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

My media product uses forms and conventions of real media products in quite a few ways.

I have encorporated a media product, the Ipod touch into my magazine, as I have used it as the theme for my contents page.

The Ipod touch is used for viewing media products and are generally associated with music and as the magazine I am producing is a music magazine, I found this too be appropriate because most people who listen to music regularly will most likely own and Ipod or an mp3 player of some sort, I found this out in my research that I undertook at the beginning of the course.

My magazine en corporates traditional media conventions that will help my audience realise that it is a magazine, these features include the Masthead being at the top of the magazine as you can see in the picture below...

I have also used a main image to fill the entire page, this again is relatively common for the magazines to have one main image, therefore it again can be recognised as a media product and a magazine. I have challenged this in the sense that I have made it so that the band members are not giving the audience a direct address, instead I have made it so they are looking at the lures and the extra information bar. I have also overlapped the Masthead to give a form of third dimension effect.
I have challenged a normal theme and given it my own unique theme, I have made it look like it has been kept on by cellotape which makes it look like it is being held together "roughly", this represents the sort of music that this magazine is aiming to appeal too.
On my Ipod contents page as well as encorporating the theme of a media product, I have also challenged the usual look of a contents page, I have gone with a design that isn't usually encorporated onto contents pages, I feel that the difference is a good thing though as it gives my magazine some originality, overall though I got positive remarks over the look of the contents page.

  
As you can see side by side my contents page and the contents page of The NME magazine look different, I used some of the same conventions, such as having a recurring article every week, such as Now News on my magazine is the monthly news update, whilst NME has a similar service just called News as can be seen in the picture.
I have used pictures on my contents page, to replicate the feel of the Ipod Touch, but too also make it look more appealing, such as NME has done.


Too compare my front cover with the Front cover of Kerrang!, you can see that I have gone with a fairly similar look, I have encorporated the information band at the bottom, and the lures, but I have also challenged the image here, for example I have added a more of a busy background too my picture, but I have also encorporated the image to not have direct address which is what the lead singer of Green Day is doing on the cover of the Kerrang! issue. I have added a bar code this will replicate the look and feel of a real magazine. I have also given my magazine its own theme, which is similar too that of Kerrang! that have gone with a "messy" theme.

As you can see, I have taken a risk with my article, I have gone for a theme that I discussed in a previous post, it has similar aspects too, such as the shout outs and the rough style, I have gone with an indie look, giving some uniqueness into my page, I have challenged the fact that my theme is unlike many others, and I have also had too go over over two double pages to fit in my amount of writing. I have used images like the other article. Like the other article I have used a main title and then a subtitle explaining what the article will be about.
To conclude I have challenged a lot of the normality found in music magazines, but I have merely tried to develop it and not change the overall formula. I have also used some of the same conventions found in media products.