Evaluation Question 1

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

Conventions are widely used and accepted devices or techniques. They are used in practically every magazine there is. This is a typical outlay of a magazine, creating its structure and design. Depending on the target audience, the conventions used will be different. For example, if the magazine is aimed at an older generation, e.g. ‘Saga’, then the conventions will be stronger and the layout will be easier to read. Whereas magazines that tend to have a younger target audience, e.g. ‘Match’, tend to ignore some of the conventions, as the audience is younger. Also, the age difference between these two particular magazines is easy to tell due to the colours used, in ‘Match’; a magazine aimed at a much younger audience, there are many bright colours used, as children tend to have a short attention span and therefore need to have their concentration maintained, and the way ‘Match’ go about doing this is by utilising bright colours. Whereas ‘Saga’ is aimed at an older audience, it uses much darker and subtle colours, this is due to their readership maybe not having as strong a vision as they used to. Also the fonts used indicate their target audience. ‘Saga’ uses a very bland and easy to read font, going back to the impeded eyesight of the older generation. Whereas ‘Match’ uses a lot more fun and expressive fonts which tend to jump out at the reader, once again relating back to the attention span of their target audience.

The title ‘Liberation’ connotes that, as the slogan reads ‘liberate yourself to liberation’, that people should give ‘Liberation’ a try as they may be surprised. All the photo’s in my magazine are taken in the same place; a college hallway. Therefore the mise-en-scene in all of them is practically identical. In my double page spread and front cover shots, there is just the model and a white wall. Whereas in my contents page image, there are classrooms in the background. I chose a college hallway as my target audience are likely to be students and can therefore relate to the images. There were no props used in any of my images. For the costume of my model, I decided to let her wear what she would normally wear, as I know her personally and know her fashion sense is exactly what I needed. I chose my model because I believe her to be one of my target audience. She is what my target audience would look like. She does not really have an attitude, the photos are meant to display a laid-back mood. The placement of my masthead had already been decided by conventions, it would go at the top of the magazine, like many other magazines, so shoppers could find it amongst other magazines in shops. I spoke the language I believe my target audience would speak, therefore using slang terms and improper English, such as; ‘Katy B, just chillin’ in a hallway, as you do’. Length-wise I made sure that it didn’t look stupidly long for a teenager, as they are seen to lazy and would therefore not want to read a novel. My magazine was aimed at the Indie genre, I believe, the main way my magazine suggests it is through colour scheme, as black, red and white are colours associated with Indie, and the articles included. For my contents page I decided to include regulars commonly used by other Indie magazines. Whereas for features I decided to use articles which I thought would sound appealing to my target audience, e.g. ‘WIN a chance to meet Noel Gallagher!’ I followed conventions when creating my double page spread as I believe these conventions to be successful. I believe there to be a gap in the market for a magazine like mine because there aren’t many other magazines that don’t just cover Indie, I believe mine to cover a few other sub-genres such as; dubstep etc. The main genre of my magazine was indie. I chose this as this is the main genre listened to by my target audience, mostly males aged between 15 and 23. I was massively influenced by the magazine NME. This is because NME, like my magazine, covers mainly indie music. However they also cover many other genres of music that would also appeal to their target audience. I was particularly influenced by the issue with Gerard Way on the cover. This is because the colour contrast they use is eye-catching. Also you can clearly see the conventions used. Also, despite focusing a lot of it on the main article and using a lot of the space for the main image, they have got other articles included, along with pictures.

‘Liberation’ Front Cover Liberation is aimed at the Indie genre and its fans. This is shown in the colour scheme. Red and black are traditionally colours related to gothic music, however can also be linked to indie, if the colours aren’t as strongly applied. Also including white amongst the red and black would create a nice contrast and make every bit of text easily readable. These three colours also blend with each other nicely. For the main image I used a female teenager (as my main article was about a female). She was dressed in an ‘indie’ way, this was so the target audience could relate to this, as they would be expected to dress similarly. I decided to include articles that I thought would catch the eye of my target audience, such as; ‘EXCLUSIVE! READING FESTIVAL 2011 LINE UP’, as my target audience is likely to attend festivals and gigs. I stuck with traditional conventions, such as; the masthead being at the top so a reader can distinguish it in a shop amongst other magazines, because so many magazines use them that they must work and must be affective. Other conventions I decided to use were; the main cover line, main image, dateline, cover line and bar code. I believe these conventions work as readers will get used to where certain things are and know where to look for specific requirements. I wouldn’t necessarily say I’ve altered any of the traditional conventions, I believe them to work and therefore went used them in my magazine. I put the slogan just above the middle of my title as it is noticeable there and fits nicely. I chose the slogan ‘liberate yourself to liberation’ because I believe the repetition of the word ‘liberation’ would firmly secure the magazines name into the readers’ mind. Also liberate, meaning free, would suggest unfamiliar readers to give Liberation a try. The title is in the biggest font simply so it could be recognisable in shops amongst other magazines. The text that reads ‘Katy B’ is the second largest piece of font on my front cover; it also slightly overlaps the main image of the actor pretending to be Katy B. This is because, due to the font overlapping the image, the reader can easily distinguish a relationship between this font and the image. It is the second largest piece of text because a main article needs to be eye-catching so the reader is intrigued. I was influenced by this cover by NME:

‘Liberation’ Contents Page I have followed yet again most of the conventions for my contents page. I have used such conventions as; page title, ‘features’ section, continuous colour scheme, page number giving reference to location of articles, large clear font and a variation of language. I have decided to follow the conventions again because they’re safe. They obviously work otherwise so many famous and working magazines would not use them. However I decided to limit the amount of pictures I included. This is because I think the pictures would be better saved for the articles. I stuck with the colour scheme of red, white and black, because it will allow the reader to familiarise themselves with the magazine. I have only used one image, which combines with my main article. I have done this because I believe the main focus is on the main article, everything else is little add-on’s that the audience are likely to be interested in. However the main article attracts the majority of the attention and should therefore be focused on. That is the main way I have altered the conventions on my contents page. For my regulars section, I looked at similar magazines to mine; Q and NME. This revealed that features such as; quiz’s and fan mail are popular regulars. I included a ‘word from the editor’ because they are common in magazines, also it will allow the reader to become more personal with you as an editor and make them feel more of a friend and less of a reader. I have included some advertisement for a subscription to my own magazine. This is also very common. The black and white contrast on the advertisement works well as it is easily readable and you can understand the deal that is being advertised. However I do believe I could and should have spent more time on the quality of my contents page as I do not believe the layout is as well organised as I would have liked. This time I got my main influence from Q magazine:

Double Page Spread For my double page spread I, once again, used conventions effectively. I did not spend as much time as I ideally wanted to on my double page spread, however I believe the final product was of a good quality. I have stuck with my red, black and white colour scheme within the article, as I think it will continue to familiarise the audience with ‘Liberation’ and also I believe the contrast these three colours make when combined creates a touch of class. I have stuck with such conventions as; main title, subtitle, change of colour for interviewer and interviewee, columns, pull quote and picture of focus of article, in this case; Katy B. I believe a ‘pull quote’ to be a very effective convention as it obtains aesthetic attributes whilst informing the audience in a serious manner. The contrast created between using red and black writing against a grey background easily established who was speaking. I believe my double page spread had an attractive look to it due to the fonts used, colours used and the article chosen. For my double page spread, I was influenced by an article by NME: