Evaluation Question One ~ WIP

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

My magazine ‘RockLegion’ follows the codes/conventions of real media products rather closely, which I feel is a very good thing. I think that if I had tried to challenge the codes and conventions too much it may not have looked like a magazine. I didn’t want to risk my magazine being so different that it wasn’t recognisable as a magazine but at the same time I didn’t want my magazine to look like every other magazine out there though so I added my own ‘style’ into the main design theme.

In my reserach I looked at a magazine called 'RockSound' and decided that I liked the general layout etc of the magagazine, so I decided to work from this for my magazine.

Firstly on my front cover I conform to the standard conventions by having masthead, a puff, a main headline and strapline, a main image, an issue number, a barcode and a price. These all make it actually recognisable as a magazine and therefore they are necessary. I also have coverlines which is something that a lot of magazines have, and I felt that these were necessary as the type of magazine I was aiming to make seem to have these. I also have a strip across the top of the page with some text that will catch the reader’s attention as this is also quite common.
I have gone against the conventions slightly because I used a profanity which isn’t often seen on the front cover of a magazine, but I chose this because it would shock the audience and grab their attention, making them want to read it. It is quite a risk but I was willing to take this risk because of the shock value to the audience. Obviously it will be on every front cover that the magazine ever has so I decided to sensor the word by using an asterix in place of the ‘U’ in the word used.
This is the only way on the front cover that I have challenged conventions. Everything else is in a very similar place to other magazines, the masthead at the top, the barcode etc in the bottom corner, and the main headline at the centre of the page.
The main image on the front cover is also conforming to conventions as it is a mid-shot. The two people are facing the camera, in-front of a plain wall as the background. It is a well lit up photo, I took it during the middle of the day. But, I have upped the contrast and brightness just to make it look better.

Secondly, with my contents page I have also conformed to most conventions. I have a page title, an editorial, and obviously a list of contents. I have 2 lists of contents though, one of the main features in the magazine and one of the regular contents of the magazine. This is because it makes it much easier for the reader to find what it is they are looking for. The two separate contents lists are also separated by a thick white line which stands out against the plain black background. All of the writing is in white, except for the magazine logo and the editors ‘signature’ which both have a red ‘stroke’ around them, the ‘signature’ still in white but the logo is written in black, so it looks as though it is just a red outline of the logo.
I only have a couple of small images on my contents page because I felt that putting too many on the page would make it look very cluttered, messy and therefore unprofessional. I have an image of myself, as the editor next to the editorial which is very normal with editorials, I also have an image of my main cover band and an image associated with another main article in the magazine. I feel that this is enough images, as having loads of images would make them seem irrelevant and it would’ve been very hard to work out which one was associated with which headline.
I have gone a little bit against the conventions of the genre of magazine I am creating because I have quite a large editorial, and sometimes in this genre of magazine they don’t have an editorial at all. But as it is a recognised part of many magazines I felt that including one would be a good idea.