Evaluation Question 1

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

Here I have analysed the conventions of Rolling Stone magazine. I have added definitions for all the conventions aswell because it helps discuss what the conventions are and what they are used for.

I have looked at the existing conventions used in multiple music magazines and discovered that many of the same conventions appear in almost all Hip Hop and R&B music magazines. These conventions are something that i have tried to recreate in my own work. As you can see, the magazine covers from this genre avoid the use of smaller, secondary images on the cover, which is something that i have also avoided. After looking closely at these three magazine covers I realised that they use minimal conventions to create a simple, clean and mature look unlike other magazines from different genres such as punk or pop. I think this is something I have captured in my own cover which I have also annotated.

My own music magazine follows conventions of real media products by including generic aspects of a music magazine such as the masthead, a main image, a larger cover story, feature stories, a skyline, a barcode, a plug, a date and price of the magazine. these are the basic conventions which will be found in almost all music magazines.

Masthead

I have used a bold, sans serif font and used capital letters when making my masthead. This was because I had taken other mastheads into consideration, realising that most other hip hop and R&B magazines use this kind of font. I have developed and changed gneneric conventions by using a pattern in the background of my masthead because I think this gives my magazine an individual look while still following the conventions of my magazine genre.

Skyline

The use of a skyline is also common in music magazines because it basically sums up the magazine in a sentence. I have used the word finest because it is a word which is now frequently used in the hip hop industry. I have used bold writing on 'HIP HOP' and 'R&B' to further define that the magazine is about both of the genres.

Main image

The main image I have used is my model behind an American flag. This image is from my second selection of images because I believed I could make improvements from my first selection of photographs. I chose to use this image because it shows a clear connection to my genre as it shows a direct link to an image taken of an iconic rapper, A$AP Rocky. This main image is also following the conventions as the model is flawless and looking straight into the camera.

Cover story

The cover story is evidently the main one as the font used is different and decorative and the black used behind it is more opaque than the black used on the other feature stories. Cover stories on other music magazines are also portrayed like this as they are usually larger and bolder, and sometimes using the same font as the font usually used by the artist, which is what I have done.

Feature stories

I have used the same font in all of my feature stories, doing this has brought the cover together as the writing is consistent. the black used behind the text in these has made the stories stand out, without distracting the audience from the main feature and the main image.

Barcode, date & price

The barcode, date and price is a vital convention of a music magazine as it tells the audience when the magazine was released and the price of it, and obviously makes the magazine available for retail. I have used the same dark red colour which is shown throughout my magazine which is one of the main colours in my colour scheme. This also develops conventions as usually the barcode is black and white.

Plug

Initially, I didn't incorporate a plug in my magazine cover, however, I decided that I would follow conventions more closely which is why I chose to add a plug. I used large capital letters on the word 'WIN' because that word is the one which will draw the attention of the reader, and I have also used a large, handwritten font for 'Rhianna' as she is a famous artist who will attract people and possibly make more people buy the magazine if they have a chance to win tickets to see Rihanna.

Through the existing pages I have collected, I have discovered that a large, main image is used generally on the left page. This helps show the main feature of the article and also makes the double page spread more interesting as too much text can be over powering. This is also the reason large, eye catching title and subtitles are used, which is why I used a large title in my double page spread.

Almost all double page spread's contain a set of generic conventions. A main image is always used because it instantly makes it interesting. 2/3 columns of text are also used frequently because it stops the text from being over powering and makes it easier to read.

This is an image description which is used to obviously describe the image and what is happening in it. I have included this because it is generally featured in every magazine.

 

The main image is usually an A4 size image which is why mine is this large. It is this big because it is the most important part of the article and stops large paragraphs of words from being over powering.

 

The use of a decorative font for the title makes it clear that this artist is the main feature and it also creates a brand/logo for the artist as it is the only time this font appears in the magazine. You will see this frequently in the music industry as commonly now artists have to market themselves as a brand so they can make an identity and profit for themselves.

 

A by-line like this is also used a lot in music magazine because it is necessary to show the audience who wrote the article and who took the pictures stopping either of them being copied.

 

Pull quotes are commonly used to capture an interesting comment made by the subject which should attract and engage the audience. In my pull quote I made an intertextual reference to Drake's song 'started from the bottom' which would capture the audiences attention because they would hopefully understand this and find it amusing.

 

 

This is a summary of what the article is about, it gives a quick description so the audience can decide if they want to read the article or not. For this reason, this quick commentary should really be quite interesting to hopefully engage as many readers as possible.

 

 

Here I have used 3 columns of text to stop the reader being over powered by a big chunk of text.

 

The drop capital here is used to symbolise where the beginning of the sentence starts. I also used the colour from my colour scheme to make it stand out more.

 

Page numbers are used to inform the reader of the page they are on and also help to locate the article thy are looking for.