Evaluation question one

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions

of real media products?

Jordan Chloe Griffith

Front cover Generally I am impressed with my pop magazine as it conforms to most pop music magazine conventions. Looking at the real pop magazine and then comparing it to mine you can see that I have followed the general structure of a pop magazine with the use of the bright colours and the use of many little pictures. Compared to other genres pop music magazines are known for their bright, loud and vivid images and colours that attract young teenagers, in particular, young teenage girls.

In comparison to the real music magazine my magazine uses more gender biased colours such as bright pinks and yellow whereas the real magazine uses red and blue which is generally associated with boys however with the real magazine and also with my magazine the content is heavily female based, especially my own magazine which mainly features female models. I believe that you could guess the genre of my magazine by looking at the front cover, especially through the use of a girl band called “Starlight” I also refer twice on the magazine that it is in fact a pop music with my sell lines “Latest pop gossip here” and “How to look like a pop star” I have also included images of famous pop stars such as Taylor Swift and One Direction.

From the research I gathered about pop music magazines I found that majority of the magazines featured the latest pop group or a single artist, however through mise –en-scene the group/artist would look like they were messing about or having fun. In the real magazine product the members of One Direction are smiling and they are holding each other in some way. Through mise-en-scene I have tried to manipulate the same actions throughout the magazine, for example my model Phillippa is blowing a bubble with bubblegum and my model Kaydene is doing a peace sign, a well known pose throughout the pop community. When researching pop magazine front covers I found that there was a relaxed style with costume of the models, as you can see all members of One Direction wear casual t-shirts which I have used with my models, Keisha and Kaydene who wear different styles of a white t-shirt to show that they are in fact in a band.

Contents page My contents page is heavily image related as I found that this was common amongst most pop magazines. Once again my contents page uses vivid colours and imagery and it reflects most pop music magazines. My contents page subverts the conventions of having a “letter from the editor” article. I have done this intentionally as my magazine is a weekly magazine in comparison to the “We heart pop” magazine which is a monthly magazine. This also explains why there are few images within the contents page as I choose to make my magazine a weekly one.

I have used the same masthead as the one for my front cover, however I have noticed that “MUSE” should be smaller in the contents page as it looks exactly like the front cover and it could be potentially mistaken for the front over. I have included page numbers and article names.

I also have a “features” section to show readers what extra items are included in that week and the following week it would be different. I also have used a range of different pictures for the same article, for example for the Starlight article I have used a different picture from the one I used for the front cover to show that I took a range of pictures and selected the most appropriate picture. My magazine also uses the colours blue, pink and yellow throughout my magazine showing that I am following a particular house style.

Double page spreadOnce again I am generally impressed with DPS as it is quirky like the real life magazine “We heart pop” as you can see I have followed the basic structure of a pop magazine DPS and adapted it to my magazine and my content within the magazine. As you can see from the real life pop magazine most pop music magazines are animated and use a range of bright colours to make certain parts of the article stand out which I have copied and put important quotes in the colour pink. This helps attract the young teenage female eye to the article. I also placed certain objects such as the thought bubble above the model’s head and the use of the rip out of “Phillippa’s diary” which helps to engage readers, especially the younger readers around the age of thirteen who may in fact keep a diary themselves showing that my model is relatable to young teenage girls.

Like “We heat pop” magazines DPS I have also used two images: a main image and a subsidiary image that features mise-en-scene with the use of gum that Phillippa is chewing and blown a bubble just like Cher Lloyd who is holding a camera as part of her mise-en-scene. This shows that I am conforming to the conventions of a pop magazine as in the other real life magazine Justin Bieber sits and holds onto a clear glass chair.

Like the two real life magazines both articles use a quote as a headline which I employed in my own magazine with the headline, “Surely I must be dreaming” This once again further attracts my target audience to the article as I have taken the most important quote out of the article and made it a headline quirking the interests of the readers especially with my headline of “Surely I must be dreaming” as readers want to discover why Phillippa feels this.

Once again as I noticed with the front over, the models all wear casual clothing and appear informal which shows the general relaxed nature of the pop industry. My model, Phillippa wears a casual leather jacket with a white t-shirt as part of mise-en-scene making the magazine look realistic and once again relatable to young teenage girls