Conventions magazine

Question 1

❖ In what ways does your media product use, develop or

challenge forms and conventions of real media

products?

❖ What are the conventions of a regional magazine?

Front Cover

Conventions of a Front Cover

• A regional magazine will feature all the typical codes and conventions of a

magazine.

• Code and convention rules for a magazine front cover would include the

following:

• Masthead- clear title and the name of the regional magazine

• Cover stories- what the regional magazine features- using cover

stories as sell lines aims to persuade the reader to purchase the

magazine.

• Barcode

• Advertisement- in regional magazines this would uses include local

businesses

• A large image, that fills the majority of the page, normally focusing on

something in particular, for example a image of a local area as it is a

regional magazine.

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

products?

• My masthead conforms to the convention of it being clear and bold

❖ From all the font sizes on the page, the masthead’s is the largest as it

covers the first two top thirds when applying the rule of thirds. This, or the

covering of the whole top row is conventional for a regional magazine as

the masthead tends to be quite long. This is contrasting music genre

magazines like Q that only use one third.

❖ The use of a white masthead has connotations of purity and is used to

contrast the darker main image, if I used black for the masthead, it would

not be so vibrant and it would be hard to read. This creates a binary

opposition with the black that is used as a drop shadow, it reflects the

idea of nature containing purity and evil and this magazine overrules the

evil and focuses on the beauty of nature.


products?

• Cover stories- what the regional magazine features- using cover stories as

sell lines aims to persuade the reader to purchase the magazine. My

masthead conforms to the convention of it being clear and bold

❖ From all the font sizes on the page, the masthead’s is the largest as it

covers the first two top thirds when applying the rule of thirds. This, or the

covering of the whole top row is conventional for a regional magazine as

the masthead tends to be quite long. This is contrasting music genre

magazines like Q that only use one third.

❖ The use of a white masthead has connotations of purity and is used to

contrast the darker main image, if I used black for the masthead, it would

not be so vibrant and it would be hard to read. This creates a binary

opposition with the black that is used as a drop shadow, it reflects the idea

of nature containing purity and evil and this magazine overrules the evil

and focuses on the beauty of nature.


products?• I have incorporated the convention of a bar code

and dateline.

❖ On this I have included the issue number, the

date of issue, the price and the bar code.

❖ This is used on every magazine as a reference

for the company and to everyone else

Cover Lines





magazine.

• Barcode


businesses



regional magazine.


products?• Cover lines- what the regional magazine features- using cover stories as sell lines

aims to persuade the reader to purchase the magazine.

• I have incorporated the conventions of persuading cover lines into my own

magazine by varying the topics to suit different people in my target audience.

❖ My cover lines tell the reader about the content of this month’s magazine and some may refer to a specific image that is featured on the front cover. The language that these cover lines use is sophisticated so it attracts my audience who are intelligent and enjoy reading.

❖ My front page also has a line at the bottom that features the review section topics, this attracts an audience that is more active with regards to reading, or going to restaurants, etc. People can reply to these review sections and give their own opinions through social media and the website which attracts a digital native audience.

❖ Another cover lines is ‘Family Day Out at Maize Maze, Wistow’ which attracts a family centred audience who take time out to read whenever they can. This conforms to the conventional topics of a regional magazine and targets a section of my audience that has a family and is interested in family centred articles as well as others.

Barcode





magazine.

• Barcode


businesses



regional magazine.


products?• It is important to have house colours that are consistent

through the magazine and other media products

• I have conformed to this convention as I have used black,

white, blue, green and a small amount of yellow

❖ My house colours are conventional for a regional magazine, many other magazine such as CountryFile and the Archant publications use blue a lot to complement the use of white and yellow. These connotations are of tranquility, intelligence, happiness, etc. When looking at my own magazine I can still create these connotations through the use of blue, green and the small usage of yellow that i included. The use of green creates a different look to other magazines on the market that this would be competing against, such as county magazines, or Countryfile, creating a USP

Advertisement





magazine.

• Barcode


businesses



regional magazine.


products?• It’s conventional to have a large image, that fills the

majority of the page, normally focusing on something in

particular, for example a image of a local area as it is a

regional magazine

• I have conformed to this convention as I have used an

image of Old John, an icon of of Leicestershire.

❖ The image I took of Old John is very conventional for a regional magazine and the image can be reflected in similar images that are featured in real media texts.

❖ The editing process was very successful as it allowed me to create the idyllic representation of Leicestershire being luxurious with green grass and blue skies everywhere.

Large Image





magazine.

• Barcode


businesses



regional magazine.

Contents

Conventions of a Contents Page

• Often the contents page is arranged in columns – 2/3

• A page number sometimes with a picture beside it to make it easier

for the reader to go to the page with the image that intrigues them.

• The magazine name will feature at the top of the page

• Often have a simple colour scheme to give a professional look

• Contents page in a regional magazine often covers 1-2 pages

• Information about subscription to the magazine are also featured to

gain extra custom.

• Sub - lines are also a key feature in a regional magazine

• Often the contents page is arranged in columns – 2/3• I have conformed to this convention as I have included three columns of information

• The first column is designated to County News and Events, this changes every month

and I included articles such as ‘Life at the top of Belvoir Castle which is a local castle set

up as a country hotel. There is also the article name dedicated to County News

concerning properties in the local area. This is conventional for a regional magazine as

many other magazines also study property in their monthly issues, this is because of the

target audience having a lot of disposable income (A/B income bracket) and may be

interested in moving or investing in smaller houses to rent out.

• The second heading is designated to Features which is where there are the multiple

page articles that focus on exclusives or interviews and general human interest articles,

such as Gardening Do’s and Don’ts. This heading is conventional for all magazines and

the topics will cover various things, such as gardening or a hotel, which make it

conventional or a regional magazine.

• The fourth heading is designated for competition, these will change monthly and are a

point of interest for a reader who is looking for an escape to Rockingham Castle, for

example. This will interest those who are optimistic to win competitions. Competitions are

featured in every magazine and give people the opportunity to carry on buying a

magazine so they can enter them.


products?

• Often the contents page is arranged in columns – 2/3• The third is for reviews which my audience enjoy to read. Reviews are

important in every magazine and the conventional existing of them

encourages those to read the magazine. This is because many people

take pleasure in knowing the points of view of other people which may

influence them to make a certain action. For example, The top 10 books

of the month may encourage a reader to buy a certain book featured in

this top 10.

• The fifth heading is for Regulars, these stay the same each week but the

design of them changes. This means that the magazine is constantly

sending a message to the audience to ‘Subscribe’ and the more they are

exposed to the different designs of the same image, the more they will

want to do it. This is further emphasised in the bottom corner as there is

the a heading saying that they can save 20% on subscription fees by

signing up today. This is also conventional as it encourages those to

save money.


products?

• A page number sometimes with a picture beside it to make it

easier for the reader to go to the page with the image that

intrigues them.• I have not included a page number on this as I did not think that it

would be covered in the contents page so the pages start from page

six.

• If I was to do this again, I would include the page numbers as this is

an important reference for other people can makes it easier for them

to navigate from page to page, and it is very unconventional not to

include them.


products?

• The magazine name will feature at the top of the page• I have conformed to this convention as Leicestershire Living is

featured at the top of the page covering all of the top row when

applying the rule of thirds.

• ‘Contents’ is featured underneath it in the same font but a bigger

size, this is conventional as it is focusing on the contents page as we

have already the seen the masthead on the front cover. The

Leicestershire Living masthead does not need to a focal point of this

page because people know that it is Leicestershire Living that they’re

reading.


products?

• The magazine name will feature at the top of the page• I have conformed to this convention as Leicestershire Living is

featured at the top of the page covering all of the top row when

applying the rule of thirds.

• ‘Contents’ is featured underneath it in the same font but a bigger

size, this is conventional as it is focusing on the contents page as we

have already the seen the masthead on the front cover. The

Leicestershire Living masthead does not need to a focal point of this

page because people know that it is Leicestershire Living that they’re

reading.


products?


• Often have a simple colour scheme to give a professional look• I have conformed to this convention as I have carried on the house

style. I have focused more on using the green and used the blue for

the headlines. This is because a connotation of the colour blue is

intellect and this comes across through the text. The green has

connotations of harmony and this is better suited as a shape colour

to draw attention in as it stands out against the white.


• Contents page in a regional magazine often covers 1-2 pages• I have conformed to this convention as my contents is only featured

over one page. Originally when I first found the design of this contents

in Countryfile I wanted to create a double contents page to better

reflect real life text. If I was to do this again I would look into doing it

but I still think that the one page contents looks effective

• Information about subscription to the magazine are also featured

to gain extra custom.• I have spoken about this previously and I believe I have conformed to

this convention, also. In the heading ‘Regulars’ it shows that there is a

page dedicated to subscription information and also at the bottom of

the contents page there is a box about the subscription being 20%

cheaper if they bought it today. This form of marketing is successful

as it entices the audience into subscribing and reading the magazine

each month.

Double Page Spread

Conventions of a DPS

• Images

• By-lines

• Colour scheme

• A large image

• A quote

• A stand first

• The text

Conventions of a DPS• Including a stand first is conventional as it works as an introduction

to the article. Some readers may not about the article topic and

therefore introducing them would save some readers not knowing

who or what they were reading about.• I have conformed to this convention as I have included in the first

paragraph what AN.TICS is and where it is based. People who do not

know the shop will recognise the area and if they like the look of the

images they would be intrigued to read further.

• The images and the stand first work together to entice the reader.

• However, my stand first is very short and takes up the amount of space

that it does due to the font size, if I was to do this again I think making the

text smaller and using more information would conform to the convention

even further.


• The image used is usually direct address, which entices the reader

to buy the magazine because the person in the magazine looking

directly at the audience therefore it encourages them to buy the

magazine.• I have challenged this convention as I have used the shop floor as the

main image. This is because I wanted to make the reader feel as if they

are standing in the shop themselves and create the sense of a personal

identity within the shop. This will encourage them to go visit the shop

itself and look at the clothes it has to offer in reality and they will be

standing in the same view point as this image was taken.

• The use of this image also allows the reader to look at the current clothes

and trends that the shop is using at the minute, if they believe that the

clothes may suit them then they may well visit the shop or the website.


• Quotes and by-lines from the interview is sometimes presented as the

headline, or by the picture and sometimes it is even used in the text,

to break it up.• I have used pull quotes through my article to create an idea of what topics

areas are featured in this article, therefore the reader can decide whether

to read it or if they do not like it, carry on reading.

• I have also used by-lines underneath the two images on the right hand

page, this was so the audience knew what the images were of and who

they were of. This is conventional as most images have this.

• The by-line on the main image also alliterates the first paragraph, this

means that the audience are exposed to the boutique’s information of

them being in Syston and encourage them to go there. This is again,

conventional for any image that is featured on an article page.


All text on a double page spread is size 11 pt and is usually aerial font, however some magazines

make the font connote the genre. All double page spreads have a drop cap which shows the

reader when to start reading. The text is set into columns, usually 2-4 columns. This is to

make the text appear tidy and not all over the page. The page number, magazine name and

text throughout usually use the same font.

I have conformed to this text size as my text size is also a size 11. However, I have not used the

aerial font as I feel as if Times New Roman has better connotations of formality that will relate

more to my audience. The font used is very easy to read which will be positive for anyone

who reads it.

I have also conformed to the convention of a drop cap, I created a green box and edited the size

and colour of the ‘B’ so that it would feature through the first three lines of the paragraph.

I have conformed to convention of using 2-4 columns as I have used three on each page. I felt as if

two columns was too long winded for a line and thought that four columns was the complete

opposite, i feel as if using three was the correct decision and it follows conventions.

I have challenged this convention as my page numbers are in Times New Roman to match the

body, this is used for the magazine name at the top. I like this challenge of convention.


Double page spreads follow the same house style that is ran

throughout the magazine, it is usually simple so it doesn’t overpower

the article. The colour schemes used connote which genre the

magazine is.

This is a prominent feature as

• My drop quotes are in blue and the text information under the images is

also blue.

• My introductory paragraph is in green and so is the drop cap box. There

are also two leaves in each corner that are faded but green can be seen

on them

• The black and white is used as the background and the text colour. This is

important as it highlights text from their background and creates

connotations of formality and sophistication within the text itself. I have

conformed to the house style being present through the magazine, as all

of my house style colours are featured on this page.


The main image on the double page spread is usually on the left.

Sometimes the image bleeds over the whole page, although this

is not in every regional magazine, it is relatively common. The

picture on the double page spread always relates to the article

and the artist and are ascetically pleasing.• I have conformed to the convention of the image being on the left hand

side and the convention of an image spilling over to the next page, this

rejects the rule of thirds theory as it is less organised and the two pages

do not have a structure that abides by the rule of thirds.

• The image is of the shop floor that the article is dedicated to, so this

follows the conventions of the image corresponding with the article topic.

The image is also very effective, as I have already discussed and definitely

conforms to the aesthetically pleasing convention.

Education

Conventions magazine