Evaluation Question 1

In what way does your magazine use, develop or challenge forms and conventions or real media

products?

What Is the Purpose of a Magazine?• The purpose of a magazine is to inform, entertain and potentially educate the reader regarding a particular topic or

subject.• It will do this by adhering to various forms and conventions that help the audience to “decode” the embedded

messages in a particular way. These codes and conventions come together to help the audience to easily understand the genre and target market of the magazine. Technical codes such as editing and positioning also help to identify a professional magazine and make it more appealing to the audience. For example, the use of a medium shot of the model and direct address will engage the reader. This is as opposed to a wide shot, which may make the reader feel left out and isolated. This could be the difference between the magazine making enough sales to stay in business or being removed from circulation.

Front CoverThe conventions of a front cover include:

Masthead

Strapline

Date/ Issue Number

Cover lines

Price

Barcode

Front CoverHaving carried out research into two rock magazine, I found that the genre often broke conventions in terms of positioning of each of these objects.

My cover lines break convention, as they are not exclusively of the left side of the page. Instead, they are also positioned on the right and in the middle. This was done deliberately to create rebellious connotations surrounding the magazine that can heavily associate with the genre and the main story in the magazine as well.

The remainder of the cover remains conventional to the common magazine setting. This was primarily due to the fact that my magazine would be new to the market. As such, some options to continue to challenge conventions would not as as appropriate unless the magazine was a well known brand. For example, my masthead is prominently displayed un impeded at the top of the page. Whereas other, more established bands can put this behind the image in favour of relying on the cover artist to sell the magazine.

The masthead of RockSound

Contents PageThe conventions of a contents page include:

Title

Key stories

Sections

Chronological Folios

Variety of Pictures

Folios on Pictures

Contents PageMy contents page is much more conventional then the cover, and includes many of the noticeable features. I developed upon the modern rock magazine seen on the last slide in order to help aim my product at the appropriate audience. This includes using more than one image to give the audience more of a preview into their choices when it comes to selecting the article they want to read. Blumler and Katz’s Uses and Gratifications theory also acknowledges the idea that a modern audience is more active and is likely to select the media that best applies to them.

My magazine differs from that of even the Rocksound magazine with the positioning to the text again covering the middle and both sides rather than just along one side. This shows how my magazine is entirely unique as a layout amongst even some more modern rock magazines. The colour scheme also ties in where as, Rocksound varies the page and text colours throughout.

White pageText on one sideDifferent coloured text to cover and DPS.

Double Page SpreadThe conventions of a DPS include: Headline

Strapline

Byline

Columns

Picture

Pull Quote

Drop CapsJust like my contents page, my DPS does follow the conventions of a typical magazine. I chose to do this as I had seen many throughout my research that became confusing as to whether or not they were in fact over two pages or whether there was a single page and an advertisement. Therefore I aimed to make a clear link between the two pages through the use of technical codes such as the models positioning. He is seen looking in towards the article as though he his interested in its contents. His head is also tilted towards the pull quote, drawing further attention to it. This is also used by Rocksound, who have their model in the centre of the page with the text around him. The page colours are also identical which gives the impression to the audience that the the article is on one big page rather than two smaller ones. The use of columns is a key technical code that ensure the DPS remains professional at all times. It also helps to break up the text and make it less of a chore for the audience to read, making them more likely to show an interest in the article.