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

Harriet Thompson

The name of my magazine• The magazine title that I have used for my music magazine I believe fits

the genre of a young, feminine , fresh magazine that attracts an audience a female audience of 9-15. I decided to call my magazine Pop’ular, which is a take on words that allows the audience to see that the magazine focuses on the genre of pop, but also expresses a certain image for the magazine, in which it appears to be successful and exciting. I believe this name would attract the target audience because the concept is easy to grasp and the theme is easy to understand.

• For my mast head, I developed the conventions of a real mast head on a real music magazine that has the same target audience. To do so I used the publishing programme photoshop. Here I created a bold *

How does it challenge the conventions- colours etc.

Image• My images are all very clear and bold. They all have bright, clear light to

reflect the theme and concept of the magazine. In most of my photos they have a direct eye contact which follows the general forms and conventions of a real music magazine. This allows them to attract the audience, drawing them into the magazine and the articles. The background of all my images have been cut out, only revealing the actual object or model, this I feel creates a fresh, clean look which definitely keeps in tone with the general conventions of a magazine with a similar target audience. In addition to this the models all express a happy, excitable mood by their facial expressions and body gestures. This would again attract a younger audience, encouraging them to become involved with the magazine.

The main title, style and font• For the main title ‘Abbie S’ I used a Brush Script MT font and a very bold

pink colour. My title I believe is slightly un-conventional because of the Italic, slightly slanted manner in which it is displayed. This challenges the conventions of a real music magazine because they generally only used bold, block text that is ordered, however I believe the style that I have used, creates a slightly more ‘sweeter’ feel reflecting the artist that I have interviewed, as well as attracting a younger audience. In contrast, the colour and the dominant size of my magazine is conventional, in the sense that the boldness of the title will immediately attract an audience towards it, encouraging them to read on.

The models/objects I have used• To create the conventions of a general music magazine, I choose to add

objects of certain parts of fashion, including nail varnish and shoes as well as the general photos of various models. These were added to express the various conventions of a general music magazine with a similar target audience. They attract a female audience and create an expressive magazine that addresses a various range of topics. These products are also all associated with girls, especially younger girls, therefore really create a conventional idea to attract the target audience. The models I have used on my magazine are all female, which is unconventional, because they mostly feature a mixture of male and female artists, in particular on the cover of the magazine, however the target audience of my magazine are teenage girls, so the use of the dominant female audience and the fact that they are all teenagers themselves, will allow the audience to relate and aspire to be like them. The audience will definitely be more interested in a young, fresh band

Written content• For my article I chose to produce an interview on the new and upcoming

artist Abbie S, who featured on my front cover. This interview follows the codes and conventions of a music magazine with a similar target audience, by the use of language and content. Throughout I have used expressive, bold language that highlights the happy nature of the article. Some examples of these include ‘great success’ and ‘exclusive’. These are conventional words that I have used and can all be seen in a generic interview in a music magazine, because of their bright nature that will attract the audience’s attention. I have also asked many questions that would be covered normally, including ‘What we expect from them in the future’, ‘Their experiences on tour’ etc. All these topics would be found in a real magazine aimed at the same audience. Following this, the use of pull quotes to capture attention of the audience is also key, creating a realistic magazine that follows the conventions well.

Layout• The layout of my magazine is fairly conventional. Everything that features

in my magazine has been displayed neatly and in order, although do have a slight slant on each feature, for example the text on the double page spread, this creates a clean but cooler style that would attract a younger audience. Most of the photos have been placed on a slight slant which generally follows the conventions of a real magazine, and on the front cover the mast head has been placed on the top left corner, while the main title has been placed in the centre of the page, this most definitely follows the generic conventions of a magazine. However the lack of photos on the front cover I believe challenges the conventions, purely because on a magazine cover their is generally many photos that cover up the page, but I have only added a few photos which leave my front cover clear and simple.

Contents page• I believe my contents page follows more of the conventions than the other

two pages do, this is because of its general layout, the context and of course the colours. It features a very generic layout, with the title ‘Contents page’ on the top of the page, while the page numbers being placed in the centre with the photos and the other various features surrounding them. The colours have been carefully placed, being bold and bright, making it easy to understand and see. The context of the contents page is very similar to that of a music magazine, featuring all the general information and articles that you would expect to see. Another main convention of the contents page is the use of displaying the front cover, to allow the audience to see where these articles feature within the magazine.

Music genre• The main genre of my magazine is pop. This is very clear throughout my

magazine by the use of the colours, text and photos. For example for my page number I have used a heart to reflect the genre pop and its girly nature. I have also used many light colours to create a the clear pop genre in which this magazine focuses on, including pink, purple, white (associated with the genre pop). Also the language that I have used expresses a genre of pop, because they reflect the music and the artists that are associated with pop. Real magazines suggest their genre by the use of colour and style, and I believe that I have done this to.