Evaluation - In which ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

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

Before I started even planning the front cover of my magazine, I did a huge amount of research around the genre of magazine I was going for, which was originally pop, but I decided to change that quite early on, as there were a huge amount of existing pop magazines and I wanted to create a unique magazine, so I decided to add a twist of Rap to it, making it a Pop/Rap magazine. The magazines I decided to base mine on were a mixture of 'Top of the pops' and 'Vibe'. I chose these two genres because I am extremely into the
se two types of music and know a huge amount about them, which I thought would help me a great deal when coming to making the magazine. 

I searched up a wide range of existing pop and Rap magazines, allowing me to follow particular codes and conventions, which helped my attempt of making a music magazine successful. I came across a range of magazines that fitted my genres. However there isn't a existing Pop/Rap magazine so I had to separately search each one of them. Doing two different genres allowed me to actually challenge forms of conventions of existing magazines, as I added particular things to my final front cover that you wouldn't typically see in both pop and rap magazines.

This is the masthead of my magazine. As you can see I stuck to a genetic positioning, going all the way across the top of the page. Most magazines have this particular positioning, including my two genres. The masthead is a convention that I stuck to, as by positioning a masthead here allows it to be clear to see, eye catching, more recognisable and most importantly the first thing you see on the page, as well as not creating any empty space, which would not appeal to the audience of my magazine. I also stuck to the convention of making my masthead big and bold and by the capital letters used, which is furthered by the fact that I used a standard sans font. However, by not sticking to just one colour for my masthead challenged the conventions, as a typical Rap and Pop magazine would have only one colour in their title. I decided to challenge this convention, as I wanted my magazine to be vibrant and something different, not uninteresting and boring.

In terms of the name 'HOT OR NOT' I wanted something to appeal the whole of my target audience, which was a challenge because I have two completely different audiences, however I decided to keep it simple, as I wanted to be easily remembered and recognised. I couldn't choose between two, one of them being 'HOT OR NOT' and the other one being 'Just music'. As result of not being able to chose myself, I did a one question survey, allowing my target audience to choose for themselves. 'HOT OR NOT' won ten votes to one. This title definitely fits into both of my chosen genres.

I followed the conventions of sticking to three colours on the front cover of the magazine to make it simple and eye catching. By sticking to a three colour scheme it makes the magazine look a lot more organised and actually easier for the reader to read, making them want to read more.

The bar code was another convention I stuck with, this is purely because it brings the magazine together, giving it that more professional look to it as well as it being a feature of a successful magazine.

Using images besides my main image on the front cover, challenges conventions for the Rap genre, this is because most magazines only actually have one main image and the rest would all be text, crowding and filling up the magazine.. However, as I'm doing two genres of music, this was also a convention, as pop magazines are normally cluttered with other images scattered all around. I decided to add a few images, but not too much that it would challenge the Rap side of my magazine hugely.

With the text, I decided to challenge conventions, as during my research I found that both of the genres I am basing my magazine on, the text seems to go around the main image, not overlapping it, just clumped all around the model on the cover, which to me, doesn't seem very appealing and doesn't really catch the readers attention, which is why I decided to challenge this by placing the text all over the main image, covering some of the model on it. This is really appealing and eye catching and allows the reader to take in what is inside just by skimming the page. I did however make the colours on the cover different and not one consistent colour, which stuck to conventions, as both Rap and Pop magazines stick to a three colour scheme regarding the text, which makes the magazine look a lot more interesting and will hook the reader more, as it it instantly looks appealing and really catches the eye. Another convention I have stuck with, regarding the text, it the font. During my research, I saw that the text on Pop and Rap magazines stick to one font, which varies in size. I decided to keep this the same, as it looked really effective and is one of the qualities in a successful magazine. I used one Sans font and, as you can see by the image above, I varied the size.

 My contents page challenges conventions of an existing magazine, by firstly the layout. Most magazines structure their contents a lot different than mine. Thy are normally a lot more cluttered than mine, filled with a lot more, images, text and even sell lines. I decided to go for a less cluttered contents, without it having any dead space or looking boring and lifeless. I made the text and images fit around the main image nicely, looking not too cluttered but not too empty.

By adding more than one image on this page, it shows that I stuck to a convention, as existing magazines tent to have more than one image on their contents page, which makes the page look a lot more appealing than just having one main image.

The title on my DPS is a convention that I decided to stick with. This is because I believe that every successful magazine has to have a big and bold title, that would capture the readers eye straight away and would be the first thing they would look at. However, the font of the title is challenging the convention of an existing magazine, fitting in with my two genres, as they tend not to be in a Sans Serif font and tend to be more bold and a much more thicker font. I decided to challenge this convention because I felt that a bigger and thicker font made the page look very unprofessional and not very appealing. I felt that this particular font fits in with my DPS a lot more and makes it look like a successful page, that my target udience would like and want to read.

Another convention I stuck with on my DPS, was the page numbers on the top of the pages. I feel that having them on the page makes it look more professional and more like a successful music magazine.

I stuck with the convention of columns on my DPS but decided to develop it slightly. I originally didn't want to have columns, as I thought that they made the page really boring and dull and didn't appeal to the target audience. However I created a DPS without columns and it proved to me that a DPS without the convention of columns, didn't look like a successful DPS, it looked unprofessional and didn't really fit in well with the pages. I decided to use columns but develop on it, to make it look less dis-attractive. I did this by instead of having straight columns, like most magazines do, I made the text go around the model on the page, making it look much more appealing and like something my audience actually want to read.

The size of the text is another convention I stuck to, as in most Rap and Pop magazines, the article tends to be written in a very small font size, making the page look a lot more attractive and making the reader want to read the actual article and not just to look at the images.

Existing magazine

I challenged conventions with my main image, as in a existing magazine you would normally have the image on just one side, covering the whole page, then have the text in straight columns on the other page. I challenged this convention, by making the model on the page spread out, hitting both sides of the DPS. This made my magazine a lot more appealing and unique and more importantly, what my target audience want in a DPS.