Media Coursework Question 1

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

2. Music Magazines

3. Comparison to my layout
This magazine is a different genre to my
magazine, however there are a few
comparisons. There’s a large number of
stories down the side to interest readers and
my magazine follows suit, I wanted my target
audience to see something they found
interesting.
However you can see the difference between
the model of VIBE, and the model I used. The
VIBE model has a different stance, different
clothing and different accessories that are
related to the R&B genre, whereas my model
is using props and wearing clothing related
to the indie genre.

4. Reasons for my layout
The reason I chose a layout like this was that I thought
a grey background was something that was a little bit
different, as most people know that the indie genre of
fashion, clothing etc is a bit different, and doesn’t
follow the mainstream. I felt that the red text stood
out well and with the bold font added to it, it
becomes very eye – catching.
I wanted quite a few stories to be down the side of my
front cover, so I chose to use an alternate text colour
of white and red, because with the black stroke the
two colours stand out nicely.
The centre picture of the cover was something I
thought quite hard about. I wanted something that
stood out but didn’t cover the entire page, which is
something I feel I achieved. The guitar emphasises the
fact that it’s an indie magazine, and I wanted a girl on
the front because I thought my audience would think
of Paramore’s singer Hayley Williams, as they are an
indie / alternative rock band.

5. Promotion
I created a large title, with a short magazine
name because I thought the title was eye
catching and the name of the magazine was
easily memorable because it’s short.
I thought the stories on the front cover
would help the magazine sell because they
all relate to my target audience, and
obviously if your stories don’t relate to your
audience they aren’t going to spend the
money on the magazine.

6. The reason I did my story on Leeds
Festival was for the purpose of my
audience. The line up for Leeds Festival
is very indie every year, with bands
such as Blink 182, Two Door Cinema
Club and Bombay Bicycle Club all
having played there. The festival is a
very indie thing itself, as you can tell by
the atmosphere, and the people that
are all around you. The vast majority of
people I know are indie, and most of
them have been to Leeds at least once
so I decided to use that as the theme
for my double page spread.