1. Evaluation Question 1
In what way does your magazine use, develop or challenge
forms and conventions or real media products?
2. What Is the Purpose of a Magazine?
• The purpose of a magazine is to inform, entertain and potentially educate the reader regarding a particular topic or subject.
• It will do this by adhering to various forms and conventions that help the audience to “decode” the embedded messages in a
particular way.These codes and conventions come together to help the audience to easily understand the genre and target market
of the magazine.Technical codes such as editing and positioning also help to identify a professional magazine and make it more
appealing to the audience. For example, the use of a medium shot of the model and direct address will engage the reader.This is as
opposed to a wide shot, which may make the reader feel left out and isolated.This could be the difference between the magazine
making enough sales to stay in business or being removed from circulation.
3. Front Cover
The conventions of a front cover include:
Masthead
Strapline
Date/ Issue Number
Cover lines
Price
Barcode
4. Front Cover
Having carried out research into two rock magazine, I found that the genre often
broke conventions in terms of positioning of each of these objects.
My cover lines break convention, as they are not exclusively of the left side of the
page. Instead, they are also positioned on the right and in the middle.This was
done deliberately to create rebellious connotations surrounding the magazine
that can heavily associate with the genre and the main story in the magazine as
well.
The remainder of the cover remains conventional to the common magazine
setting.This was primarily due to the fact that my magazine would be new to the
market. As such, some options to continue to challenge conventions would not as
as appropriate unless the magazine was a well known brand. For example, my
masthead is prominently displayed un impeded at the top of the page.Whereas
other, more established bands can put this behind the image in favour of relying
on the cover artist to sell the magazine.
The masthead of RockSound
5. Contents Page
The conventions of a contents page include:
Title
Key stories
Sections
Chronological Folios
Variety of Pictures
Folios on Pictures
6. Contents Page
My contents page is much more conventional then the cover, and includes
many of the noticeable features. I developed upon the modern rock magazine
seen on the last slide in order to help aim my product at the appropriate
audience.This includes using more than one image to give the audience more
of a preview into their choices when it comes to selecting the article they want
to read. Blumler and Katz’s Uses and Gratifications theory also acknowledges
the idea that a modern audience is more active and is likely to select the media
that best applies to them.
My magazine differs from that of even the Rocksound magazine with the
positioning to the text again covering the middle and both sides rather than just
along one side.This shows how my magazine is entirely unique as a layout
amongst even some more modern rock magazines.The colour scheme also ties
in where as, Rocksound varies the page and text colours throughout.
White page
Text on one side
Different coloured text to cover and DPS.
7. Double Page Spread
The conventions of a DPS include: Headline
Strapline
Byline
Columns
Picture
Pull Quote
Drop Caps
Just like my contents page, my DPS does follow the conventions of a typical magazine. I chose to do this as I had seen many throughout my
research that became confusing as to whether or not they were in fact over two pages or whether there was a single page and an
advertisement.Therefore I aimed to make a clear link between the two pages through the use of technical codes such as the models
positioning. He is seen looking in towards the article as though he his interested in its contents. His head is also tilted towards the pull quote,
drawing further attention to it.This is also used by Rocksound, who have their model in the centre of the page with the text around him.The
page colours are also identical which gives the impression to the audience that the the article is on one big page rather than two smaller ones.
The use of columns is a key technical code that ensure the DPS remains professional at all times. It also helps to break up the text and make it
less of a chore for the audience to read, making them more likely to show an interest in the article.
