1) In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

My product uses a variety of conventions within the sixth form magazine so that it would look like an actual product. My sixth form magazine uses many conventions to make this happen such as; a masthead, cover lines, main im-age and the left third. The masthead used says “Post 16” which implies that this magazine is aimed at students within the sixth form. The cover lines which are used shows different information which the magazine contains, but it also relates to different social groups as for example, it says “SHED - The official rules” which relates to students who enjoy card games. This is just one example on the front page of the magazine. Also, my media product uses a main image but I have developed this because instead of having one main person, I have decided to use the flags to represent the different houses within the school, which also relates a subject inside the magazine. A final convention which I have used on the front page is images to show what is in-side the magazine.

My product also uses a variety of conventions in the contents page as well. One convention which I have used is different font sizes to show the most im-portant topics in this magazine, so that it can stand out and attract the read-ers attention. Also, I have used a clear house style, which is the colours from the school emblem which is maroon, black and gold, so that the two pages look like they are from one magazine. The product also uses images so that the reader is able to know what is inside this issue of the magazine. However, I have challenged real media because I have used a “DID YOU KNOW” sec-tion so that it can engage the reader.

2) How does your media product present particular social groups?

The product which I have created relates to students within the sixth form but there are certain sections within the magazine which relates to different social groups such as students who enjoy chess, there is a chess section for them and students who enjoy cards, there is a section for them. I have done this because it means that the magazine can relate to all social groups within the sixth form, so that it doesn’t just target one certain group.

3) What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

The kind of media institution that would distribute my product would be the school because the magazine is aimed at students within the sixth form, so the information would be targeted at them. As well as this, the shops near the school might also distribute the media product because many students within the school, including lower school and upper school, visit these shops, so by having my media product there, then the students would want to know what is happening in the school.

4) Who would be the audience for your media product?

The audience for my media product would be for students who attend Nicholas Chamberlaine School’s sixth form because of the information which the magazine contains such as “Mr Smallman’s Interview” or “80’s Dress Up”, which is targeted at the students at this particular sixth form.

5) How did you attract/address your audience?

There are a variety of ways in which I have attracted the audience as one way I have done this is by “SHED - Official Rules”, which is a common game that students play while in the sixth form centre. I have chosen to attract the audience by this because majority of the students within the sixth form play this game, which means that students would want to read the magazine be-cause there is something which attracts them. Another section within the magazine talks about Chess, which appeals to students who enjoy chess, so this is another way how I have attracted the audience. Another way in how I have attracted the audience, which is students within the sixth form, is by im-ages of the sixth form centre. I have done this because then the students would be able to recognise the images, so that this would attract them into reading the magazine.

6) What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Throughout the preliminary task, I have used a variety of software to create and publish my work but for the construction, I had used Adobe Photoshop. I have used this software before in other subjects but not in as much detail as I had to for this task. While using Photoshop, previous skills which I had used before came up when constructing my product. However, there are many new skills which I had used in this software as one I had used (which I had not used before) was Quick Selection Tool. This skill enabled me to edit photo-graphs which I had taken. An example of this is where I needed my main im-age to cover the title, so I had to use the Quick Selection Tool to erase the

other flags to just have the yellow flag left. Once I had done this, I then had to use another tool within the software called Rectangular Marquee Tool to then select the entire image and then copy that onto the front page of the maga-zine to then place the image over the mast head, making it look like a typical magazine.

Another tool which I had used in the construction of the preliminary task is fil-ters. For the images which I have used, I had used filters because some im-ages were too bright or I just thought that they would attract the eyes of indi-viduals if they used filters. One filter which I had used was a black and white effect. Once I had done this, I then had to make my other images darker, be-cause the black and white effect made that image darker, so I had to do the same. I had then used a lighting effect because this meant that the images which I had used because this made the image darker so that the images would look similar together. These are the main tools which I had never used before on this software, so these are the things which I have learnt from using Adobe Photoshop.