OCR media studies AS evaluation question 1

1. In what ways does your media use,
develop or challenge forms and
convention of real media products?

2. The magazine

3. Using music magazine conventions
in my music magazine front cover
Large title - The title of a music magazine
is typically large and easy to identify. I
chose to follow this convention as I
wanted readers to be able to see clearly
what the magazine is called and to
remember it.
Main Image - I followed the convention of
having the main image large and easy to
see the artists face. I did this to allow the
audience to establish a relationship with
the artist and get to know who she is. It
also gives some expectations on what to
expect within the magazine.
Barcode, price, date, issue number - I
included these important features to make
my magazine look realistic; as well as
giving the readers extra information such
as the issue number which allows them to
keep up-to-date with all the issues
released.
What to expect - I included extra
information on what is to come within the
magazine. This gives the readers an idea on
what the magazine features and what it is
about. This is more likely to attract readers
because if they are interested then they
will buy the magazine.
Colour - I followed pop conventions by using bright colours; including pinks,
yellows, greens and blues; to attract and appeal to my target audience.

4. Challenging music magazine conventions
in my music magazine front cover
Information - I didn't fill my front cover
with lots of information of what to
expect as my target audience is teens
aged 12 - 16. Therefore I wanted to have
the information I did include to be eye
catching and noticeable; instead of
having lots of little pieces of information
making the cover look too busy and
overwhelming.
Title - I didn't cover up part of the title
as it is a new magazine and I wanted
readers to be able to clearly see what
the name of the magazine is. Also when
I researched into existing magazines I
saw that their original magazine design
didn't have the titles covered up; and
instead overtime as they grew more
popular the title became slightly
covered up or changed.

5. Using music magazine conventions in
my music magazine contents page
Title - I included a page title ‘Contents
page’ to give the readers a sense of
order and direction to the magazine as
they can see what is inside and what to
expect.
Front cover - I included the front cover,
which I had seen in other magazines when
researching; because I wanted to relate
and connect the two together. I also
wanted to show the readers exactly what
pages they could find the information
from the front cover.
Page numbers - I made the page numbers
bold and bright to stand out from the rest
of the page. This was to draw attention on
what to expect within the magazine and
where to find them.
Colour - I kept the same colours as on
my front cover to keep the theme and
connect them together. I also chose
these colours to attract my target
audience; and I wanted to keep them
engaged throughout the magazine.

6. Challenging music magazine conventions
in my music magazine contents page
Magazine title - I chose to keep
the name of my magazine at the
top of the page, as it is a new
magazine I wanted to continuously
remind the readers what the name
is and establish a connection to
allow them to remember the title.
Images - I chose not to include
images of other artists within the
magazine because, when I asked my
target audience what they are most
interested in on a contents page,
they preferred information and what
to expect over images of other
artists.
Layout - I chose to keep the contents page clean and neat,
this was because I wanted the focus to be on the text and
what to expect rather than on the look and ‘busyness’ of the
page.

7. Using music magazine conventions in my
music magazine double-page spread
Image - I included an image of the
artist to allow readers to connect
the article to a face and establish a
relationship with the artist.
Quotes - I chose to follow the
convention of including quotes
from the article in a larger font and
different colour. This is to point
out interesting parts of the article
and to draw the reader in as they
would want to find out what the
quotes mean.
Contact details - I put in the artists
Twitter, FaceBook and Youtube
links to allow readers to find out
more information about the artist
and keep up-to-date with what
they are doing.
Title - I put the artists name at the
top of the page as readers may not
know who she is. It also
immediately informs the reader of
who the article is about.

8. Using music magazine conventions in my
music magazine double-page spread
Images - I didn’t include any other
images of the artist as I wanted to
keep the focus on the article and
getting to know the artist.
Title - again I chose to include
the title of the magazine at the
bottom of the pages next to the
page numbers. This was to
further remind the readers of
what magazine they are reading
and to connect them to the
magazine.
Extra information - I chose not to include any extra information separate
from the article on the page and instead I put her social media links. I also
did this because I didn't want to fill the page and make it look messy and
packed with information. Instead I kept it clean with all the necessary
information needed.