1. In what ways does your media
product, use, develop or challenge
forms and conventions of real
media products?
Media Evaluation Part 1
2. My Front Cover
My magazine I created in particular my front cover was
inspired by Top of the Pops.
My front cover followed many conventions. Firstly, in my
front cover I decided to not use a white background because
in my research I found that this was very common in Pop
magazines like my style model Top of the Pops. I found that a
white background, didn't look as appealing as a coloured
back ground did, I experimented with both so I wasn't making
a rational decision. Also, I wanted to use several bright
colours which went well with each other to contrast against
the background. Usually, magazines stick to 3 colours so I
have used black, pink and yellow. I chose to use these 3
colours as they work very well together and stand out to
possible buyers of my reader.
Another convention I have also followed is that I have
included a burst on the front in the middle, in a bright colour
so it stands out to the audience, like Top of the Pops I have
contrasted colours. Furthermore, similarly to Top of the Pops
I have included free posters of male pop stars so that it will
in particularly stand out to my target reader.
A convention I have challenged is the image. On my front
cover, my main image is of a boy and throughout my
research I have found that most pop magazine covers are
female artists for example Jessie J on Top of the Pops, but I
believe that having a boy on the front it will attract more to
teenage girls.
3. My Contents
Again I used Top of the Pops as my inspiration for my
contents page. On convention that I followed is a mini
picture of the front cover with numbers pointing to each
section of the cover. This makes it easier for the reader
to find the pages they want. Also, I included boxes for
each section, I haven't included as many as some
magazines do.
I have made the masthead of this page stand out quite a
lot so readers can tell what page it is. I used contracting
colours like the Top of the Pops one to make it stand
out.
Furthermore, like this contents page I included pull out
photo’s which had numbers next to them. I have used
images which I think will attract to the audience more
than other features. Similarly to Top of the Pops I have
included a photo of a male pop star to attract my
audience.
In terms of breaking a convention, I don’t think I really
did. Many contents pages in several magazines have
similar layouts and aspects to it, so I didn’t really think
that it was necessary to challenge any major
conventions.
4. My Double Page Spread
My double page spread was inspired by a double page spread from
we heart pop and I liked how simple it was.
I did an interview for my magazine, and I found that this is quite
conventional because the reader and the magazine tend to want to
find out more about the pop star. Also, I made sure the model
made direct mode of address with the camera and more
importantly the reader. Again this is very conventional and similar
to my style model which was We heart Pop.
The magazine article I looked at used very dull colours so I
contrasted that and used very bright ones pink yellow and black
which stand out to the reader.
I did challenge a couple of conventions. Firstly, many double page
spreads have 1 main image but I included 3 in mine as I wanted to
have the model doing different poses to intrigue the reader. Also, I
tilted the pull quote I used because I wanted to make my double
page spread a bit more interesting. This could also appeal more to
the reader. I found that this wasn’t very common in pop
magazines.
