For this CCR question I decided to represent Print Media through placing my answer as an article in a newspaper. The newspaper format was made through an online newspaper generator: https://newspaper.jaguarpaw.co.uk.
The title of the newspaper is the name of my magazine, 'Femme Fatale' and my answer/article is on the first page along with another fake article in order for the newspaper to seem more realistic, the part about 'International Moose Count Underway' is irrelevant to my magazine and is just part of the online newspaper format.
I thought representing my answer in a newspaper format would be an interesting and creative way to give my answer.
The actual text is written below just in case the newspaper 'article' isn't clear enough.
How does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues?
The magazine I have created, ‘Femme Fatale’ is a culture and literature sub-genre, focusing on societal issues with each edition, the first issue of ‘Femme Fatale’ focuses on self-love, a highly discussed topic in the past few years, this issue challenges the concept through a less conventional style, instead of only articles, the magazine uses visual essays in order to engage the reader through photos representing methods of self-love.
The cover of the magazine, being a close-up portrait of a model caressing her face, with a clean face - no makeup, no editing or filter is meant to attract audiences who are used to seeing models being covered in makeup, edited and photoshopped, unrealistic expectations which damage the mindset of young girls.
The masthead of the magazine ‘Femme Fatale’ is a simple title with a soft pink color, the font resembles a handwritten style (cursive), this font is used in order to complement the literature side of the magazine. There are no taglines or bylines, not following the conventions of most magazines, however this magazine is meant to be as minimalistic as possible as the target audience will tend to be younger girls, the magazine is meant to be easy to understand and simplistic.
The table of contents is meant to be a messy-style, with a blush pink background - tying to the masthead and the pictures represented are also tied to the cover as they are from the same photoshoot - these photos were also left unedited. The titles of the articles/visual essays are arranged throughout the table of contents in a seemingly random manner, however this is style I wanted to achieve, turning away from magazine conventions, the title ‘Contents’ is placed on top of one of the photos and so is the quote ‘Self-love is the greatest middle finger of all time’. The boxes around the titles and lines attached are meant to to tie everything together while still giving importance to each title.
The double spread is the beginning of a visual essay about ‘Romance as a Foreign Concept’, the black and white side is meant to give diversity to the magazine which was mainly girly and pink up until that point however it doesn’t diverge from the style completely as the photo of the statue is meant to contribute to the style of literature and culture as it was taken in a museum, behind it is a photo of a marble tile from the same museum. The darker pink side works well with the black and white and begin the visual essay with a cursive subtitle.
My product challenges conventions by not using taglines, bylines, personally using those conventions doesn’t seem appealing to me and my magazine is about self-love and acceptance, it seems a little hypocritical to include large taglines/bylines with shock value content in order to attract readers, my magazine attracts readers through its simplistic and less used style, and from there the reader can learn about a variety of subjects. and it represents issues regarding self-love in our society as it has been taken out of context and seen as selfish, however at the end of the day it is a coping mechanism, a way to deal with out problems, simple methods such as taking a bath, listening to music and drinking some wine/any beverage help us relax, taking a break to be with oneself is important for overall mental health and this is what my magazine aims to teach its readers, all social groups apply to this concept as everyone deals with stress and anxiety at some point, the model in my magazine is in fact a young attractive, able, white female, as unfortunately I didn’t have access to a wide range of social groups for my magazine, but the whole of the magazine would include other social groups as well.
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