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

conventions of real media products?

My product uses the conventions of real media products by using a dominant

image on the cover, and keeping within a house style in colours and props.

The main colours uses on this NME cover are black, blue and pink very bold

unusual colours which also reflect the boldness of the artist on the cover. I

have chosen to only use one image like the NME cover to make the page

look more professional instead of making my page look too busy and

cluttered. The similarities between the two pages are the uses of mid shots, I

used a mid shot to avoid the loss of focus to the magazine and make the

cover artist more ‘recognisable’ to draw an audience in. Although the pose

my model is using isn’t all that striking, the use of a mid shot emphasises the

expression of the artist rather than the outfits and props.

However, by using one image of one artist I have challenged the conventions

of other media products such as Kerrang and Top of the Pops by attracting a

smaller more limited audience. The usual target audience of males and

females between the ages of 15 and 20 may seem more biased towards the

female audience in my product as the cover image and stories are all

successful female artists. This is something other media products may try to

counteract with male stories on the cover, therefore my product is

challenging this by appealing to the nature of one audience in one issue

more than another.

Another convention I have used is the title boldness, colour and positioning

on the page. All magazines have a bold title that colour ties in with the theme

amongst the page, shown with the pink title and font on the NME page, and

the green on my product. By having bold titles on magazines, readers come

to expect that a clear and visible title to be on the page- most commonly in

the top left corner. I thought that by lowering the dominance of the title it

would look less sophisticated and provide less comfort for the audience as it

would be less clear on what magazine they were reading.

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

conventions of real media products?

Again I have used the image conventions on the contents page, using more than one

to give an insight into the style of magazine from the artists poses and outfits. The

magazine I have taken most influence from for my contents page is ‘Q’, I liked the way

that the split between text and images were equal and neither one was overwhelming.

The clear borders between text and image also makes the pages look sophisticated

and organised and this is a convention I have developed more by using a bolder

border between image and text, although I have got an image ‘overlapping’ the border

to create a sense of freedom so everything isn’t boxed in. I have also used the

conventions of a real media product by using different images from different settings

on the page, this hopefully prevents the page being boring by not using the same

photo- shopped image on a plain background and also adds some colour.

I have used the conventional page numbers down the side, in order with the title of the

stories on the right. This was to avoid confusion and keep the page looking organised

as everything has it’s place. The page numbers are clearly marked and all within a

column with a readable sized text. I felt if I changed the layout and went against

convention then my contents page and front cover would be completely different and

look like they wouldn’t belong to the same magazine.

I have gone against convention with defining the target audience on this page

too, although many of the articles contain male artists and bands, the main images are

both girls dominating the shot, implying that the magazine or this edition is aimed at

mostly females.

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

conventions of real media products?

Overall I would say my double page article goes against the

conventions of a main article of an existing product mainly due to

the layout. Typical articles have a dominant image usually spread

across a full page giving a clear indication of the subject and artist

involved. Where as mine has two pictures on the first page and a

long shot on the second page going against the conventions of a

real media product. I also took and used a variety of images so the

choice was not limited and as a result the page has more diverse

outfits and settings, which usually wouldn’t happen in an article as

the photo shoot would be staged and planned all within a style and

genre. I did this purposely to create different sections within a page

and different stories within the article, making it more exciting.

However, I did develop on the idea that facial expressions of the

person in the shot does affect how the reader perceives them. For

example, a shot with no eye contact to the audience reflects a

lesser connection to one with a smiling model. I used this to create

a mystery about the model (Hollie) within the video as her

expression is hidden. Which is why for my bigger more dominant

image I used a long shot, showing posture and clothing with a

cheerful expression to create a more cheery tone conveyed to the

audience in contrast with the other two images.

The other images I used reflect the subject of the article well as they

look like action shots, which fits the theme of my article which is a

music video review. The second image shows the artist drawing an

‘R’ into the sand, a well know symbol for Rihanna. This follows

conventions as the Florence and the Machine article I annotated

shows her sat on an American flag, which demonstrates the

purpose and subject of the article making subtle hints to the reader.