Evaluation Question 1

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

Cover Challenges:

Mine

·         My front cover challenges forms and conventions of real media products with the use of an advertisement on the front, which is typically found on pages within the magazine which have either a variety of short stories or brand themed pages.                  

·         The use of multiple images on my cover challenges regular magazines as they stick to keeping the attention on the main image however I wanted to give more of a vision of the content of my magazine on the front cover through the use of images that are related to articles or pages within the magazine.

Cover Developments:

                                                                                                                             Real

·         I stuck with the traditional large and bold mast head in order to grasp the target audiences attention which is what all magazines tend to stick to as when I did research on my target audience about 70% of them said that the first thing that catches their eye is the title (mast head). However I developed this by making my mast head in both full and abbreviated text in order to create interest and appeal to my specific target audience.

·         I have the typical barcode, price and date of magazine release which all magazines have as they are needed to both sell the product and give the reader knowledge of when and how often the magazine is released. I kept this simple and all to one corner in order to keep it tidy and very unnoticeable in order to not draw any attention away from the actual cover image and headings.

·         I used multiple headings and cover lines on my cover in order to intrigue the reader of what they will expect to see if they read my magazine which is a technique that all magazines use as it really draws the reader in and attracts them to what you have to offer.

Contents Page Challenges:

·         I have my images and text completely separated to assure clarity and appeal to the target audiences eye, regularly on contents pages for other magazines have them tidily placed beside and amongst each other to fill space and to draw the reader in. I decided that to keep the text and images separate was the best style for my magazine as it allowed me to explore positioning of text and pictures more to fit the theme or rock.

·         I have a wide range of pictures at different angles which overlap to give a slightly cluttered feel to fit my theme, I found even in other rock magazines they still kept their images straight and even or had only one main image which would be the entire page with text in the surrounding spaces. I wanted to go against this style and make my images appear more cluttered and unorganised to match the stereotypical attitude of my target audience of teen rockers.

Contents Page Developments:

                             Mine                                                                                                    Real

·         My contents page has at least 10 article headings and page numbers in order to follow the fact that contents pages are there to inform the reader of where they can find what in the magazine, which Is what all magazines do as I helps the reader understand the format of the magazine and also allows them to find their favourite parts of the magazine with more ease.

·         I have an image of the front cover on my contents page in order to keep the theme and to link the whole page together which is what a large amount of magazines do.

·         I have the word content across the top of the page in order to show the reader what page they are on and to allow them to find the guide of the magazine itself easier. All contents pages have this in order to let the reader know where to look for information of the entire magazine.

DPS Challenges:

·      My DPS doesn't particularly follow the rule of 3 through the use of text however the masthead of the page comes out further and so still gives the look and effect of the rule of 3.

DPS Developments:

Mine

·         On my DPS the model is giving direct address which is a very common convention of double page spreads. my model is wearing black and has dark makeup on which is seen in a lot of rock magazine, with both female and male models. She is also pulling a neutral expression and isnt expressing any particular emotion as it is rare to see models withing rock magazines to me smiling a lot or generally showing any emotion at all unless they are in a band.

·         My text is slightly the rule of 3 which is often used as a technique to attract the audience as it is appealing to the eye. My text is all either black, red or white to create synergy between the cover, contents page and DPS. The font is all the same other than the small text of the actual story as because it is so small it needs to be a simple text in order for people to be able to read it with ease, which is a common thing for all magazine genres.