Final Product: Double Page Spread

Final Product: Contents

Final Product: Cover

Forms and Conventions

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

 

Cover Page

Magazines in general, including music based products, often follow a set list of conventions in order to make the magazine look its best. Although there are no other products focused on the same subject as mine, I chose to follow these conventions in order to make my magazine look like a real publication.

 

BBC Music Magazine

To help me, I looked at this magazine cover to see what conventions were used that I can apply onto my cover. The most important convention is the masthead. The masthead is the name of the magazine that is usually at the top of the cover, in a bold, large font so that it is instantly recognisable. Most magazines keep their masthead in the same place, regardless of what is on the front of the magazine. This means that sometimes the main cover image is partially obstructing our view of the masthead. However because the magazine is instantly recognisable by its masthead, we can easily see what the masthead says; meaning we know what magazine it is. This is especially true in well developed magazines. My magazine has the same use of the masthead. It is placed near the top, covering the whole width of the page in an easily recognisable font. Although this is only my 'third issue', I chose to have the model partially obscuring my masthead as I believe my magazine will be recognisable by its readers by then as the masthead's font is the same font used by the Eurovision Song Contest, a programme my readers will be very familiar with.

Cover lines are also used on almost every magazine. The cover line tends to show the reader what the main article in the magazine is going to be so it has to stand out from the strap lines which are generally smaller, less important pieces of information that give an idea of what will be contained in the magazine. In this particular BBC Music magazine, the cover line is an exclusive interview with Sarah Chang. To make it stand out, it is in the same colour as the masthead which subconciously draws your eye from the masthead, straight to the coverline. In my magazine, the cover line is a different font, colour and has a different background to the straplines. Although its the same size, it stands out as it uses bright colours which match the logo above it, and its the only one on that side of the cover. In Europe, we tend to read left to right so having the cover line on the left means that it will be the first thing the viewer will read after the masthead.

 



EuroPhoria (named after the winning
song from the previous competition)



Other conventions used in both my magazine and other magazines include the main photo, and the use of smaller photos to compliment the strap lines, colour scheme and selling line. I used one main photograph on my cover which is directly linked to my main cover line 'Lauren!' I only chose one main image so people can't be distracted from the main story by other smaller images. Althought there are smaller images on my cover, they are miniscule in comparison. My colour scheme fits in with the subject of the magazine: Eurovision. This year, the contest will be held in Malmö, Sweden. The Swedish flag consists of yellow and blue, hence the heavy presence of these colours throughout my magazine. The selling line of my magazine is above the masthead, which is less common in general but some magazines still do it. It gives a little statement which is trying to persuade people to chose my magazine over others. In my case, if they want a Eurovision Song Contest magazine, they will have to pick mine as mine is the only one out there at the moment.

 

Ways in which my cover differ from most include the subject of the magazine (as mentioned earlier) and the Masthead and selling line. The selling line features the actual name of the magazine. ESCNow! EuroPhoria is the name of the 'series' as it were for that year. After the next contest, the magazine masthead will feature a name to do with the winning song, artist or country, which will also mean all the colour schemes will change aswell. This is a different approact and this could be a disadvantage as readers may like to recognise the magazine from its colour, however the only way they'll be able to tell would be the ESCNow! logo in the top corner, which to aid readers, will always be situated there.

 

Contents Page

Contents pages always follow similar conventions to cover pages. Font, colour and similar designs are used throughout the magazine. I have used similar fonts however my colour scheme is very different. I went for black and red colours to make the contents page stand out. I want my readers to turn the front page expecting to see more blue and yellow and when they see black and red they take another look to see why the colours change and in doing so, read more of the contents page and take in more information.

 

Many contents pages feature another image, often relating to the most important article in the magazine. Mine however follows an idea that I first noticed being used by the Radio Times

 

 

 

 



How did you attract/address your audience?

 attracted my audience by including things in the magazine that a typical family would be interested in.

Who would be the audience for you media product?

It was very important to think about the audience for my media product whilst making it. I had to think what kind of people would buy a magazine based on the Eurovision Song Contest and how do I make my magazine appeal to them, visually aswell as with content.

The Eurovision Song Contest itself has a wide range of audiences. I chose to represent this and focus on a wide range of people too. This meant that demograhically, I focused on all ages, classes and gender. However Pshycographically I focused on families mainly. Those who enjoy having family nights in watching the tv with a takeaway. So really they could be any gender, any age, and any class! Which increases the chance of my magazine being sold as its really aimed at anyone.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Each magazine has a publisher. Some publish their own magazines and some publish a lot of magazines. Some of the main publishers include IPC, Bauer, Dennis and Future, each publishing a wide variety of magazines for a wide variety of people and their interests. 

I believe that Bauer may want to publish my magazine. As mentioned earlier, Bauer are one of, if not the most successful publishing business in the industry. I seem to have come up with a product that hasn't been done yet so Bauer do not publish any magazine that is focused on the Eurovision Song Contest. This may be because they feel that there is not enough demand or interest in the program however I disagree. I think that once my magazine is out there, it will attract a lot of people, not only current fans of the contest, but critics and other members of the general public will pick it up and have a look, they may even find that they want to purchase it due to its light nature and the other features that are included in the magazine. Bauer is a large company and some may argue that they will never think to publish a completely new magazine. And they might be right. It will be a risk to publish a brand new magazine aimed at a brand new target audience. But I think if the magazine proves popular, revenue will come pouring in and Bauer will make their money back in no time. It is a quarterly publication so there is plenty of time to sell each issue but if the magazine proves popular the amount of issues per year may be increased. Bauers may agree to publish my magazine because their current range of magazines doesn't yet include one on Eurovision. Their aim is to be able to publish as many magazines based on as many things as possible in order to reach as many people as possible to bring in the most cash.

Other publishing companies have gaps in the market when it comes to target audience of their magazines. Bauer can reduce their gap by publishing my magazine and I feel that is something they would want to do.