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

Carrying out my STA’s allowed to look at existing magazine products, and see if there was a pattern that all the editors used in term of codes and conventions

SPOTTING THE CODES AND CONVENTIONS

Student Magazines had to stick to conventions such as a

Colourful MastheadMain image of student so others can relate to itTopics students have to deal with such as smoking

Also, students like to gossip thus having interesting articles would make the magazine more sellable. The most important aspect of a students life is university, thus having a topic on university life was recommended.

SPOTTING THE CODES AND CONVENTIONS

Music Magazine codes and conventions were fairly easy to point out.

All music magazines I analysed, the first thing that came to mind was a colourful masthead, as it would be the first thing that the reader sees.

The positioning of the main image was important, as this would be the main selling point of the article, so it was necessary to have the main image covering half the page to make it more attractive

It was clear to me and my partner that the reader wanted to feel appreciated for buying the magazine, therefore we decided that a main convention was an incentive (pug). Also, all magazines had the simplistic effect, so we decided to conform to the convention of not overcrowding the magazine.

BARCODES,TEXTS AND COLOURSAll the magazines we had analyses in our STA, had a barcode, as it showed the price of the magazine

Also, a convention that occurred to me was the use of colour. A lot of the typography was black and white text, which stood out a lot better and was simple yet effective. And also text that was different sizes was a convention used, to signify importance on the magazines.

As my music magazine was a rock edition, I decided to include a convention that summed up the whole of rock and roll, which was an electric guitar as a universal symbol

With regards to models, on existing magazines the models were always white, therefore on my evaluation I decided to model the ethnic minority on my magazine, to challenge the conventions, and to also reach a wider target audience

Use of positioning of cover lines on the side of the magazine was a convention i conformed to.

CLOTHINGRock clothing has changed over the years, but modern day rock artists decided to wear t-shirts and jeans.

This is why I asked my models to come in everyday simple clothes, as it is what modern day rock stars wear today.