Question 1: Forms and Conventions In what ways does your media product use,

develop or challenge forms and conventions

of real media products?

Front CoverA Masthead is to engage and interest the audience intobuying your magazine. As in most magazine the mastheadis at the top and the largest text on the page I went for thesame convention. I developed this by finding anappropriate font for the audience I was aiming for. I chosea bold and tall font as I believe that this would work bestwith the genre of the magazine and also the type of imagesI had produced.

Kickers and Cover lines are an essential part of mymagazine cover as the cover lines are a convention for allmagazines and I also decided that you couldn’t have amagazine without kickers and cover lines as you wouldjust end up with an image for the front cover. These arealso an essential item in my magazine as it tells theaudience what to expect will be in the magazine they willbe purchasing.

The main text on the front cover is the headlineas this it the largest and most important as it isthe artist that is going to be repeated throughoutthe whole magazine as this is what I am trying tomake prominent amongst the whole front cover.

Front Cover

The selling line and menu strip are both similarand tie the magazine together well. I noticedthis was also another magazine convention as itdraws in the audience. I did try not using a theselling line and menu strip to see if themagazine still looked pretty much the same butthis was not the case and I then realised howimportant both these things are to a successfulmusic magazine.

My main image is the largest item on the page asthis is a music magazine convention. I lied myimage on top of the masthead as at the momentmy artist is on top of the world as in the article itmentions that she is new to the music industry andis rising to the top

Front Cover

I think that the flash is an importantthing in a magazine as this shows thatthere is more than advertised on themagazine and this also draws in moreattention from the audience.

The secondary lead simply meansexactly what is says and this is thesecond thing the audience should bedraw to. I followed a magazineconvention of having the secondary leadpaired with a relating image and I thinkthis works really well with mymagazine as it leaves less white spaceand with it being in the bottom cornerbelow the kickers and cover linesmakes the audience follow the text tothe image.

Contents Page

The section header and issue/dateline isan essential in a contents page as this iswhat tells you what page you are onand also the date to which it has beenpublished.

The navigation panel is the main thing everycontents magazine has because this tells youexactly what is in the magazine and whatpages everything is on.

The section headers are there to divide upthe navigation panel and make it easier forthe audience to find exactly what they arelooking for and it is kind of like the contentsof a section in the contents page .

The main feature is an image from thesecondary lead on the front page andthis is to show a bit more about thatspecific article.

Contents Page

The inset shots are there to kind of likepromote the slightly smaller articles and byputting an image to the features can give theaudience more of an interest in the featurearticle which is intended for. Having insetshots are also conventional for musicmagazines as by recognising the artists facestraight away can lead with a instant purchaseof the magazine.

Although this is not conventional formagazines I thought that a top 40 chartswould be vital for my magazine as I amfocusing on the charts and this alsomakes it appeal to my audience a lotmore as you then don’t have to wait tolisten to the radio for the charts.

Double Page Article

The Headline is used to grab the audiences attention tothe specific page and for this I used the same text to myfront cover as this made the up house style. Because I waskeeping the background white I though that it would bebest to give my headline a text box behind to make it standout more as although it is centred it would have too muchwhite space and although I do still have white space it isminimal and I think works quite effectively.

The image I used I changed toblack and white to create aneffective look and as I added ashadow I think it makes it looklike the image was actually themain background.

Pull quotes are essential inmusic magazine articles andalso are a convention. I thinkthat pull quotes are reallyeffective because it gives asample of the type of languagein the article.

Double Page Article

The inset shot works perfectly for my article as this isthe only thing that is in colour which suggests that ismaybe a memory from the artist and with them allgathered tightly together suggests love which alsorelates to the pull quote.

The article is the most importantthing in the double page as withoutit, it would just become a pointlessposter in a magazine. This showsthe audience about the featureartist and gives them a slight lookinto the artists life and what it islike. For my article I made sure itrelated well with my audience andas it is aimed at older teens Iincluded some questions involvingsocial networking and other thingsthat are important to them.