In what ways does

your media

product use,

develop or

challenge forms

and conventions of

real media products?

Front pageFirstly, my masthead follows conventions of media products as it is the logo of the magazine. Also, it is placed in the top quarter of the page, outlining what I saw in my research. The models head in the main image overlays the masthead. This is used frequently in well-known magazines under the impression that the audience will automatically know what the text says without seeing a letter, or multiple letters. As well as this, I used a tagline to accompany the masthead as a slogan, and a quick sentence that my audience should remember. However, my masthead challenges typical media products conventions as it is a purple colour. Purple is a very feminine colour, although, my magazine is very masculine.

My font follows conventions of real media products. Most grime magazines – from my research – showed that they use graffiti or urban fonts. Therefore, according to this, my masthead, main cover line and skyline were all in an urban font. Also I realized that magazines in general use very bold fonts, therefore, I implanted this into mine.

The colour scheme of my front page follows a lot of conventional magazines of using black, white and red. These are colours usually associated with newspapers and other print forms of media.

The style of photography on my front cover is used very conventionally too. First of all, my main image identifies the rule of thirds, as it uses two thirds of the page. Furthermore, it involves a model posing as well as a plain background that can be used as background for the text. Secondly, my image that is used to promote a free poster is also conventional. When looking at possible settings to take pictures, a brick wall was one I looked at deeply. It was a good place to allow the model to stand out, and shows boldness. However for this photo, I captured shadows so that it hides identity and proves an urban background, another convention.

I have challenged the codes and conventions of a skyline as this is typically seen at the top of the page, above the title, although, whilst playing around with my product, I thought it would be best to place it on the left of the page as it stood out more, and proved bold font.

My main cover line is big, bold and stands out, which is an aspect I identified in my research. It overlays the model as I wanted it to stand out, as it is one of the main attractions for my audience to purchase the magazine. It also has a little bit of text associated with it, to explain what the article will be about. I inputted text with it as the cover line was just a quote.

I implemented my barcode into the bottom right corner of the page. I did this so it is out of the way. It is accompanied by the price of the magazine, the website and the date. I chose to use the publishing logo I made next to the barcode too, as everything formal would be in one place, therefore readers know where to look. I challenged the conventions of media products when I created a QR code. Normally these are used on the double paged spreads or contents page, although, I chose to put this above my barcode on the front cover.

ContentsMy contents page masthead was also my

logo. I saw this in many magazines when doing my research and thought it would be a good idea to include it myself. Although, I decided to make it a lot smaller than what it was on the front page, thinking of proportions normally used in media products. As I used the logo as the masthead, I decided to input ‘contents’ in the top right corner of the page so that readers aren’t confused.

My page number at the bottom involves the magazine website. This is not a common convention, though, I saw it in my research and identified that it was a good idea for my media products.

The colour scheme of my contents follows from the front page using black white and red. This shows continuity and consistency throughout my products. Also, by using red text boxes to categorize the cover lines on my contents page allows readers to be allocated to what they want to read first. Furthermore, I assist the readers by involving words such as ‘featured article’ highlighted in red to show them what kind of article it is going to be.

There is a lot of inconsistency in music magazine contents page; I found this in my research as I could not identify any typical conventions of the style of photography or images used. I saw a lot of image based contents pages as well as text based. Because my demographic is a younger audience – and they’re more visual – I chose to challenge the text based contents page and involve a lot of images. I used 8 images on the page; all structured to only use half the page and allow the other half of the page to explain what each image was about. I used two big images in the middle of the page to show the reader that these are the most important articles (one of which was my featured article/double paged spread) and this would help them identify which they would want to read first. The next two most important, I displayed at the top of the images split into two, portrait, so that it would stand out and fit the page. The 4 least important to my magazine I displayed at the bottom.

To show the readers which image links to which cover line, I have displayed the page number next to the cover line and involved the number on the images in a big, bold and white font.

I have involved ‘contents’ at the top in case the readers were un-sure due to the masthead being the name of the magazine.

Double page

For my double paged spread, I continued to show the website next to the page number to show consistency throughout my magazine. However, I challenged the convention here by using it in a different colour font. This is because the colour scheme of my double paged spread also contradicts the colour scheme of the magazine. I chose to challenge this convention as I thought it would be a good idea to allow the double paged spread to stand out. This shows that it is important enough to the magazine that they could change the whole colour scheme just to involve it.

One main reason why I chose to change my colour scheme was because of the style of photography and the image I chose to use. I chose to use this image as the model looks very intimidated and shy; this is what I saw whilst researching. Also, he has his hood up which shows him hiding his identity. This contradicts the fact that he is explaining his life story in the same article. I thought a good idea would be to change the colour scheme for just the article because it would match the colour of the model’s costume. The photography was clever because I made sure I included a plain area. This was so I could include text without having to use a text box.

The writing style in my article follows conventions of media products. Firstly the masthead of the double paged spread is the same as the main cover line on the front cover, although, I have challenged the convention by changing the colour of the title. I did this because I changed the colour scheme of the article. Secondly, I followed media conventions by the first letter of the article being bigger than the rest. This is shown commonly throughout any type of article. Also, the introductory paragraph that I involved uses a blue coloured font. This links to the colour of the model’s clothing. When the title is involved in the text (at the end) I have used a blue font to display this too. This shows that thought has been taken to use the title in the main body.