Ross's As Media Coursework Blog: 2012

Tuesday, 24 April 2012

Evaluation Question 1- In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products.

To get a good idea of what the normal conventions are for a music magazine I had a look at some magazines on the shelves today. The very first thing I noticed was the masthead. This made me think about the brand identity of the magazine, because most magazines have a certain look to attract their audiences. This is because there is less sales of magazines due to the internet, TV, radio etc. But the decrease in sales is mainly due to the invention of the internet, where everyone can look up bands and interviews and watch videos which some people may prefer as they may find them more entertaining. The decrease in sales means that magazine manufacturers have to create a brand identity so that people don’t have to look for ages on the shelves to see which magazine they would prefer because they can easily spot the one that they want. I have tried to give my magazine a brand identity by keeping it very similar all the way through the magazine. This would give the magazine continuity and draw the readers in to read more. I looked at Metal Hammer magazine, mainly because they are the bestselling magazine in the UK, and I enjoy reading them as they have a lot of bands that I’m interested in. They always seem to have a metal texture to their magazines. They also barely have any text on the front page. This could be because their target demographic wouldn’t want to see all the free stuff, but they would rather have a look at the contents page to see what was included in the magazine.