media evaluation

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

2. One music magazine in particular that I
focused on was mixmag because it is a
successful dance music magazine and I
was aiming to also produce a dance music
magazine so I gained a lot of inspiration
from here. Due to this I knew I wanted my
masthead to spread across the full width
of the page as this is a convention and
format mixmag uses across their
magazines. By using black and white I have
also kept it simple to try and appeal to all
genders and ages and I have used bold
lettering like mix mag uses. I have however
challeneged the convention that mixmag
usually uses as having the main image
covering the title in part. I did this because
the font I chose was already cut away at
the bottom in parts and so I didn’t want
too much going on for the reader to get
confused.

3. From my research I found the
majority of my audience were
interested in reading about
festivals and interviews with high-
profile artists. Therefore, another
common convention I followed
was having pull quotes and puff
words on my front cover to entice
readers to buy the magazine. The
cover lines I used also had words
in such as ‘Creamfields’ which is a
popular dance music festival and
‘Tom Zanetti’ or ‘David Guetta’
who are popular dance music
artists. I also had the words ‘plus’
and ‘free’ to make the audience
feel as though they were getting
something exclusive from buying
the magazine.

4. Another convention I followed is only
having one image on my front cover and a
few on my contents. This is common in most
magazines especially mixmag which I got
my inspiration from. I did this because my
main image was the main selling point of
the magazine and I wanted the model to
stand out and not have any other images
‘cluttering’ the page and taking attention
away. I also followed the simplistic style and
colour schemes mixmag usually follows to
keep the magazine looking clean and stylish
to appeal to it’s audience. Mixmag however
does often use bright colours to stand out
however I chose to challenge this and use
black and white with a hint of blue because I
though this could appeal to all genders and
ages and also the blue I got from my
audience research because that was one of
the more popular colour choices.

5. One convention I challenged was having the image on the double-page
spread going over the middle of the magazine. I did this because I saw it in
mixmag and I thought it tied the two pages together nicely and also looked
very modern. I also put a pull quote on top of my double page spread image
to interest the reader and let them know what the article was about which
isn’t very common in most magazines. I also used photoshop to edit my
image and put an effect on it that I had previously seen in mixmag. This is
uncommon in most magazine as they like a simple unedited image but I
changed the colours and also added thin strip layers on top of my image to
give it a new effect.

6. A final common convention I used was page numbers and watermarks on
my main photographs as this is something common amongst most
magazines. I used watermarks and small logos in the corner so that if the
reader is enjoying the article they have a reminder as to what they’re reading
and what magazine it is from as the logo is there, which will make them
want to buy the magazine further.