EVALUATION QUESTION 1

By Shayne Quiseo

Media Studies

Question 1

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

Existing music magazine front cover

My own produced music magazine front cover

The Layout – the structure of the magazine all depends on the front cover image. I have ensured that every secondary cover lines are away off her face because it is the Unique selling point of this product. I have also kept the model right in the centre of the ‘rule of thirds’ to show her importance in this magazine’s article.

The masthead – I have not used the same font style as to what the VIBE magazine uses because I thought it would not look original. If I were to use this font, the masthead would be a lot smaller as it has more letters included in it, but the color red still helps it stand out to attract its audience (The font I have used is called ‘RiotSquad’). I have moved it to the front covering a part of the models forehead because if it was placed behind, the customers won’t be able to recognize what it says because it is not a very common word/ not a very popular magazine. The background –I was inspired with this front

cover, so I have decided to use the same background color. Luckily the image I have captured suits the color scheme. The color blue allows the masthead to stand out much more brighter. Text colors – I’ve tried to color every text on the

front cover with only red and white but it was not very affective as the white texts does not stand out very well due to the model’s white striped dress, so I have decided to change some text’s color to yellow and also shadows for every secondary cover lines to help it stand out more.

The main image – this is another example of VIBE magazine’s front cover. I was also inspired with this image that I had to copy the model’s pose, except for the props and the costumes she is wearing. I have tried to make my model looking attractive and sexy (which is how R&B artists are generally portrayed in magazines) by the use of mise en scene such as eating a strawberry which I think looks sexy and the model’s facial expression with her mouth slightly open.

Cover lines – For a music magazine, it would be expected to have a name of an R&B artist included for its secondary cover lines which are one of the topics our customers would look for.

Plus – Most music magazines would add a plus sign on their front cover to give out extra features for its customers. In this VIBE magazine, as you can see they have only added one extra feature. On my magazine, I have added 3 names of the popular music artists that my target audiences may find interesting to look through. This again will help attract more customers in purchasing my product.

Written Content From my previous research of R&B magazines, I

have studied carefully what sort of topics they include in their product. For the front cover, I have added a lot of music related secondary cover lines such as famous R&B singers, music festival/ awards, music chart and fashion for women who are also interested in this category.

This magazine’s language is in a form of a humorous personality by the use of exclamatory marks and rhetorical questions in letting the readers get involve into the subject. This attracts the readers to read through the article by making it sound enjoyable.

People in the magazineIn this magazine’s contents page, I have ensured that there are also other secondary images of other people to show that it does not only focus on one person.

The Music Genre I personally think that this magazine’s genre

is achieved by the use of its style, secondary cover lines, images and its features which are all related to this genre’s music industry.

One example which shows that this magazine’s genre is its Top music chart. It all shows the top 10 R&B songs:

The other example is its masthead name. The name ‘Ambiance’ is another adjective of VIBE which is a popular R&B magazine that this magazine is mainly inspired in.

Lastly, its main cover line – this is about Timea Vaczkan’s story of her journey to success of being the young R&B star singer.

Contents Page In this page, I have also chosen examples from 2

different companies. These are from the Billboard magazine and the Ebony magazine.

I have mainly copied their contents page’s structure and some ideas: Billboard magazine’s ‘Music Chart’, Ebony’s page structure.

I have added an editor’s note under the top music chart area as most contents page from different magazines have this. This gives more information to the readers about the magazine to keep them interested in reading through the article and to also excite them with the extra features it has.

Billboard magazine’s contents page

Ebony’s contents page

My own produced contents page

Billboard magazine’s contents page

Ebony’s contents page

My own produced contents page