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

Before I created my media product I researched what you would typically find on a magazine cover, contents page and a double page spread so I knew how to make my product look conventional, I found examples of music magazine covers and compared them to see what is typical in all magazines, I found a variety of conventions including:

On my magazine I tried to follow these conventions throughout so my magazine looked conventional and realistic, on my magazine I used a bold masthead at the top of the magazine as that and the artists image should be the main factor and the masthead brands the magazine so people can easily see what the name is especially as it is a new magazine, I used this image on the magazine to get the audience’s attention to make them want to buy the magazine and to appeal to my target audience which is why I followed these conventions

I also made the name of my music artist in bold as well to make it easy to recognize who my artist is; this is typical on a music magazine cover so my target audience can easily spot the magazine as my artists name is obvious and she is a new artist so I wanted people to notice her name so they are interested in reading the magazine, I stuck by this convention as I think it is crucial to a magazine as this is the main cover line on my magazine I made it in the middle of the page and a different colour to the other cover lines so my audience could see what the main focus is on the magazine, I did this otherwise the magazine would not look realistic if I had changed it.

When creating my magazine I used a colour scheme that would appeal to a young audience as I've used bright a bright blue colour to be more appealing instead of using subtle colours which would appeal to a older target audience, I used 3 main colours (blue, black and grey) I used two dark colours so the blue would be more noticeable over the plain colours ,when creating my product I stuck to the generic convention to make it look suitable

In my research I found a music magazine cover ‘Billboard’ and saw how they represented their music magazine and they used the same genre of music as I had, this gave me examples on where I should place features on my magazine, I wanted to stick to the conventions on which a magazine should have especially the conventions for a pop magazine so mine looks real I tried to put everything my target audience wanted in the magazine so it would appeal to them.

Overall I followed all the generic conventions as well as I could because I wanted my magazine to look conventional and for my target audience to easily recognize the magazine, following these conventions made it easier to produce so I knew I wasn’t changing an important feature would make it not look realistic and to appeal to my audience. I made all the text from the left to the right as that is how people read text, I followed this because it’s a generic convention and makes it easier for people to read.

For my contents I looked at other magazines so I could see how to lay out my contents, I looked at conventions on content pages and found;

These generic conventions are important for my magazine to look realistic and professional, these are basic conventions which majority of magazines will follow as it appeals to my target audience, for example I have to have the page number next to the topic story so the readers can easily find the page they are looking for so they would want to buy the magazine and read the articles.

I made all the topic numbers clear and added topic headings so it is easy for my audience to find the page number and able to read the story they are interested in. When researching content pages I tried to follow them as well as I could make them look like a real magazine and to appeal to readers who will buy my magazine.

I followed most of the generic conventions; I changed the picture at the bottom of my artist by putting the double page spread on top to advertise it and make it look more creative as I think just having a photo by itself doesn’t look as good this would also appeal to a young audience, I also left the background colour of the photo I took as it went really well with the colour scheme and the lighting looked good as it was darker round the sides but the light focused on the artist.

Finally when creating my double page spread I researched examples so I knew how to lay out my page, I found different conventions for double page spread including;

In my double page spread I followed all the conventions as well as I could as I wanted it to look real and I wanted my target audience to be interested in the double page spread so they would want to read it, I did my double page spread in a different colour scheme so it had a different feel to my other pages I decided to do this to make the magazine more interesting for the readers.

I changed the image so I thought I would make the double page spread a bit lighter to have more effect on the artist and the interview, I also wanted to use a variety of colours in my magazine. I also changed the way my artist looked in my other pages I made her serious looking, in my double page I changed her attitude so my target audience would see a different side to her and made her look fun and happy to attract more people to buy the magazine as most pop artists are fun loving and happy.

I didn’t change many conventions as I wanted to stick by how it should look and I felt I didn’t need to do anything else to change it, my double page spread looks different to the Lady Gaga one as I have a masthead and a quote on the top where the other one does not, I did this so the buyers could read the pull quote and be interested which would make them want to buy the magazine.