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

2. When producing a magazine (in this case a music magazine) there are many
conventions you have to consider. These features tell us what the product is
and what audience it is aimed at. If the conventions are achieved successfully;
familiarity will be made with the public. They will then link the theme or house
style of your product with a certain target audience/group of people that have a
shared interest.
See the print screen images I’ve produced, without even looking at the search
bar you can tell that they are pages of a music magazine.
FRONT CONTENTS DOUBLE GENERAL: PHOTOS:
Here are conventions of a magazine.
COVER: PAGE: PAGE
ARTICLE:
Masthead, Columns, headings, Headline / title, House style, grid system, Shot size and angle used
banner, sell-lines, ordering, stand-first / slug / by text / image balance, (mid shot, close up, long
strap-line, images, captions, line, drops cap, pull use of whitespace, serif shot, high angle, low
sell-lines/ editorial, contact quote, columns, or sans serif typeface / angle, mid angle)
cover-lines, details, captions, font choices, colour filters and / or lighting
puffs, motif/ logo, page grid system scheme, mode of used, studio or location or
pugs, number, address (direct or live shot,
cover image, grid system indirect) posed or natural,
secondary design choices mise-en-scene choices
images, (costume, hair, make up,
anchorage, props) Editing -
grid system enhancements, air
brushing, cropping,

6. Front cover
Masthead-
familiarising self with
Secondary image
Price public
Barcode- this
gives the product
it’s identity
Puff-makes the text
stand out; catching
readers eye
Indirect mode of
address- less Sell line- attracts readers
personal to the Buzz word- catches
reader readers attention
Anchorage-
giving preview
Anchorage of some of the
features inside
the issue
Banner/strapline- Secondary image
contrasts with
background and the rest Cover image
of the text, automatically
Posed shot- direct stance- eye contact, compensating
making reader look at the
for the lack of directness in anchorage
highlighted text

7. Colours: contrast of dark and
Contents page
light- main intention
Conventions
Page number
Headings- brief explanation of
feature
Ordering-
chronological
order, this
flows
Image
Image- reader will see
image then know what
the text beside it will
be about and will then
know the subject will
be in the issue

8. Double page spread
Conventions
Stand-first- explains the Pull quote-intrigues reader to carry
American house on reading. Title- giving initial
content
style detail to genre, also
play on words, new as
in genre ( nu metal)
Subheading- gives extra
and ‘new’.
information on the
content of the interview
Air brushing- creating a
Columns flawless skin effect,
Separating text to make which differentiates the
it easy to read celebrity to the average
person.
Main image- straight
away, readers know who
this interview is with.
Web site-
Letting reader
know where to find
cd

9. Front covers
Masthead
The typeface for KERRANG Has raged edges, it has an Sell lines/ puffs
exclamation mark at the end which demonstrates the
nature of the magazine- very in your face, this also suits KERRANG and LOUDER (my music magazine)
the chosen target market. I also with LOUDER chose to have both used puffs to highlight sell lines that will
use a very bold masthead, in keeping with my magazine attract readers to buying the issue. I looked at
theme, I tried to get a similar font to KERRANG as you different existing KERRANG issues and this
can see. Although it is a very bold font for both seemed to happen in most issues, so therefore I
magazines; they are being overlapped with the cover chose to use a puff for my sell line too.
image, which says that that is more important than the Cover image
rest of the conventions surrounding it.
KERRANG have used a mid close up shot whereas I have chosen an
almost full length shot, both images are of artists are looking directly at
the camera, this creates a direct mode of address. They are both also
Colour schemes posing , however differently, on KERRANG the male is ‘shhh-ing’ as
that is relevant to the cover line. The model I have chosen on my front
When deciding the colour scheme for cover of LOUDER is a female holding a guitar which leaves readers
LOUDER I didn’t base it entirely on other presuming (if they don’t already know her) that her genre of music is to
music magazines I had looked at, I had taken do with the instrument.
not of the feedback from my focus group. I
have gone for basic colours mainly, black and
white with a ‘splash of colour’ like suggested.
Where as KERRANG use a wide range of
colours but it still works for them due to their
target audience and main music genres in the
content of the magazine.
LOUDER cover line
KERRANG cover line
and front cover
and front cover

10. Double page spread
Title
LOUDERS title on ‘KirstD’ is a play on Subheading
words, whereas KERRANG go straight
to the point and use the bands name as Both subheadings are in red font against the
the title. I have chosen different capital shade black, which is a perfect contrasting
letters for a newspaper/ransom note combination, appropriate for the magazines.
effect like other music magazines When I looked at subheadings on
choose to in double page spreads. magazines, it is very common for the
sentence to be followed by ellipses to make
LOUDER title the reader want to read on to the main text.
However my subheading is in a plain sans-
LOUDER serif font whereas KERRANG have gone for a
subheading bold capitalized sans-serif font that is similar
KERRANG title to the title font.
KERRANG subheading
Capital letters Grid systems
On an article or interview etc, on the Both my magazine and KERRANG have used
starting paragraph, the first capital letter grid systems to organize the paragraphs so
will be much larger and sometimes it’s easier for the reader to read.
different colour in comparison to the rest
of the text. I as well as KERRANG have
used a red larger font in this instance.
LOUDE
R
LOUDER KERRANG KERRAN
G

11. Contents page
As my current contents page has limited
conventions, I will continue to adapt until I
have used a variety of them so I will produce
a professional finished contents page that is
magazine quality.

12. Evaluation
When I was creating my magazine I was looking at a KERRANG
magazine to see the formality of its layout, so I could produce a
similar looking magazine, that’s why in the process of making my
music magazine I looked at different conventions of their issues to
try and distribute them like they have done. I also analysed their
pages to pick out the reasoning behind each aesthetic feature. I
learned to adapt the magazine to suit its audience, in addition so
that it was similar yet different to other magazines out there
according to it’s colour scheme: this is what differentiates itself
from KERRANG because I have chosen a less varied colour pallet
for my house style and throughout. As well as choosing a classier
colour scheme; I chose a fashionable more mainstream image for
the front cover (even though she would come under the KERRANG
styled music category).