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

Question-1

When creating my magazine, for research, I looked at “Kerrang” magazine chiefly (This is amongst “NME” and “Q” to a lesser extent). Firstly, looking at just the front cover of the magazines I could spot the codes and conventions that all these rock music magazines adhere to by comparing the magazines to each other. One of the most important aspects I think is the colour scheme, which consists of primarily reds, blacks and whites, this is as these are very masculine colours, so fit in well with the idea of rock music, the connotations of black and white in particular is that of importance, “this magazine has something to say” (Usually about anti-establishment ideals).

All 3 major rock magazines adhere to reds, blacks and whites

Therefore, when creating my magazine I did indeed follow the same colour scheme idea as it seemed important, in the terms of the colour scheme, to remain strictly close to the same colour scheme as the connotations of these colours are important to the rock genre in general, as a genre that promotes anti-establishment ideals and emphasises them through it’s use of colours. Here’s my front cover of my magazine:

Here, my magazine is strictly adhering to the colour scheme of red, black and white. This is so my magazine is sure to stay to the conventions of a rock magazine. The reason it needs to follow codes and convention is so my target audience can glance at it and know exactly what type of magazine it is.

Another way my magazine sticks to the codes and conventions is by the header. The header “SHOUT”, as you can see, is extremely similar to the “Kerrang” header. The header is a very important part of the magazine, so I wanted mine to be similar to other headers’ out there, therefore the audience can see it and can relate it to the “Kerrang” magazine, therefore they know quickly that it’s a rock music magazine.

They both have a cracked glass effect, this connotes masculinity and violence.

Another area where my magazine utilizes the conventions of a rock music magazine is in the pictures I have included. The pictures used for the front covers, and indeed inside the actual magazine, are very varied. They range from close ups to long shots, usually depending on whether it’s a photo shoot of a band or a single artist. However, though the camera-work is often varied, the poses that the people depicted in the magazines is usually roughly the same type of thing. They will try to look strong or masculine if it’s a man, and if it’s a woman, they to will try to look strong and masculine as well, the poses have connotations of violence or masculinity and indeed in some cases have denotations of violence/masculinity. Here’s an example of violence being denoted in a rock magazine (Kerrang)

Here’s a code that my magazine also looks at, the idea of having “something to say”

The cracked glass connotes violence, my magazine also has this effect on it’s header (Like the Kerrang header)

As you can see here, both magazines have people inside who conform to this idea of trying to look strong/masculine.

Another point to make about the pictures used in rock magazines is that the people are looking at you. This addresses the audience and includes them, therefore the idea of loyalty and being a part of a community is again represented here. I found this idea of loyalty in the research of rock magazines.

Kerrang audience bio

Another area where codes and conventions are present is in the language used. The language is usually used to include the audience, and to make them feel inspired.

The points made by artists in the double-page spread are usually informal, reinforced by the use of exclamation marks. The language like “What the hell” in the Kerrang magazine indicates how informal they can be. The connotations of this line is of course death/informal (Maybe even teenagers, as they are the target audience) So, similarly in my article I have the lines “We will never let rock die!”, this uses both an exclamation mark and the word “die”, which are often found in rock magazines.

“Kerrang” “SHOUT”

The colour scheme is still the same, red, black and white. Both my magazine and the Kerrang magazine’s contents page adhere to this. Traditionally, the contents page offers an advertisement for subscribing to it within the contents page, my magazine also has this as an important part of buying a magazine is wanting to buy the next issue, so I thought that it’s important to keep this in.

Here my magazine challenges the codes and conventions somewhat. You can tell that in the “Kerrang” magazine a lot more information is put into the date. However, my magazine simply put the date, this is because I think this part of the magazine is often overlooked, and it’s on the barcode on the front cover anyway, therefore it’s a futile item.

“SHOUT” “Kerrang”Here’s the barcode labels from both my magazine and an average “Kerrang” magazine. As you can see they’re sufficiently similar, yet differ in prices, my magazine is more expensive, this code has been challenged as my audience research said that £4.00 is about how much they are willing to pay.

“Kerrang”

“SHOUT”