MAGAZINE EVALUATION 1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of a real media product?

FRONT COVER

The front cover of my magazine explores and uses similar forms and conventions of real media products of a similar genre, such as the L3 music magazine. Both magazines seem to use a sophisticated approach to the genre and use different elements to highlight this. Firstly the main image present on both of the covers are similar in the sense that they uphold the flirtatious and fun nature of Soca as a genre. My magazine does this through the artists clothing and the real media product uses the artist pose to communicate a similar thing. The cover lines on both magazines represent similar things both magazines use the magazine to promote new musical talent and focus on upcoming significant events. It was important to uphold this as Soca is a genre that requires more advertising than other genres due to the fact that it is a genre that would usually have a specific target audience. Using the cover lines in this way is a form of advertisement.

Both covers my example of a magazine and the real media product similarly use language to connect with the preferred audience. There is an example of this from my magazine as one of the cover lines read “Bajans R De best rave” this is very similar to the example on the cover of L3 that reads “ Wayne Wonder stepping out pon dem”. The use of this language enables the magazine to connect with the preferred audience as these are examples of colloquial terms the audience could relate to.

There is a clear different in the use of colour schemes the real media product choose to use a soft pink for this issue of the magazine as it is highlighting a females success. However with my front cover I choose to use the colours red and black, this was my way of opening up my target audience as these colours are not specific to the genre and they also allow the front cover to be eye catching and bold. This is due to the fact that against the soft toned background of the image the red and black allow cover lines and the main headline to stand out and grab the audiences attention.

CONTENTS PAGE

When looking at both my example of a contents page and the example from the issue of L3 magazine it is evident they have differences. Although this can be said it is again clear that the main images have been used in a similar way, having the main story/ artist dominate the page. I decided that this was the way i wanted to present my image on the contents page firstly as i wanted to present a long shot of the artist looking very different from the front cover and also the pose is similar to the front cover as again it is a portrayal of the fun side of Soca.

When beginning to think about the differences my contents page has a different layout structure. I choose to replicate this layout style as it is one featured in many music magazines for other more mainstream genres , this way my attempt to again widen the audience range as this is a layout many are used to in the more main stream examples of real media products.

I choose to challenge to regular forms and conventions through text on my contents page to again drop the idea that my music magazine has to have a specific audience due to the genre it represents. This can be said as L3 has chosen to present various headings that prove to be vague, this works for this magazine as it is not mainstream and will have a selected audience that will continually buy this magazine and be familiar with what they are interested in within in. However with my contents page I choose to have main heading and then list the main articles that fall under that category, this would benefit both a regular and new audience as a regular audience would already know what interests them but a new audience would also be able to pick out the stories that they wanted to read about with my layout.

My contents page has two additional images of upcoming artists this is because although I am trying to challenge the regular magazines that represent Soca as a genre I had to take into consideration it is a niche genre and advertising is key in order to push and generate an audience. So i choose to have artists as my additional images as well as making clear links to text through the use of labelling them with their corresponding articles. This is all in aid of recognition and trying to make the appeal of the artist's bigger.

DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD

When comparing the forms and conventions of my version of a double page spread and the L3 example they both have similar layouts as both use one side of images and the other for text. However my initial idea for my double page spread was to again show the artist from a different angle and for that reason I have four images on the artist that capture her at different times. I also made the decision to have these images in black and white, the reasons for this being the fact that the images capture the fun side of the artist but the choice of colouring keeps the clean and almost sophisticated nature of my magazine consistent.

The text that features on both are similar as they allow the colour scheme present on the front cover to be reintroduced to the audience linking the double page spread article to the cover line on the front of the magazine.

OVERALL ANALYSIS When taking into consideration the elements of my magazine in comparison to the examples take from L3 magazine it is clear my magazine adheres to the regular forms and conventions of my chosen genre. However I made decision to subvert some of these forms and conventions in an attempt to widen my audience range by taking away things like an explicitly Caribbean colour scheme.