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

By Paige Henderson

For my evaluation I decided to look at the masthead as one of the aspects. The reason I am focusing on this aspect is because it is rather generic of a music magazine that is slightly popular or focuses more on the presentation rather

than the content. The masthead is in the middle of the page and it dominates most of it, enough to grab the reader’s attention.

I also wanted my magazine to be simple, therefore having just one image on the front and having a large masthead shows that. The name of my magazine is also simple and can easily relate back to it being a music magazine because it is named “Press Play” for pressing play on a CD player or iPod. It is also a

title which can sort of stick, for example the music magazine “VIBE”. This masthead is also at the top centre of the page.

The title of the

magazine

The next aspect I want to focus on for my front cover is the mise-en-scene of my image. In this image Olivia and Mikey are resting on each other and are in fact the only ones on the

front cover. This is so the magazine stays simple. Also, the reason they are resting on each other is so that it relates back to the article of them being like siblings and being close. I

wanted this to show that they were in fact close. As well, the image is very bright, the background contrasting that and being black. This is so it enhances the models. Another mise-en-scene is the make-up of the models, the fact that Olivia wears a lot of it to make

the magazine appear to be ‘girly’. She also wears a floral shirt to convey that as well. Mikey is wearing casual clothing, to appear mainly for the female audiences. In magazines it is typical for the models to be the centre of attention on the front cover, for to capture the reader’s eye. Also, to appear physically attractive for the reader to want to look at the

magazine. A music magazine to compare this to is NME – the model being the centre of attention, also wearing make-up and her clothing being the props, so that it attracts the

reader by the professional look that it gives out.

Mise-en-scene of images

The next part of my front cover I am focusing on is the title font and style. My title font and style is quite simple, the subheading and descriptions below all being in

Times New Roman, the extra band info in Arial and then the title being in Fangtasia. It conforms to the conventions of a magazine because of the bold text. I think it is important for the fonts to be simple so that it doesn’t become

overpowering when reading. However, the title of my magazine challenged the conventions because it is a completely different font that would usually be used and also has a pink drop down shadow, that adds an extra layer to the white – I

think it worked well because it changed it from being a boring simple white colour, with an extra colour to stand out. This isn’t usually seen on some

magazine covers. This keeps to the simple look.

Title font and style

Next is my contents page and the aspect I’m looking at is the costumes and props. The reason for this is because it challenges the conventions in comparison to the front cover. Because the front cover only contains one image and is mainly darkened, the contents here is much lighter and includes lots of other pictures. Firstly, if you look at the outfits from the image at the top – Mikey and Olivia are wearing different clothing

from the front cover, but this may simply convey that they have had a costume change like in other magazines. Also, they stick to the simple clothing. The next image at the

left is of Sally who wears a orange scarf and denim shirt – this is also simple, no images on her clothing, which goes with the idea of the magazine and also suits the girly pop genre of the music. For the next image, this consisted of many people – an action shot from a concert I had attended. I wanted this to make the magazine seem

more real, therefore the people were the only props. Next is of Steph who is outdoors, wearing a brown coat – her hair is down and pinned back, it linking in with the

girlyness of the magazine. Behind her is the trees and as I wanted the image to be more natural, I wanted her to stand in front of it to take up the majority of the image.

Lastly, is of Mikey who wears a normal, black, casual jacket with a white shirt underneath – this is so that it keeps to the simple style. He is actually blowing bubble gum therefore to fit in with the pop genre – bubblegum typically representing this. This

pretty much challenges the real media products because everything is simple and isn’t so overpowering – with sticking to simple outfits and props it can still be

appealing.

Costumes and props

I decided to use my contents page again for the aspect of people. This is because it features more than just one person on the page and it has a range although the genre

being the same. My magazine challenges the conventions of real media because people in my magazine are all of the same age range, which usually is different in other magazines. My magazine also shows that it mainly revolves around women because of the female audience, which can attract the reader’s because they can perhaps look up to the models as role models. It can expand the amount of female

readers.

People

Music genreand how your magazine

suggests it

The next aspect I want to talk about is my music genre and how my magazine suggests it. The music genre is shown by the colour and for connotations, pink is usually symbolised as girly, which can also associate it being with ‘pop’ because of bubble gum. Pop is of course the genre of my magazine. Also, the models in the images don’t have instruments with them, therefore it shows that is a pop because the genre of music is usually computer generated and not made by themselves. Pop music in magazine is usually presented as it being just glamour, so it ends up focusing more on the celebrity themselves rather than the music.

Contents page

Overall, my contents page contains a lot of ways that it can form and develop the conventions of a real music magazine. Also, it features the house style colours – pink, black and white. It sticks to the way that the information is neatly presented. For example, I looked at Kerrang! Magazine to help me with my own contents page because I like the way it was set out. In my contents page there is more females than in fact males which can indicate the genre which is featured.

Written content

My double page spread article uses the forms and conventions of real media products because it is simple. It uses the standard text that a magazine would use to keep it professional.

In comparison to the official magazine below, the text is times roman, much like mine and the font size is 11 which is required. This is because the magazine is simple and sophisticated. Much like the other magazine, my content is split into columns and this is a standard presentational technique so that is easier for the audience to read the text.

Layout

For my layout it conforms media conventions because there is a range of double page spread styles therefore it is slightly difficult challenge them. I used a pull quote as the title, therefore to grab the reader’s attention.