1.) In what ways does your media product use, develop or

challenge forms and conventions of real media

products?

Why I chose the pop genre

• I chose pop because I like this genre of music and I knew that I would enjoy creating a pop magazine and editing all of the images to fit in with it. I also have access to the suitable audience that is needed (girls from the ages 10-15) as I have a sister that is 14 and I can use her and her group of friends (look at the focus group post to see this)

Conventions of pop genre• Main target audience is teenagers (and young teens)• Often bright and bold colours• The artists featured usually are fashionable and wear mainstream outfits, also

wear a lot of make-up• Pop artists come across as happy and enjoying their life• Usually follows current trends – not a genre that creates something unique for

example• Pop music is always heard everyday on popular radio stations• The mast head of the magazine will always stand out

• I followed most of these conventions by dressing my models in bright, mainstream clothes but I did not do heavy make-up on any of my models; this would have been the only convention that I changed myself (I did this because my magazine is aimed at 10-15 year olds and I wouldn’t want them to be encouraged to wear a lot of make-up as they are still young).

Conventions of representation• In pop music magazines, women are shown as young, slim, usually white

and has ideal beauty (perfect skin, hair etc…)• The girls in my magazine are not to be seen in the ‘male gaze’ as the target

audience is ages 10-15 year old girls, so the artists featured are young and trendy and seen as the wholesome good girl which the readers of the magazine would aspire to be like them

• Butler sees gender as “an act that has been rehearsed , much like a script. And we, as the actors make the script a reality through repetition, coming to perform in the mode of belief.”

• The hegemonic representations are that men are usually the dominant one in society whilst the women care for the house. That is just one of many examples of hegemonic representations of masculinity and femininity.

Conventions of form• Pop magazines will always have the following:• Masthead will stand out and draw in the readers attention• The main image will have a artist/band on the front page which will appeal to the

target audience readers• Cover line will refer to the articles featured in the magazine• The creator of the magazine should consider whether the target audience is male or

female – then make a decision on the colour scheme, e.g. pink for girls and blue for boys

• Colour scheme will continue throughout the magazine• Will use colloquial language, e.g. ‘gossip’ and ‘mag’• On the contents page, it will always have the page numbers (maybe not all of them)

so the reader can find it easy what they are looking for • Bold fonts• A title that will grab the readers attention for the double paged spread• ‘Agony aunt’ page/Q&A

Why I chose to analyse these magazines…

• The first magazine that I analysed was we love pop, I think that this was the best and most similar magazine to analyse as they have a very similar age range to my magazine; for young teenagers, and I gathered some ideas from this magazine

• I then analysed top of the pops magazine, this was the next most similar magazine to mine except this magazine is aimed more at teenagers as it features articles about ‘crushes’ and ‘make-up tips’ etc… But I really liked the layout of the magazine with this as well so I managed to gather a few ideas from here. There is a large crossover with gossip style magazines in teen pops magazines – to ensure that I met the brief for my magazine, I did not include any articles which would not appeal to my target audience, for example I didn’t write about boys/crushes as this would not be appropriate for my age range because the target audience is ages 10-15; the majority of girls at this age would not be interested in boys

• The magazine which was least like mine was smash hits, although this is quite an old pop magazine, when I did my research I found that this magazine is aimed at older teenagers and young adults, plus all the artists featured are old/have died.

• I gathered some ideas from top of the pops – for the contents page, I used a very similar to layout as there's, for example including a image of the front cover and annotating it with the main articles and there page numbers

Typical magazine conventions:Masthead in big and bold , with a heart dotting the ‘i’, this fits in with the pop genre, mastheads should always have a relation to the pop genre, for example I used ‘pop’ in mine. I did this because of the results of my questionnaire – also in my focus group both the girls picked that they preferred the big bubbly font with the hearts

The medium close up on the cover of Annabelle reflects on the target audience. It connotes friendship, that she is comfortable and it makes the audience feel like they are interacting with her (face to face). The picture stands out as it has been placed on a pale pink background, it also reveals the colours of the hearts which give it more of a ‘girly’ effect. The image opens the story, grabbing your attention as its aim is to make the reader want to read on & find out what has happened to Kate

Web address shows that there is more than just the magazine

Feature articles appeal to the chosen market and engage the reader to buy by the cover lines like ‘celebs caught out’ etc… A typical girl would want to be ‘in’ with the latest gossip, news that they can discuss with there friends (social integration); this is the traditional view of girls

Barcode, issue number and price

Pull quote to attract the reader

Cover story is in bright colours, and will appeal to the reader, font connotes the ‘girly girl’ stereotype of sweet/innocence

Pictures of models to tell the reader who will be featured in the magazine

Close up of one of ‘the neverly brothers’ which connotes that there is going to be a ‘gossip’ article

Page number so reader knows which page they are on/are reading

Content of magazine shows reader what is on each page number

Sub headings in bold which stand out

Conventional editors letter

Masthead

Pictures of ‘Kate’ who has been interviewed as the questionnaire results said that they wanted a female artist featured in the dps

‘Stalked’ makes the reader want to read the article and the font is a typical convention of a pop magazine

Pull quote Main image

Organised and clear layout

Stand first gives reader a brief of what the articles about

Headline implies that there has been a disequilibrium – as it was unexpected. She was touring and was being stalked, which she did not know was going to happen

Evaluate magazine:• I did not find it hard to balance the gossip element with the music brief –

on my cover, I made sure that Annabelle was the prominent element as I did this by making sure she is clearly contrasted, for example, against the pink background

• Annabelle (who modelled as ‘Kate’, her article was a mix between music and gossip – as she was touring (linking to the music element) but was stalked (which is gossip)

• I balanced out my articles so some were about music, and some were about gossip; you can see this by looking at my contents page

• I think to improve my double paged spread I could have planned out my DPS story more – I am pleased with the story that I wrote but after the first draft I found there was quite a few mistakes that I had written – for example some punctuation had not been used where it was meant to be and some information was incorrect

• Did I make the right choice of creating a pop magazine?

• I asked 7 people if I had made the right choice about making a pop magazine (based on the look of the magazine I created and they all voted yes!

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