Top of the Pops Contents Page Analysis

Kerrang! Cover Analysis

Top of the Pops Cover Analysis

College Magazine Front Cover Evaluation

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

My front cover uses conventions of a magazine by having the normal aspects of a front cover – masthead, photo, anchorage text, sell lines, barcode, etc. The front cover also uses media by having a photograph covering the whole page. It makes the cover stand out more to readers and passers-by, they see the colours and the brightness and they stop, look and pick it up. One of the conventions I used is having a barcode on the front cover; this shows that it’s a magazine and not a book. A book’s barcode is usually located on the back. On the cover, I have included the convention of sell lines. Sell lines allow the customer/ reader to show what’s inside, this might intrigue them to pick up the magazine and want to buy it.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My magazine represents the social group by having a college student on the cover, which is who the magazine is actually aimed at. Having this student on the cover will attract other students to pick up the magazine and want to buy it. The sell lines also represent this social group because it’s about things they want to know about. I did a survey and these sell lines reflect the things that students wanted to read about such as; tips for saving money, gig listings and student discounts.

How did you attract/ address your audience?

To attract/ address my audience, I used a college student on the front cover wearing a band t shirt so the audience could relate to the cover already. I also used the conventions of typical conventions of magazines that students around college read, such as Kerrang!, NME and Q. I also attracted the audience by using sell lines which they relate to, including how to save money and what gigs were on and when.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

I have learnt a lot about Photoshop from constructing my magazine front cover. This was interesting as people who work in the media use this regularly. Prior to making this front cover, I had no idea how to use Photoshop at all. However, now I know how to make parts of image transparent, how to layer images, how to make a photo a certain size (I made my front cover A4) and adding in text and changing the colour of that text. Another thing I learned how to do is alter the brightness of an image as the image I used was quite dark so I had to learn.