in what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media...

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In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? (Here black font signifies my uses of conventions and red signifies where I have challenged conventions.) Front Cover: My magazine fits the left side third rule which is a typical Convention of magazines which my product uses. This is visible as the mast head and main cover line are on the left side of the cover. This is done because people read from left to right so when people are looking to buy the magazine they will look at the title and cover line first which are the most important features. Must important features My magazine uses a limited colour scheme of three colours which is conventional of magazines aimed at an adult target audience. Magazines aimed at children and young teens use lots of colours as it’s very visually appealing to a child, to appeal to an older target audience a limited range of colours are used on magazines aimed at adults. It also makes the magazine look more sophisticated and professional. The branding/house style of the magazine is maintained through a consistent colour scheme. Brown Black White Red Black White Using a banner on my magazine enabled me to include more layering and therefore more information. It also allowed me to differentiate between the articles – the banner uses smaller font and isn’t central in the page which suggests this article isn’t as important. The much larger “banner” at the bottom of the page also allows me to include more layering as well as colour which is visually appealing. As it is colourful and layered on top of the other articles it is apparent that this is a big article within the magazine. The layering technique is a very common convention of magazines as it means more information can be put on one page which not only looks better due to a created depth, but suggests a better quality magazine with much more content which is Banner

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Answer to a media evaluation question.

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

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?(Here black font signifies my uses of conventions and red signifies where I have challenged conventions.)

Front Cover:

My magazine fits the left side third rule which is a typicalConvention of magazines which my product uses. This isvisible as the mast head and main cover line are on theleft side of the cover. This is done because people readfrom left to right so when people are looking to buy the magazine they will look at the title and cover linefirst which are the most important features.

Must important features

My magazine uses a limited colour scheme of three colours which is conventional of magazines aimed at an adult target audience. Magazines aimed at children and young teens use lots of colours as it’s very visually appealing to a child, to appeal to an older target audience a limited range of colours are used on magazines aimed at adults. It also makes the magazine look more sophisticated and professional. The branding/house style of the magazine is maintained through a consistent colour scheme.

Brown

BlackWhite

Red

Black

WhiteUsing a banner on my magazine enabled me to include more layering and therefore more information. It also allowed me to differentiate between the articles – the banner uses smaller font and isn’t central in the page which suggests this article isn’t as important. The much larger “banner” at the bottom of the page also allows me to include more layering as well as colour which is visually appealing. As it is colourful and layered on top of the other articles it is apparent that this is a big article within the magazine. The layering technique is a very common convention of magazines as it means more information can be put on one page which not only looks better due to a created depth, but suggests a better quality magazine with much more content which is therefore worth the price.

Banner

Page 2: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

The cover line of my magazine uses the largest font. This is done because the cover line is the most important/biggest article in the magazine. Therefore by using a big font the title of the article stands out more and gets the audience’s attention which informs them about the magazine content. The cover line also generally relates to the main image of the magazine which is clear as they are both the largest items on the page and therefore have an obvious link to one another.

Cover line

My magazine uses smaller images surrounding the main image which relate to the plugs. This is done to give information about the band or artist and their image very quickly to the reader at a glance.

Surround main image – don’t cover it

The masthead of the magazine is in the top left hand corner. This means that when the reader looks at the magazine their eyes automatically go straight to its name and are informed immediately which magazine they are looking at. When magazines used to be stacked in shops they were layered in a manner that only the left side would be visible. By having the masthead and cover line on the left side of the page it was always visible in shops even when they magazines were layered on top of each other. Having my masthead and cover line in this place was typical to the codes and conventions of magazines.

Masthead

The barcode is in the bottom right hand corner. This is because the information isn’t very important so it is the last thing the reader looks at from left to right, top to bottom. Generally the price is also in the barcode box which means it is almost ‘hidden’ to the reader.

Page 3: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

I haven’t layered my main image or any other text over the masthead of my magazine. This challenges the conventions of magazines. Usually it is done as popular and well established magazines can afford to hide some of their title as it is recognisable and the focus can then go to the main image and cover line. As my magazine is new people will not know the title so I didn’t cover it. The audience can therefore see the masthead completely as currently this is the most important thing to promote the magazine.

The cover line of my magazine is on the left hand side of my page unlike the other magazines which have it across the page. Although this allows the font to be bigger and stand out more, I went against this as I wanted to follow the left side third rule so my most important articles were read first.

Masthead completely visible

Masthead slightly covered by main image

Central cover line

Cover line following left side third rule

Page 4: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

The masthead of my magazine is on my contents page which is a way of maintaining the branding and house style of my magazine and is promotion of the magazine itself. Most magazines do this to keep a consistent house style throughout all of the pages to remind readers of the brand.

As well as the masthead there is a title informing the reader that the page is the contents page. This means that they can quickly find what is in the magazine and find the article page easily. It is a quick overview of the magazines content which is very informative to the reader and has a clear representation of the theme of the magazine in one page.

On the contents page are a list of articles which feature in the magazine; they are split up under subheadings which allows the reader to find an article much more easily by simply finding the category it is under. It also ensures that the reader is not overwhelmed by one big block of text. This is a typical convention of magazine contents pages to make the reader’s life easier.

Masthead completely visible

Subheadings

Subheadings

Contents Page:

Page 5: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

The articles themselves have titles and a page number next to them. This allows the reader to navigate the magazine without problems.

Page numbers

A main image, the largest and usually central image on the page, takes up most of the page and relates to the cover line of the magazine. For music magazines the image is traditionally of the band/artist and usually has a caption with information about the article which is short and to the point to quickly inform the reader about the content of the article.

Surrounding the main image are smaller images which relate to other articles listed on the contents page. These images are also typically of bands (in music magazines) which are referred to in the articles. It is a typical convention to have the page number of the article the image is relating to on the picture.

Smaller surrounding images Smaller

surrounding images

Page 6: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

A way in which my contents page challenges the traditional codes and conventions of a magazine is by not including boxes etc. to boarder/fill behind text or information. I didn’t do this as I thought it would clutter the page and the audience wouldn’t be able to differentiate between images and text as easily.

Another way is by comparing the size of my masthead and contents page title. Typically the contents page title is much larger than the masthead as it is the title heading, however on my magazine the masthead is larger than the contents page title. I did this because it promotes my magazine more by pushing the focus towards the magazine title which I think is important as it is a brand new magazine.

Smaller masthead than contents title

Smaller contents title than masthead

Page 7: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

The title of the article is on the right hand page at the top, large enough to take up the width of the page. Often it has the name of the artist in this space as well. It is at the top of the page as the audience will read top to bottom of the page so it is one of the first things they see. The size of the article name also makes the reader look at the article first. This means that they can recognise the content of it immediately, referencing it to the contents page.

Double Page Spread:

The main image of the magazine is conventionally on the left hand page and takes up the entire space. Typically in a music magazine it is of an the artist being spoken about. The spacing and size means that the image is the first thing that anyone would look at. This promotes the artist and means they are recognised as being important to the article. Images are also visually appealing and allow the reader to enjoy an article more without being overloaded with just text.

Under the article title and above the article itself is usually an overview of what the article will cover or the question the article will answer. This means that the reader can read over this quickly and get a brief understanding of what they are about to read and whether they have an interest in it or not. It is informative and precise to appeal to a wider audience than just those who are strong readers.

Overview

Page 8: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

The article itself is in a column format, conventionally 3 or 4 columns are seen. Columns are used as they are give the magazine a format and structure. Columns are easier to read as they are narrower and therefore allow faster reading which draws an audience in more to read the article. They also make the page look much more organised and because of this more visually appealing.

Within the text or around the image pull quotes are taken from the article and enlarged or highlighted making them stand out. They are short and precise, making a clear point or thought in a few words. This means that when they are read the audience gains knowledge or information quickly about the content of the article or about the artist. The words chosen may be used to represent the artist and genre of music that the magazine covers. When used within the text these pull quotes also break up the article making it less daunting to the reader.

A double page spread usually fits a colour scheme. This colour scheme is limited to 3 or 4 colours. The colour scheme is there to make the article look more professional, represent the artist/music genre through the connotations of each colour and to stick to the branding and house style of the magazine. This means that it is recognised as being part of that magazine and it also promotes the magazine.

Black red and white colour scheme

Page 9: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

I have followed more codes and conventions of magazines than I have challenged because I wanted to make my magazine look more realistic and professional. I did this by sticking to the format of existing magazines and only challenging conventions to aid the representation of my music genre and artist.

The first word of an article often uses a ‘dropped capital’ taking up a few lines. This means the first letter is obviously a lot larger and consequently draws the eye to the article for the viewer to read. I did not use this technique as I felt that it wouldn’t fit in with the genre of the magazine. I commonly associate the use of dropped capitals with fairy tales and story books which are generally for younger children and have happy endings. Rock music and my magazine is represented as rebellious and extreme. This contrasts with the association I make with dropped capitals so I didn’t feel it fitted in well.

Dropped capital

Often interviews are written in a question and answer format. I didn’t use this format as I felt it was too simple and didn’t allow more complex language techniques to be included in the article. Often articles aimed at a younger target audience use this format as it is an easier read. As my target audience is older than these and has a fair income, they may thrive off a more complicated read. Using paragraphs to include the answers to various questions I have managed to achieve more complex language.

Question and answer

Paragraph format