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Saturday, 9 March 2013

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


Transcript:
When creating my magazine I tried adhere to the typical features shown in music magazines of the pop genre. I used my similar product research to gather information on other magazines. I believe that my magazine successfully features many of the conventions already found in other pop magazines such as Billboard magazine
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Front Cover:
The masthead appears at the top of my front cover, as this is where you would usually see the masthead. It is bold and bright so that it stands out to the readers which will then attract current readers as well as new readers. The font that I used is eye catching and eroding, I choose this font as I wanted the font to reflect the name of my magazine ‘Rhythmix’, and this is by having a ‘mix’ of different textures in the masthead. Similarly, Q’s masthead is large and in a square box with s tagline underneath it which attracts the reader’s attention. I have also incorporated this convention into my magazine. I used a drop shadow in order for my masthead to stand out and not blend in with the rest of the text found on my front cover. I have also included the price, barcode and website underneath my masthead; this is clearly visible to the reader as when they pick up the magazine and look at the masthead they will see the price straight away. I included the website to follow the new technology trends, as by having a website allows the reader to find out extra information online.

I have used an unconventional shot for my front cover as normally you would expect a front cover to have a close-ups or medium shots but I’ve used a long shot of both my models standing behind one another. I felt that by having my main image different it would grad the reader’s attention as both my models are making eye contact. The main image is surrounded by a few sell lines to suggest to the reader what else they can find in this month’s magazine edition. However on typical pop magazine front covers you will see a lot more sell lines, but I decided to take a more sophisticated look and grab the reader’s attention with the main image. I have put boxes behind the text of the sell lines in two different colours; purple and grey. This is because the box in purple stands out more with the main content.

I have used a puff to attract my readers into buying my magazine. I have made sure that this is noticeable by having the words ‘Free’ and ‘Duplicity’ bigger than the rest of the text.

Contents Page:
My contents page also follows the typical conventions of a pop magazine. However I did also follow conventions from Q magazine as I believed the layout and content used was professional. I split my contents into organised and easy columns, ‘FEATURES’, ‘REGULARS’ and ‘REVIEWS. This will appeal to my target audience as it is clearly laid out and easy to navigate to pages as I have made the page numbers big and clear. I have also included a band and artist index which highlights other artists that my readers may be interested in. Not only did I have my contents organised in this way but I also used images to help visualise what else the reader could find in the magazine.
As I created my contents page on a double page spread this allowed me to include a lot of information which in the readers case is a good thing as they will be convinced that they have bought the right magazine to last them a month to read with lots of different articles to read. Due to having lots of room on my contents page I was able to add in an editor’s note which tells the reader exactly what they can expect in the magazine.

Typically found in Q magazine, I have used the conventional idea of having a Review on the left hand side of the page. I believed that by having this, the reader would have a more interest in the magazine. Also below this I have put a Subscribe box and included the social networking sites; Facebook and Twitter. This is because my target audience are typical users of these sites and therefore will be expecting the magazine to have an online copy where they can find out extra information.  

Double Page Spread:
My double page spreads tend to stick to the same typical style of a pop magazine by having the article funny and relaxed. As the double page spreads are en exclusive I have made sure that on each page I have included the word ‘exclusive’ in the left hand corner where you would typically see this. I have made the title of the article big so that the readers can see this clearly; I have also added a purple oval shape behind to make it stand out even more. I have used a range of images with different shots ranging from close ups to long shots. My models are wearing a range of different costumes which makes the article more interesting with the funny pictures to go with the article. Typically found in most articles I have also included a brief introduction to the article so that the readers know exactly what the article is going to be about. I have laid my article out in three columns; this is how you would typically see a magazine article which makes it a lot more professional.

I have chosen to use a variety of different images, some of the artists together and some by themselves. This gives the reader a view of the artists from a range of different views. This is clearly shown on the second and third double page spread. Throughout my magazine I have made sure that my models are wearing different outfits to make them appear more unique and different.

I have followed another convention found in magazines by including several pull quotes from the article. By having pull quotes allows the reader to pick up on key point in the magazine if they didn’t read the entire article.

Overall I feel that I have followed the main forms and conventions of a real music magazine. However I did adapt to these conventions in order to meet the interests of my target audience. 

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