How does your media product use, develop or challenge forms or conventions of real media products?

Evaluation by Niles Akena

Conventions of layout and design

• To conform to the current conventions of music magazines I ensured I had a powerful image located at the centre of my front cover seeing as Several magazines currently have this to attract their audiences and I feel since audiences are used to seeing or being attracted by magazines with thus such layout they would consider looking into mine because the current magazines have therefore created a paradigm in which mine would have to follow to be successful in the market race. Seeing as the magazine I compared mine to and studied had an A side and a B side when developing their contents page I felt that I should perhaps do something similar as we share the same audiences and they would be expecting a similar convention when reading through mine, so I felt I had to meet convention expectations by doing an ‘a side’ and ‘ b side’ like they did. Another convention I used was having a pool quote in my case a reference from a song at the start of the article to get the audience exited or pumped before reading the main bulk of the article. I found this convention by looking at XXL where I found they did the same thing with Jay-Z’s article where they put a quote from his interview before writing about it. I feel my audience will identify my Article layout with that of XXL or even vibe, magazines that share the same audiences as me and not therefore consider my conventions or layouts weird as this could put them off buying it.

Conventions of imagery

From looking at other magazines I discovered that the models on the front posed In order to look cool and/or stylish. So I had to do the same. I got my model to have his arms out to attract the audience in a similar way. Having big bold gesture not only is more appealing and more attractive but being similar to that of a rival magazine means this would be a structure they would be used to looking out for so by using their structure and conventions for my own benefit is a clever idea to get our shared audience into my magazine. I found pictures of the artist my model is meant to resemble where he sits down a lot so in my own article I felt a picture of my model sitting down posing as my artist would illustrate a real and almost accurate image of my artist. I put this image on the top right of my article where it is big and large. Most of the article vibe and XXL produce use this convention as a way of getting the audience interested in their articles as the big and bold image relates to what is being said, I did the same hoping to interest the reader just the way my rivals interest the reader. I also got my model to look directly at the camera which is something XXL and Vibe did often. Having the model look directly at the camera means it also looks directly into the readers eyes as we see things from the perspective of the camera. This is very inviting as the eyes are a dominating and inviting feature. Using the same conventions would help get reader interest as they would be reading something they are used to and not feel my conventions and article are unusual.

Conventions of Language

• On the front cover I used my artist’s nickname as this is a common term my audiences are used to hearing. ‘Drizzy Drake’ is the name he is know as. This is a convention I found dominant in several of XXL’s cover pages so using it inn mine would be a great trick to lure the audience in. in my contents page I used the term ‘tunes’ as opposed to ‘music’ as tunes is a slang term that is very common in the youth of today. I feel by using slang the audience I am aiming to attract will develop a stronger connection with my magazine because the language is something they are used to using every day and hearing. Therefore I will be encouraging repeat purchase. My main article was written in formal language because it would be difficult for my audience to take my article seriously if it was no written with standardised language and grammar.