Q1) In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real

media products?

By Lucy Townsend

My front cover: FormsForms on the front cover of my magazine include text. Text is used on the front cover to give insight to the readers of what's going to be inside the magazine. For example there's text of an artists name and in my magazine there will be a feature on her. As well, as text graphics are also included in the making of the front cover of my magazine. Graphics on my cover include my coloured fill boxes which are used for the cover lines. I decided to include this for graphics because i felt that it would make my cover look more appealing to the eye, It's important for the front cover to stand out and by me doing this i think it does. Other graphics i included was effects on the masthead and also the headline. The masthead has a drop shadow of black behind it which was used to make sure it stands out as its an important factor of a magazine. The headline has a outer glow effect on it which makes that stand out from the main image of who the magazine is going to be about.

My front cover: Conventions• Throughout the creating of my cover magazine, I thought it was the best idea for me to

follow conventions and not break them. Eye contact in any magazine is used to so that there's a direct attention to the audience.

• Also, the main cover on any magazine takes up the whole page. This makes the front cover look more busy, the photo is the first thing people see so having it large scale makes it more professional.

• Like most music magazines the artist who is photographed on the front cover is the main feature in the magazine. They have their name positioned below them as the headline.

• Nothing is covering the artists face. I have positioned all the text including the masthead, the cover lines and headline all around her so she is the main focus for the front cover. She is the first thing that the readers see so it is important that she is correctly positioned on the page.

• Some magazine like to not include cover lines and just have the main image. I have included cover lines of artists on the left side of my front cover. Cover lines are used to intrigue the readers by giving them a little information about who's going to be inside the magazine.

My contents page: FormsI wanted to keep the colour scheme of the contents page quite simple. I used the same colour's as on my front cover as i wanted it to fit into the house style, so i included deep red, black and white.I kept the background white as most music magazine contents pages don't have a major colour in the background, so i wanted to stick to the conventions and didn't want to break them. Each sub headline on the right hand side is in a different colour than to the information beneath it. I needed the sub headlines to stand out so it's visible to the readers. I have also included photographs on the cover. These images are people who are included in the magazine. I continued to use graphics from my front cover but i have decided not to use as many, the contents page is more important with information and the cover is more about the decorative aspect. So i filled in a box to go along the top of my page, on my text also i used effects again for example 'contents' has a a drop shadow behind it in a different colour. I used alot of tools including the ruler tool to make sure that my page numbers and text was all neatly underneath each other, i did this to make it look more professional and like a real life music magazine.

When creating my contents page to my magazine, I did my research of what other pages looked like in the same music genre as meI came across the magazine mix mag which focuses on dance\house and electronic music as there genre. I wanted my contents page

to have a similar layout to this magazine.

My contents page: Conventions• I included columns on my contents page to make all my information fit better and neater on the

page. I only included 2 columns on my page i didn't want to do to many as it will make my page look to busy and cramped.

• Features are often included a lot in magazines. They are there for the readers of the magazine to get an insight to who's going to be in the magazine and if its worth purchasing the magazine or not. It is common that the feature sub headlines stand out more than the text underneath. The text is normally either in a different colour or in a different size to differentiate the information. On my contents page i decided to change the colour.

• Page numbers are essential on the magazine contents page. They are needed so that the readers can navigate themselves around the magazine easily. Similar to the text the page numbers are a large size or a change of colour to make it obvious to the reader. Most contents pages do have the page numbers because if you don't it makes it alot harder for the readers of the magazine.

• Photos are often used on the contents page so that the readers know who's going to be featured in the magazine. On my contents page i used photographs i took myself and also i included photographs of celebrity artists who link to my genre for example dj's like Annie Mac and Tiesto so that my audience know that also there is information about people who have made it in the music industry by studying about dance and house music.

My Article: FormsOn my article, The colour scheme links in with the contents page and the front cover. Using the same colour so I'm keeping the house style was important for me. I used graphics on the headline of the artists name as i wanted to make it look more edgy and interesting so it appeals to the readers more. I have taken a photograph of who the magazine article is going to be about and this is positioned on the left side of the page. Fonts i used are quite simple as i found it quite hard to find a font which fit my dance and house music genre for my magazine.

My Article: ConventionsMost music magazine articles use a whole one side of the page to position the image of the band or the artist, i have followed this by using my image on the left hand side so that there is still plenty of room for my text on the other side. The photograph needs to be intriguing and attractive as its the first thing the reader sees so it determines if the reader will read the article. To draw the audience in some magazines use a tag line. This is a quote which the person has said which has been pulled out of the article to persuade the reader to read the article. This was my purpose for doing this, i made the tag line in a different font and colour so that they see it first and it draws them in. The article always has a headline on the image of the artists name, just links with the image so the readers know who the magazine is about. Columns are used in articles to seperate the text and present it more professional. It makes it look more neater and fits it all together.

The example above, shows how this NME article has similar conventions to my article. The image positioned left hand side and the text is split into columns