IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP

OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA

PRODUCTS?

Question 1.

MY MAGAZINE IS SIMILAR TO ‘Q’

Masthead

‘Awards’

Pun in the anchorage text

Puffs

Similar layout

Main image

Barcode, Price, Date

FRONT COVER

The layout and use of general codes and conventions is very similar to those of other music magazines who are both established and of a similar genre. I have challenged a rule of ‘left third side’ which involves most of the cover lines being on the left side of the page, whereas most of my text is positioned on the right side.

The masthead includes the title ‘NG’ which stands for ‘New Generation’. This can be inferred by the tagline/slogan which acts as a skyline, running across the top of the magazine which reads ‘The New Generation of British Rock Music’. This also establishes the genre for the reader, although the genre is ‘indie rock’. The logo is very large and stands out because of the white font against a red background. This logo is similar to the ‘Q’ magazine logo because I thought that it was very eye-catching.

I have used 2 puffs, which boast about other content of the magazine. These also stand out with a coloured boarder which I created on Photoshop. The artists portrayed on my front cover all relate to the genre of my magazine and will therefore attract readers also.

Social networking site icons are shown at the bottom of my magazine which relate to my target audience and encourage readers to go online and search ‘NG’.

I have used a pun in the anchorage text ‘blows us away’ and the models hair is blowing. This link can be effective in attracting readers.

The barcode, date and price are important codes of information that should be present on the cover of a magazine so that the reader is aware how much the publication costs. The barcode makes it look like a professional cover and the issue date may encourage readers to ‘collect’ the magazine as it is a monthly issue.

The trophy connotes awards which links to the cover line ‘NG Music Awards’. Also it says ‘Vote Now’ which is directly addressing the audience.

This puff can be known as an incentive as it suggests that there is a ‘free poster’ inside the issue which will attract readers since they may feel as though they are getting extra for their money.

The cover lines ‘Win tickets to V Festival’ will attract many readers as they will want to buy the magazine for this chance. As my target audience video shows, my target audience are interested in festivals and concerts, therefore this is a useful incentive to include.

This text also directly addresses the audience because it is in the form of a question.

CONTENTS PAGE

I have used many general conventions of music magazine’s content pages on my own magazine contents. However, I have challenged part of the layout, as it is unusual for a contents page to consist of one large image as the background, and to have random text on the page (I have used superimposition of the model in front of some text).

I have included a masthead on my

contents page which includes the colour

scheme of the magazine (red, purple, white &

black). The magazine logo is also there, as well

as the slogan/tagline ‘The New Generation Of British Rock Music’. This

creates a house style throughout my magazine,

since the colours are constant, as well as the

magazine logo (on my double-page spread

these codes are also present). The background

of the masthead is a photograph of a concert (also shown on the DPS)

linking to the values of the magazine and

relating to my target audience.

The artists shown on my contents page relate to both the genre of the magazine and my target audience. The largest image is of a female artist, although there are two smaller images, one of Jake Bugg and one of my made up male artist ‘Mikey’. This reflects the ratio of female to male readers (70% : 30%).

Lot’s of magazine contents include a short message from the editor, therefore I wrote my own one. It increases the interactivity between the publication and the reader, making them feel more involved.

The puff ‘Subscribe Now’ gives information to the reader on how they are able to subscribe to the magazine. The text is an incentive as the reader can ‘receive the first issue free’ which will make them think they have a good deal.

The bold boxes are used to split up the sections of the magazine into categories including features, news, reviews and monthly. This can be good for readers to find a specific article that they are looking for. The boxes are black filled with white writing making them stand out and easy to read. There are page numbers next to each article title so that the reader can flip to the page they want.

The twitter symbol relates well to my target audience as they are known as ‘digital natives’ meaning that technology is a large part of their lives, including social networking sites. Therefore it is important to interact with the audience through these sites.

DOUBLE-PAGE SPREADLike in many other music magazines, I have used the general convention of three columns of text for the article. You can see that this is a code from this example from an NME double page spread.

I have included page numbers in each bottom corner so that readers can navigate easily through the magazine and also, so that they can easily skip to certain features or articles if they would like to. Furthermore, in the top two corners the magazine name (in the same typography, therefore adding to the house style of the magazine) and the topic are displayed to help navigation further. Not all, but on many DPS’s there is more than one picture, as this makes the page more entertaining and breaks up large chunks of text. On my own DPS I have inserted 3 images, one of which is the front cover (which I created myself - http://bethjmoss.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/planning-cd-cover.html) to the album which the article is about. I included this because I thought that the readers would be interested to see something ‘extra’ therefore it also works as an incentive, or an exclusive to the magazine. I also have a puff on the right page which boasts about other content in the magazine.

I have decided to use a layout which is not too often used, although I found an example when I analysed Country Music Magazine. However, I have challenged conventions of indie magazines like NME and Kerrang, who usually use a plain white background. Instead, I have used a shade of colour to match the photograph, which covers the full right page. The break between the two pages can be very easily identified by the split between the article page and the image page.

HOUSE STYLE

Having a house style was a very important convention so, I have used a very consistent colour scheme of red, purple and black and white. This style can be identified throughout each page of my magazine and will encourage the readers to be able to recognise ‘NG’ through its house style (colours and logo and fonts) rather than just the magazine name.