The Conventions

Every piece of media that you see will have many different conventions, these are the 'ingredients' that all go together in order to make the finial product e.g a magazine. When looking at a magazine all of the conventions wont stand out at you straight away however as you look in a much closer detail you will see just how long the thought process of what was going to be on the front page was, and how all of the conventions work and complement each other.

Some of these conventions are as follows:

• Masthead:  This is one of the first things that you see when looking at a magazine, it is the thing that draws you into buying it. For example on a magazine it will be the name of the brand, so when people buy the same brand of magazine every month this is the first thing they will look for. Typically it is in the same font so it is easily recognised. The same label will then be used on the contents page and inside the magazine for advertising and branding purposes.
• Main cover line: This would be the second largest wording on the cover after the masthead, it can take up almost a quarter of the magazine as this will tell the reader what the main headline or topic of the magazine is going to be. 
• Model credit: This is not very common however on some magazines the model and photographer are credited on the front cover. This is typically true for fashion magazines, however if they have not ben credited on the front page then they are usually on the contents page. 
• Selling line: This is a short and sharp line that is used it order to sell as many magazines as possible, it will be a few words describing the magazine to be the best magazine available. Many popular magazines now use the same selling line constantly for example OK magazine use 'celebrity news', so for people that are wanting a magazine all about celebrities they will knows that OK is going to tell them all they need to know.
• Main image: This is the main thing that the reader is going to look at on a magazine, if they like the person that is on the magazine they are more likely to purchase it. Also this shows what the main feature of the magazine is going to be along with all of the cover lines. The image will be a single image of the model or celebrities that are the main features of the magazine. They will have an outfit that fits into the colour scheme of the text on the magazine, also the outfit they are wearing will stand out in order to attract the attention of the public as they see them magazine on the shelfs, the model or models on the cover will also be making full eye contact. 
• Left third: When the magazine is not being shown in full-frontage the left third is the most important as this is all the public that walk past the magazine stand will see. So if the magazine brand is easily recognised by the left third there will be a larger amount of sales as the public will see that the store is selling that particular magazine. The title must also be easily read and stand out as there will also be many competitors on the same magazine stand.