Conventions are the conventional, typical things you'd expect to see in a certain context. These convention's are set so people can distinguish the difference between different types of media and also to provide an outline of how a piece of media should look like. Some magazines are more conventional than others depending on audience. This is because either using or breaking conventions can fit in with the context of a magazine, eg. An alternative magazine might not follow conventions in order to amplify their differences to the mainstream magazines. On the front cover of a magazine, you'd expect to see; a masthead at the top, alongside a selling line, the main feature story with a large photo, a selection of coverlines and a dateline and barcode. A conventional contents page has the word "Contents" at the top and has two distinct sections; regulars and features. These tell the reader what's usually included and what exclusive features are in the latest magazine. There are also usually fairly large images related to various features and regulars. On a conventional double page spread you would expect to see a main image which is about the size of half of the double page spread, a large title with kicker below, pull quotes and gutters.
The genre of magazine I have created is an alternative music magazine aimed at girls. My main influence was Kerrang! magazine, because it is the one of the mainstream alternative rock magazines and the way it's all set out is quite interesting and sometimes unconventional, which amplifies it's differences to mainstream conventions. I liked the way the contents page in Kerrang! was set out and therefore used a similar layout for my magazine. Another of my influences was NME as it is also an alternative magazine which chooses not to follow certain conventions to outline how it differs from the mainstream.
Connotational Analysis (via Flickr)
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