Question 1.

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

 

 Use

There were several conventions I used that other real media products used and this is where I got the idea to use them for example the way in which the magazine name is displayed. The conventional way is to have the name of the magazine running along the head of the front cover in large bold font either in front of behind the picture. I felt that this was the best way in which to display my magazine name so I followed conventions. I have also positioned my artist picture at the centre of the front cover and so that it covers the majority of the front cover. I got the idea to do this when I saw that NME magazine also did this. When I saw their magazine I was instantly drawn to the magazine and interested in the articles inside as I could quickly tell who they were focusing their articles on. Conventional magazines are also usually laid out so that the contents page is the first page after the front cover, which allows people to navigate through the magazine easily. My magazine CH!N follows the conventional layout as I also believe that this is the best way to lay out a magazine. 

 Develop

 The majority of music magazines of a similar genre to my own tend to use bold colours throughout their magazines to draw in an audience because these colours catch the eye. However I wanted to developed on this idea and put my own stamp on it. So I decided to use a darker blend of colours such as dark greens greys and blacks as I think that these still produces the same eye catching affect that attracts an audience but with out that loud appearance. Another area that I developed on was the contents page. Most magazines of the same genre as mine I looked at tented to put the focus on the titles of the contents page and the picture/pictures rather than the contents. I however decided that I would develop on this concept by taking the size of the picture and title and reducing them. Then I chose to enlarge the size of the text about the contents and features of the magazine in order to draw more attention to these. I wanted people to pay more attention to the contents and features because I felt that this would be a way of increase the chances of them being interested in my magazine and then eventually buying a copy.

Challenge

Whilst producing my magazine I challenged several popular conventions used by music magazines. One way in which I feel that I challenged conventions was the way in which I laid out my double page spread. I feel like most music magazines tent to have a photo of the artist they’re interviewing on one page and then they have the article on the other. I find this very dull and boring and find it difficult to stay interesting in the article. I challenged this convention by reducing the size of the main picture of the artist allowing me to fit text on to that page along with the photo. I then had room on the other page, where the majority of the article was, to put another photo of the artist in between the two columns of the article. I did this because I think that it helps to break up the reading of the article and keeps the audience interested.