Codes & conventions of magazine covers

Codes and conventions are the rules and regulations of how to make a media product. Conventions are what you would expect to find in a media product and where.

Conventions of a magazine can include:

• Types of articles and where you would expect them to be
• How many images
• What types of images
• Double page spreads (these could feature big pictures, a title, a standfirst, columns, both pages on the same topic and pull quotes)
• Enticements (such as competitions or free gifts)
• Magazine cover (would feature a masthead, text such as sub-headings and pull quotes, images, barcode, price and date)
• Advertisements

Codes of a magazine can include anything purely visual such as:

• Pictures
• Colours
• Layout
• Font (serif or sans serif)