Evaluation: Question 1

Tabby Monkhouse 

Question 1

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

How is it possible to recognise your magazine as a real magazine?

The bar code and the price shown on the front cover, is proving that the product made can be purchased, this would make it to look like a real magazine. The image used for the cover would also make it realistic as it was taken with a professional camera and photo shopped where appropriate. The pages that were designed were also the same shape as a magazine would be in real life therefore making it more realistic as a magazine.

Throughout the magazine I tried to make it so that there was a variation of the font size as well as using bold and italic to make reading the article more interesting as well as putting emphasis on some words or sentences more than others.

The masthead would be a giveaway in the magazine being real as it is very common. It is also quite common to have footer or a header to a magazine to hold certain information. Some magazines also take advantage of the space to create splashes of texts to get the reader’s attention. I also used, in the double page spread, a use of columns which magazines also have to make it easy for the readers

How is it recognisable as belonging to you sub-genre?

The font makes it recognisable as an Opera magazine as it is all in serif font. This brings sophistication and maturity to the magazine.  The font is also readable and consistent throughout.

I tried to maintain the same colour scheme throughout, using mostly black, white and blue. I used black and with lot as I thought that it was classic and the Opera magazines I researched did not use a lot of colour. I chose blue because I wanted it to appeal to the younger generation as well as the older generation.

The use of language in the magazine may give away what genre it is as the language provoked is mature and seems targeted to the older generation. However I was trying to get the attention of people in the younger generation as well.

The use of columns, particularly in the double page spread and contents page shows that the magazine is well organised and is easy to read. This may also give away my target audience as well as the sophisticated message I wanted to come across with the magazine

Have you done anything to challenge these conventions and what was your reason for doing so?

There is one way in which I have challenged conventions in that the colour scheme of the magazine is different to regular magazines. I think that this is challenging in that I wanted the magazine to also appeal to younger people. Another way in which I think that I have challenged the conventions would be the use of language. I think this as I tried, when writing the magazine, to be more enthusiastic and to use not as sophisticated language to try and appeal to the younger generation, other than the traditional, older generation.