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

TITLE In my masthead I use bold striking lettering to catch the readers attention, this is the same on all magazines not only music ones. The masthead is partially covered which shows that the Editor is confident that his brand is established and will be recognised without the entire masthead being shown, I also find this is acceptable as my main purpose was for the masthead to inform the reader what genre the magazine is, this is a common convention is rock magazines such as Kerrang and NME. However, my masthead still remains very large and covers almost the entire width of the front cover so the audience can identify the make and genre of the magazine. This other magazines such as Q or magazines usually associated with more popular, mainstream music tend to keep the masthead completely uncovered so my style may be seen as going against standard convention. In terms of naming the magazine I stuck to a simple title but still wanted to deliver in terms of matching the conventions of the rock genre. I finally stuck with the name Amplify as Amplifiers are almost always used within the rock genre. MISE-EN-SCENE Images are of course a key part of any magazine, particularly a music one. The use of images on a magazine which does not yet have a massive reputation is very important as this is most likely going to be the main reason for it attracting readers as its name cannot yet be relied on to do so. I think my model portrays the genre very well, as although he may not be wearing clothes that immediately connote rock music, the use of smart clothing (shirt and tie) is becoming more and more frequent in rock music, for example bands like The Killers are almost always seen performing in these sorts of clothes. I am pleased at how well my

models clothes fit in with the colour scheme. The white shirt and black tie links in with the mastheads and titles in the rest of the magazine, also the black wall behind him links in well with the colour scheme. The black could give connotations of his dark side and the dark side of rock music as it is often linked with bad stereotypes such as alcohol and drugs while the white could connote the good side of my model and rock music as it gives pleasure and enjoyment to millions. No editing was required on my photos as I was very happy with how they all turned out there was good lighting and makes the models skin look bright and emphasized which is really what I was looking for. PEOPLE I personally believe the model I have chosen for my magazine portrays the genre very well. As it is common in the Rock genre for young musicians to shoot to fame seemingly from nowhere, I thought it would suit my magazine if my model was in the 17-19 age bracket. When choosing my model believed that they had to represent the personality of my fictional band member which I tried to create in the article. I believe my model does this perfectly as he appears to have a certain arrogance about him which would come with being successful at a young age. However, being such a young age he still maintains that likeability and that he was is still genuine. TITLE FONT AND STYLE When choosing the title font I wanted a font which not only properly represents the genre but also is clear and easy to read. I finally decided on the electrified font as it links in with the name of the magazine Amplify as it gives connotations of when a guitar is plugged into the amplifier. Throughout the rest of my magazine I use clear bold fonts so they are easy to read but also they look old and worn to instil that rock vibe and style. WRITTEN CONTENT The written content within my magazine was obviously a key part in conforming to the standard feature article of a magazine. Using various

techniques such as pull quotes makes the magazine look more interesting and professional. Pull quotes were an essential part of my magazine, I tried using controversial quotes or quotes that readers and fans of the band may find particularly interesting, they are also interesting as many people find reading the entire article boring. I was also careful when choosing the font size of my article, when researching further I found that generally magazines used size 11 font for easier reading. MUSIC GENRE AND HOW MY MAGAZINE SUGGESTS IT I have spoken numerous times about how I use various methods throughout my magazine to convey connotations of rock throughout it. Firstly my model wears a smart shirt and which perhaps is not always recognised with rock but can connect with its various sub-genres such as mod or brit-pop. When choosing my colour scheme for the magazine I decided upon red and black which red connotes anger, rebellion and aggression all things associated with rock music and black, which connotes mystery and elegance. When choosing my font style I thought carefully about the genre and wanted to use bold aggressive fonts so readers immediately thought about the rock genre. LAYOUT I believe the layout of the magazine is the most key feature when creating one. When thinking about the layout of my magazine I found it hard to find anyways to challenge media convention as there is so many variants on music magazine and magazines in general. When looking at other examples I thought that the ones which were placed out simply and not too eccentric were the ones that looked most professional, so it thought this important when creating my own magazine. I believed positioning my main image in the centre of my front cover whilst covering about 50% of the masthead made it look not only professional but really makes the main image stand out and catch the readers attention. On my contents page I again kept things relatively simple as this is done on almost all contents pages, as obviously the primary function is to allow the reader to locate specific pages. I had a large photo of my model to the right of my contents and a description of my

band beneath this left a clear distinction between the page numbers and my bands feature article and stop it looking crowded. When designing my double page spread I was constantly changing it and thinking of various ideas. However, I finalised with having one page completely taken with my model and a pull quote, while my second page will contain two images and the written content.

Question 2-How does your media product represent particular social groups?