question 1

I think that my media product uses conventions of real media products as on my front cover I have placed the mast head at the top left-hand side of the page, included a header and footer and placed a barcode, along with the date, issue number and price, in the bottom left hand corner of the page. I also think that my contents page clearly follows the conventions of most existing contents pages due to the page numbers and images that I have used. I took inspiration from many different magazine but the main magazine was Kerrang as it is the same genre as mine so I followed the conventions of this magazine. However, all magazines share the same conventions but I looked at Kerrang because this way I was able to get a better idea of how my own magazine would look like due it being the same genre.

Q1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

For my double page spread, I think that I have followed conventions of real media products because most double page spreads have the image on one page and all of the text on the other so I have done the same in order to make my magazine look more realistic and like an existing magazine. Therefore I have followed the conventions because most double page spreads do this so I was able to take inspiration from other existing double page spreads. Overall, I don’t think that I have challenged conventions because I have tried to follow them as much as I can in order for my magazine to be successful and effective.


Looking at my media product, as shown above, I have used continuity by having a house style through out my product. This is because I have used the same colour scheme all the way through, which is red, black/grey and white. This makes it clear that all of the pages belong to the same magazine as I have kept the colour scheme very consistent throughout my front cover, contents page and double page spread. Plus on my front cover the main feature story is of Black Ray, this page is listed on my contents page to be on page 12 and in the bottom left hand corner of my double page spread is number 12 which shows continuity in my media product as they all link together.


However, my font style is not the same throughout my product which shows that my magazine isn’t very continuous in doing this. This is because I wanted to experiment with lots of different font styles to make my magazine unique and quite diverse as I think that this contrasts with the rock genre. Although, it is very important to have continuity in a magazine so that it matches which makes it look professional and it also makes it look as if a lot of thought has been put into it and it makes it look as if the front cover, contents page and double page spread are all from the same magazine.



I followed conventions when thinking about what shot type I should use for my front cover, contents page and double page spread. Conventionally, on front covers the image is a medium close up so I wanted to use the same shot type in order to follow another convention to make my magazine look as realistic as possible. When doing my photo-shoots for my magazine I experimented with a variety of different shot types such as long shots, medium shots, high angle shots, low angle shots and two shots so that I had a variety of shot types to choose from in order to get the right effect for the page I was doing. In the end I decided upon a medium shot for my front cover, a long shot for my double page spread and a variety of different shot types for my contents page as I felt like these were the most conventional shot types for the pages. I used a long shot, close up, medium shot and an extreme long shot on my contents page to show variety on my page and to follow conventions of contents pages’.


I then looked at the types of feature stories inside music magazine so that I had an idea of what stories to put on my front cover and contents page and so that I knew what to write my article about for my double page spread. When researching into this, I found out that most music magazine talk about upcoming albums, tours or generally about a particular artist so I decided to do my article all about a particular artists, and in the article is talks about the artists as a person and how she became famous as I felt that this is something that the public would like to read about and it also follows another convention.

Conventions of an Existing Front CoverHeader to give the reader a bit of information about the magazine

Short, memorable and bold mast head

A variety of different feature stories

Main feature story bigger than the others directly next to the main image to show that they link together

Barcode, issue number, date and price in a corner to draw little attention to it

Little bit of information as to what you will find in this magazine

Smaller image to give the reader more information as who will be featured inside

Main image in the centre of the page to catch the readers eye and to draw all of the attention to it

Conventions of My Front Cover

Mast head at the top of the page that is short and memorable

Plug advertising something within the magazine to draw the reader in

Header to give the reader a bit of information about who to expect inside the magazine

Main image in the centre of the page to draw the readers attention to it

Main feature story bigger than all the other feature stories to draw attention to it. Also positioned next to the main image to link them together

Barcode, issue number, date and price in the corner of the page top draw little attention to it

A variety of different feature stories

Footer to give the reader a bit of information as to what is inside the magazine

Conventions of an Existing Contents Page

Date in the top corner so that the reader knows which issue it is

Big image that takes up most of the page to show a main feature story of this magazine and to draw a lot of attention to it

Reviews of the magazine telling the reader how good the magazine is to make them fell better about the reader

Title at the top of the page so the reader knows what page they are on. Accompanied with the name of the magazine to remind the reader when reading this magazine what magazine they are reading, to increase recognition

Contents down the side of the page so that not much attention is drawn to them but they are here as that it the main point of a contents page

Smaller image to draw less attention to it as the big image but to show what is featured in the magazine

Conventions of My Own Contents PageDate and issue number at the top of the page so that the reader knows what issue it is

Variety of images with the names of who is in them and a page number so that the reader knows what page to find them on

Subscription box to allow readers to sign up to the magazine

Title at the top so the reader knows what page they are on

Contents listed down the side including page numbers so that the reader can access a page easily

Convention of an Existing Double Page Spread

Large image that takes up one of the pages

Big pull quote as the title in a bold font to make it stand out

Main article on one page to keep it all together making it easier for the reader to read

Smaller image to help describe the article more

Name of the photographer of the image

Conventions of My Double Page SpreadBig bold pull quote as the title to make it stand out

Large image that takes up one of the pages

Page numbers at the bottom of the page accompanied with the name of the magazine so the reader knows what page number they are on, which helps when finding a page from the contents page, and to remind them of what magazine they are reading

Name of the photographer of the image

Article on one side of the page making it easier for the reader to read

Drop cap and at the beginning of the article

question 1

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