Media evaluation question 1

Chloe Morley March/April 2013

Media Evaluation

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

For my media coursework, I had to create my own media product, this being a music magazine. As a starting point for my magazine and to get some inspiration and ideas for it, I did some product research on popular music magazines that are out in the shops right now, examples of these would be VIBE, NME, Q and Kerrang. I looked at their front covers, contents pages and the main double page article that they were offering to see how they were lay out and what their content was. I looked at the typical conventions they were using and saw that they all were similar in basic formats. All front covers had a large masthead with a main image taking up most of the page, with a barcode in the corner and smaller

cover lines surrounding the edges of the page. All of the contents pages were jammed with information, including the date the magazine was published, the magazine’s website, and all had images showing features in the magazines. The double page spreads all had large headlines which attracts the reader’s eyes and had a large image of the artist being

interviewed taking up one page. The written articles on these pages also talked to the artists in depth and promoted them well, but still kept it as an informal as a chat between you and friend. All of the magazines had a consistent house style throughout so you knew which magazine a page would be from. I decided that I wanted my magazine to have these conventions like the popular magazines do to make it look professional and that is

what I did. I developed my layouts of each of my pages to reflect those of the ones I researched and overall I think I achieved this.

The music magazine that I created is called ‘ENCORE’. I named it this as encore is a musical term, meaning the public automatically know what type of magazine it is. An encore is when an artist is called for by an audience to perform repeated or additional performances of an item at the end of a concert. Because the genre of music for my magazine is mostly pop, and pop music is constantly repeated on the radio and on TV, and is the most listened to music genre, I thought the title would be fitting. I took inspiration from the ‘VIBE’ magazine cover I looked at for the masthead. The masthead runs across the page in the ‘VIBE’ magazine and uses a gradient of colours in it and also the lettering was in caps and in bold. This is what I wanted for my magazine, so the masthead is situated in the middle of the top of the magazine, and the text is in black with a fading pink edge and is also in block caps. The font for the masthead is quite unusual, unique and


eye catching which will attract the reader’s eye and also can reflect the uniqueness of artists in the pop industry, this giving a subtle hint into what the magazine holds. I think the advantage of having a simple main colour (black) for the masthead is that it can be changed in future issues to fit in with the background of that issue and then can be placed all around the magazine.

For my music magazine, I wanted the front cover to follow the Guttenberg design principle. I thought this would be good as most of the other magazines follow this rule, especially the ‘VIBE’ magazine front cover. The front cover follows the principle and the axis of orientation as it the main headline in the primary optical area, the first bit the eyes see, and then has the barcode and other less important headlines in the terminal area. Whilst planning my own layouts, I used aspects of the Guttenberg design principle by placing the magazine masthead in the primary optical area, and then placing the barcode in the terminal area. But I then challenged the principle by placing the main headline at the centre of the bottom of the page. I did this as I thought it would work better with the main image I was using. For the layouts of my other pages I followed similar designs as that of the real published music magazines. For the contents page I used images like the other contents, but instead of placing them around the page, I placed them all on one side as I thought it looked better. The contents were all to one side and was easy to follow and the page looks tidy and professional. My initial plan for my double page was to have the main image of the artist taking up

two thirds of the double page, with a large headline at the top of the right hand page, a kicker underneath this and then two columns for my written article. I then later changed this to have three columns of writing after looking more closely at other magazines as this was the more conventional way of setting an article out. The house style throughout my magazine was consistent and reflected the way the magazines I researched had their house style. In the NME

magazine, they used 3 main colours, blue, black and white throughout the magazine and made sure each page had a similar basic layout of page numbers in the corners, and having the magazine masthead in the top corners of the pages. Also similar text fonts and sizes were used for every article. I liked the way they had done this so I took inspiration from that for mine and had 3 main colours, pink, black and white to use throughout the magazine. I used these colours as they were bright and eye catching, whilst also working well together and they reflected the music genre well. I made sure each page had the page number in the bottom


corners and the magazine masthead in the top corners; this made the magazine look more professional.


When doing my product research I looked very closely at the images that were shot and placed in the magazines. I wanted to make sure that my photography looked professional and of a high standard. The final image I used for the front cover was a medium/close up shot from the shoulders to the top of the artists head. I took inspiration from the ‘Q’ magazine covers as this is the type of photograph they used and it worked well and looked of a high standard. The direct mode of address makes it look like the artist is staring right

back at you so therefore draws you in. I also, like the ‘Q’ magazine, placed the photograph in the middle of the page, this enabling cover lines to be situated around the artist to show other features of the magazine. I also was inspired by the Cher Lloyd and Ed Sheeran images I analysed for my artist analysis as the Cher Lloyd image just had the artist in the middle of the page

and was well edited and attractive and the Ed Sheeran image was simple with a simple background, but was still effective. The rule of thirds has also been accomplished here as all for interconnecting points are situated on a part of the artists face so have points of interest there. The image used also has symmetry as both sides are near enough the same as each other; this is very rarely found on

front cover images so this could attract the reader’s eyes. For my front cover I also used a white backdrop as the background as it was simple and keeps the focus on the artist. The images used for my contents page were all shot against a plain coloured background, I did this as I thought it would make sure all the attention was focused on the artist in the image, this challenged

the research I looked at as most of those images were shot at concerts or gigs and had quite dark backgrounds. It took a lot of time to get my main image for the double page article right as I had to think of the mise en scene and props that could be used. I took inspiration from the NME double page article as it used an image that took over two thirds of the double page, this showing who the article is about, this is what is typically found in music magazines. I used a medium shot for my image and the background was a black wall with some graffiti on it – I used this as it relates to the written article as the artist is thankful

for her roots and where she grew up and lived, and this is where the image was shot. I made sure that artists clothing was fashionable and reflected the type of artist she is. The artist is wearing headphones around her neck, this showing how into her music she is and how dedicated she is. I also used the prop of a guitar as this is what the artist plays so it gives a subtle insight into the type of artist she is and how she likes to perform; it also reinforces that fact that this magazine is a music one.


I decided that to make my magazine and the photographs I took to look more professional I should do some image manipulation and editing to make them look better. I looked at the way the music magazines that I researched did this and tried to achieve the same professional standards as them. To do this I used Adobe Photoshop. For the front cover image I zoomed in onto the artist’s upper body and cropped unwanted material to make the direct mode of address stronger. I then changed the hue/saturation of the image to gain more definition on the artists face. For my images used on the contents page I changed the hue/saturation for these as well as the contrast, this made the artists stand out against their backgrounds. And finally for my double page image, I zoomed in to change the image from a body shot, to a medium shot so you could see the artist clearer. The starting image was quite dark, so I changed the brightness of the image first off. I then changed the hue and saturation to make the artists skin look brighter and less washed out against the strong black background. The editing done on all the images make them look really professional and up to the standards of a real magazine.

For my product research, I looked at the written articles on both double page spreads that I looked at. Both the ‘NME’ and ‘Q’ articles were promoting the artists that they were talking to. They were informing the readers of the projects they are getting up to now and in the future; they are very informative. I took inspiration from this and in my article I promoted the artist and informed of their albums, singles and concerts. I developed from the ‘NME’ article the way my article was set out, this being a question and answer format. I thought this was best as it was the simplest to follow and it would make the reader feel more engaged with the artist, almost like they are talking to them. I used an informal style of interviewing as this would be more relevant to teenage/young adult audience that would be reading the magazine as its how they would speak. The layout of my written article was in 3 columns as this is the conventional way most magazines set there articles out, it would look more professional. I also used a kicker after the main headline which contained

snippets of what is was being talked about in this interview and it makes them want to carry on reading and find out what is going on.

Media evaluation question 1

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