1. Evaluation Of My Magazine
Conor Drury
1

2. In what ways does your media
product use, develop or challenge
forms and conventions of real
media products?
2

3. My Front Cover.
My front cover sticks mainly to the social conventions made by
other magazines. The main image used is a mid shot of the
model, the model is looking directly at the reader to create a
sense that the model is looking back at you as you look at her.
This technique is used in many magazines as it helps connect
with the audience. A large masthead is used to help the reader
easily identify the magazine and the strap line is included just
below the masthead, similar to magazines such as “Kerrang”.
My cover challenges forms of social convention by only showing
one eye of the model. I decided to do this so my model looked
more connected to the genre that my music was based on. I
also included 4 pictures of the same model, this allowed me to
give the consumers an extra reason to buy the magazine by
showing some of the free items that were inside.
Many magazines stick to a very similar style of fonts, for
example 2 or 3 different fonts, in this piece I have used close to
six different fonts. This helps the magazine look edgy and
modern compared to more formal styles of magazine.
Compared to having a separate logo and masthead separately
we created a combination of them both. This idea is relatively
unused in the media world and allowed us to save space on the
cover, as well as having a logo and a masthead to utilize further
on in the magazine.
3

4. My Front Cover.
Many social conventions have been kept when taking and
selecting the images that should be used for my cover.
The model selected can easily link to other artists and
fans of the pop-punk genre, This is because of her hair
style. The bright colour shows a creative person and the
fringe that is swept over one eye shows a lack of respect
to the more organized genre showing that pop-punk fans
and artists alike are very outgoing. All of the other
pictures show models that are wearing very basic
clothing, this allows teenage fans to easily copy them .
The font used for the Masthead of this magazine is very
similar to what you might find in a typical American
highschool, which is where a lot of bands who play this
genre of music are from. The stereotype for a person
who plays this style of music is very open, they can
either be happy and fun (ie, Jaret Reddick – Bowling for
Soup) or very dark and mysterious (ie, Taylor Momsen –
The Pretty Reckless.) I decided to choose a picture which
could suggest both, similar to the Mona Lisa. This
allowed the piece to link with more than one type of
punk fan.

5. My Contents Page.
My contents page sticks to many of the existing social
conventions made by real media products, for example the
listing used were examples that are already in many magazines.
The colours used stuck to a colour scheme that runs through the
entire magazine which is utilized fully by most magazine
creators. We included a section titled “WIN” this was used on
many contents pages so when the reader opens it to see what’s
in the magazine they have a further incentive to buy it.
I challenged media conventions by including a dark picture on
my contents page. I did this because I wanted the image to
merge into the background whilst still sticking to the colour
scheme of the magazine.
I developed many media conventions in this piece. For example
in the lists I made each bands name bold, I did this so that when
the reader views the contents page its easier to see which bands
are included in this magazine and by highlighting the bands it
gives the consumer a better reason to buy the magazine. I also
included a new section our group came up with called “Word On
The Street” this gives the reader an insight to what might be
included in future issues of the magazine and gives them a
chance to listen to them before hand.
4

6. My Contents Page.
Again I used the American highschool style font as it
was part of our house style. The image used on this
page is of a young person doing a stunt on a bmx bike.
The model is wearing quite modern clothing which could
link to our genre of music, A “Ramones” jumper. Our
chosen music style links very strongly with the whole
BMX/Skateboarding scene. This link can be found in
many existing music videos, such as “Fat Lip” by
Sum41.
The image in the bottom left corner shows a model
swearing. By using this image it helps the magazine as
a whole link to an older group of people, a group where
swearing publicly will be something to award. Again this
model is wearing a pop-culture based article of clothing.
Something that is easily available to buy and liked by a
large group of people.

7. My Double Page Spread.
My double page spread follows the social conventions
made by the media world more closely compared to
the other pages. Firstly a mid shot of my model, used
on the front cover is used, covering two pages with the
model on one side and the majority of text on the
other. The masthead is the largest thing on the page
which gives us an insight to the piece. A pulled quote is
used in empty space to give an anecdote to the piece
but also fill unused space. In the bottom right hand
corner the page number is listed which corresponds to
the contents page allowing the reader to navigate the
magazine more easily. The text is placed on slightly
transparent backgrounds to allow for easy reading. This
technique is used by many major magazine companies
to avoid cutting sections out of the image.
I developed social conventions by instead of using basic smaller images on my page I made the smaller
images look like Polaroid pictures. I did this because the white background around the images makes them
stand out more, also because much of the content inside the article is about the past, for example the
section about “Simply Red”, it helps link further to the article.
5

8. My Double
Page Spread.
The photos used on this double page spread
were all taken at the local skatepark. Being
accepted at a skatepark is usually something
that comes with age, As well as again using
sport as another link to the teenage genre this
DPS is very socially conventional. The contrast
of the faces the model is pulling shows the
large variety of moods the pop punk genre can
portray. The large image shows the model
looking quite stern, which contrasts to the
image of her smiling when riding on the bike.
The positioning of the model makes her look
very natural but also desirable. By showing her
fixing her hair it allows girls who read these
style of magazines to realise that not
everyone's perfect, not even celebrities. This is
a large contrast to what is often shown in “Pop”
magazines.
Again a Pop-culture based t-shirt is used. By
doing this we also create a link to an older
audience who would often remember certain
memories by seeing these images.