Question 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms of real media

products?

The front cover

The masthead

Cover imageUse of the left third

Cover lines

Barcode & price

“More” feature band at the bottom

More cover lines

Cover story

Issue number & date

Issue number & date

Masthead

Cover lines

Image

Cover story

Cover lines

Cover story

Masthead

More artists

Track listings

Interview – cover lines

Cover lines

Barcode

Masthead

Cover lines

Cover story

Image

Image

Cover lines

Used conventions Developed conventions Challenges conventions

Masthead – this was used in my front cover and matches the conventions of similar music magazines e.g. Billboard or Rolling Stone. However, it is less like Q magazine as there masthead is more like a logo.

Masthead – the masthead could also be in this category. This is because if I was only looking at the pop magazine Q then as it’s masthead is at the top of the left third then my masthead would be developing this as it’s more in the style of Billboard and Rolling Stone.

Prop – on my front cover I have used the prop of a guitar, looking at other pop genre front covers this is not as conventional. However, this isn’t unconventional as guitars are a prop of the pop genre and in other pop magazines there have been some images of guitars, so this prop slightly challenges the conventions.

Left third – the use of the left third is conventional for similar magazines. Looking at similar products I can see that in my magazine I have used the left third, however, this feature is not used in the Billboard front cover.

Cover story – although all the similar products did use cover story’s as this is a convention, my cover story seemed to take up a higher proportion of the page than other magazines did. However, after doing research into similar products, they quite often use bigger cover story’s very much like mine is.

Use of banded cover story – To make my cover story stand out I had it written on red bands – fitting in with my house style – I haven’t seen this feature on any pop music magazines. So I think it challenges the conventional cover story/cover lines format of straight on top of the image. Although, mine appears unconventional I think it works as it stands out on the page and helps to create a consistent house style.

Image – a majorly obvious convention is the image. I have used this convention as I have one main image of the cover story artist in a long shot. I decided to include the prop of a guitar, but looking at other magazines not many of them include props, they are mainly just an image of the artist and they express the story through make up, costume and pose rather than prop.

Barcode & date – this is used in some similar products, but because I based my magazine on Billboard’s style I decided to use the barcode. This is a convention of pop magazines. However, it is not common on every single pop magazine I researched into, making it a slight development of conventions.

Image – in a way my image challenges the conventions of a conventional pop magazine, this is because usually the images are in front of the masthead, but on my front cover the image and masthead are level – this could also be due to the red band style I have which would not look conventional at all if the image was in front of it.

Contents Page

Masthead

Title

Features

What’s in every issue

Reviews section (similar to Q Magazine)

Top ten chart (similar to Billboard)

Page reference & title

Image

Caption

Image

Page reference & title

Subscription offer

Title

Features

In every issue

Page references

Images

Track listings

Masthead

Title

Image

Page references

Features

In every issue

Contents

Image

Page references

TitleDate & issue number

Masthead

Features

Image

Page references

Review

More contents

Contents

In every issue

Page references

Image

Used conventions Developed conventions Challenges conventions

Title – I used this so that readers knew what the page was. This is used in all of the other magazine contents pages I looked at so it a definite convention. By using this my magazine fits in with the genre of pop music magazines.

Images – typically there are images on the contents cover but generally these are images of the artists featured and there are usually different sized images. I have developed this convention further, by using an image of an artist as well as an image of a concert, I’ve done this so I can appeal to a wider audience of people who are interested in both the music and the artists behind it.

Chart listing – this feature is used in Billboard but theirs is a major focus on there contents page. I wanted to use this idea but developed and changed it so – as my magazine is weekly – there are the top tracks for that week. I used Billboard’s idea but made it more concise and made it into a part of my house style. But using influence from research, this helped make my magazine conventional.

Masthead - I used the masthead in my contents page, this is a convention, more so in Q and Billboard than Rolling Stone, but it helps to create a consistent house style which is a convention of all music magazines. I tried to create an original house style but used similar colours to Rolling Stone in order to use my audience feedback and appeal to my target audience.

Contents sections – this is a convention of pop magazine contents pages. The contents is split into different sections. But I have developed this further and completely separated different parts of the contents: rather than just with titles of the areas of the contents, I’ve used text boxes as well so they are clearly separated.

Image captions – although it is conventional to have a page reference and perhaps a title for the article it refers to it is not conventional to also have a caption, so my captions challenge the convention in this way.

“In every issue” - this was a feature of the contents pages I looked at; a section of the contents that readers can expect every issue. I decided to do this in order to create a consistent style for my magazine, making it more conventional.

Images – although the images are conventional for the genre I have developed their layout further. Looking at other pop magazine contents pages the images are generally more ordered than the way mine are laid out. I decided to have them cluttered slightly in order to make it look “choppy” and cutting edge to appeal to my target audience.

Subscription offer – looking at other pop magazines I have researched I did not seen any other subscriptions offer so in this way my magazine challenges the conventions of the type of pop magazine I produced. Although it is fairly common in pop magazines aimed at younger audiences. The subscription offer is due to the fact this is a “pilot” magazine, if you will, it’s the first issue so has no consistent readers.

Double Page Spread

HeadlineStand firstBy lineKicker

Full-page photo

Page number

Issue number & date

Caption Body text

Pull quote

Interview

Small image

Headline

Stand first

Kicker

Body text Full page photo

Headline Caption

Full page photoBy line

Kicker

Stand firstBody text

Body text

Kicker

Full page photo

Used conventions Developed conventions Challenges conventions

Headline – it is conventional to have a headline on a double page spread of a pop music magazine. My headline is conventional in this way and it’s typography style of clear and easy to read is also conventional, it is a san serif font and helps to make the double page spread.

Body text – the body text is a convention of pop genre magazines but I developed this further and incorporated an interview into the body text as well as a typical article. I did this because an important part of my production was creating an original house style for my magazine, this development helped to do this.

Smaller image – the smaller image used on the right page is not a typical convention of pop magazines. It is a convention for some (e.g. the Rihanna double page in Billboard) however, I wanted to use a smaller image in addition to my full page photo. This was because it was important for the creation of a house style.

Main image – the main image is a conventional feature of double page spreads in music magazines. This is because it is a full page photo and although a long shot is not the most common shot type expected in pop music magazines it works here as I also have a close up high angle shot as well.

Page number – the page number at the bottom of the page is a convention of pop genre magazine, but I took this a step further and put the issue number and date next to this. This has been done in other pop magazines and I think it helps create a consistent house style and so I used this convention for my double page spread.

Colours – the colours are fairly conventional for a pop music magazine. However, it is not conventional to have different colours of body text in the type of pop magazines I have researched into. However, my magazine is aimed at a wide target audience so different colours caters for the younger of my target audience.

Pull quote – I have used two pull quotes in my main body text, this feature is a convention of pop music magazines. This is because it highlights important parts of the article and holds the attention of the readers. I have used this convention because the cover story I wrote is supposed to be both hard hitting and inspiring and so I wanted to pick out significant parts in order to attract readers’ attention to the most important parts.

Stand first – these are typically used in pop music magazines so are a convention, however, my stand first is slightly longer than a typical stand first. So in this way I have developed the convention further. I did this because the layout of the page needed a slightly longer page and as this is a fictional artist I had to make the story a bit more believable so the slightly longer stand first allowed me to create a background for this artist making the story and therefore this magazine page more convincing and real.

Headline – the headline is conventional, but in some aspects it challenges the conventions. This is because typically headlines take up a higher proportion of the page. However, mine is only slightly bigger than the body text. I did this in order to make sure there was room for my body text. Another reason was to start to create an original style, in trying to be a little unconventional in some areas of my magazine I have tried to reach a different audience. There are so many magazines, mine needed to have a unique and original style.