Question 1

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

From codes and conventions I have took a basic layout and then made it into my own, I looked at several layouts of magazines till I got a good idea of what I wanted to do. I used codes and conventions from this magazine. I didn’t copy everything so they were identical. I looked at other magazine such as vibe, http://www.vibe.com/

Also Smash hits http://www.smashhits.net/. The reason I chose to look at these was they are similar genre of the magazine that have created.

Here below on the left is the magazine that I created. On the right is the magazine that I have analyzed. The reason I used this magazine to copy of the codes and convention was because I wasn’t to try and get the same image across like confident and cool music magazine.

Both these images are similar as they are both posing with the arms on their hips. They are both centre of the page. Another reason I choose to have see girls on the front cover was and this image was more girls like pop music and these girls look confident and show what a pop group should look like. I got some of my ideas from the Vibe magazine as this magazine have also used a girl as there main image. They have used a famous singer who looks confident and sexy.

I have made my masthead as big as I can so that it stands out as I am creating a new magazine therefore unlike the other magazines I must have the full word there so the customer can see what it is. Vibe magazine is already a well known magazine so therefore does not have to show the entire masthead, however the writing is still big and bold. Both mastheads go with the colour scheme of the magazine. Another code and convention that has been done is that they are both the biggest text on the magazine.

This text is for my main story which I have made go with the picture. I have made my main headline big and bold. I also made it go with the picture and made it stands out to the other coverlines. However this magazine hasn’t followed code and conventions and used the main headline to the side and not so big. However it still goes with the main image.


I have used a big barcode and put my writing above. This still follows the codes of conventions. I followed the codes in conventions of this magazine using the same font colour and type for the price and the date. This magazine have put there date on the side and issue number on the side this makes it harder to see however it still looks good and follows the codes of conventions.

I have chosen to put lots of coverlines as in other magazine I looked at had a few. This makes the readers see more stories then want to read them. Vibe magazine have used a list style for there coverlines and not used many. They made certain words standout and the colour goes with the colour scheme. I like this idea so I had my font and colour of my text stand out.

I have put banner at the bottom of my page because I wanted my masthead at the top in big bold writing. This magazine have done there’s fine and out there banner at the top of their magazine, this still followed codes and conventions. Both have the word free in this is to try and attract the buyer with the word free.