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

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

real media products?

The colour and font of my masthead makes the target audience of my magazine clear. I have used the colour

black and an edgy font from Dafont to reflect the genre of my magazine being punk rock. The Kerrang magazine has a similar masthead as mine and this is a good example of a successful magazine which relates to its own individual

genre. The punk rock type genre also runs throughout the magazine. I have also used a name that I feel is highly

related to music, the meaning of amplify is related to the loudness of music, this reflects the genre of punk rock as it

is seen as very loud and rebellious.

For my product research when I analysed existing products I was able to find that different fonts and colours were important to the type of genre of the

magazine. I found that black was the main colour when aiming products at rockier and edgier music fans. In order

for my magazine to correctly fit the punk rock genre I have included colours such as black, white and yellow. I

feel that this is similar to the colours used in Kerrang magazine which fits with the similar edgy genre to mine.

I have kept the colours consistent throughout my magazine to make it look as professional as possible. I have used the Guttenberg Design Principle on the cover of my magazine making sure I have included the correct elements where they should be placed. I feel that my layout has been successful as the subject is clear and the important key areas catch attention as I intended. The layout of existing products in my product research tended to be more crammed together when the genre was rocky and heavy, this reflects messiness and informal aspects of the genre. An example of this is Kerrang magazine as the cover is usually very filled and there is a lot going on, this grabs the attention of younger readers as it is not boring and simple.

The photograph that I have used on the cover of my magazine uses direct address which will hopefully draw audiences’ attention in. I feel that my photograph is successful as I had a range of images to choose from and the use of direct address is a good way of attracting my target audience. An example of a popular magazine that has used direct address on their artists is Adele on the cover of Q. I have also included a guitar as a prop in the photograph to reflect the pop rock genre along with the black leather jacket.

I did not use any initial effects on the photographs in my magazine although when I uploaded the image on the front cover, I adjusted the brightness resolution a little, I feel that this was necessary because the image now stands out more as it was slightly faded. The image on the left is the original photograph and the one on the left is the result after I adjusted the brightness.

When writing the article for the double page spread, I used formal language for the questions and informal language for the answers from my artist to make it sound more realistic and personal. I used words such as “gonna” which shows the way that people would actually answer in a face to face interview situation. I feel that this type of language needs to be used in an interview to make it seem much more friendly. I have also shortened phrases such as “could not” to “couldn’t” to make it sound more natural.

I laid out my columns on the right hand side of my double page spread with a pull quote from the article at the top. I feel like my article has been successful because I have set it out well and I have also made the interview sound as real and personal as possible. During the interviews in Kerrang magazine, they use strong informal language when interviewing artists as it gives a personal feel. They also sometimes use taboo language depending on the comment of the subject to give a sense or rebellion which is an accurate reflection on the heavy rock genre.