MEDIA – QUESTION 1Q1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

MY MUSIC MAGAZINEMy music magazine consists of three pieces of work which are a Cover, Contents and Article. The main genre of the music magazine is pop and I have used the forms and conventions to create a sharp, vibrant, professional magazine. I have followed the house style and colours throughout of a fun bright looking magazine, mainly using the colours red, yellow, black, white and a hint of blue, which I feel will appeal to a female teenage audience.

COVER

The conventions of my

Music Magazine Cover include:

-Masthead

-Selling line

-Cover lines

-Main Image

-Main Cover Line/Subheading

-Date Line

-Pull Quotes

MASTHEADThe Masthead is a convention of a music magazine cover as it presents the name of the magazine to the readers. It is usually the biggest text on the cover so readers remember what the magazine is called and to make it eye catching. It is also very bold and in a some magazines represents the genre of the magazine due to the fonts and colours used. In this case it follows the forms and conventions of a ‘masthead’ and is used very effectively on my front cover. Here is another example from a different magazine of a masthead from the magazine

SELLING LINEThe Selling line is a convention of a music magazine cover as it directs the audience to tell them about the magazine and help to convince them to buy it. My selling line is taking some lyrics from Kriss Kross’s famous song jump and changing the lyrics to help sell my magazine. When you read the selling line the song and line will be stuck in your head so you will clearly remember the magazine. Also my selling line being song lyrics that are up and lively fits in with the theme and house style of y magazine being fun and vibrant.

COVER LINESMy cover lines like most of my other article features follow the forms and conventions of a music magazine cover. My cover lines are conventially small but give an insight on what is in the magazine besides the main story of ‘Freya Stratford’. My cover lines are ‘Beyoncé Caught Cheating’, ‘TOP 10 ALBUMS OF 2014’, ‘One direction heading in the wrong direction’, ‘Band Aid – Fighting Ebola’ and ‘WE HAVE YOUR FAVOURITES – THE VAMPS, MIKA, ED SHEERAN, BRUNO AND MORE’. All of these are short and snappy and make you want to reason as they give you a taster of big story lines! I have followed my house colours and styles of red and bold, sharp font. They are located on the sides of the magazine so they are not obstructing the main image but still a location that is easily visible to the reader.

MAIN IMAGEMy main Image was taken of the main focus of the magazine which is “Freya Stratford”. I had the model for my photo shoot wear a parka coat and bright red lipstick with straightened hair. I made Freya wear the parka coat as it is in trend with young style for teenagers at the moment and knowing that pop is all about “keeping in style” I focused my images round what would be appropriate for this genre. I made Freya wear red lipstick as it would match the masthead and bring the image to life in a sense. Also the colour red is very bright and popular which again would appeal to my audience. Furthermore red is one of my main house colours an keeping that style is very important to the conventions and forms of a magazine. I also made Freya straighten her hair as it looks like many big artists such as Katy Perry, Jessie J etc.

MAIN IMAGE CONTINUED

One of the main conventions of a music magazine is for the main image to be making eye contact with the reader so I followed the conventions and made “Freya Stratford” to make eye contact with reader. Furthermore I put my main image on a white backdrop as I don’t want any distraction from the main image so made it white. Furthermore white is one of my house colours and is very modern and sharp which fits with my vibe of the magazine. Moreover white can complement any other colour so it’s a very wise choice. On the left is an cover from the music magazine “VIBE” with the famous artist Eminem on the front cover making eye contact which also shows that it’s a very common important convention.

MAIN COVER LINEMy main cover line and subheading is about the main story within the magazine which is “Freya Stratford” so evidently my main cover line is “Freya Stratford”. The font I chose was in fact a rock font which goes against the conventions of following the house style and theme, but I did this for a reason. I made it different from all my other fonts which are more bold and “poppy” to be able to make it stand out and clearly state to the reader that this was the main headline and therefore story. So even though I did not follow conventions I think I used this font effectively. I followed the conventions of using the consistent house styles and using yellow which is very bright and stands out on the graphic bar which consists of pictures from times square at night time which gives a very pop orientated feel and I feel fits very effectively on the cover.

SUBHEADING

My subheading for my music magazine cover follows the conventions as it is smaller than the main cover line and is very short and punchy, it also follows my house style and colours so complements the front cover extremely well. My subheading is “NEW UPCOMING STAR” with the lexis “UPCOMING” red and a white background behind it to show that it’s all about a new next star artist. In this example of a subheading from the music magazine “VIBE” the conventional subheading of “comes clean” is alliteration which is very catchy and gives a teaser insight onto the story. This makes the reader want to buy the magazine to read the article and find out more.

PULL QUOTESMy pull quotes follow the conventions of a music magazine. They give a interesting story line that may attract readers to want to read on as the pull quote is “Freya’s song makes me shiver”. This catchy pull quote gives an interesting story line which is well presented clearly, due to my outer glow of the text to make it stand out directly under my main cover line and subheading. As you can see to the right I have many other examples of pull quotes used on the front covers of music magazines. They all follow the house style of there magazines and give an interesting “quote” that relates to the story line and gives it some more interest to the reader.

CONTENTS

The Conventions of my

Music Magazine Contents include:

-Title

-Date/Page Numbers/Website

-Editors letter

-Subscription

-Features/Artists and bands/Main

Story

-Images

TITLE

My title for the contents page obviously follows the conventions and forms of a music magazine. The title “contents” is very bold and follows the house style and colours which stands out so the readers know what this page is. The title also has the same font as the title on the cover which continues the “pop” themed style.

DATE/PAGE NUMBERS/WEBSITE/ ECT….

Page Number, Website

Date, Title, Selling Line

Issue Number

Title and selling line is used to constantly remind the readers of the name of the magazine and the selling line so that they will remember it and want to buy further issues of the magazine. It follows the forms and conventions as it has the same house style and constant use of the title and selling line to influence the audience. I followed the conventions and included the issue number for if they are collecting they know which episode this is. I followed the conventions of any magazine and used page numbers to signal what page you are on in the magazine. I also put the website on the bottom in the footer to expand my magazines popularity to the internet.

EDITORS LETTERThe editors letters is used to give the reader a feel of the magazine and give them a type of insight into the magazine, such as the story lines, and the actual magazine gossip and updates. As you can see it follows the forms and conventions of the music magazine as it has smaller font sizes with a clear, sharp font. I used a hand written look for the signature to give it more of a personal appeal to the magazine.

SUBSCRIPTION

My subscription uses conventions and forms very well to help sell my magazines and get them to subscribe monthly. As you can see my subscription has al the information you would need to subscribe and follows the forms and conventions of the subscription from the music magazine NME below. It also has a “free poster” to make the reader want to subscribe to this magazine.

FEATURES/ARTISTS AND BANDS/MAIN STORY

The features and the artists + bands follow the forms and conventions as clearly state what’s on further pages in the magazine in a precise way. The main story's are shown by having larger bolder text than the other features and artists of the magazine so that the reader knows which are the most interesting and exciting pieces of media within the music magazine.

IMAGESThe images follow the forms and conventions as they are a mix of large and small images and appeal to many different story's within the magazine. For example the main centre image shows my main article story. The images on the right show other story lines, for example the image of Times Square taken by me first hand supports the story line “Taylor Swift in the ‘BIG APPLE”.I also have followed the forms and conventions and put in a small image of the front cover just like in the NME contents page.

ARTICLE

The Conventions of my

Music Magazine Article include:

- Title

- Footer

- Text

- Images

- Other

TITLE

My title for the article obviously follows the conventions and forms of a music magazine. The title “FREYA IS A PURE STAR” is very bold as it is black which stands out so the readers clearly know what the article is about. I used a image of a star within the lexis of a star to play on the word. The font is very sharp and follows conventions of a pop theme.

FOOTER

The footer contains the website so the reader can find more about the magazine and possibly subscribe on the website. It also has the page numbers which sows what page it is which again follows the forms and conventions of any magazine.

TEXTThe text in my article is question and answers. They contain nine questions and nine answers all about my chosen artist, my main story. This follows the forms and conventions of my music magazine as it focuses on the main focus which is Freya Stratford. The font size is very small which again follows the conventions as it doesn't take up the whole page but still fits all the detail needed in.

IMAGES

The images used were taken in my fourth photo-shoot. They fit the conventions of my music magazine as they have some of her making eye contact which draws in the reader. I have other images of her singing and on a sofa looking like she is in an interview which is what’s happening in the article as it is questions and answers taken from a live interview.

OTHERI used pull quotes which follows the forms and conventions of a magazine as they draw in my reader by using interesting quotes such as “FREYA’S SONG MAKES ME SHIVER”. I have also used Freya’s signature to make it have a more personal feel to it, as well as making it look extremely sharp and professional.