main feature
story (Epileptic Daydream) as the largest image on the contents page and
then some other smaller that were from the other sub-sections on the
page, so I had one from the ‘WHAT’S HOT’ section one from the
‘POSTERS’ section and two from the ‘FEATURES’ sub-section. A
component that isn’t on either of the magazines is the follow us text box
I wanted to put this on my magazine cover as it is something that is on
all of the high achieving exemplar material from last year.

11. The colour scheme has again stayed the same on my contents page, because I want the whole
magazine to flow, and look like it fits together well which I believe it has because the colours
are all very similar, if not the same. This is good because you would be able to tell that all of
my pages actually came from my magazine, this is something that a real magazine must consider
in order to look attractive, it also makes it more appealing to the reader because then everything
just slots into place. So by having the same colours as the front cover, the contents page looks
attractive because they go well together.
The editors letter is something that is of key importance on a magazine contents page as all of
the magazine I looked into for my research, all had a editors letter on their contents pages
so I knew that this was something that HAD to be included on my contents page. The editors
letter/note contains, a bit of information where the editor can interact through the magazine
to the readers. The editors note for the majority of magazines has a small image of the
editor, so again this was something I wanted on my magazine. Another component that I
wanted to add to my editor’s note was a ‘quote of the month’ this is something that isn’t normally
on a magazine contents page, but I liked the idea of having a small quote, so I incorporated
this into my magazine as well.

13. When I did my research on double paged spreads I knew immediately after that I didn’t want the
mage on one page and the text on the other, like I had seen for the majority of all other double
paged spreads, I wanted an image that the text could slot in around the main image, I then had
to work on getting a good image that would look good blown up, to fit the whole two pages.
I think that my image managed to do this, because I believe that it looks good, I also think that
by having the text slotting in around the image, it provides the spread with a unique look which
Is what I was going for as I didn’t want my image to be very samey and extremely similar to other
double paged spreads. I wanted it to stand out. Through the use of the image I used I think
that I have accomplished this. The research for the double paged spreads helped me a great
deal because if I hadn’t of completed the research then I wouldn’t of developed my own opinions
about how I wanted my double paged spread to look.
I have used various fonts on my double paged spread as I noticed that this was something that
all double paged spreads had, I have used one font for the actual article, one for the title of the
band, one for the introduction and one for the pull quote, I think that by having a varied font
choice it makes the page a lot more interesting for the reader. It also draws more attention to
important parts of the article.
By having the drop cap, I have ensured that my double paged spread is similar to other examples
of music magazines spreads, I have also ensured this by using a pull quote, another way in which
I have developed my ideas to make my magazine similar to other media products, is the type
of article. Question and Answer articles are very common amongst double paged spread so I knew
that this was something that I wanted for my article for my own double paged spread.