1. In what ways does your media product use, develop and challenge forms and

conventions of real media productions?

• In order to make my magazine look realistic, I felt that it was important to stick to the conventions of a real pop magazine.

• Although I looked at various different pop magazines, the one I focused on the most was ‘We Love Pop’ magazine. This was because the target audience of this magazine seemed to be similar to the audience I was aiming for (older teenagers) e.g. 18 year olds.

The Shot Type

I found that in the majority of the Pop magazines I looked at, the shot of the main image was a mid shot. Also most of the time there was an angle of gaze where the shot was at eye level with the model, making it look as if the model was looking directly into the camera -lens. I used this idea on ‘Popsters’ magazine too. The shot I used for my front cover was a mid-shot where the model was looking directly at the camera. Although my model was wearing a black and white dress, to give it a pop look I made sure she wore purple nail polish and red lipstick. This also linked with my colour scheme.

Masthead

Pop magazines always have mast heads that stand out. When the audience look at the page, their attention is often drawn straight to some features, one being the masthead.

The pull-quote is another part of the front cover that is meant to catch the attention of the audience.

The pull quote also has a relationship with the main artist and in associated with them in some way. Although some pull quotes may use solid fonts, I felt that adding a hand written looking font would add a personal touch and look like primary information.

The colour schemes that ordinary pop magazines follow are for example; Pink, blue, Purple, Orange- Bright colours.

I carried this on with my magazine, however I wanted my magazine to look a little more mature then the expected pop magazines as my target audience were older and so these are the colours I chose;

A lot of pop magazines use the logo or title of the magazine as a logo on the contents page. This is also a way by which the front cover and contents page links.

Pop magazine contents pages include numbers which have stories near them. Not every single page number is displayed. Instead, a few page numbers are used, and these pages would be the most likely to attract and interest readers. They also have images with page numbers written on them.

Use of Informal Language

One of the main conventions of a Pop magazine is how busy they are. Compared to other genre magazines like hip hop, pop magazine has a lot going on all the time. It is packed with information .

HIP-HOP MAGAZINE POP MAGAZINE

Although I have looked at magazines such as “We Love Pop” a lot for guidance, I made sure that I changed the idea so that although it might me similar, it wouldn’t be exact. While creating the product I researched thoroughly at factors such as the look of the artist, shot type/angles, the colours used, the effect of different colours, and other aspects like the layout. I felt that all of this had a large influence on making the magazine actually look like it belongs to the genre I intended for it to belong to. Although sometimes I thought my idea would work, I made sure that I asked others for suggestions on whether certain features work or not, and if no what can be done to improve it. I made sure that I stuck to as many conventions as I could so that it looks professional and real. Sticking to convents helps to gain the expected look from a magazine.