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

In my completed magazine I have followed the conventions and style features of Q magazine mainly, however in order to make the magazine my own rather than a copy, I developed many of my own ideas to create my final piece. In Q magazine, the colour scheme is red, black and white with the masthead being in red; I have also followed this house style as it is simple yet professional. Similarly to Q again, I have used the same features such as interviews and reviews to be included in my magazine so that I have a solid style model that is Q.

Unlike Q however, I have aimed my magazine at a pop type audience, not indie/rock as I believed I needed to make the magazine my own. As well as this, my magazine features all women. I have done this as I think it would attract more women to buying music magazines. For example, Cosmopolitan does this so that women will buy their magazine. This would challenge my style model as Q mainly features men on their front cover, whereas my main article features a female artist which may encourage more women to buy music magazines, as my research shows men buy the majority of music magazines. I have chosen Q as my style model instead of the likes of Kerrang or TOTP, because I wanted my magazine to be simple and set out neatly. Where as, Kerrang! and TOTP are more of an 'organised' mess. Kerrang! targeting men and TOTP targeting young girls. This can be seen through the 'edgy' fonts Kerrang! has and the pink/purple colour scheme in TOTP. In TOTP, the obvious target audience is young girls, we can see this as the magazine normally features make up, boys and shopping, things we associate with young girls. Therefore, I have used Q as my style model.