Evaluationof my Media Product

“Airwaves”Indie Music Magazine

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge

forms and conventions of real media products?

Cover ConventionsThe conventions that apply to the front cover of real Music Magazines are:

Logo/Masthead is placed top left

Leader for main story and other stories are on the left hand side of the page with a single photograph related to the main story which covers most of the page offset to the right.

Plain style sans serif font and use of block capitals for both major and minor headlines.

The barcode is on the bottom right.

Conventions and My CoverWith my front cover, I have challenged most of the conventions of the genre and used a layout similar to Cosmo..

I have the masthead/logo occupy the full width. This is to make it look more like Cosmopolitan magazine

Unlike the other magazines, I have some leaders in block capitals and some in mixed case and they are not all aligned on the left hand side of the page. I have also used a mixture of ‘girly’ serif and plain sans serif fonts.

I have also positioned my single photograph centrally instead of offset to the right and put the barcode on the bottom left instead of right.

I have challenged conventions because although I want my magazine to be recognised as belonging to the genre, it is aimed at females and I want it to stand out as looking a bit different.

Contents ConventionsOn the Contents page of real magazines, the Masthead is centred on the page and in block capitals.

The page number of the lead cover story is usually larger or has a larger photo to make it easy to find.

The page numbers themselves are large or in a contrast colour to make them stand out.

Each Content Line has the name of the artist followed by a leader that gives you a flavour of the article.

Conventions and My Contents Page

On my Contents page, I have chosen to challenge convention by using right-align for the Masthead rather than centre it on the page however I decided to stick to block capitals.

I have not made the page number of the lead cover story larger or used a larger photo but I have positioned it at the top to make it easy to find.

In line with convention, I have made the page numbers themselves large to make them stand out.

I have also followed the convention of each Content Line having the name of the artist followed by a leader that gives you a flavour of the article.