In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of

real media products?

Lucy Johnson-Watson

When I started to make my magazine cover, contents page and double page spread I conducted research to find out what the generic conventions

were/what the magazine needed in order to look like a typical magazine. Here are what the generic conventions were for the front cover:

Cover lines

Layering

PuffBold masthead/slogan

Date of issueIssue numberBarcodePrice

Strip

Similar typography over front cover

Medium or medium close up of model/celebrity

Direct mode of address Maintaining the house style of the magazine.

Colour theme maintained

• I used a bold masthead at the top of the magazine so that it stood out. I wanted the masthead and the artist to be seen best. The masthead is shown as being big so people can easily see what the name of the magazine is. it needed to be especially big as it’s a new magazine. I used the image of the artist on the magazine to get the audience’s attention to make them want to buy the magazine and to appeal to my target audience which is why I followed these conventions

Generic Conventions for a Contents Page:

Contents page stated at the top of magazine

Masthead logo

Smaller images which relate to the magazine

Same colour theme is used for the front cover

Advertisement for a feature in the magazine

Same font stays the same throughout

One main image which relates to the featured article

Page numbers to categories different stories

Clear layout- easy to read

• I made all the topic numbers clear and added topic headings so it is easy for my audience to find the page number and able to read the story they are interested in. When researching content pages I tried to follow them as well as I could make them look like a real magazine and to appeal to readers who will buy my magazine.

Generic Conventions for a Double Page Spread:

Enlarged artist name

Attention grabbing headline

Smaller version of masthead in bottom right corner

Interview of main celebrity

Picture of interviewee 3 or 4 columns of textPage numbers

Drop Cap

• In my double page spread I followed all the conventions as well as I could as I wanted it to look real and I wanted my target audience to be interested in it.

• I decided to use all of the most common conventions in my magazine cover as I wanted it to look exactly like a professional magazine cover. If I went against the generic conventions of the magazine cover then this could result in customers not thinking it is very professional. I followed the generic conventions so it looked realistic and appeals to my target audience.

• I followed conventions of a real music magazine by having the main image directly in the middle of the magazine. My main image was a well known Rock artist whose interview takes place in the magazine. Most magazines do this as they need to leave room for cover lines etc.

• The mise-en-scene of the image also follows the conventions as the shot is a medium close-up. However, some magazines I looked at went against the generic conventions and decided to have long shots of their artists.

• The masthead was placed at the top left of my magazine and I enlarged it so that it was the boldest thing on the page.

• This is because it needs to be seen first by viewers so they know what magazine they are buying.

• Magazine’s used to be stacked over each other on the shelf meaning, the only part of the front cover which was seen was the left hand side, this is the most important side therefore had the most important headline on and the masthead.

• Magazines are no longer stacked in most shops however, the convention is still followed.

• This is because we are known to read from left to right, bottom to top. Overall, having the most important parts of the magazine in the top left hand corner means they will be read first.

Above are some real media products. All of the above have typical generic conventions such as a masthead, retained colour schemes/fonts and rocky styled mise-en-scene. I made sure I studied these magazine covers to ensure that I knew the exact style I needed to pull off a Rock genre music magazine.

I made sure that I made similar mise-en-scene choices to convey the rock genre so that my magazine looked similar to a typical rock magazine. I copied the idea of having a leather jacket on my front cover.

• The girls in the middle magazine front cover are both wearing black leather jackets. I used this idea for my cover and took photos of a girl with a leather jacket on to maintain a rocky look. I put dark coloured lip stick on my model to give a more edgy look and to make her look more dangerous and unique. I was going for poses where my artist had a serious facial expression which also showed attitude.

• The only main difference I can find is that my magazine front cover contains a main image as well as 3 smaller images of other artist which will feature in the magazine. The examples of rock magazine I have studied only have a main image picture and only text about other artists. Although not all the magazine covers I researched had more than one image like mine I believe having more than one image on the front cover is more beneficial for the magazine.

• This is because readers can view who are mainly in the magazine before having to pick the magazine off the shelf and look at the contents page. Readers may not like the main artists taking up the whole of the front cover so won’t decide to purchase the magazine. However, if there are multiple artists presented then there is more chance of readers liking one of them and wanting to read about them.

My front cover

• Both my front cover and contents page have multiple pictures on as they are used to grab reader’s attention to quickly show them who’s in the magazine and who the interview’s about.

• Without any pictures of artists, readers would be less likely to purchase the magazine as they wouldn’t go to the effort to read who is in the magazine. Readers like to skim the cover and contents of the magazine quickly to get a view at how entertaining the magazine will be for them.

• With no picture’s then buyers will go to another magazine which interests them more instead.