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

As seen in this image, several comparisons can be drawn between the features of my own front page, and the features typically used in music magazines.

Firstly, I used a short memorable title for my masthead. The word "Encore" is easily remembered, and is catchy so that the reader will be drawn in by it. The idea of having a one-word title is a convention of most music magazines, for example; Q, kerrang and NME.

Secondly, I used thumbnails down the side of my magazine to show what could be found inside it. This is a typical convention of most music magazines as shown in the image of "Q" magazine above. The slogans used for thumbnails are usually short and informally worded, and i decided to use this convention when constructing my front page.

I used a strapline to advertise the popularity of my magazine, a convention used in most music magazines. Typically the popularlity of the magazine is important, so the strapline is situated above or below the masthead. I decided to situate mine below my masthead.

A typical convention of music magazines is to have competitions or chances to win prizes. As part of my front page i included a small sub-story about winning v-festival tickets. These kind of stories usually attract readers, because they become immediatley drawn into the idea of winning. I felt that the chance to win tickets to a festival would be appropriate for a music magazine. This technique is frequently used in music magazines, as seen above in "Q" magazine.

I decided to use the convention of situating a large image in the middle of the page surrounded by smaller ones when constructing my magazine. Particularly in music magazines, the model is usually seen holding an instrument. As seen above, i decided to have my model holding his guitar- this is seen as a symbol of rock music, and a stereotypical rock pose.