IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT

USE, DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND

CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS?FRONT COVER

My media product uses several forms and conventions such as the masthead, main

image, rock style, music related article, cover lines, price and a bar code. The traditional

conventions of a music magazine.

I looked at various other magazines and have roughly kept to the forms of these

products, such as having the masthead in the top centre. The other magazine that inspired

me was ‘Kerrang'. It's well developed magazine, and has a really simple lay out which changes over time. I chose a more

simple layout to other music magazines, for example ‘Classic Rock’, to conform to the

audiences expectations. The front cover of the magazine was inspired much like ‘Kerrang’, as the centring of the masthead at the top of the front cover, I also conformed with the stories being on the left side of the magazine and

used colours which portray the rock genre such as black, yellow and red; which has been used throughout my music magazine. The barcode

has also been placed on the bottom right corner of the magazine, which has been

consistently used for many music magazines.

MAIN IMAGE

Another way I followed conventions of a real music magazine was the main image. The image is placed directly in the middle of the

page, with the use of rule of thirds, the attention is immediately grabbed by the audience. However, it does subvert from

typical conventions of rock magazines as the background is basic white whilst magazines

like ‘Kerrang’ often have their artist during their concert. The main image also uses

iconography as the model is seen holding the guitar which immediately is recognised by the audience that the magazine is in reference of rock; also by her costume which subverts the

attitudes towards the ‘Male Gaze’; this consists of the masculinity of her blazer and

the dark colours of her clothing conform to the typical clothing of female rock stars who are

used on the rock magazines.

MASTHEAD

For the Masthead I conformed to the traditional conventions

of a rock magazine masthead: with the use of black and white. This relates to both

‘Kerrang’ and ‘Classic Rock’. The masthead I created uses a black background against whit

Impact font, I used a simple masthead because the images and stories are the content of the magazine. This fitted with the magazine genre as the

colour scheme of the magazine consists of

yellow, black, white and reds.

‘Kerrang’

Masthead

‘Classic Rock’

Masthead

COVER LINES AND BARCODE

My cover lines were based on main magazine, as I have seen lots of cover lines

based like this on other magazines. Again, as I wanted my magazine to have a minimalistic front cover, I chose a simple

font, and just altered some colours to stand out and brighten up the page. I challenged this form as I only have a limited amount of writing, which most magazines have a lot

more.

The barcode for my magazine

was place in the bottom right

corner, like most magazines. I

also added a translucent white

box around it to make it stand out

more and be more obvious.