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

As I have decided to aim my magazine at girls ranging from about 14 – 20 I have decided to compare my pages to two different magazines. I could not find any other magazines which were very similar to mine; magazines such as ‘Sugar’ and ‘Top of the Pops’ are aimed at a younger audience than my magazine and therefore I feel that my magazine should be more organised and mature. However magazines such as ‘Billboard’ have a target audience of women from late-teens to late-twenties and therefore they include some artists which are not ‘pop’ in order to please a wider scope of people. For these reasons I feel that my pop magazine should be have a more relaxed mode of address than ‘Billboard’ magazines and should focus solely on pop music.The two magazines which I have chosen to compare my magazine to are:

Top of the Pops Billboard

It is clear that these magazines are very different in language, colour, image, layout and target audience. As my pop magazine is aimed at girls who are too old for ‘Top of the Pops’ but may be slightly too young for ‘Billboard’, I feel that my magazine should include some aspects of each type of magazine.

One of the main conventions of this style of magazine, which is aimed at girls in their early teens, is the use of bright and stereotypically ‘girly’ fonts and colours such as pink and yellow. Within this cover these colours have been used a lot and therefore it is clear that it is a pop magazine aimed at girls.

Another convention which is commonly seem in teenage pop magazines is the used of colloquial language which is used to address the reader and encourage them to buy the magazine. This language can be quite childish and terms such as ‘Hot’ and ‘OMG’ are clearly more suitable for a young teenage audience as my target audience of late teens – early twenties would probably not use this type of language.

One convention which all magazines aim to have is a striking image on the cover. This is used by this issue of ‘top of the pops’ to draw attention to the main focus of the issue which is clearly Zak Effron. Also the fat that this is a male is another convention which is commonly used by magazines aimed at women; by having a men on the front cover women are more likely to be attracted to the magazine and therefore want to buy it.

To many people this issue of ‘top of the pops’ may not be very appealing because it is very crowded, however this is a convention of this type of magazine. The use of lots of pictures and colourful writing draws the attention of the magazines target audience.

This magazine has also used the rule of thirds which is commonly used by magazines in order to draw attention to the main parts of the cover and to show some organisation.

The majority of magazines available use lures/hooks in order to encourage the readers to buy the magazine. This magazine clearly uses a lot of these, for example “Fashion bargains” and “Special Report”

In contrast to ‘top of the pops’ magazine, ‘InTune’ does not have a coloured background, the use of a clean white background is not very common within magazines aimed at young girls, however it is more appealing to a more mature audience; this is the reason that I chose to use a white background instead of a bright colour. I also felt that it would make my magazine more easy to read if the background was white because I could then draw attention to the cover lines using colours without the risk of colours clashing or not being visible.

Similarly to most other magazines I have used the rule of thirds in order to organize my page and to ensure that the first thing which draws the viewers eye is the main image, then they will probably be drawn to the cover lines and then other aspects such as the lure in the top right hand corner.

Similarly to ‘top of the pops’ I used many different font styles and sizes in order to make each cover line clear and readable. I ensured that the fonts connote pop and that they would attract the correct type of person. I also wanted to make sure that I did not use to many different fonts as this would make my page look too busy. Similarly to almost all other magazines I wanted to show continuity by using the same fonts and colours of font on all of the pages. In order to do this I chose 5 main fonts and used them all one all 3 pages. I also used 2 main colours of pink and blue to show continuity; then I used some black and yellow to draw attention to certain parts.

Lures/hooks are one of the key techniques which magazines use in order to draw the eye, I have advertised fashion tips and the chance to win a competition on my cover in order to do this.

One convention which both of these magazines use is a striking masthead. This is essential in order to draw attention to the magazine. Also the masthead often tells readers what genre of music the magazine is based on, this is certainly true for both these magazines, therefore bold mastheads are vital.

Another more modern convention of many magazines is the use of a web address related to the magazine in order for people to access information online. Both these magazines used these as the use of the internet is very popular now.

Another convention is the use of other smaller images on the cover, this helps to show what will be inside the magazine and therefore attracts readers. This is the reason that I decided to use this convention.

This issue of ‘Billboard’ clearly uses the rule of thirds which is a convention of nearly all magazines. The eye is immediately drawn to the image of Lily Allen and then moves to the cover lines on either side. The use of the rule of thirds also draws the eye to the masthead, as I said on the previous slide the masthead is essential because not only does it draw attention to the magazine but also, as ‘Billboard’ is a popular brand, it allows people to recognise the magazine.

One aspect of this magazine which I do not find appealing is that fact that a lot of the writing is white on top of a light background, and therefore some of the cover lines and the words ‘Lily Allen’ do not stand out. Therefore I used a white background with colourful writing on top to draw the eye and ensure that all writing is not only legible but is easy to read without picking up the magazine, therefore the audience may be drawn in without meaning to look at the magazine.

One of the main conventions which magazines aimed at girls in their late teens/early twenties use is just sticking to just a few colours. The ‘top of the pops’ magazine on the previous page uses many colours which do not all compliment one another, however ‘Billboard’ magazine uses only 3 main colours – white, pink and grey, these appeal to a young adult audience. Similarly I chose to use pink, blue and white as the main colours of my page in order to attract a more mature audience than most pop magazines.

The majority of pop magazines are not only focused on music, but also fashion and beauty as well because many girls are interested in these topics. Both my magazine ‘InTune’ and ‘Billboard’ show some focus on fashion and beauty because the clothing, make-up, position, lighting, expression of the models of the front seem to have been planned. I chose to dress Kirsten in girly/summery clothes because this issue would be released in May and many girls will look to magazines to keep up to date with the latest fashion trends. I also planned the make-up, lighting, setting, position and facial expression in order to compliment Kirsten's figure and looks. By making Lily (in Billboard) and Kirsten (in InTune) look naturally pretty the magazines will hopefully show people that it is easy to look good without changing yourself. Also, fashion/beauty tips (such as the Pixie Lott clothing part of my magazine) are lures which , when I conducted my questionnaire, my target audience felt would be very appealing.

When creating my magazine I wanted it to suitable for girls ranging from the ages of about 16 – 22; Billboard is in some ways too mature for some young adults, however Top of the Pops uses a mode of address and colours which are too childish for most teenagers, therefore I have not followed all the conventions of either of these magazines; instead I have used some conventions of each, for example I chose to use some bright colours similar to Top of the Pops, but I also chose to have a clear background like the Billboard magazine.

One of the main conventions which I have challenged is that instead of having a large bold masthead, I chose to have one word bold and blue and the other word more delicate and pink. I did this in order to make my masthead different from all the other magazines which have very similar font styles, colours and sizes. I also wanted the word ‘In’ to draw the attention of the audience and show that there will interesting and serious content within the magazine, on the other hand I wanted the word ‘Tune’ to look more delicate and show that the magazine is mainly for girls.

One of the conventions which I would follow if I was to produce more issues of ‘InTune’ would be to use the same, fonts, colours, masthead in every issue. This shows continuity and ensures that readers can recognise the magazine.

One of the main conventions of a music magazine which I have challenged is the use of headings on the contents page. Most magazines sort the articles into groups and put them under headings; in the ‘Top of the Pops’ contents page they have used headings such as ‘Wins & Offers’ and ‘All about you’. I decided not to do this because I wanted to have a range of articles and therefore they did not fall under particular topics and therefore using headings may not have looked very appealing . As I did not use headings it was essential to ensure that each of the things on my contents page were easy to differentiate from one another and easy to navigate around the magazine.

Similarly to the cover of ‘Top of the Pops’ the contents page has used many small images in order to show what will be on some of the pages. On the other hand I decided to have one main image on my contents page as this would emphasise that Kirsten is the main feature of my magazine. I also felt that using one big image would look a lot more appealing and would fit with the genre of pop more than smaller separate images because using a large image helped to shape a space for the text and made the page look more mature.

Another key feature of most contents pages are the use of bold page numbers; this is clearly shown on the contents page of ‘Top of the Pops’ as the numbers are colourful and range in size in order to draw attention to certain articles. I chose to use this convention, but to a lesser extent; I used pink and the same font for all of the numbers, however they still all stood out because there was very little other pink on the page. I made some of the numbers bigger than others, for example ‘31’ is large because it is the page of the interview with Kirsten.

One convention which this ‘Top of the Pops’ magazine does not seem to have used is bold shapes and colours in order to make competitions and lures stand out. All of the ‘Wins & others’ are written is small font and do not include many colours. On the other hand my magazine uses colours and eye catching shapes to grab the attention of the reader .

I chose to have an editorial profile on the contents page of my magazine because it is a first publication and therefore including a brief introduction stating what the magazine will include may help to encourage people to buy the magazine.

Many magazines aimed at younger audiences use shapes and symbols such as hearts and smiley faces in order to draw the eye and, because many people between the ages of 10 – 14 use these types of shape, they may feel as though they can relate to the information within the magazine. However, as my product is aimed at an older audience than ‘Top of the Pops’ magazine, I decided not to use shapes such as these because they may make my magazine seem too immature for my target audience and would therefore not appeal to them.

One convention which all good magazines use is page numbers in the bottom corners of the page. I chose to use pink for the page numbers in order to make them stand out.

One key convention which is needed is bold and eye catching titles on each of the magazine pages. I chose to use the same font for the titles of my pages as its used for the word ‘In’ in my masthead as this shows continuity and looks appealing.

Unlike the ‘Top of the Pops’ contents page, I chose not to have a labelled image of the cover on this page because I felt that this would take up too much room on the contents page and would not be needed because it was just as clear and simple to put the articles in a list because this will look more mature and organised and therefore will appeal to my target audience more than an image of the cover would.

One of the main conventions of magazines similar to ‘Billboard’ is the use of structure. This contents page is very organised and uses techniques such as lists and paragraphs in order to inform the reader about what is in the magazine. They have also used lines to separate the different sections of the page. This layout is probably quite appealing to many people who read ‘Billboard’ as it seems mature and clear.

Similarly to my magazine, ‘Billboard’ seem to have chosen just a couple of colours in order to ensure that their pages do not look too busy. The main colours which have been used on this page are blue, white and grey. The white and grey make to page look very clean and easy to navigate, and then the blue adds a splash of colour and makes the page more interesting and eye catching.

One of the conventions which most magazines use is to include other images on the contents page in order to show what will be included in the articles further on in the magazine. This contents page within ‘Billboard’ uses this technique near the top of the page, however in order to make the page slightly more fun and eye catching they have included an image of a girl smiling and having fun, this type of image seems to be very typical of pop magazines because this genre is often connected with ideas of dancing, happiness and fun. Therefore by including a more casual image such as this one, the page seems to fit more with the genre of pop, whereas the more serious square images along the top are often used in magazines based on genres such as R&B and rock.

‘Billboard’ have included a music chart down the left hand side of the page; this is not a convention of music magazines however I think that this is a good idea. In my magazine I decided not to have a music chart on my contents page as this would take up a lot of room and is not necessary, however instead I decided that, if I had created a whole magazine, I would have included an article about the best songs to listen to during summer 2012 as this keeps readers up to date with the latest pop music and would therefore appeal to many readers.

Another convention of most magazines is to use similar fonts and colours throughout all their magazines in order to help the view recognise the magazine. I decided to use pink and blue and the same fonts on all 3 pages in order to show continuity and make my magazine look appealing.

Unlike ‘Billboard’ I chose not to use an organised layout for my contents page because I felt that this was slightly boring and would therefore not be suitable for my target audience of girls in their late teens/early twenties. Although I did a lot of planning for my pages I did not want them to look too formal and structured and therefore I decided to make each section of my page clear and easy to read without using lines to separate them. Most pop magazines use a similar structure to the layout I have used and therefore in this way I have followed the conventions of a pop magazine, however some magazines aimed at young girls look very busy and unorganised, on the other hand many more mature magazines are, in my opinion, too structured and therefore look boring. In order to avoid either of these extremes I used a clean and yet relaxed layout for my contents page as I felt this would appeal most to my target audience.

I chose to have Kirsten dressed and positioned in a relaxed manner in order to make her look calm and yet glamorous.

One of the conventions of many pop magazines which are aimed at girls in their early teens is the use of many colours. This is clearly used on this ‘Top of the Pops’ double page spread in order to make the page eye catching and interesting. It could be suggested that the page looks quite busy, however this style usually appeals to a lot of young girls.

Another convention of most magazines similar to ‘Top of the Pops’ is the fact that the articles are not very long. Instead of writing a slightly formal article including paragraphs and using full English, magazines such as ‘Top of the Pops’ tend to include short interviews and some other shapes and areas of text separate to this. This is possibly done because these magazines are aimed at younger girls who will very often be more interested in looking at pictures and finding out about the latest pop news than reading a detailed article or interview with an artist.

The double page spread of my magazine, ‘InTune’, is quite different to the ‘Top of the Pops’ magazine to the right. In contrast to the short interview on the ‘Top of the Pops’ magazine, my double page spread includes a full interview with Kirsten Hayes which includes questions about her music, her life and her inspirations. This style of article is typical of more mature magazines such as ‘Billboard’ and ‘Company’ and I feel that it was suitable for my magazine because my target audience tend to enjoy reading longer more formal pieces of text.

Another key difference between my double page spread and the ‘Top of the Pops’ page is that mine has a clean white background. When I was receiving feedback I found that the majority of my target audience liked the white background and felt that it made the page look modern, appealing and clear. However some of my audience felt that it may have been more eye catching if I had used a black colour for the background, although I can see why this may appeal to some people I believe that my magazine, compared to ‘Top of the Pops’ looks more mature and easy to read and is therefore more suitable for the age range which my magazine is aimed at. Therefore even though it is uncommon for an article to have a white background, I feel that challenging this convection has benefitted my magazine.

One convention which both my magazine and ‘Top of the Pops’ seem to have challenged here is the idea that the double page spread should have one main image. Typically the double page spread has a large image of the artist/band and the text fits around this image. However in both of these magazines other images have been included; I chose to have other images of Kirsten in order to show a different side to her and the ‘Top of the Pops’ magazine chose to include images of people related to the topic of the article. It could be presumed that this would draw the attention away from the main image/article and would therefore not be very successful on the page however I feel that in both magazines the extra images improve the pages, making them look more interesting and appealing.

One of the main conventions which my magazine has used and the ‘Top of the Pops’ magazine has not, is placing the main image of the left hand page which will be viewed first by the reader. In my plans I drew the image on the right hand page, however I quickly changed this when I realised that this would not be very attention grabbing.

One of the first ways in which my magazine has used the conventions of a more mature pop magazine is by having quite a long article which uses full sentences, paragraphs and proper English. Unlike ‘Top of the Pops’ magazine, ‘Billboard’ has devoted a whole page to the article; this will appeal to most girls in their late teens/twenties because they are happy to read long text in order to receive interesting information such as advice, exclusives, and stories from/about the artist. I decided to use a similar length of text for my double page spread because I felt that it would be suitable for an audience of girls between the ages of about 15 and 22. However in many other ways my article is quite different to the one about Lady Gaga; this is because mine takes the form of an interview and is clearly a discussion between me and the artist, however ‘Billboard’ has written a piece about Lady Gaga which does not seem to contain much impact from the artist herself. I feel that an interview style is more suitable for my audience than a piece written about the artist because interviews are more direct and personal and therefore my readers will be able to relate to Kirsten.

One aspect of the ‘Billboard’ page which I think readers would find appealing is the large ‘L’ which is over the top of the writing. This adds a splash f colour to the page and makes it more interesting. In order to add colour to my article I made the headings/questions blue as this draws attention to the questions and makes it easy to find where one question ends and another begins. My method of colouring the headings seems to be used more often by magazines and cold therefore be seen as a convention, however the red ‘L’ on the ‘Billboard’ page is more quirky and therefore stands out from other double page spreads. If I was to begin this project again I may consider using a large, coloured shape or letter in order to make my magazine more unique.

One convention which a lot of magazines aimed at people aged 18+ use is seduction. This issue of ‘Billboard’ has done this by showing Lady Gaga showing a lot of skin and covering her chest with her hands. This appeals to a lot of adults because the girls may wish to be like Lady Gaga and many men may find her attractive. This encourages people to want to buy the magazine because women often want to look like the celebrities which men find attractive. I did not really use this technique within my magazine because I feel that my target audience are too young for this, however by showing some off Kirsten’s figure on the contents page and her legs on the cover/double page spread I have encouraged readers to want her figure and therefore they are more likely to buy the magazine in the hope that they could be more like her.

Unlike ‘Billboard’ I used the convention of an enlarged quote to draw the readers attention to the article and encourage them to read the whole text. I also attracted the eye to the quote by making the quotation marks blue and the word ‘ABBA’ pink, this makes people more likely to read the quote and in turn they may wish to read the rest of the article id they found the quote interesting/funny/etc as they will want to find out more about the artist. For this reason it is essential to think carefully about which quote from the interview is enlarged because this may affect whether or not the person reads the article.

Overall it is clear that my three pages use some conventions of mature magazines such as ‘Billboard’ and ‘Company’ and this helps to appeal to my target audience who quite often wish to be addressed like an adult. However I have also used some conventions which are typical of magazines such as ‘Top of the Pops’ and ‘Sugar’ which are aimed at girls in their

early teens; these slightly more ‘girly’ aspects such as the use of shapes, pinks and a range of feminine fonts help to make my magazine seem more fun and light hearted than magazines

such as ‘Billboard’ and therefore I feel that I have achieved a good balance of conforming and challenging conventions and I am happy with the way my final products look.