Q1

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

My media product uses, develops and challenges forms and conventions of real media products in many different ways on each, my front cover, contents page and double page spread.

Like on all front covers of any magazine, I have used a masthead for the title of my magazine. I have used a unique font which is unique to my magazine so that people will recognize this type of font and relate it back to my magazine. Apart from the image, this is usually the largest item on the front cover. The masthead of my magazine is 'Deviate'. I chose this as the masthead because it represents the uniquness of my magazine. Deviate means, to stray away from usual ways and trends. This is what my magazine is, different to any other magazine. It is an alternative magazine which does not follow any trend or fashion of life.

I have a positioning statement underneath my masthead is in an italic font to represent that my magazine is different to any other magazine and that is is going to different in lots of ways to other magazines.

The main thing on the front cover of a magazine is the background image. The image is really important because it sets the feel and genre of your magazine. Because mine is an indie magazine, I used the artist Joey Morton, who is quite quirky and is dressed in an indie styled outfit. His hair is quirky and cool, which is the look I wanted for my music magazine.

There is usually one main headline on the front cover of a music magazine. I have used the ‘JOEY MORTON’ article as the main headline on my magazine. I have made the size font of this text larger to the rest. This story is also in white, where the rest of the cover lines are in black or maroon. This will make it stand out and make my readers aware that this is the story which partners with my main image on my front cover.

The colours white, black and maroon, are consistent throughout my music magazine on my front page, contents page and double page spread. The point of the colour scheme is to tie the whole magazine together as one.

Like all magazines, I have used the code of including the bar code, date, and price and issue number on my front cover. I have placed these all in the bottom right corner of my magazine.

I have a strap line at the bottom of my magazine with the world 'plus' and then extra regular articles. The word plus is a buzzword to attract the readers attention. Being in a strap line to seperate it from the rest of the magazine, suggest it could be exclusive articles.

I have used buzz words on my front cover, as a code of music magazines. These words are too attract the reader’s attention and catch their eye to my magazine. I have used words like, ‘Blowouts’, ‘Plus!’, and ‘Exclusive!’ These words draw the reader into certain stories just like a music magazine like ‘Q’ would do.

In real music magazines, they would include famous and popular names on the front cover to grab the reader’s attention. If the reader see’s their favourite artist’s name on the front cover, they will want to buy the magazine to see what the story is about. I have challenged this form buy using famous names like, Rihanna, The Smiths, Zane Lowe, and Ben Howard. These famous names also relate the music genre of my music magazine which is indie.

All of my cover lines are important because they each represent the genre of my magazine. Each story is about an iconic figure in the indie world. The way they are set out with certain names and words in a larger font than the rest, is to attract the attention of the readers and entice them. For example, the words 'new talent' is larger because it will entice the readers to see what new talent it is, that they might not hear about in any other magazine. Also, some stories are in red to stand out and to fit in with the colour scheme.

On my contents page I also used codes and conventions of a media product.

My colour scheme has also stayed consistent throughout my contents page and front cover.

There is always a partnering image on the contents page to the image on the front cover. I have followed this code by having a different picture of Joey Morton from the front cover, on my contents page also.

On a music contents page, the articles are normally spread out across two or three columns. I have followed this convention by having three columns on my contents page.

I have separated my articles into regulars and features. To separate my articles into sections, I have used the titles, ‘Feature’, We Love’, ‘News’, and ‘Live!’

Also on my contents page, is the web address for my magazine, the date and the page number.

Like most music magazine contents pages, they have the magazine name at the top of the page as a master head, and somewhere by the master head is the word contents.

I followed this convention by having the title of my magazine at the top of my page, and then next to it the word ‘contents’.

On every contents page is at least two pictures which relate to the stories in the magazine. I have followed this code by having four pictures on my contents page. Each of these is related to an article in my magazine.

They all also have the page number next to them so that if the reader is interested by the picture, they can go straight to that article.

Each picture has connotations of the indie genre, for example, one picture has an artist with a guitar which relates to the indie genre of my magazine. I also have a picture of Danny o’Donoghue from The Script which I took myself at a concert. The genre of The Script is indie like my magazine.

My double page spread is also another part of my magazine which follows the codes and conventions of a real media product.

First of all, the image on a dps always goes with the article. My article is about a band called ‘The Guardians’ so my image is of The Guardians. The image is usually direct address also; I have used direct address in the main image on my dps because each band member is looking straight into the camera.

There is also usually a quote from the article pulled out as the headline or by the picture to break the page up. It is usually a controversial quote to get the readers interested and want to read more about the article.

I pulled out a quote and used it as a drop quote in the middle of the second page of my dps. This was a humorous quote which I used to attract my readers to that article.

Lower down the page, I chose to have a stand first introducing the band. Because there are lots of different styles of double page spreads, there are lots of different codes and conventions that can be used and not used.

For a headline, I had the band’s Name ‘GUARDIANS’ at the top of my page because I think their name is quite a statement in itself. This was over the picture which filled the first page of my dps.