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

On my cover for my music magazine, I have a numerous amount of the common conventions found on a traditional processional music magazine cover. These include, my masthead, coverlines and layout choices

Masthead:

My masthead is placed central in the cover and is covered over by the main cover photo and its backing effects. This is because it indicates that the company is confident that the audience it's targeting will recognise the masthead from what's is actually on show on the cover. This also ties into the effect of making the audience feel as if they are in a certain little 'club' if they can spot a Turntable cover with ease. The masthead is obviously used to show the title of your magazine and with mine being labelled 'Turntable' it has a instant relevance to my genres of music chosen to cover, making the start of my 'house-style' Adding to my style, I have added a simple colour scheme, I have chosen these colours as they are very simple and the white stands out from the rest of the cover, to the masthead, nothing to detailed, apart from the specifically chosen font that suits the style of the magazine and compliments the other fonts on the cover.

Coverlines:

The coverlines I've used on my cover are placed in a certain way to compliment the lay out. This is done by keeping the coverlines away from the main attention drawer of the main photo. As you can see I've placed the secondary coverlines away in the corner, however they are coloured to stand out from the background and so they aren't blending in with the rest of the cover. The main coverline however, is meant to stand out from the cover and be one of the main attention grabbers and advertises they main article in the magazine. The colouring of the main coverline still keeps with the rest of the cover despite standing out. My coverlines are also justified to the side in which they are on. This is because it gives the cover a more sleek and tidy look.

Layout:

They layout of my magazine cover was chosen after close analysis of other professional music magazine covers. I chose to have my main photo slightly overlapping my masthead, and to have my main coverline below the eyes (direct address) of the main photo as it draws a viewers eye down and then would lead it towards the 'Headlines' section which covers the main talking points in that weeks Dj'ing music world. The main cover image is very large and covers the majority of the cover. The photo has direct address which catches the persons eye

This is my double page spread and it also holds important conventions of the magazine industry.

Pull Quotes:

I've chosen 2 pull quotes from my article. Pull quotes are pieces of text that should be somewhat surprising or shocking. They entice the reader and they will they be left wanting to find out more about the quote and will continue to read deeper into the article. The quotes are clearly wrapped by the text so they stand out, they are also a separate font to the main article so they are easy to differentiate between quote and article and so it makes the whole thing look a lot more professional.

Kicker:

I've also used a kicker at the top of my article. This tends to stretch across the columns in which the main article is in. The kicker also is used to somewhat set the scene of the following article, for example saying where a interview took place and who it was with etc. I've also made the name of the artist interviewed in my kicker stand out my making it a separate colour to the other text, this helps the reader know who the article is about if the didn't already know and will also stop the reader from missing the name if they are skim reader or something similar. Finally, the kicker is also written in the article and magazines house style. It includes somewhat inform phrases that suit the magazine like 'newly crowned'.

End Sign:

The end sign of the DPS article is the smaller Turntable masthead. End signs are used to indicate to the reader that the article has finished and that they should either move on through the same page or turn over.

White Space:

White space is key to a double page spread article for a few reasons. The space makes the page feel less crammed with information and text and more spacious. The space makes the whole pages look better on the eye as otherwise the reader may get confused by all the text and lose interest in the article itself. White space also works well with my neat column structure. The 3 columns per page layout and the fully justified on both sides gives a clean look to the double page spread.

Drop Caps:

They are used at the start of articles and they are a fairly simple convention to use in a article. The use of it is to indicate the to the reader where the start of the article is. The letter drops into the article and the rest of the article wraps around it like a normal picture.

Contents Page:

Colour Scheme:

I have the same colour scheme through out the whole 3 final products. These are a bright red, bright yellow and a more pale blue that only really features on the contents page. The use of a colour scheme gives the whole magazine that feel of a 'house-style', a style that is the same through-out and that can be related to your audience. Mine for example is bright colours as it shows the partying and rave tenancies that my readers will no doubt have. This is also known as a 'dayglo' look.

Regulars and Features:

My contents page is split into a 'features' section and a regulars (not labelled). The features is a collection of pages that contain articles on content that is not always in the magazine. This tends to be things that a exclusive to that weeks edition, including my cover story. The regulars section is things that are frequently in the magazine and sometimes change what they are about, for example 'weekly album reviews' would be reviews on albums every week, however obviously the album would change.