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

When creating my media product (music magazine), I thoroughly researched into existing music magazines which are successful and well-known, such as Q and Kerrang; I researched into these types of magazines because I would like my product to be to a professional standard, similar to the magazines I researched. I would also like it to be of a similar genre to the magazines I looked into, therefore I tried to create a similar style but I developed some of their features and made them my own style. I chose only to use one main image as it is the usual conventions of a music magazine to try to attract an audience by setting the tone of the magazine by the type of image, for instance if it was for a girly magazine such as Top of the Pops, the cover photo would be of a pop sensation that appeals to a younger audience such as Cheryl Cole, One Direction or Justin Bieber. But if it was of a rock genre, the front cover would be more likely to be a band or a main member of a band such as Blur or The Killers as they’re more likely to be in a magazine like Q or Kerrang because of their type of music and also, normally younger people do not listen to music like this, therefore the house style of these magazines will have a more professional look about them. This type of house style is what I tried to achieve.

The TOTP magazine has a house style which would appeal to a younger audience, with the purple, pink and white. The magazine with Justin Bieber as the main image is bright pink which directly appeals to younger girls as they know he's the popstar that appeals to a lot of girls which will attract them into buying the magazine. The language used also appeals to a younger audience e.g. "Shopping Heaven!" and "Snuggle up to One Direction! Cute pics inside"

These type of magazines contrast with magazines such as Q and Kerrang!:

Although Kerrang! is not organised into neat columns like Q, it is in an "organised mess", which fits the genre of the type of music the magazine is about. Kerrang! is more into rock music which fits with the edgy layout on the front cover. I have used a mixture of edgy and organised when creating my music magazine front cover because as well as wanting it to be professional, I also wanted the audience to immediately know what type of genre the music magazine was by the layout and house style.

I have followed the conventions of Q portraying the model different to what she's originally like to fit a certain persona for the magazine - Cheryl Cole is more likely to be the type of person she's portrayed in the TOTP magazine (girly and smiley) whereas she is portrayed as being sexy and provocative to fit the genre of the magazine. I have done this in my own way by editing the image of my model to fit the persona I was aiming for her to be - feisty and punky.