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

This is my magazine cover to the left, I used typical conventions from the two types of magazine on the left to help create my final product. I chose the genre of pop and looked at magazines that covered that genre. I mainly aimed my magazine at a young female audience and these magazines helped me create the final cut.

I used this top of the pops magazine as a template to help me create an effective young music magazine. I used similar features to the top of the pops magazine to help make it become a successful new magazine. Using the real magazine as an example I used some of the features from it to include into my magazine to make it seem more realistic.

I really liked the layout of the Top of the Pops magazine as it shows simple conventions of the genre that it is writing about and it appeals to it audience well.

I really liked the way the magazine gives a numbered sell line to catch the readers eye onto it wanting them to read more inside. This typical sell line also makes it more personal by including “by you” showing that it is written by people like the person reading it, immediately relating to the audience.

I also liked the font used on Top of the Pops magazine as it is quite simple and not too complicated for the audience to read. I also think a change in colour between the number and description make it stand out typically from the rest of the cover.

I copied the style of the text to introduce the main star of the magazine as I really liked the way it was laid out and the use of a quote from the interview to let the reader know exactly what the interview is all about.

I also liked the use of colours that Top of the Pops used on this text as it typically relates to the audience of young girls so I thought this would be a great idea to reflect on my magazine as they both have the same audience and genre.

This also helps the text stand out more and attract attention to the reader as the main star is the most important part of the magazine.

The pose on my magazine was influenced by the pose Justin Bieber takes on the front of this Top of the Pops as I liked the way he was turnt to the side with direct address to the audience completely drawing them in to buy the magazine. Also with the main model smiling immediately makes the audience feel comfortable with the magazine, making them feel happy about buying it.

This is my contents page on the left, it shows similar connotations to the Top of the Pops contents page on the right. I followed the same theme of colours and layout as the original contents page as it is quite simple and straight forward letting the reader know exactly what page each article is on.

I used this simple banner layout from the Top of the Pops magazine as I felt it really helped create the page and let the readers know what it was all about. I used the tag line ‘a lot to boast about’ as I felt this linked in well with the name of the magazine and continued the theme throughout the magazine so that the reader would remember the magazine name.

I really liked the way Top of the Pops magazine laid out their contents pages by putting each article into boxes and columns with titles letting the audience know exactly where to look for each article.

I continued the theme of pink colouring with the numbers as I felt that this could be a theme that is kept throughout the magazine showing consistency. I copied the use of a heart symbol into some of the titles as this seemed like a unique thing to add within the titles that Top of the Pops used.

I looked at a range of double page spreads from Top of the Pops magazine and Smash Hits magazine, to give me inspiration for my double page spread interview. Though I stuck with a double page spread of Justin Bieber to help me create my double page spread.

I really liked the way that the interview in Top of the Pops introduced their main star for the interview explaining about the interview and exactly who the celebrity is that they are interviewing. I copied this idea as it shows a typical convention of teen magazines simplifying the interview for younger readers. Also the use of block text saying ‘EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW’ in my magazine, was influenced by Top of the Pops magazine who used the same text making it seem like the interview is like nothing else ever seen before or that will ever be seen.

I looked at a range of poses from magazines to choose the correct sort of pose that would be suitable for my magazine double page spread following from my front cover. I liked the way Cheryl Cole and Lily Allen looked in these photographs so I was inspired by the simple looks they used in these double page spreads. I used a simple girly pose for my double page spread so that it would immediately relate to the young female audience.

For the title of the double page interview I copied the idea from the Top of the Pops interview with Justin Bieber and used a quotation from the interview to headline the page, giving the reader and immediate insight into what the story was all about. I continued the with the colour scheme by using pink for the quotation marks, keeping consistency throughout the magazine which is a typical convention of music magazines, making my magazine seem more realistic.