Evaluation 1

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

Masthead

In order for a magazine to stand out on the shelf amongst other magazine it must have an eye-catching masthead. For my masthead I decided to challenge the convention of having a masthead across the top of the magazine and usually being one word. I decided to do this so I could have a larger image on my front cover and also to make my magazine stand out against others. Similar to magazines such as ‘Q’ and ‘NME’ they position their masthead in the top left hand corner of the magazine and usually double up as a logo for the company. Here is my masthead, as you can see it is quite similar to ‘Q’ in that its positioned in the top left corner and has a solid colour background. Also here is Kerrang!’s masthead, as you can see I have challenged their convention in putting a masthead, which spreads across the top of the magazine. I wanted my masthead to be bold and be different which reflects the genre and will relate to my target audience. I chose a solid colour background because it is vibrant and stands out against the dark colour of the back of the magazine. As this is a new media product I wanted the masthead to be readable and clear from a distance and not be covered by an image, like most mastheads are, when the magazine becomes more established it would be possible to try ideas like partially covering the masthead.

Front Cover Layout

One way I followed the conventions of a real music magazine was the layout of my cover. The image I had taken was a medium close up shot with the model looking directly into the camera, which makes the audience feel like he’s looking at them. I also included the Issue number and how much the magazine costs which is a regular convention of most music magazines. I also included buzz words on my magazine such as Exclusive and Plus which draws the readers attention and makes it seem like they are getting extra value for their money, most magazines use this to entice more people to buy their magazine. I also used banners which most magazine’s use to attract the readers attention to certain stories and articles, much like I have done, I want the readers to see that we have an exclusive story on Jason Smith and this will attract fans of Jason Smith to buy this magazine specifically for the content on him.  I have also included a bar code on my front cover, which is a regular convention of music magazines. In addition I have also filled the front cover with bands and artists similar to the cover artist and others to attract the most potential audience for this magazine. By including other artists this widens the market for the magazine and gives the reader more choice. I also chose to include bands of a similar genre to the cover artist as this reflects the target audience of the magazine and in return reflects their likes and dislikes.

Contents Page Layout

I also followed the conventions on my contents page. As you can see I have included the word contents to give an overview of the page the reader is one and I have included my masthead, from the front cover, along side to keep reminded the reader of the magazine. I have also included the issue number and date on the contents page, again to remind the reader. As you can see I have clear titles of all the areas the magazine has articles in, including News and Features, which are conventions on most magazines. When deciding on the articles I was going to include in my magazine I decided to use all the cover artists and give a brief one line on what the article is about and what page number it is on. Here I also included another picture of Jason Smith along with the page number the double page spread is on so readers can go directly to it. Including all the page numbers and artists’ give the readers clear direction to read the magazine in and direct themselves. In addition I have included a Subscribe Now! Feature, which allows the user to subscribe to the magazine for a lower price than if they were buying the magazine every week. This is to attract the target audience more as the magazine isn’t that expensive and isn’t that cheap so this allows the people with less disposable income to be able to afford the magazine. I have also included social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr, this makes it so you can have the magazine on a multiple of platforms not just a physical magazine. I have also added a welcome paragraph, which isn’t a convention on most magazines but is included on Kerrang! And is used to welcome the reader to the magazine and give them an overview of what is in the magazine and which articles to look out for, I used this as it gives the reader something little to read about the magazine before they find an article they want to read.

Double Page Spread Layout

There were also several conventions I used on my double page spread. As you can see I have used paragraphs, which are set out into three columns and are justified. This is a regular convention on most music magazine double page spreads as it looks professional and organises the page.  I also have a footer on my double page spread, which similar to the contents page and front cover has the logo of the magazine, this is to keep telling the reader this is VM magazine.  Also on the banner I have added the buzzword exclusive. This is to tell the reader that this is an exclusive article and they are getting something that not everyone has, this is highlighted in red text as it stands out and matches the colour scheme.  The double page spread also has a page number on the left hand page. This is to correspond with the contents page and so that readers know which page they are on. This is a generic convention on most magazines, as they want the reader to know exactly which article is on which page. I also developed a convention of having a pull quote from the article spreading across both pages. This is sometimes used on magazines to attract the readers’ attention if they were flicking through the pages and initially grabs the audience’s attention. This is similar to Kerrang magazine. They use a pull quote on the double page spread to give an overview, shown here.