School Magazine - Evaluation

Front Cover Contents Page

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

I would say that my magazine follows conventions of a magazine front cover well. I’ve used the ‘Z’ formation which means readers would look at the masthead first, then the exclusive article and main image, then the second most important image and lastly the barcode so they can decide whether they want to purchase the magazine or not. I’ve also included cover lines to

inform the reader what the issue is about, Sell lines to attract the reader and the date so readers know when it was published. My main image is the most important because it allows the reader to work out what this particular issue is about, I created a Halloween issue which is

why the model on the front cover has a witches hat and a pumpkin. The other images also allow the reader to work out what articles would be inside the issue. I’ve also used the colour scheme to carry on my Halloween theme, I've used orange and green which are traditional

Halloween colours which can impact on the readers mood for example the colours I’ve used can remind them of Halloween and autumn. As well as the colour scheme the font can also impact on the readers mood, I’ve used a formal serif font for my masthead which would be used on every issue so it is easy to recognised however for this special issue the rest of my fonts are Halloween themed which makes the front cover more exciting and doesn’t give the

reader the wrong impression for example you wouldn’t use the fonts used on my front cover on a Christmas issue because it would mislead the reader.

For my contents page I used the convention of 50% images and 50% text I did this by including 3 images and the rest of page was text.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

While creating my magazine I have represented students in an in-formal way because of the Halloween props. However because this is a special issue, as Halloween is only once a year so I have tried to reflect the Halloween theme in my images as well as the fonts and colour scheme. Furthermore my magazine is aimed at students, parents and teachers as different articles will appeal to

the different groups. Students would read the articles that include school trips or events while parents and teachers would read articles that include exam

results, events and open evenings. In the images of my front cover and contents page they are pretending to look scary and serious to carry on with my Halloween theme, however in other pictures they look happy and joyful

which represents their time at school. I have used sixth form students for my images because they are at the top of the school and represent the other

students also the other students look up to them as role models during their school time.

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

Generally a school magazine would be created by students or teachers therefore a media institution wouldn’t be used as comprehensive schools

usually wouldn’t be able to afford a professional media institution also students wouldn’t understand the main conventions of a magazine

therefore it wouldn’t look professional. However private schools may have a media institution or a professional looking magazine because they would

be able to afford it.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

When I created my magazine I kept my target audience in mind which are the students of Chislehurst School for Girls,

aged 11 to 16 and the sixth form students aged 16 to 18. Although the students of the comprehensive school are my main audience of the magazine it is also aimed at teachers

and parents.

How did you attract/address your audience?

While creating my magazine I kept my target audience in mind, I attracted my main audience by using students in my images, this

appeals to the students to buy the magazine because they wouldn’t want to buy a magazine with their teachers or their parents on the front. However in my images I used different parts of the school as

the background so it appeals to the teachers and parents as well as they are familiar with the schools surroundings. However because my magazine is a Halloween issue I used different props like the witches hat and pumpkin, fonts that are considered ‘scary’ and drip like blood

and colours like orange and green to catch the audiences eye and carry on the Halloween theme. I also used san-serif fonts because

they are more interesting and catch peoples eye.

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

While planning and creating my magazine I created a blog using Google blogger, this is where I kept all of my progress and work until I

had finally created my final magazine front cover and my contents page although it was my first time using blogger it was easy to use and work out. Using blogger is an easy way for not only me but my teachers to keep track of my progress and make comments that could help me improve my magazine. Blogger is also an easy for an examiner to

check my blog, all I have to do is send them the link and they can easily access my blog. I will continue to use blogger to keep track of my

progress in other media projects as I like how easy it is to post text, images and videos. You can also change the layout of your blog so it

isn't boring and suits what your project is about.I also learned how to use InDesign to create my contents page. I didn’t like InDesign because it was hard to use and wasn’t very user friendly. I prefer using Photoshop, which I used to create my front cover, I already knew how to use it although it is easy to pick up if you don’t know how

to use it.