EVALUATION| QUESTION 1

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

When I was creating my music magazine, I knew that certain aspects of it would have to of been to quite similar to other music magazines in order for it to do well with my target audience. To help me get an idea of all the different conventions used in a typical music magazine, I took a look at teen magazines such as Top of the Pops and Teen Now as they both have the same audience that I was aiming for.

For example, this is a screenshot of my masthead taken from the front cover of my magazine. The masthead is a key convention and helps to show the genre of my magazine. I looked at a range of different fonts on 'dafont' but decided to go with using this font in the end as it was big and bold which meant it would stand out on the rest of the page. Even though that it is placed behind the model, you can still make out what it says and doesn't get lost in the image. Similarly to 'Teen Now', the title includes the word 'Teen' which again helps to represent the genre of my magazine and show who it is aimed at.

This is the main sell line on the front cover of my magazine. I decided to place it in the lower rule of thirds but in the centre, this meant it stood out and you knew that the quote went with the main image. I wrote the main sell line in a much larger and bolder font so that the target audience will be able to identify that it was the main story that would be featured in the magazine. This is an example of a convention from a real magazine as this is what gives the TA an idea of what the magazine is going to be about.

This is the main image that is on the front cover of my magazine. It is important that the main image is large and clear as that is what they are like on any other music magazine or any magazines in general. I placed my image in the middle so it took up the full page which helped to make it look more professional and dominant. I took this image in my own house with the help of my friend Ellie to model. I made sure that I asked my model to style in clothes that would fit with the 'pop' genre so my audience would be able to relate to her and it contrasted well with the rest of the magazine.



This is a screenshot of the most necessary information that had to be included on the front cover of my magazine. It was key that I included the issue number, price, date and a barcode as these are conventions that are used for real products. I made the text pink so that it stood out and you were able to find them easily on the page and they weren't lost within the rest of the text that is there.







This is the banner that I included on the front cover of my magazine. This convention is very common in magazines that are of the pop genre, so I thought I would incorporate it into my own work so that it would interest my target audience. I wrote this as my banner as it was related to the genre of my magazine and would help to attract people into buying the magazine.

Contents page 

I think that I have developed the forms and conventions that are used on the contents page of a music magazine. This is because although the layout is quite similar to Top of the Pops magazine, I decided to try putting my own spin on it. For example, in TOTP they section off different features into small boxes, whereas I have created one larger box and wrote inside of it. This also helped to make you focus on it more as I used two different shades of pink to make it stand out. The different headlines allow the target audience to identify what is the magazine and can find certain articles faster and clearer.

Top of the Pops contents page

Top of the Pops also only use a small range of images, so I only used two pictures. I think I would have liked to put a few more in to make it look more appealing but I didn't have enough space. My contents page also challenges the forms and conventions of any other real product because I have only used one page for my contents page whereas the majority of other music magazines use two. I also placed two more banners on the contents page, one of them relating back to the one that is used on the front cover of my magazine. The other banner is a reference to the magazines twitter page which makes it more appealing to the TA as it is giving them more options to interact with the magazine and feel apart of it.

Double Page Spread

I used this sentence at the end of the interview in my double page spread, I put the text into colour which helped to make it stand out on the page and would allow the audience to realise that it wasn't part of the interview. This uses the conventions of a real media product as I have seen a lot of other music magazines do this at the end of interviews.

This is a screenshot of part of the interview in my magazine. I would say that I have developed the forms and conventions of a real media product as I have mentioned the audience in the interview. This will make the audience feel like they have been apart of the process of the interview and will feel happy that their questions are actually being answered.

This is one of the sell lines I have used on my double page spread to help attract the audience into reading the interview. As my target audience are young girls, they will be interested in reading some beauty tips and may aspire to be like the artist mentioned in the interview.

 Another aspect that I have developed from another magazine is the music genre and how my own suggests it. I believe that my own magazine suggests my genre through the use of colour and fonts.  As you can see the main colour scheme I have focused my magazine on is different shades of pink. Pink has connotations of feminism which helps to show that my magazine is aimed at young girls.

Here is a link to the prezi I have created:
http://prezi.com/jzhmub30b17s/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share