Conventions of a Music Magazine

This magazine cover correctly follows the conventions of a music magazine through the following conventions which are almost always found in music magazine covers:-
Image of a band/artist (Brandon Flowers)
Price and barcode
Masthead (or title of the magazine)
Issue Number

Cover lines
Bold text which stands out to attract the attention of the reader.

Conventions of Magazines

Masthead - Title of the magazine.
Dateline - Date of publication and usually the price.
Main image - Cover image, usually of a model.
Coverlines - Headings of other stories featured in the publication.
Main coverline - Title of the main story in the magazine.
Selling line - Short, sharp description of the magazine's main marketing point - maybe showing who it's audience is.
Barcode - Standard barcode used by retailers, this shows that the magazine is a commercial institution.


All of these are found on magazine covers generally.

LIIAR

Language: Media in general; sound, editing, cinematography (camera angles & camera shots), mise en scene (lighting, costumes & props).
Institution: Who controls the production process and how it effects the final product. Websites & telephone numbers. The publisher and the conglomerate company which may be hidden away in the smallprint.
Ideology: Certain ideas that the magazine is trying to portray; rock music is cool, a certain artist is very good/talented and deserves your listen (achieved by the usage of the band/frontman on the front cover
Audience: The target audience of the media product/text, and how I will target that audience and eventually cater for it; Age, interests, gender, wealth/occupation and social groups (chav/emo).
Representation: Individuals/groups/issues appearing in the media text and how they're portrayed. What is excluded to achieve this.

The Brief

Main Task:Produce the front page, contents page and a double page spread of a new music magazine. All images and text must be original, produced by you - minimum of four images.

Evaluation

When starting this task, I looked at many different types of magazines to help me decide how I would design my own magazine. I learnt that magazines have a masthead, a selling line, cover lines, a main image, a main cover line, barcodes and dates. These are conventions usually found on all magazine front covers. I have used all of these conventions within my own magazine front cover.
I have used an image with a professional medium close up to ensure that my magazine front cover looks authentic and similar to actual magazines. I have also used the same font consistently throughout my magazine front cover but also on my contents page, in the way you’d see in an actual magazine.
Although my magazine front cover wasn’t very well planned I believe that it looks fairly authentic due to the main image, the selling line, the barcode and date and I also used a fictional website URL that seemed relevant to my magazine.
To make my magazine front cover look more authentic though I could’ve done a lot more work in preparation. I could’ve looked at more magazines, particularly actual college magazines and other magazines aimed at college students – this was my target audience.
I used an image which I thought would catch a potential reader’s attention, although I could’ve used an image with more colours which seemed more eye-catching to attract readers. I also believe I could’ve used more than one image on my front cover, although these images would’ve been smaller and used in relation to my cover lines.
I used a bold, eye-catching font in a bright colour which I also thought would grab the attention of a potential reader. Although, I could’ve made the font larger in certain places, such as the cover lines.
I believe that my magazine front cover could’ve been better if I had spent more time on it although I do believe it looks fairly authentic and believable.
My main cover line was “Exam Stress and how to beat it”. I used this because it seemed like something a college student would want to read about as it’s a common problem found within students. My other cover lines were “best college sports teams”, “time management” and “college travel and prices” I chose these cover lines as they seemed relevant to life as a college student.
I placed my image as the background of my front cover but made sure the main focus of the image was placed in the centre and I put the masthead and cover lines around it as to not draw any attention away from the image.
I believe that I did a good amount of research and planning. I looked at and analysed other magazine front covers and contents pages. I feel that this research helped me decide what to do in my own. I also did numerous quick sketches as to how my front cover and contents page would look and I also did a spider diagram of ideas which helped me decide on which colours, cover lines, masthead and image to use. I feel that without this research and planning my magazine front cover would not have turned out as well as it has.