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

Just like most things, when designing a magazine, there are different forms and conventions that are usually followed. A convention is a certain way of doing something that is seen as being the ‘norm’. Usually different stereotypes have different conventions fitted with them. This means that a different layout or style could be used to suit the person’s stereotypical character and that some magazines can be more conventional than others depending on the audiences and subject matter. For example if the person is older, a different style may be used to suit their generation therefore suiting their wants and needs. Too follow conventions you must have background knowledge of the type of stereotype you are aiming at. This way you can truly understand your target audiences likes and dislikes. Some designers may take the conventions of this stereotype, and try to change what they think would usually be done, this way they are going against what is expected meaning they may gain a wider audience than if they had followed the typical conventions. Some magazines are more conventional than others, depending on the subject matter and the audience. For example the usual conventions of a front cover would almost always include:

-Mast head
-Date line
-Main image
-Cover lines
-Barcode

The magazine that I created didn’t have a perticular stereotype that I was aiming at. I chose to combine different genres of music, so that several different types of people would be attracted to my magazine. I believe that there is a reasonably large fan base that does not like just one particular genre of music, so i tried to apply this when producing my magazine using different codes and conventions. Also from the research i carried out, i discovered that there are no magazines that focused on such a range of genres in the market at the moment, mening that there is no competition for me. My main target group was girls who liked to skate and surf. I was influenced by magazines such as Sidewalk and Remolition. I found that these magazines had a totally different look and feel to them than any music magazine. I decided that I would combine aspects of music magazines such as FHM and NME with the skate magazines so that I would break all the forms and conventions that are usually followed making a new alternative magazine for girls.

I chose that I would have my information and content of that magazine as being similar to the music magazines of my choice, and too be inspired with the layout, colour and appearance of the skate magazines of my choice. This way I successfully managed to combine the two different subculture magazines of my choice, making a new magazine that develops the conventions of a normal music magazine.

On my front cover i used the traditional conventions of any magazine, the masthead, coverlines, datelines, main image and a bar code. I found that most barcodes on magazines seemed to follow a basic convention of being rotated 90 degrees in the bottom right hand of the page. I felt that to challenge this convention, i would move the barcode to the top of the page. I also feel that i challenged the usual conventions by adding in a handwritten signiture, signed by the artist, giving the magazine a genuinly exclusive feel to it. I also decided to add in an issue number, not only so that the old buyers can keep track of what the have bought, but so as new buyers know that the magazine has had quite a few issues, meaning that it is sucsessful and reliable. I found that they did the same thing in 'Sidewalk' magazine. This means that this would generally be a convention for my target audience and using it would feel recogniable to them. I feel that I have definatly used, developed and challanged the codes and conventions that are usually used when designing a magazine.