Main Task: Evaulation question 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

With my college magazine task finished, I began my music magazine task. Firstly, I made an introduction about how I finished my college magazine and was preparing to start my music magazine. I then analysed “The Source” music magazine front cover which was a magazine similar to the type of magazine I was going to produce and analysed the magazines denotations and connotations it produced and how the conventions were presented on the front page. In my own music magazine, I used similar conventions to attract similar audiences by the typical rap magazine style; the target audience is used to.

For example, with my masthead I placed it to the left of the front cover image but made sure it was big, and in capital letters so that just like other rap magazines such as the source to connote a sense of power and excitement. By making my masthead stand out in this manner, it becomes recognisable easier to the target audience because it a convention commonly associated with the genre of the magazine, which is ultimately hip-hop. Also with the masthead being bright and bold it also attracts readers because of the fact of its sheer size and brightness. This in turn makes it appeal to readers who look upon the magazine wherever it’s distributed because it’s bright and bold. Thus ultimately, I may have challenged a convention because although most rap magazines are big and bold, they tend not to use a blue colour for the masthead as this colour connotes a sense of peace and tranquillity where as most articles in these magazines don’t reflect this. An example would be this masthead of The Source:

The colour red connotes power much more than blue.
I developed a convention of using one main image posing in a manner that psychologically reflects the type of article the front pic image is in the magazine. However I placed a close-up shot front cover image with the body sideways and only his face looking at the camera to maybe connote the man in the image’s past or his want to be respected as an artist. This is slightly different to a similar rap magazine front cover, which instead has a close up with the whole body facing the camera/reader. The man in the image has a gun pointed at his neck which may connote the man in the front cover, closeness to giving up in his life or what ever career he does. Also the prop of the gun is unfortunately associated with the hip-hop and may have been placed on the image to attract an audience who maybe idolise this kind of life or concerned with the mans health. Though, the text below the picture says “Suicide is not an option” which may connote his work rate in the hip-hop industry. Instead of using a gun, I used a microphone prop, a prop commonly associated with hip-hop industry to attract a much wider audience then I would achieve, had I not done such a thing.

Fig 3. The prop of the microphone used in my magazine to attract a wider audience



However I used a convention of a colour scheme throughout my magazine because it looks more appealing than using different colours throughout the different media products I produced. For example:


Fig 5. Colour scheme of blue and white used in my contents page


Fig 6. Colour scheme in my double page spread.



Fig 7. Colour scheme used in my front cover.

Ultimately my magazine, used, developed and challenged conventions used by similar hip-hop music magazines