Evaluation1

Mine.................................Professional
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products.
My music magazine uses many features that are used in real magazine industries worldwide but also uses some that are not common in magazines. I chose to include these usual features as when the my targeted audience first look at the front cover of a music magazine the first thing a reader is familiar with with these normal conventions. Also it instantly shows that this is a music magazine and not an ordinary magazine such as glamour magazines. I decided to do this because it will make my magazine unique in that it doesn't completely follow the style and features of common music magazines. The usual features I have chosen to include in my magazine are-This is the common convention that I decided to follow.
The masthead being at the top of the page big and bold making it different from all the other fonts on the page. As you look at my magazine you can see that the font style is very distinctive and whenever, the title 'levelz' is seen it can be related to my magazine, therefore here I have followed the common conventions.. The name of the magazine is very unique and is also very easy to remember, levelz is music related as in the hip-hop and RnB music industry, each artist knows where they stand in each genre so in modern society levelz is related to how and where a person stands in society. Some magazines do not necessarily go with this type. For example the magazine called 'wallpaper' has not got anything to do with wallpapers.
Another feature I used is a slogan that says 'The best RnB and Hip-hop magazine. In Magazines; music or general, they use slogans to attract the audience's attention, so therefore I followed this feature as felt that this will help attract my targeted audience to my magazine.

Also when I did my background audience research my targeted audience said that slogans attracted them to magazines as well as phrases and images.
Like most music magazine, my magazine offers a freebie with it, the freebie is a music poster, this freebie will make the reader feel like the magazine is of good value for money, also in some situations some people only buy magazines so they can take out the freebies. I decided to use the poster as the free material because it is an item which can be used on an everyday basis. I also used this as my targeted audience said that this is a promotional feature that they would like to see in their magazines and is also what attracts them to it.
Futhermore in music magazine they mainly use a central image to attract the audiences attention, which is why I put my image in the centre as well in order for it to stand out and influence my audience to buy the magazine. My front cover central image is of four sisters whom I felt that this will relate to my target audience as it can attract both genders to the magazine.


I used the same background colour for each page so that it will not be confusing and will allow the audience to acknowledge that they are all related, not all music magazines do this so this is one convention that I did not use. However I did use the 4 colour scheme for the front cover and double page spread so it looks more professional.
In my contents page I have also used a variety of conventions for professional music magazines. For example I listed all the titles for each article/story with the page number this is so that the readers can easily find what page they are looking for, and this also what you would normally see in professional magazines. I clearly wrote the title 'Contents page' at the type of the page, so that my audience will clearly identify the page they are looking at.

For my contents page I did not follow the normal conventions of a professional magazine because I wanted it to look more unique. I did not stick to the four main colour scheme rule on this because I felt that I would make it look a little bit different to the main and the double page spread. I added more colours such as blue, pink, and red just to make it stand out more.

When creating my double page spread I made use of all main conventions that are seen in the majority of hip-hop magazines which is the interview on the left side of the page and the image on the right, i did not want it to look exactly the same which is why I decided to put some of the interview on the right side as well. In my interview I have tried to keep it very similar to those seen in real music magazines as I had analysed lots of them therefore I got the idea and found it easier to keep to their style.

However I believe that the images used of professional music magazines are of better quality than mine, this is a bad for my magazine as if I had used a camera like the one they used than I could achieve the quality of images used on everyday magazines.
Other features I used that is also defiantly used by professionals is the sell lines. My sell lines are very clear and represent what will be inside of the magazine. The anchorage text stands out and is also very clear on what the main article will be about. I used the word exclusive which strikes the readers attention to make them buy the magazine.