In what ways does
your student magazine use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real
media products?
Before creating my magazine I researched and analysed
current student magazines available. From doing this I recognised what the main
conventions of a student magazine were, I showed these in my research from
previous blog posts. While designing and
creating my magazine I took these conventions and tried to incorporate as many
as possible. I made sure that I
definitely used the main and key conventions such as the masthead, splash,
cover lines, central image and articles trailed. My magazine does not challenge the
conventions of real media products. It
follows the guidelines in a style that suits the theme and target
audience. I made sure that I followed
the form of real products and made sure that all of the text was bold and used
sans serif fonts. I made sure that my
colours were clear and did not merge. I
made sure to keep this throughout my project in my brand identity and house
style. The fonts, heading and colours
were kept consistent throughout. My mode
of address was informal but not overly friendly to the audience, which I also
saw in media products I researched. I
also followed the guidelines of using a medium close up shot for the central image
which doubled as the background of the magazine that observed being down
multiple times.
How does your student
magazine represent particular social groups?
I created my magazine for the target group of college
students, typically ranging in ages 16-18 however it could still appeal to
older students. My magazine could be
seen a representation of a typical teen from the cover image. It shows a teen male with a skateboard and
dressed in the typical clothes one would associate with a skater. This could be seen as a stereotype of male
teens however the splash anchors the image.
It suggests that skateboarders may have a stereotype but it is not
representing all college students. My
masthead could also be seen as quite a typical word for the target audience
‘Updated’. I used this as it described the magazine and was a simple word that
is a huge aspect of lives of the target group.
All of the aspects created were intended to appeal to the majority of
16-18 year olds. Some of this may
include certain stereotypes, but not negative ones, just ones that relate to
real students in the target group.
What kind of media
institution might distribute your student magazine and why?
The magazine could potentially be distributed by Ludlow
College, however this could be used for marketing reasons instead of being made
for the students. The magazine instead
could be produced by the students them selves and create the funds for printing
and distributing through advertisements that appeal to the target group and by
selling the magazine. Apart from it
being just a local college magazine it could be distributed to any college with
some adaptation of certain aspects.
Who would be the
audience for your student magazine?
My magazines audience is the college age range, typically
16-18 years old. It is not a gender
specific magazine however some issues or articles may appeal more to some than
others. The target audience would be
interested in media such as films, music and games with some TV interest; along
with advice for student life inside and outside of education.
How did you
attract/address your audience?
I used my cover page to primarily attract the target
audience. I made sure to make the
masthead especially bold so that it would be easily spotted by any potential
reader of the magazine. I made the
masthead bold by using a large stroke around the bold, capitalised text. I kept all of the background surrounding the
text black so that there was nothing in the masthead that would distract such
as the central image. I used quite a bright image for the cover to stand
out. The background has a very bright
white in the sky and the green on the skateboard it bright and stands out on
its plain black background.
Along with this for my cover lines, splash and articles
trailed I made sure to keep a very consistent house style. I used the green from the skateboard for the
background of the subtitles and all of the text had a black stroke on the white
middle. This caused it to stand out from
the image and become bold and eye catching instead of merging into the
background and becoming insignificant to the magazine.
I addressed
my audience in an informal way using words like ‘you’ and ‘our’. I did this so that the magazine did not sound
too formal, that the target audience would not appreciate. However, I was also made sure that I was not
too patronising to the group as I did not want to push readers away.
What have you learnt
about technologies from the process of constructing the student magazine?
Throughout this project I used Blogger. This was the first experience I have had with
any blogging site. I found it quite easy
to use and quickly picked up how to post, edit and update to my blog.
For the
creation of the magazine its self I used InDesign along with some Photoshop for
image manipulation and creating some features.
I had had a lot of previous experience with Photoshop and had no
problems with manipulating my images or creating the peeling price sticker
effect. I also had experience with
InDesign as well as similar programs such as QuarkXPress. I understood the basic principles of creating
the magazine. I refined my techniques
and learnt some new skills with the program.
InDesign was very easy to use to create a smooth layout and consistent
house style. Overall I was very happy with the software that I used and feel
confident in using both.
