In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? (Front Page)

This question is asking me how i used conventional ideason my own music magazine. Conventions are things such as pugs, coverlines, title placing, images and even the placing of the barcode. I am going to explain why i used certain conventions on my coursework and why i may have chose to challenge the convention and not use them.

The first simple convention i produced on my piece of coursework was a pug. As you can see on the Q magazine, the pug is the silver circle advertising readers on a story about John Lennon. I put my pug on my coursework to aware the reader that there are photos of "Izzie" (my model) inside the magazine. I chose to develop this convention because it was easy to create and i had to take up some space as i used a white background.

The next convention i used for my coursework had something to do with my model. If you look at the images above, both of the main characters are making eye contact with the person looking at the magazine. I chose to use this convention as i wanted my main character to make eye contact with anyone who picked up or even looked at my magazine cover. This enable my magazine to have an immediate attraction to any other magazines i may be competing with.

There is a big similarity to my magazine title and the Q magazine title. The reason for this is because i developed the convention for my coursework. The reasons they are both similar are because they are both in the top, left corner. They are also made up of only two colours which makes it look tiday and professional. It also is a third of the page width which makes it the same as the Q magazine title.

On the Q magazine cover, the barcode, date, issue number and price is all neat and tidy in one place. If you look over at my magazine, you can see i also produced this convention by placing my barcode, date, issue number and price all tucked away in the bottom left hand corner. The reasons i decides to develop this convention is because every music magazine in the shops these days have this so that the customer is aware of the price, aware of the issue and date the next issue comes out. It also enables the shop keeper to swipe it through the til when my customers buy my magazine.

The next convention i decided to produce on my piece of coursework was words on either side of my model (coverlines). These are used on music magazine covers to aware readers of what stories are inside. For example on the Q cover, it tells us (the readers) that bands such as Snow Patrol and Vampire Weekend are featuring inside the magazine. Whereas my coverlines are:

Featuring Inside:

Dizzee Rascal

Rihanna

Ne-Yo

And many more!

Interviews With:

Mr Hudson

N-Dubz

I chose to use coverlines to make my readers aware of who and what is going to be featured inside. It is also something that almost every music magazine uses and it takes up space on my front cover as i needed to cover up some white space as it is a gamble using a white backgroung on a front cover.

Another convention i chose to produce on my media coursework was a main story on the front cover. On the Q magazine cover the story is "3 words, Cheryl Cole, ROCKS." Whereas mine is "Izzie's New Single 'Bounce' Reviewed Inside." The main reason i chose to produce this convention on my front cover is that all music magazine covers has a main story and i wanted the same for my front cover.

On the Q magazine cover, ther are 4 colours that create the colour scheme. These are Red, Black, White and Grey. I also produced a colour scheme convention by using Red, White, Black and Blue. By using a minimum amount of colours, it make the front cover look more professional and this is the effect i wanted to give to my readers. I also challenged this convention because if i used more colours, i would have ended up with a messy look for my front cover. This may put readers off and i wanted my magazine to have the professional verisimilitude to other leading music magazines.

The last convention i produced on my front cover was the use of a skyline. This is the bar of text that runs along the very top of the page with writing in it. On the Q magazine cover, there is no outline to the skyline. Its just a bar of text put over the main image without a background. Whereas on my front cover i challenged this convention slightly by putting a background bar behind my skyline. I done this, again to add colour to my cover and also the writing was white and wouldnt have showed up on the front cover.

There is one convention i decided to challenge with my front cover. This is one thing to do with my magazine title. If you take a look at the Q magazine title, the red square the Q is in is over the face of Cheryl Cole. Whereas on my front cover, my title is tucked behind Izzie's head. I chose to do this as i have faith in my magazine and trust my readers to distinguish that it says Chart Busters. This is the only convention i have properly challenged.

There is also a convention i chose to develop on my front cover. This was a competition that run along the skyline along the bottom of my magazine. I decide to add a competition as my questionnaire down the side of my blog revealed that my readers would like a magazine more if there was a change to win something.