Q1. In what ways does your media product use, develop

or challenge forms andconventions of real media

products?

The masthead is at the top left of the front cover to make sure it stands out to the audience and is easily recognised for branding. A masthead is used to give a magazine an identity. To help with the branding of the magazine the masthead is continued throughout the magazine., which helps the magazine to flow and makes it seem more consistent.

Typically a masthead is placed at the top of the magazine front cover to make it the most important part of the front cover. This makes it more easily recognisable to the audience.However the analysed front cover places its masthead in the top left corner, this is for the same reasons as well as the audience reading from left to right so giving it more importance. The masthead is also layered over on this magazine because the magazine is well known so the masthead requires less attention and the layering makes the front cover look more interesting.

Similarly to my analysed front cover of a music magazine I layered over my main image on my front cover, but kept the face clear and uncovered. I decided to use this convention to make the magazine look more interesting and therefore more appealing.

I left the face of my artist uncovered to draw attention towards the face and to make the image stand out more as well as attracting the potential audience.

The analysed front cover uses a group photo as the main artist is a band. They’re not all looking at the camera which shows how close they are and shows them as a tight knit group. This shows them to be a happy friendly group.

I tried to reciprocate this vibe with my solo artist by making her seem more relaxed and [presenting her with a happy facial expression. I decided to use a direct mode of address as she is a solo artist and this makes it more engaging for the audience.

A banner was used to plug more content, helping to show the magazine as being full and busy, this would attract the audience as the magazine would look full and interesting with lots for the audience to view and interact with.

By using a range of fonts the magazine is made to look more interesting and appealing, as well as highlighting more important and more appealing content with more attractive fonts. The range in the font styles and sizes is used as a differentiation tool for the target audience.

I decided to follow the convention of layering my front cover make it seem more appealing and attractive to the audience. I wanted to keep attention to the important content of the magazine, persuading the target audience to buy the magazine.

Most magazines follow a colour scheme of three main colours. On my analysed magazine this is black, red and white; this creates a house style that is consistent throughout the magazine.

To help my magazine to flow I decided to follow this convention and focused on the three main colours, white, blue and grey to help my magazine to flow.

I decided to plug artists across the top to help make it more gender inclusive, and to help

persuade the audience to purchase the magazine. My analysed magazine didn’t do this but I wanted to appeal

more to a wider audience and to be more appealing with

more artists from the genre.

I decided to follow the conventions of subheadings for my contents page, this is to help with the organisation of the contents page and therefore the navigation of the magazine.They are in different fonts and colours to create a differentiation and to stand out as being subheadings.I used the subheading ‘features’ like Q magazines example to display the content on the front cover, as it is familiar for the audience,

A short bio on each article in the magazine is used, which helps to navigate to what the reader finds most interesting. It helps advertises parts of the contents of the magazine, making them seem appealing to the target audience.

I decided to write the bios in a similar way to my analysed contents pages so that is familiar to the audience and is therefore attractive to them.

I used the left-hand third convention, keeping the main text on the left as well as the title ‘CONTENTS’. This is because people read from left to right which makes the text most important on a contents page, this convention is used by both of my analysed texts.

Numbering the images used on the contents page helped with the navigation of the magazine because of the direct links to the page if the audience is interested. This helps to create consistency for the magazine and also helps to make it flow throughout.

I followed the technique of structuring the information on the contents page in a column format. This is to keep it clear and easy to navigate and read. The use of the column structure also gives the magazine a more professional look. It is not only a familiar convention for the audience but makes the contents page conventional as well.

The main image on the contents page links to the main article and focus of this issue of the magazine.

The main image refers to the main content of the magazine to help with the advertisement, it is aligned to the right to follow the left hand third rule. This is because it is not the most important part of the contents page.

Smaller images are less important but still help to advertise the contents of the magazine. I decided to align my smaller image with the text to give a more professional feel as well as following the column structure.

A three colour consistency was used to help create a house style and to help the magazine to flow smoothly, this followed typical conventions of music magazine contents pages.

Bold but simple font choices are used to keep it clear and easy to read and therefore navigate through the magazine.Different font sizes are used to differentiate between the importance of the contents.

Eye contact with the camera makes it personal, gives a bit of a connection with the reader, I used this convention to appeal more towards my target audience., and to also make the interview/article more inviting.

The image takes up a whole page of the double page spread as this draws attention to both the image and the interview and therefore is persuading to the audience and makes them want to read the article.

I decided to use a colour image to appeal to the target audience, this is because it suits the genre of music more than a black and white image. The use of colour makes the image look more laid back and happy as it gives more of an insight into what the artist is like.

This goes against my analysed double page spread, as the image is in black and white to look more classy and to present the artist as more mysterious. However my artist is from a different genre of music so this view wouldn’t suit it.

A quote is used to get the attention of the audience and to make them want to read the interview so that they can find out more and to find out the context of the quote.

The quote is placed in the top left corner to follow the left-hand third rule, which means that it will be one of the first things seen and therefore can be used effectively to attract the audience.

This convention isn't used on my analysed text, but I decided to use it to appeal more to the audience and make the double page spread look more interesting.

Placing the artists name in the top right corner of the double

page spread is a persuasive device. By using different fonts,

it stands out more and therefore is attractive to the target

audience. It also makes it clear as to who is being interviewed to

the audience.

I decided to use this form for my double page spread as it would

be familiar to my target audience and is a good persuasive device

also.

I followed the three column structure to create order to the interview. It also makes it look

neater and more presentable as well as easier to read and a

convention that the audience is well used to with magazines. The

three columns gives the text balance and is an orderly way to

present the text.

A bold drop case letter brings the readers eye to the start of the interview straight away. This a technique used to encourage the audience to read the text.

By placing a web address at the bottom of page it shows

the use of different technologies. This appeals to the target audience to

show easier access and use and to make the article more interactive for the

audience through different media.

A smaller version of the masthead with the page numbers is used in the bottom corners of the pages, this is a

branding technique and creates consistency, helping the magazine to

flow. The page numbers help with navigation through the magazine,

again helping the magazine to flow neatly.

The interview is relayed more like a past conversation than just a Q and A, this makes it more interesting to read as well as more appealing to the target audience. It reads more like a story and gives a more professional look to the magazine.

I followed this convention from my analysed interview so that it was more familiar to the audience as well as being more attractive and therefore persuading the audience to want to read the interview.

It is important to adhere to the majority of the general conventions as they are familiar to the target audience and familiarity appeals to an audience as it is more trustworthy and appears more professional.

Most of the generic conventions the audience expects to see, e.g. a masthead, main images, structure, subheadings

I decided to conform with most of the generic conventions so that it would suit the target audience more and would be appealing because of the familiarity.

I challenged some conventions to make my magazine more interesting and to give it more of an individual feel so that it has the attraction for the audience of being a little different as well.

I decided to challenge the idea of putting another pull quote on my contents page and placed it on the double page spread instead. Although pull quotes are used to advertise the contents of the interview some more on the contents page, I decided not to inlcude it there but instead on the double page spread so that when the audience turns to the interview instead of flicking past they see the quote and decide to read the article to find out more.