Q1.  IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP

OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA

PRODUCTS?

Research Before creating my magazine I researched real music magazines, and I found out there are 4 main elements in the convention of magazines. These things are; masthead, image, layout and text. All of these things I have taken into account in the making of my own magazine.

The main magazine I researched into was Vibe magazine, which is a successful R&B/hip hop magazine.

From this research I have been able to see how I want my magazine to look and what elements I want to include, and how my magazine compares and differs from the conventions of current real music magazines.

Music Magazine Covers Used For Inspiration

Cover of my music magazine

I feel that my music magazine uses realistic elements that real music magazines do. My

magazine uses a masthead, cover stories, a good layout and an image, just like most real

music magazines do.

 

The masthead on my cover ‘VOLUME’ is inspired by research into real music magazines.

The font I have used is in a san serif, which gives a sharp, fresh and sleek style to my

magazine. This type of font is attractive to a younger audience, which is suitable for my

target audience. Magazines such as NME, Vibe and Billboard use a san serif font.

Cover of my music magazine

When creating the cover of my magazine my main inspiration was Vibe magazine.

Masthead I have positioned the masthead across the whole top of the cover to attract the attention of the audience straight away. The position of this masthead conforms to the conventions of current music magazines. This is because it is big and bold and therefore very clear and easy to see and read. The red of the masthead also contrasts against the white background, which also makes it stand out and easy to read.

The model covers the centre of the masthead which does not really conform to the conventions of most music magazines. This is because not the entire masthead is on show, and so people who are not familiar with the magazine will not know when they first look at it. The idea of covering the centre of the masthead came from Vibe magazine.

The masthead position and even the font is similar to Vibe magazine. The reason I did this is because Vibe is already a popular selling magazine and so I can be sure that the masthead will attract the attention of the audience. I believe the name of my magazine is conventional as it is short and easy to remember. The fact it is named ‘Volume’ also relates to music.

TextThe text I have used I believe conforms to the conventions of current music magazines because the layout of the text is clear, all articles relate to the genre of the magazine and all articles advertised on the cover are included inside the magazine. Most music magazines I researched have the cover lines down the left and right hand sides of the cover and have the main cover line in the bottom centre of the magazine. This is the reason I positioned the cover lines where I did on my magazine cover.

For the cover line ‘All new interviews’ I used a different font to attract more attention to this certain article. As the audience is buying this magazine because they are interested in R&B/hip hop, they are most likely going to want to read the interviews with music artists in this genre of the music industry.

I have also used a different font for ‘Alicia Keys’ in the cover line ‘The return of Alicia Keys’ to attract people to this article. The use of a different font will make the audience want to go straight to that article to see what Alicia Keys is doing now she has returned back to the music industry. Other magazines I have researched including Vibe and Billboard also used different fonts on their covers to emphasise and draw attention to certain articles.

At the very top of the cover I have added a banner of R&B/hip hop artists names. This is to give the audience an insight of what artists feature in the magazine. This idea came from Vibe magazine.

Cover of my music magazine

Cover of my music magazine

For the main cover line ‘Rebecca G’ I have placed it towards the bottom centre of the page as this is the article that is in the double page spread, and so therefore is the main selling point of the magazine. The size of this text is bigger than all other cover line text, so people can see this is the main article. I have also added an outer glow to the text to show the article is an extra ‘special’ feature within the magazine.

‘I want to be an icon’ is placed under ‘Rebecca G’ to make the audience want to read more about what R&B/hip hop artist Rebecca G has said. The purpose of ‘Rebecca G I want to be an icon’ is to make the readers want to go straight to the article to read the interview. Using a main cover story does follow the conventions of a real music magazine, which I have found out through researching real music magazines. The colour of the text on the cover is red, white and black which follows the theme of colours I am using throughout the magazine.

ImageThe image of my model falls in to the conventions of real music magazines. The model on the cover is looking straight into the lens of the camera, which will help catch the eye of the audience, as they can see the eye contact and feel as though they are involved with the magazine. This is a typical convention and most music magazines follow this idea. Although the image I have used I have edited into black and white. This idea is from Vibe and Classic Rock, which are the only music magazines I have seen that use a black and white image. Therefore, I am challenging forms and conventions of real music magazines.

I have also placed a barcode in the bottom right hand corner to make the magazine look and feel more real. Next to the barcode is the price of the magazine and the magazine’s website. I got this idea from Billboard magazine.

Music Magazine Contents Pages Used For Inspiration

Q Magazine Kerrang! Magazine

Contents page of my music magazine

Masthead Within the masthead I have included the name of the magazine, as I believe this will make the name of the magazine stick in the readers minds and become more recognisable. Having the masthead include the name of the magazine, as well as having it in the same font as the covers masthead, is to help the magazine establish a brand name. The slightly angled ‘V’ in the word volume also helps to establish a brand name for the magazine. Q magazine for example, also uses the magazine name in the contents page, for the same reasons I mentioned above. Many other music magazines including NME, Mojo, and Mixmag also include the magazine name in the contents page. This therefore shows that this feature of my contents page follows conventions of real music magazines.

LayoutThe layout of the contents page is very much inspired by Q magazines contents pages. I have laid out the text into different sections and boxes to make the reading of the text easier for the audience. The text is split up into the sections ‘features’, ‘Tinie Tempah Special!’, ‘regulars’ and ‘Volume Review’ so the audience can see what is included in the magazine, but also they are able to choose what section they read first depending on what articles they are interested in. This is a typical convention that most music magazines use. Within the sections, there are quite a lot of articles which shows the reader that there is a lot of content in the magazine. This ensures them that they are not going to be wasting their money buying a magazine which has no content.

The main section of articles are located on the left hand side of the page which I think is not the best position for it. I believe that I should have positioned the articles down the right hand side of the page so when readers open the contents page, this will be the first thing they see. NME and Kerrang! magazine have the articles on the right hand side, although Q magazine have the articles on the left hand side. Because of this I believe I neither developed nor challenged this convention.

In the top right hand corner I have added a box advertising subscriptions to the magazine when readers go to the website and sign up. When researching music magazine contents pages I have seen this feature in magazines such as NME, and so I followed the conventions of this real music magazine.

I have added black banners to make it easier to see the titles ‘features’ and ‘regulars’, and to make them stand out more against the white background. The red banner at the bottom of the page advertises a ‘free CD with the copy of the magazine’. I got this idea from both Q and NME.

TextThe text I have used I believe conforms to the conventions of current music magazines because the layout of the text is clear, and all of the articles advertised are actually included inside the magazine. Along with main articles I have included a sentence underneath to give the audience an idea what the article is going to be about. This feature is used in magazines such as Q and Kerrang! which is where I got the idea from.

To the left of each articles title, I have included a page number which is in a different colour and bigger font than the article title. This is so the audience can first see quickly what page the article they want to read is, but also because the page numbers go up to 56 they can see there is a lot to read, which will make them think they are getting value for money if they purchase the magazine. I also think adding page numbers makes the contents page look more professional and real.

Contents page of my music magazine

For some of the text I have used a different font. The reason for this is to attract more attention to certain pieces of text than others for the purpose of the reader. For example, I have used a different font (also the different font I used on the front cover) for ‘Tinie Tempah Special’ to let readers know that the hip hop star Tine Tempah is featuring in this month’s copy of the magazine. A different font and colour from the rest of the text will attract readers to this piece of information as soon as they open the page. For this section I have also placed it in a box to make it more eye catching to the reader and stand out slightly more on the page.

ImagesThe layout of images I used challenges the conventions of real music magazines. This I because I used three images similar in size and two smaller images, rather than using one image that is much larger than the rest. Music magazines typically use one larger image to show readers what the main article is going to be about. This image may even include a quote. What I have done to my images which does follow conventions of real music magazines, is added a page number to the bottom right hand corner of the images. This is so readers can quickly see what page the articles are on.

A convention of real magazines I have also followed is the continuation of the colour theme that I used on the front cover. This is to give the magazine a house style that makes the magazine look professional and sleek.

Contents page of my music magazine

Music Magazine Double Page Spreads Used For Inspiration

Vibe MagazineQ Magazine

Double page spread of my music magazine

MastheadThe masthead is positioned on the right hand side of the page, so this is the first thing readers see when they turn to this page. The masthead of the double page spread is titled ‘Rebecca G’ as this is the name of the model in the image, and is who the interview is based on. The double page spread article is advertised on the cover in the main cover line, and is one of the articles in the contents page. This convention is typically used by real music magazines and this is why I chose to use it in my magazine.

Layout and ImageI have followed conventions of real music magazines by keeping to the colour and layout theme of the rest of my magazine. For example, I have used two banners that match the layout theme of the banners on the contents page. I have kept with the colours red, black and white which follows the theme colours of the entire magazine.

I have placed the image on the left hand side where it covers the whole page. This challenges conventions of real music magazines as music magazines usually use more than one image across both of the pages. However, I believe that using one image works well as it follows the sophisticated and sleek look of my magazine.

TextI have laid out the text in three columns, which is typically used by music magazines. I did not want to challenge this convention because I think the text could become hard to read if more columns were added. I have used a larger size font for the first letter of the first paragraph so it is clear to the reader where the interview starts.

In between two of the paragraphs I have used a quote from the interview to make readers want to read the whole interview. I have used the quote ‘People don’t really know the real me’, as fans of the music star Rebecca G will want to read the interview to see if she explains her ‘real’ self. This is typically used my most music magazines.

I have used a friendly, chatty mode of address which I believe will relate to the age of my target audience. I did not want to use a formal language as this is not the type of language the magazines target audience will be able to relate to. Using a mode of address that relates to your target audience, is a typical convention of music magazines.

Double page spread of my music magazine

Overall comparison of my music magazine and real music magazines