QUESTION 1

My chosen media product is a magazine; a magazine can either be a hard copy or online copy of information in a book like situation. Magazines are usually produced regularly, weekly or monthly but can be put to another time scale also. I have chosen to create a music magazine, which includes stories from any genre of the music, but the first editions main story is of an indie genre. There are many conventions for magazines, such as the cover lines are on the left hand side of the page; I have kept with this convention and have put most of my cover lines left hand side of the page, but I have broken this convention as well because my main cover line is spread across the whole of the page to attract as much attention as possible. The cover lines are placed on the left of the page, so that magazines can be stacked upon each other and you are still able to see the cover lines underneath and what they say. Another convention is that the mast head is placed at the top of the page, I have also followed this convention, my main reason was because the image that I had chosen had two spaces one along the left side and one across the top. The mast head is also usually bold and colourful so it can be seen easily, but there is usually a set masthead that is carried over onto each edition of the magazine produced.

On the double page spread or at the start of an article, there is usually a drop capital. Which is a larger letter that drops over a few lines at the start of the first paragraph, to show that it’s the start and make it stand out more. I have also put the text and masthead on the double page spread on the left hand side page, I did this so that people reading the magazine get to the reading first and all in one chunk so the page doesn’t look over filled, it also allows them to read about Millie Louise before they look deeply into her face. I used a monochrome overlay on both the front cover image and the double spread page image, to link both pages together, it also links in with the conventions used by the two magazines I studied in my research.

My contents page includes all page folios and also links to the images on the right hand side of the page, as the folios are all placed on the left hand side of the page, this allows a brief sum up of what goes on each page under each of the folios; which is another convention that I have followed.

To link the three pages together I have; carried the same style masthead from the front cover to the contents page, this allows readers to connect the two pages; I have also used a monochrome overlay on the images on both the front cover and the double page spread so readers are able to see that they are reading the same story. I have also linked all three pages together by using a bright pink for either text or for a box, (behind the text). Doing all this helps to identify the magazine and everything inside.