Q1 In what ways does your media product use develop
or challenge forms and conventions of real media
products? The media product created is a music magazine of the rap genre. During the research process, I learnt what was conventional of magazines, and specifically those of the rap or hip- hop genre. I did this by analysing music magazines before beginning the design process. With my own magazine, I used a range of conventions, as they are what attract the buyers, when they see what they want to read more about. In rap front covers, there are always mastheads. The masthead was an important convention as it helps to show the magazines style; the name chosen was Beats as it connotes to music. This compares to VIBE magazine, where their masthead is memorable due to the music connotations it has and also the typeface; the letter V is slightly italic, making it stand out. Influencing my magazine's title, the masthead was chosen from the audience survey where different mastheads were put towards a vote for the best one and BEATS won. Therefore, I used this based on the audiences wants. The use of colour is important for the masthead as well as it begins the theme for the magazine. For example, if I had left the magazine title all white, it wouldnt have been as memorable as it is with the gradient of the A so the blue and red helps it to be easily recognised and memorable, inspired by VIBE and the italic V. The placement of the masthead is also important as conventionally, it will be at the top of the page. It can also be either behind the main image or in front of the main image. I conformed to this convention as the masthead is central and towards the top of the page. Additionally, the masthead should be the largest text on the page and my magazine conforms to this, making it eye-catching. Out of the following masthead placements, I chose to have the masthead over the main image as it would be classed as a new magazine, therefore, not well known enough to be overlapped by an image. My Masthead Overlapped Masthead Masthead on Top As well as a masthead, the front cover also included Additionally, my main image is conventional as I took the mise- conventions such as a main image, cover lines, a puff, date, en scene into consideration with the photoshoot plan, before price, issue and barcode and a banner. My cover lines were taking the photo. Therefore, the setting and clothing, written in smaller text in comparison to the masthead as the especially, are conventional for the rap genre. This is evident masthead is what should be read first so the use of smaller in most rap magazines where the clothing they wear is often text means that the attention is not diverted from the main baggy and casual and they represent branded clothing. The focus of the magazine. Respect magazine shows this clearly as he wears a King cap which is branded, hence the name. Another example is of the Rap Us magazine where the cover model is in baggy clothing, again branded by the rappers own clothing line. This was then represented These cover lines are placed around the main image so that through my own magazine as shown they do not overlap it. For the cover lines, I took the here as the cover model wears approach of putting in a background colour to the word the EXCLUSIVE so that it stood out more as this too, is Ellesse conventional. Evidence of this is from the Vibe magazine, brand, along with where they alternate colours for the text of the cover lines, Adidas footwear. as well as including the exclusive graphology as shown below. For my magazine, the puff has smaller line spacing than the cover lines. This is typical as it makes it look like the text belongs together, rather than being separate. Only a little bit of information was given away in the puff to make sure the audience was intrigued and they still had something to look forward to and to discover inside. This is conventional as shown by this edition of the XXL magazine, where the puff is a yellow circle and includes tight line spacing. For my contents page, I I also followed the convention of organised the contents into having the magazines letter in the themes, which is background of the page. The B in conventional. For example, in the background was used for VIBE magazine, the themes identity as it reminds the audience are displayed in this way: what magazine theyre reading Features and Fashion, and creates a common whereas mine are Monthly, expectation in later issues, Discover and Exclusives so therefore, making associations it has a similar way of and increasing recognisability. organising the pages. Vibe alsoconvention Another uses this technique, was the colour scheme The categories help to make shown by the image to the will as commonly, the colours left.flow it easy for the audience to throughout the pages of the magazine and they stick to a find what they want to read small palette of colours to work with in creative ways. about. In addition, next to Therefore, here, I continue the theme from the front cover each page name, the page using the blacks, reds, blues and whites for text and main number is displayed in a background colours. different colour so it is more visible. Again, this was taken To improve my contents page, I would have wanted to make room for an editorial somewhere from the same contents page but because of the layout I wanted, there wasnt the space for this. The idea for this layout as the page numbers here are came from VIBE magazine as they often have a long shot of an artist alongside the contents. in bold so they stand out, as Editorials arent conventional, however, but it helps to add a personal touch to the magazine so theyre visually different to the writer and audience can feel connected. the titles. This is an important convention as it acts as a guide for the reader and allows for smooth and stress free navigation throughout the magazine. The double page spread of my music magazine is conventional as Following on from the layout, it helps to divide the page up the layout of photos and text is in columns so it follows the rule so there is an equal ratio of text to pictures, which is of thirds. This can also be seen apparent in rap magazines. An example of this is in the XXL in rap magazines such magazine where an entire page of the double page spread as those is dedicated to a photo whereas the other page is just text. This divided ratio below. helped there not be too many pictures or too much text so it is an easy read, rather than the audience looking at the page and My double page spread is also ignoring it due to conventional as shown above. This there being a high is because a pull quote was used Also, Iofincluded volume one the social media links convention which is a very common as the over it is other. common for links to be provided for the convention as the interviewed audience to keep up to date with the artists post artists tend to appeal to the publication. strugglers and so their Additionally, on my dps I included writing and inspirational or motivational photography credits which you tend to see as it quotes are made to stand out helps give the people the recognition they want. against the rest of the text on the This is conventional as it is apparent in the above page. For example, my pull quote picture, Overall, where aimedalong the spine, to conform the credits in to conventions andmy stands out due to the black photo product caption as thisiswould present. help my magazine look more background against the white text. realistic and professional. I chose this because the background of the page is grey, rather than black, resulting in the quote being a lot more noticeable.