Question 1 media studies evaluation

Question 1:In What Ways Does Your Media Product Use, Develop or Challenge Forms And Conventions Of Real Media Products?

You can tell straight away that this is a magazine, due to my masthead FYE. I placed it in the top left hand corner of the page on purpose because it is eye catching and it is the pace where the human eye looks at first then reading, a lot like every other magazine sold

Also, my magazine has a barcode in the bottom left hand corner of the page, and a price next to the barcode.

There is also a date of publication

There is an image bleed which is typically seen on a magazine front cover to gain attention and draw a reader in

There is a main story headline to show what is the main story in the magazine. This is also found on most magazine front covers

I have included a sell to promote the feature in the magazine

The layout is typical of a real magazine as there are a number of cover lines and some featured articles

How You Can Recognise My Magazine As A Real Magazine…

How Is My Product Recognisable In A Sub-Genre Of Magazine…

• My magazine can clearly be identified in belonging to the “rock/alternative” music genre. Overall, the font is mostly formal as the magazine is for an older audience, and the colours used are brighter, bolder colours to gain attention, and neutral colours to denote sophistication.

• The layout is also formal as everything is in 3 columns and throughout the magazine, this layout is not compromised because otherwise the target audience would be different for my magazine. In both my contents page and my double page spread I used the column guides to help me achieve this.


• I used three main colours for my magazine, they were black, white, and red. I chose these colours because these are unisex colours so my magazine is not just focused towards one genre even if my magazine would be mainly read by men. Also, I used the red and white to attract the audience as they are bright, bold colours that are catching to the eye

• I also found out from my research that these are the main colours used in my genre of my magazine. An example of this is Q magazine, and they also use a little negative space to make it look more formal. I have tried to do this throughout my magazine.


• I wanted to ensure that my main text would be readable but formal because the main readers of my magazine would be older. The body text is size 8 in my double page spread and is a serif font to confirm my target audience. During my research, I found out that the majority of the text was on 1 page and a large picture or pictures on the other. I emphasised this in my magazine.

• However, I did use some sans serif fonts in my magazine to attract the reader to the magazine. An example of this in in some of my cover lines.

Have You Challenged Any Conventions And Why?

• I used a sans serif font to attract a younger audience as the genre of music is not only loved by older people e.g 30-50 years old, but there are also some youths that enjoy the music as well so I have to accommodate those as well.

• I have rotated some images to give the magazine more of an edgy feel and to make it look more modern. This also breaks up the layout style which in this genre of magazine would not usually occur.

• Finally, I have made some the images look like they have been printed out of an old polaroid camera to make the magazine look more authentic and unique

What Have I Used From Existing Magazines…

Front Cover

• Placement of my masthead/logo (top left)• Image bleed• Sans serif headline• Ellipse shapes• More than one image on a page (with NME magazine)


Contents Page

• Logo of magazine (top left corner)

• Border lines• More than image on one

page• Date in top right hand

corner• Quote on main image • Three coloumns


Double Page Spread

• Drop caps

• Date of publication

• Page number

• Logo of magazine

• 3 columns

What Have I Developed From Existing Magazines…

Front Cover

• Different barcode position (bottom left)• Use a red ellipse shape with white text with a drop shadow • Placed an image in the top right hand corner on an angle• Use a different camera position (far shot) instead of a mid close up• Placed text above image and below it, instead of around it


Contents Page

• The album review section is placed just to the left of, but is more or less in the same position

• Black text used, just a different size

• Red page numbers in a different size

• My album review section’s text is serif, to give it a more formal look and feel.


Double Page Spread

• I have put the images on 1 side of the page apart from one which wraps around the main body text, as I didn’t want the double page spread to look plain and boring.

• I have placed some quotes from the text around the page instead of what Q do and just leave them in the text.

• I only used one drop caps, as I didn’t want to overload the page with too much larger text .

• I didn’t bleed one of the pages, I just placed many images on the page.

Documents

Question 1 media studies evaluation