Question 1:In what way does your

media product, use, develop or

challenge forms and conventions of
real media products

What is a magazine and what is its

purpose?
A magazine is an informative media product usually aimed at a
target audience
The creators of the magazine tend to communicate to their
intended audience through a wide range of codes and conventions
which they believe will be effective through research into the
lifestyle of that intended audience and their typical lifestyle. There
are also many codes used by most magazines, as they tend to have
the same effect regardless of the intended audience. E.g. direct
gaze for grabbing attention, a large masthead at the top to stand
out against other magazines and a picture of the person who is the
main feature of the magazine if there is one.

Front Cover
comparison
Masthea
d
Artist
s
name
s
Direct
Gaze
Jeweller
y
Coverlin
es
Barcode

Front cover analysis

The front cover of my magazine carries many conventions typical not just of magazines in general but
through magazines of my chosen genre. Most of the similarities in the previous slide are typical of most
magazines and used for the same reasons such as direct gaze to grab the readers attention and naming
artists featured in the magazine to signify to the reader what genre the magazine is and to grab their
attention if they see one theyre a fan of, but it also features symbolic codes typical of the genre for
example the jewellery in both front covers the artist wears jewellery. This is done to show wealth which
is a typical convention of hip hop, but I also specifically chose an American ring and a British sovereign
ring. To signify to the reader that it was a magazine that would combine British and American hip hop.
There are other conventional elements as well such as the hand gesture in both front covers is typical to
the genre, and so is the clothing worn, also the coverlines and language used is typical to that of hip
hop. Finally the colours red and blue have connotations of danger and royalty or high status. I chose
these as conventions of the hip hop genre are that it can be dangerous, and many rappers also view
themselves with a very confident high status. Overall my front cover uses very conventional codes to
signify the genre and can be seen as similar top other magazines of the same genre, as shown in
comparison in the previous slide, however it also contain some unconventional codes used to show my
readers that it contains both American and British hip hop, such as the artists featured in the magazine.

Contents page
comparison
Title

Various
articles

Main
feature

Sections

Contents page analysis

Although my contents page has a few conventions of magazines and magazine specific to my genre it
is quite unconventional. Firstly it has some elements that are conventional to most magazines such as
list of articles and their page numbers, also the title, but many that are unconventional for example
many contents pages tend top use many images but mine only contains 2 I did this as I wanted to
direct a lot of the attention to the main feature of my magazine. This is done commonly in other hip
hop magazines too, as shown in the comparison pictures. The contents page picture on the right in the
comparison slide also has very stereotypical symbolic codes on it such as the jewellery. I deliberately
had my model in quite modest clothes t go against the stereotypes of hip hop as it being extremely
materialistic. Finally I chose an elegant font similar to that in on the front cover masthead to direct
contrast the genre as its seen as quite a unsophisticated genre and I wanted to challenge that. Overall
my contents page follows a mix of conventional and unconventional elements it has a lot of codes that
signify the hip hop genre, but also ones that go against or challenge it.

Double page spread

comparison
Artist
name
Pull
quote

Main
feature

Double Page Spread analysis

My double page spread is quite conventional to that of many magazines in the way it is set
out with common codes such as pull quotes which are eye catching, also featuring the
persons name at the top of the page, and a picture of the artist featured, however
specifically for my genre I chose to be quite unconventional through the symbolic codes
used such as bright white clothing, the facial expression and pose which come together to
make an overall light-hearted positive image. I challenged stereotypes of rappers who are
generally seen as quite aggressive and mean I did this to show another side to hip hop
and challenge some of then negative stereotypes it carries. Overall I tried to contrast
previous images used in my magazine of the model, and those typically found in hip hop
magazines to try and give people a new way of looking at hip hop artists while having
some of the conventions remain, as for some artists in the genre these stereotypes may
be somewhat true, but for others the complete opposite.