KATIE COLLINS

COURSEWORK EVALUATION

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

Codes and ConventionsMy magazine makes use of several music magazine codes and conventions. The front cover in itself uses:

• A colour scheme• Title of magazine in top left corner• Main image of a person• Headlines• Skyline • Main headline

Colour scheme:

Headlines

Main image

Title

Skyline

Main headline “Lady Gaga Has RISEN!”

Skyline

Title

Colour scheme:

Headlines

Main headline “The World According To Penexo”

Main image

Front Cover

Codes and ConventionsContents Page

For my contents page, I made various searches on Google to find a contents page style that I liked. In the end, I made great use of the NME content page style. I liked how the photographs and quotes were used together to make the articles sound like must-reads. The NME style also makes the page look busy, but not too clustered.

I liked the neat layout of ‘Drummer’ magazine’s contents page, but I wanted to make greater use of images.

The neat layout plus the use of images and quotes together made this style my favourite.

As you can see, I also used plenty of images, with quotes to accompany them.

Codes and ConventionsDouble Page Spread

While conducting research into music magazine double page spreads, I noticed that a great majority of them filled one of the pages with an image of the artist or band featured in the article. I decided to go with this style, as well as putting my writing in columns, to make the article neat and easy to read. I also noticed that many had enlarged quotes embedded into the writing, to further draw the reader into the article. I did this with the words “If a concert doesn’t leave your ears ringing, what’s the point?”

1st Page 2nd Page

Enlarged quote

“How does your media product represent particular social groups?”

Representation of Particular Social Groups

Within my magazine, I obviously had to represent musicians, but I wanted to go further into it, and represent artists from various popular genres of music. After all, music splits into hundreds of genres, and each one has a particular style that helps to define it. The artists in my magazine fit into the genre of folk, rock, electronic/pop and rap. To do this, I researched existing artists from these genres and styled my models accordingly.

Representing the Electronic/ Pop Genre

I wanted my main featured artist to be a female electronic artist. This is because, after conducting research, it became clear that female electronic artists wear a lot of bright colours and strange clothes. By styling my model this way, I was able to give the magazine a burst of colour and excitement. Reading interviews with female artists in this genre showed me that a lot of them seemed to have friendly, outgoing personalities and a lot of confidence. I tried to represent this personality accurately within the double page spread article.

Portraying “Penexo” as someone with a great amount of confidence

Ellie Goulding, Little Boots and Lights- existing electronic/ pop arists

‘Penexo’, the artist I created. (Photos are not edited)

Representing the Folk GenreBen Howard, Mumford & Sons and Newton Faulkner, existing folk artists ‘Ryan Howard’, my fictional folk artistLooking into the folk genre showed me that a

‘back to nature’ theme is common among folk artists. They often wear hats and waistcoats, and have an old fashioned look about them. Often, they perform and give interviews outdoors, giving a feeling of nature to their style. Because of this, I styled my model in an old fashioned flat cap, and photographed him outdoors, looking quite casual. The can of beer shows the relaxed feel of the interview.

‘Ryan Howard’ on my contents page

Representing the Rock GenreRock stars are often represented in the media as being trouble makers. They are often photographed drinking on stage and fighting. The feud between the Gallagher brothers was made extremely famous by newspapers all over the world, reporting their anarchistic behaviour as they battled it out to compete for the public’s attention. I deliberately photographed some of my models in a way that would portray them as stereotypical rock stars.

The Gallagher Feud The ‘Raymond Brother’ feud

Rock star, Slash, in a supposedly drunken state

‘Sam Snow’, my fictional drunk rock star Tom Meighan,

Kasabian’s lead singer, drinking on stage

‘James Martin’, photographed with a pint in his hand, talking about causing trouble.