1. Media Evaluation Question 1
‘In what ways does your product use,
develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?’
Ella Harding

2. How my music magazine uses
conventions of ‘Top of the Pops’
magazine…
Both my magazine and the ‘Top of
the Pops’ magazine are very bold
and colourful. My magazine also
uses components that attract a
young female audience such as the
cover lines used because they
involve both fashion and boys;
common interests of young teenage
girls. My model and the group used
on the existing magazine both look
happy rather than serious. This is
also in order to attract the target
audience.
I also made sure that all of my
cover lines were to the left(as you
look at it), to enable consumers to
be able to see what’s inside the
magazine before even picking it up.
This is a common convention found
with existing magazines.

3. My contents page and the
existing magazine’s
contents page both use
very girly colours again to
attract the target
audience. They both also
use a few pictures other
than the artist/s on the
front cover, this is good to
show variety to the
consumer. My music
magazine and the existing
music magazine both use
different sizes of
numbering to highlight
the main pages of the
magazine. I have also put
my pages under particular
headings, which I was
inspired to do by
researching other ‘Top of
the Pops’ magazines.

4. My music magazine double-page spread continues to follow the colour scheme of the rest of my magazine which is a component of
the existing music magazine ‘Top of the Pops’. Both my magazine and the existing one uses an interview in the double-page spread.
Apart from those points, my music magazine is pretty different to the existing music magazine, I haven’t used the same
components of this particular ‘Top of the Pops’. My double-page spread also uses quotes from the interview in and around the
actual text. This is a convention that’s used in most informal articles.

5. How my music magazine develops
conventions of ‘Top of the Pops’
magazine…
I have made my music magazine less busy
because I wanted the focus of the front
cover to be on the artist and the name of
the magazine. Unlike the ‘Top of the Pops’
magazine, I have left the background
white and used splashes of colour to
prevent the cover from looking boring.
The colours I have used on my front page
clash with each other whereas the
existing music magazine’s front cover uses
colours that are complimentary to each
other. I hoped that using clashing colours
would make the front cover more eye-
catching and unique.

6. The development I realised I had made
when I analysed my music magazine
against this issue of ‘Top of the Pops’ was
that my contents page includes a column
by the editor. I think this is an improvement
to the magazine because it shows that the
editor cares about how the audience
consumes the product.

7. What I have developed in my double-page spread from the usual forms of music magazines is the colour of the images I have taken.
When I researched ‘Top of the Pops’ magazines I realised that a lot of them only used colour images on the double-page spreads. I
wanted to make mine unique and therefore decided to use one black and white image and three smaller colour images. Compared
to this particular double-page spread, taken from ‘Top of the Pops’ magazine, I have made the layout of mine slightly different too.
The existing music magazine has placed the images at the top of the pages and text underneath. I placed the images to the sides and
wrote across the middle of the double-page.

8. How my music magazine changes
conventions of ‘Top of the Pops’
magazine…
My music magazine has changed a few conventions of
a typical existing music magazine. For example, my
magazine doesn’t have the artist on the front cover
taking up the whole background. I wanted the
background to be plain so that the cover lines would
catch the attention of the consumer.
I also changed the usual convention found in existing
magazine that is to make the main cover line stand out
the most. I did make sure that my main cover line used
the largest font size but, I didn’t want it to take over the
front cover because I already used a picture of the
main star of the magazine on the front. I thought this
made it obvious who this music magazine was going to
be focused around so, there was little need to make my
main cover line anymore bold.

9. My music magazine changed a very
commonly used component found in all
types of magazines. My contents page
doesn’t include an annotated picture of
the front cover. I decided not to use this
because I wanted to add in a box from
the editor. If I had used both that an the
annotated front cover, I would have had
very limited space for the rest of my
contents. I also thought that this
annotation made the magazine look a
little less sophisticated and to attract
the higher end of my target audience, I
needed to add in components of
sophistication. I thought that by adding
the box from the editor, it made my
contents page look less child-like.

10. My music magazine’s double-page also changes conventions used in existing music magazines. I tried to tone down the bold colours
for these pages because I didn’t want my magazine to look too over-whelming. However, this ‘Top of the Pops’ magazine has bright,
colourful pages throughout which maybe lowers the target audience. I think that this change made to my double-page spread makes it
more appealing to an older audience. The use of monochrome colours against the hot pink looks informal but sophisticated which is
quite unique to other music magazines as well as my front cover and contents page. I think this change still entices the same target
audience because it still includes the ‘Pop’ genre within it.