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

2. Conventions
Throughout my planning and production, I have
continually looked at the conventions of teenage
pop magazines. I have Top of the Pops magazine
as my main style model, and I followed there
conventions. The main conventions I found
were...

3. 3 Colour Scheme
Sell Lines
A Direct Mode of Address
Banners
Sans Serif Fonts
Handwritten Fonts
A Clear Title
A Slogan
Splashes

4. I tried to follows all these conventions in order
to appeal to the audience.
Here is my magazine, in comparison to a
professional magazine (Top of the Pops)

5. Top of the Pops Magazine
Banner
Clear Title
Slogan Direct Mode
of Address
Sell Lines
Handwritten
Font
Sans Serif Font
Splash
3 Colour Scheme

6. Title
My Magazine Banner
Direct Mode of
Address
Slogan
Splash
Sell Lines
3 Colour Scheme
Sans Serif Font
Handwritten Font

7. From these 2 deconstructions, I can see that I
have followed all the main conventions of pop
magazines. I have also added some things that
aren’t necessarily unconventional, but don’t
appear on every single issue of a pop magazine.
The next slide will show these...

8. An additional
image with a
border.
A thick banner at
the bottom of the
Images of other page.
products.

9. The main slightly unconventional feature is
the wide banner at the bottom of the front
cover. I did this to create a good
background for additional sell lines. I
thought it emphasised part of my colour
scheme and also, it made my page seem a
bit busier. Whilst creating this draft, it was
the last thing I put on and it seemed to
make it look a lot better. I have only found
one other magazine that has done this on
their front cover. This magazine also shows
a border around one of its images. But not
all of them.

10. I have discussed similarities but there
are some differences...
I have found that the Top of the Pops magazine
front cover is quite busy and advertises most of
its articles on the front cover. My magazine
advertises a few of the, in my opinion, most
appealing articles on my front cover. This point
leads me into comparing and contrasting my
contents page...

11. This is my Contents
Page of my Music
Magazine and I am
going to compare and
contrast it with a
contents page from Top
of the Pops Magazine

12. Conventions of a Contents Page
The main things I noticed about contents pages of
pop magazines are:
•A diagram of the front page to use as a guide to
find articles inside the magazine.
•Most of the page descriptions have an addition
comment (usually in a handwritten font).
•Page numbers and descriptions are broken down
into categories and placed in numerical order.
•The categories are mostly the same for every
issue.
•There are additional images on the page,
advertising pages on fashion, make up etc...
(marked with page number).
•The colour scheme isn’t usually the same as the
front cover.
•Pictures of other talent are included, with page
numbers.
•There is a banner
•Mixture of handwritten and sans serif fonts for
text. Serif fonts used for numbering.

13. My Contents Page...
From when I started analysing magazine
contents pages, I liked the idea of using the
front cover as a guide. I put this on both my
contents page drafts. I think I stayed fairly
conventional on my contents page. For
example, I added an additional comment to my
page descriptions. I did this in a handwritten
font in a contrasting colour to the main
description. I put my pages into categories and
into boxes. I chose a pink to white fade to make
my page look brighter, as I thought it would
appeal to my target audience more. I added
additional images, such as clothing and make
up, and a picture of another ‘artist’. I also used
a think banner with a handwritten front saying
‘inside this issue’. I did this instead of writing
‘contents’ because I thought it sounded more
interesting and modern – again appealing to
my target audience.

14. Anything unconventional?
The only thing I used that was quite
unconventional was that I didn’t use a serif font
for my page numbers. I used a handwritten font
and I thought this made my contents page look
a bit more edgy and modern. I am pleased that I
did this, I think if I didn’t, my magazine would
look too much like my style model and wouldn’t
sell. I also think my contents page isn’t as busy as
my style model, however when I added more too
it, it started to look cluttered and some things were
quite unclear.

15. Double Page Spread Conventions
There are many double page spreads and
they are all quite different. I have chosen this
one as it is fairly similar to mine.
The text is broken down into sections and it
still has a colour scheme. If the article is
exclusive to the magazine it usually says so,
somewhere on the page. There is use of a
variety of fonts. Additional images are added
as well if necessary, and these are linked to
the article. There is a large title and stands
out very well on the page. Also, the pages
are numbered, but this doesn’t happen on
every page. I have found that only the pages
numbers that appear on the contents page
are the numbers that appear through the
magazine on the appropriate pages.

16. My Double Page Spread and
Conventions
My double page spread, like my front
cover and contents page is very
conventional. I decided to do a
question and answer article. I
personally find these articles very
appealing, especially if there was a
celebrity that I admired being
interviewed, I would take the time to
read it. I added an ‘exclusive label’ to
tell the reader that this article can not
be found anywhere else. This makes an article more appealing. I added a splash to my
article to give a little bit more away before the audience start reading. I found this
occurred often on a DPS in other magazines and gives the reader a bit more
information. I kept the page number font consistent with the page numbers on the
contents page. I used a mixture of handwritten and sans serif fonts to write my double
page spread. I decided to use 2 different fonts for a few reasons. I used 2 fonts so the
reader could see a clear difference between the questions and answers. Also, a
handwritten font looks more personal, so I used this for the answers. I used a sans
serif font for my questions as I thought it looks professional, but not overly formal, as
this can put readers off.

17. Did I break any conventions?
Looking at my draft and from the description on
the pervious slide I haven’t broken any
conventions. After studying several double page
Spreads, it was difficult to interpret what was
conventional and what was not, this was because
they are all very different. This may be due to the
fact there are many topics and if each layout was
the same each issue or for every article, then this
could put off the target reader as the pages could
get boring.

18. Overall...
After comparing and contrasting aspects of my
magazine with existing magazines, I found that I
have stuck to a conventional method. I think that
this is a more sensible idea as unconventional
magazines can be too controversial. This could lead
to the target audience being put off the magazine
and this means the product could be either
appealing to a very narrow, niche market or
unsuccessful all together.