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

My music magazine, being a front cover, contents page and double-page spread, uses, develops and also challenges many forms and conventions from various media products that I have researched and also discovered from my own personal viewings of music magazines – such as NME and Q.

My front cover featured many conventions that I had used and developed from research in existing magazines. Here is the conventions that I had used/developed in my front cover: 

My Front Cover 

Q Front Cover

As you can see from these two pictures, my front cover has used the convention of big and bold text for the artist title, which can be seen in Q's front cover featured artist too - furthermore, it is also white, however I have gone for a full opacity white, whereas it looks as if Q have reduced the opacity (the majority on the right side of the title) to create a faded style. 

My Front Cover

Q Front Cover

I have also developed the convention of adding a quote to the front cover of my magazine. Similarly, I have also used the font colour of white for the quote. I feel that by adding a quote to the front cover, it grabs the reader's attention - being factual and everything.

My Front Cover

Q Front Cover

As you can see, I have used the convention of placing a circle (with text) to make it look like a sticker that has been placed on the magazine. When I researched into real media texts, I thought this was an effective convention to adapt in my magazine - as you can see you from my magazine, it ties the colour scheme of the red 'PLUS!' in the bottom strand and the red sticker effectively.

My Front Cover

Q Front Cover

As for the magazine motto, I have developed the idea of a motto that is placed under my logo - unlike Q, where it is above the logo in this case, however saying that, it is also presented sometimes under the logo; refuting my own argument I guess. I digress - the motto I have used is slightly more modest than Q's "The world's greatest music magazine", however they do of course have a much bigger status, and are one of the leading music magazines. Regarding the contrast in logos, both NME and Q as research differ greatly as compared to mine; with mine being a full name, and the likes of NME and Q being an abbreviation or a one letter logo. 

My Front Cover

One convention that has probably challenged conventions, certainly in my research (as you can see previously in my blog) and in my personal viewing of real media texts, is that logos for festivals or events aren't often used on music magazines as they often don't really fit in with the colour scheme or style/layout of the magazine.


My contents page featured many conventions that I had used and developed from research in existing magazines. Here is the conventions that I had used/developed in my contents page:


My double page spread featured many conventions that I had used and developed from research in existing magazines. Here is the conventions that I had used/developed in my double page spread:

My Left Page of Double Page Spread

NME Left Page of Double Page Spread

The use of a whole image to fill an entire A4 side on the left page of the double page has been used conventionally in my product from the research shown above in NME's issue featuring Paul McCartney. There are some differences in the left page with the specific content; NME has chosen a mid-close up of Paul and his guitar, and I have chosen to go for a long shot with Noah and his guitar. NME have an artificial background and I have natural woodland and brickery in front of Noah (as I have described to you in previous posts). Also, I have added a page number at the bottom (left) of my product's page, whereas there is no page number that I can see from the screenshot of the research.

My Right Page of Double Page Spread

NME Right Page of Double Page Spread

Just like the NME column text, I have used (three) columns to layout the main content of the double page spread. Similarly, I have used a big letter to go with the column text, however I have used two instead and placed it under the layer of the first column to outline the first two words - 'N' for Noah and 'B' for Brown.