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

My magazine pages have been codified to a certain audience from the uses of mode of address and theories. Like all magazines in some ways my magazines either used, developed or challenged different conventions of media products. From researching the different media products it developed my understanding of different ways to codify my magazine at target audiences. The research I carried out to find out information made my decision to have my magazine aimed at females and finding out how to use, develop or challenge codes and conventions for the needs of my target audience. I researched different media products through my existing texts which improved my knowledge of the audience. In the media products I found there where several codes and conventions, for example Title of the magazine at the top, main central image and to have banners, and different forms such as iconography, connotations and theories like the male gaze.

To begin with, in my magazine I have used some of the different codes and conventions to meet the needs of my audience. The first convention I used was having top banner and bottom banner on my front page. This is a code and


convention as from my existing research I found majority of the front page designs had used a banner at the top and bottom with more information which is included in the magazine. Banners usually contain different artist which feature in the magazine at the bottom and an extra story at the top which could not fit around the picture. Having banners in my magazine was a mode of address because it was a way of talking to the audience through the set out of the layout, I used it to grab the attention of the audience just for them to see that my magazine is full of information and for more people to be attracted by all of the stories included in the magazine. Another way I codified my magazine was through the use of ‘Buzz’ words, I used these exciting words to appeal to my audience because Buzz words stand out to them. Buzz words are a usual code and convention because magazine editors want their audiences to be pulled towards the magazine, the words are eye catching so the audience wants to know what is going on and want to read more about the Buzz word they see, the buzz words are the first worrd that the audeince see apart from the title so they will want to know more about these 'eye catching' words to know the story behing it. Some of the Buzz words I used were ‘exclusive and exposes’, I used these words because people get the excitement of reading the stories behind the words they see. The words are usually bigger and in a different style than all other text around so the audience are aware that they are BUZZ words or important words they need to see. Some of the Buzz words have to be colloquial language because they have to relate to my audience, my audience are into a little bit of slang but some words are usaul text. The colloquial language convey's to my audience as a mode of address through text because I needed a way to talk to my audience, so they know I have understanding of their needs in my magazine. I used words such as ‘sexy’ because I know that 16-24 year old females are interested in talking this way and my agazine will fit into what they like:

From my magazine : 

From the 'Q' magazine example of buzz words: 

The following conventions I used was connotations, I did this by the use of colours. Most magazines use certain colours which relate to their audience such as red, black and white for NME’s magazine. However as my magazine is aimed at females I choose to do a soft light pink colour with black and grey to relate to my audience as females like a pink but not a bright pink, and the black and grey to make it stand out and to balance the colour pink because otherwise my magazine would look too feminine, so the colours black and grey give the pages some power. Also as my audience is older females and not young girls just having the colour pink would look to girly and relate to little girls. The use of colours also fell into another code and convention of using three colours as the main colour scheme, as stated I used soft pink, black and grey. Using the three colours makes the magazine have a brand Identity, it makes the audience relate to your magazine and the magazine looks a lot more professional and expert. This colour scheme is followed out through my three pages so the audience know the pages are part of the same magazine. Also on my magazine I used the convention to codify to my audience of having the masthead at the top of the page and having the picture super imposed over it. I have put the masthead at the top to follow the convention because if my magazine was on selves the only part of the magazine that would be mainly seen is the title and a bit of the picture. I have put my masthead as the biggest text size on my page, as my audience need to know the name of the magazine. I put the picture of my title because I wanted the image to be noticeable to the audience, the photo would show that this is the main item on the page and that the masthead is still possible to be read with the photo covering it.

With my picture I used a form and convention of the male gaze theory which was created by Laura Mulvey this is having my female looking vulnerable, submissive and weak to men. The photos are giving men more advantage and power over the women in the pictures and they are posing and dressed for the man. However as my magazine is aimed at females this theory should be different and opposite but I found females think they should be represented like this because they feel it’s what successful women look like. The way I did this with my picture was having my model have her hand on the hip and her head tilting, this makes her look vulnerable but sexy and this is what men expect to see. I choose to change the colour of her lips and her skin to make standout a lot more, this fall into hyper reality which was developed by Jean Baudrillard, this theory is when technology such as images are edited to make a social change which makes women look better than they really are. I have done this by changing the way the model looks from the first picture to look more real but this is what my audience expect women to look like so I choose to follow this form and convention. The reason why I made my picture fall into the male gaze and hyper reality theories is because I knew people who read my audience are interested and assume this is what will be on the front cover of the page.

My front page used the form of having Maslow’s hierarchy of needs created by Abraham and the uses and gratification theory created by Blumler and Katz. I choose to use Maslow’s theory because I needed to relate to the dreams and aspirations of my demographic rather than their physical needs; this was because my audience would be more engrossed to reading about their self-actualisation and what they want wished to be like. From researching I found this was a good theory to use as most magazines use it to attract an audience. I used the uses and gratification theory because I felt like I had to have four sections on my front page which would get the reader. These four sections where information which was what the audience need to find out, entertainment which is the interest and interaction on my magazine, social interaction because people can talk about what they have seen and personal identification so the audience I have aimed it at have a personal identity with my magazine, however in the modern media magazine these four where not enough so I need to use the idea of exchange I will do this by having a blog on my website where people can exchange about the magazine. These two theories gave made my magazine communicate with the demographic.

Another convention I used was different typographies, I used this convention because I wanted all my stories and items to have their own look so that they appealed to the audience, this was because each story is important to read but they all have different meaning behind them so they need their unique font style. I also made other words bigger and smaller this was because the main word about the story has to stand out while the rest are smaller to grab the attention of the demographic to that story. I also used the different typographies, sizes and colours which would alert my audience because the face of having Lots of different content in my magazine. I also added a bar code, issues number and date into the front page of my magazine so it would have its own personal identification, this is a convention to have it on the page and to have it in the corner of a page which I have shown to do. Also In my magazine I gave an Incentive to my audience which is a code and convention, I presented it in a star on the page so it would stand out more than the other text and the audience may crave to buy the magazine more. I had it at the bottom of the page and wrote free vouchers as all people love to get something for their money. 

The last code and convention I used to my front page was the use of iconography, I did this by semiotics. The symbol I used was a speaker this was to produce a symbol which would represent my magazine name throughout all the pages to the audience which is ‘loud’. I thought that a speaker usually plays a lot of loud music as it is a music magazine it symbolises that. It is iconography because it is the use of a symbol which has a meaning through the use of visual arts and the symbol has a fixed meaning. I also put the speaker in black and the music in pink because the music playing out shows that it is for women and it links to my brand identity because the pink is for the females.

However on my front page I did challenge some of the forms and conventions to change my magazine to other magazines, giving it a unique look. One convention I challenge was the bottom banner and the top banner, usually the bottom banner would have the extra names of stars in your magazine and the top would be an extra story. However I changed this and I put them the other way round, I had my bottom banner as an extra story which is in the magazine and I had the other stars in the top banner. I changed this convention because I thought my magazine could look different to the normal look of a magazine and it would appeal to my audience having a different look to the page.

Another convention I challenged was my masthead; I still have my masthead at the top

of the page however the size and style of its font I challenged. Since my magazine is aimed females the font of the mast would have to be smooth and a girly font. However I challenged it and had it in bold and a font which stood out more. I wanted to change this because I wanted my audience to know the name of my magazine a as well as be attracted to the picture and other text, the also has tried to create a balance between the levels of femininity so I am conveying a message to my readers that these are powerful and confident women. I did this with the masthead which is in the colour pink but it is bold and in capitals because I wanted the masthead to point out to the audience but I kept it feminine with the colour. The last code and convention I challenged was having some of my text of the stories in a bold, masculine font. I did this because I wanted the stories to bust out to the audience and not just be like the rest of the text around it would be the first things the audience see and the bold would give it more quality around. These words needed to be attractive to my audience and they needed to be able to see these words to fall into reading the story. The main words I did this for was the BUZZ words, my target audience will see these words as a major item on the page. With this I had use more masculine typography because it has helped me create a steadiness within my mode of address. With this I am trying to appeal young women who are feminine and see themselves as dominant.

All together with my front page I mainly keep to the codes and conventions of a magazine, I did this because a lot of the conventions went with my audience and the design I wished to have also because my audience the research and what I have learnt about magazine has made me realise that also these conventions are what my audience expect.  But I did challenge and change bits of the front page but I did this to have my magazine unique and exclusive look to it because every magazine should have a different way of presentation and uses of conventions because they are exclusive magazines and one of a kind. The image to the right shows my front page of my magazine with different codes and conventions. 

With my content page the codes and conventions I used were, having the page numbers in a chronological order. I used the convention because I wanted to list all pages in the correct order they go in. I did this because each page in the magazine would go one after the other so that it would make sense to the audience to follow to content and not get confused while going through the pages, all the numbers have to be a straight line and all the main subject titles have to be in the same size and style. Another code and convention I used was to have the title of the story at the top and the sub headings underneath. I did this with all the stories on the content pages because each page would have a different title and the subheading would tell the readers about the story on that page. I did this because it made each story title look professional and easy to read for my target audience. 

Also on my content page another code and convention which I used was iconography with this I added in the incentive.  I used the same symbol which represents my magazine name because the same look can be carried out throughout the magazine which is brand identity. I added an incentive with the symbol because the area they were placed would get attention and people would see the symbol and the ‘voucher’. The reason why I followed the code and convention to have an incentive was to prompt my magazine as people would have to open the magazine and buy it to receive the free item. The iconography gave some interest to the audience because you would have to scan it to receive the vouchers this was a good way of getting an audience to want to read your magazine.
 

Another convention which I followed on my contents page was to have the title ‘content’ on the page and as the biggest text on the page and at the top. This is a code and convention to name this page this as all people know this is the page to direct them straight to others without looking through every page to find that exact number you wanted. I didn’t change the name of this page because I wanted my audience to know it is the content page. I had my title in the soft pink and a smooth girly font because it related to my target demographic. The soft pink colour conveys femininity and love and is what most girls in my audience like.

As well as theses codes and conventions I followed theories too on the contents. The first theory I followed was the male gaze theory this was done with the way I represented my girl models in my content. The model who I followed the theory was the one by herself, I made her have her hand on her head and made her waist smaller so she would look more attractive but weak to the males I did this by the use of Photoshop which allowed me to edit bits of her body. The male gaze theory is the visual awareness from men to see women as objects in the photos but my magazine was a female’s magazine for my audience, I still used this theory because some females feel these pictures have control over the gaze as the model is looking into the camera so that they have the power. The other photo I put a little bit of the theory into was the one with the girl standing behind the male in front. With this photo I tried to make the girl look vulnerable towards the man and the man has more power over her because this is how the demographic expect the models to be seen as this is dominant ideology.

In all the photos on the content page I followed the hyper reality theory; this was to make all my models look ‘Superreal’ appearance to reality because this is how the audience feel real people should look like. I did this by changing and airbrushing the colour of my models, I did this so that they would have the expected skin colour look and have the smooth skin appearance. I did this because I felt from researching about my demographic and other existing texts I found most people enjoy reading magazines which are represented like this, they finding these images more appealing and feel they should be presented like this.

The other two theories which I used on the creation of my content was Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and the uses and gratification theory. I used the hierarchy because on the stories I had written and the pictures I had taken they were most people’s dreams and aspirations as they were mainly dreams and what my audiences  I had stories such as amazing music careers, cutest couples and events that people would wish to go to. This was different to what people’s physical needs, safety and security, love and belonging and self esteem as these are just basic needs that people have and however their dreams and aspirations are what they wish to read about. I used the uses and gratification theory a little bit on this page due to the fact I provided my audience with information and entertainment. I used information because I had loads of different stories and had a story which told them a little and they had to read more to find out. I used entertainment because I had interesting stories on the page which would draw my audience to the magazine and feel like they are interacting with the page. I used these theories in my magazine because it would catch the attention of audience through the different techniques on the page of the content.

aspired instead of their personal needs,

One of the last conventions I used on my content page was to have a story about one of the images on the page. I added this story on my page because I knew that it was a good way of telling my demographic some information about what they are seeing. This was a good code and convention I used because it added some textual information on the page and made the page have more entertainment to it.  However with this convention I developed it by adding added the read page 24... For them to be excited to read onwards about the story they have started to read this is like a ‘lead paragraph’ which would not usually appear on a content page but the story worked well of the page. The last code and convention I used was having images with the page number next to them. This was a code and convention I found most magazines used. I think they used the convention because the audience need to know where to find that certain person or people they are looking for and be directed straight to that page. I used the code and convention to follow this because I want my audience to find my magazine easy to read and enjoyable.

However on my content page I did challenge a few codes and conventions because, it gave my magazine a different look to what I researched with also following some and just developing them. The first code and convention I challenged was not having a main central image. I challenged this convention because I felt that the page looked better with the content information in the middle of the page instead of having the main image. The reason why I did this was because the content page information suited being opposite each other and in the centre of the page and the pictures going around the page looked more professional due to my design.

Another convention I challenged was not having front cover artist in my content pictures. I found this challenge from the NME magazine; I thought that it was a good change because it would a different look from the front page and give the content page another look with other people and more information. On the NME magazines I found that they added other images and a storyline with the image and it gave the content page just more information that will be shown in the magazine. I followed this idea of theirs and it gave me the idea to give my magazine a change and developed it. 

This is examples mine and Nme 

The last code and convention which I challenged was my magazine website and incentives at the top of the content page. Usually this is placed at the bottom of the page as it is the last thing people see when they change the page. However I placed it at the top because I wanted it to be the first thing people see so they could get the idea and my demographic will like the thought of what incentive the received. I changed this and challenged it because I felt that if people saw this first before reading some of the stories they would remember to visit the website and check out more about ‘LOUD’ and it was a good way of using exchange this is when people are using the web to find out more information or to exchange with what they need to. Using exchange would be updating the uses and gratification theory as in the modern people like to exchange and have personal identification with what they are using/reading and this would be a good way to be on the same relationship with my target audience. This conveys a good interaction with the writer and its audience as the audience are getting the top information they are interested in and can exchange with the magazine and others.

On to my double page spread and how I have used or changed the forms and conventions. The first code and convention which I did use while creating my double spreads page was having the title go across both pages. The reason why I used this code and convention was to put across that these pages are related and that you’re reading about the same thing on both pages. I used a catchy title to go across both pages which related to a song as it is a line in the song by ‘The Doors’ it is a intertextual reference, it is about someone leaving and as the story was about this I thought it was a good way to symbolise the item they will be reading. The catchy title went across both pages in a girly font but in a large size as it had to be the biggest text on the page and at the top of the page because this is what people would find after being directed there from the content page. This was a good code and convention to use because it makes sure your audience is not confused on whether they are reading different pages of the same page.

Another code and convention I used on my double page spread was having the main image on one side of the page and very big. The reason why this was used was to show the audience this is what the story is about and this is what they will be reading in the item. I did the picture just on one side of the page because when researching I found all double page spreads had one big picture just on one side with the story on the other side about them. I didn't want to challenge this form because I felt that the page would look better on one side and the story on the other because the picture is the attraction of the page. I also used the code of having a quote on the page. I did this because this would drag the audience into reading about why that quote is there and they will have to read the story of what’s on the page to find out. I had to have this quote in a different font, bigger size and a different colour to the text because it would make it stand out more than the actual text and they would see this first before reading on. This is a good way of making sure people are reading the story because they are pulled towards it with interest around the page which makes them want to read more.

In addition I also had an information box on the page about my artist this was an extra code and convention I found which really attracted my attention on my research as it gave me information about the person story I read before reading about what happened to them it gave me the insight about them. This is a good way of telling you’re demographic about the person on your page and some good information about them before they see what happened in that story. It gives the page more detail and is a good form to follow and it telling the audience knowledge before reading the main information. However on this information box I challenged a form because instead of using bullet points to make the different points I used ‘heel’s the reason why I developed this was because I knew that I was aiming my magazine at women and I knew women like the idea of heels and would be more attracted to a heel than a bullet point. It was a good way of adding iconography to the page because it relates to the demographic as well as adding design features.

The last code and convention I had on my double page spread was having a subheading under the title about what the story really is. It is a code and convention because most writers give a little starter to their stories before they actually start. I chose to add this sub title in because it explains the actual title more before the go straight into reading. The reason why I did this because my title does not tell the audience who my pages are about its just catchy and a good way to attract the audience the subtitle will give more of an in look of what they will read further on into the magazine.

On these pages I did use the theories such as the male gaze and Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. I used the male gaze with the main image I had my mode wear something short and show skin with her hand holding her hair because I wanted her to look vulnerable to the male gaze. I made her look straight into the camera and look like she had the power but pose for what males like to see. I also used Maslow’s theory because I knew her story would inspirational to my demographic and they would enjoy reading about what the story says. I also knew that using a picture that I had and making it fall into hyperreality would be some of the dreams of my audience to look the way the model did in these photos. I used these theories on this page because they relate to way my demographic think will be in the magazine. 

However all together on my double page spread I did not challenge many codes and conventions because I like most of the codes and conventions of a double page spread. I felt that the codes and conventions fell in with the design of my page and keeping most of them made my page look even better.

Overall with my magazine the way I used, developed and challenged the forms and conventions had made my magazine very different. The research I did on my existing task analysis helped me make the decisions with my magazine and how I laid it out my magazine template and the way I created the design of it. All together I feel as I used more codes and conventions then I challenged them in this construction work.  I used many of the forms however I did change some and challenge them in certain ways. This task of creating a magazine taught me the different codes and conventions I code use and it taught me that all magazines have different layouts.