Final post (for now)

I have finnished my student magazine, and this is my last post untill I start my music magazine.

Thanks for commenting on my posts :)

Evaluation

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

The key ingredients of a Student magazine are a Masthead, strap line and banners.  A student magazine should also include relevant articles and should contain a combination of useful and interesting features.

                          

The magazine on the left is my magazine, and the magazine on the right is a real student magazine.  A bold masthead is a feature of both magazines, along with a strapline.  The magazine on the right, first car, has a banner over the front.  This leaps out at you and grabs your attention.  I have not put a griping banner on the front, instead I have edited the sign in the photo, and put some cover lines on it, I have also shaped this text to fit on the sign.

Overall I think I have stayed within the conventions of magazine creation.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My magazine is aimed at a particular audience, as a student magazine, I would hope that students would be the group to buy it.  The images I have used are of students, for students.  Most of the articles will attract a student to buy the magazine, but the “on the farm” article is the odd one out.  I decided to include this article as a bit of a joke, as it implies that students are the animals.

The images on my front cover are quite large, I hoped to grab an audience with the high contrast image.  There are lots of images on my contents page, this is to give people a preview of what is in the article, and to help draw them in.  

In this magazine I have represented students and teenagers well, but I have avoided the general stereotype of drunk and badly behaved students.  In other ways I have stayed within the stereotypes as I have offered student and teen orientated articles.

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

Most of the student magazines I looked at were from universities.  My publication would be produced and payed for by the student council.  Some of the cost would be covered by the price of the magazine, but it wouldn’t be cost effective, so funding would be required.

Who would be the audience for your media production?

The target audience for my magazine would be teenagers and students around the age of 16+.  My magazine would be aimed at everyone male and female, by including articles that would appeal to people regardless of what they are studying.  To choose the content of my magazine I listened to the audience feedback and decided on articles that were the most popular.

How did you attract/address your audience?

To attract my audience I did a questionnaire on my blog.  I then looked at the results and decided to put in the most popular things.  I also made my magazine appeal to the target audience by having captivating titles, and an appropriate photo on the front.  My magazine has a friendly persona and the articles are based on what people want.  I also posted drafts of my front cover and contents pages to see what people thought, I then improved them based on the feedback that I got.

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

Technology played a big part in the creation of my cover and contents.  I used Publisher to lay out the pages and my camera was very useful for taking the photos.  I used a piece of software called Adobe Lightroom 3 to edit my photos.  My blog is a major piece of technology that has helped with both marketing and research.  Through out the process I have learned how to use publisher, as I have never used this before.

These are two screen shots of my blog.  The post that is shown is 3 drafts of my front cover, in the second screen shot has helpful comments from other people in the class and the teacher.

This is a screen shot of publisher, it shows my final contents draft.  Some of the useful tools in publisher are the guide lines tool.  It put dotted lines on the page so you can line columns of pictures and text up accurately.

Contents Page

This is my contents page design.
Please leave some comments bellow with what you think.

Front Cover

This is my final front cover design.
What do you think about it?  Please leave me some comments.

Contents Pages

These are the drafts of my contents page, please comment on which one you like, and what is good about it.

Front Covers

Hey Guys,
These are the drafts for the front cover of my magazine.  Please comment on which one you think is the best, and with any improvements and suggestions that you have.

Contents Page Designs

 This is my first contents page design

















And this is the second.

















Please comment with which design you think would work the best

Front Cover Designs

 This is my first front cover design

This is my second cover design

















Please comment to say which design you think is best.

Textual Analysis

First Car magazine

The cover of First Car magazine is dominated by 3 things.  The mast head is the first thing that you see when you look at the cover.  The white letters on the black background stand out drawing the viewer in.  The Black lettering "INBETWEENERS" on the yellow banner also stands out well, Inbetweeners is a popular TV show and is guaranteed to get people buying the magazine.  The picture is also a major part of the front cover, the yellow and red clash effectively drawing the eye to the car, reminding the reader that this is a car magazine.

The strap line at the top of the cover is advertising competitions and other articles, this is effective for pulling in more people, after all, who can resist a competition.
The pictures and text accross the bottom of the page help increese the intrest of a perspective viewer, giving a taster to what they will get in the magazine.  The main image is on an angle, this will catch the customers eye as they scan the magazine racks, it also looks unusual, this theme goes with the featured article on the inbertweeners.

Overall, the front cover of the magazine is very drawing for a teenager interested in the featured articles.  This magazine would catch your eye in a rack of other, similar products.

What should be in my magazine?

It would be great if you could fill out the short questionnaire bellow to help me decide on what i will be putting in my student magazine.


How old are you?


Are you Male or Female?


What would you like to see in the magazine, please choose 5 options.
     Alcohol information
     Tv Programs
     Theory Test Information
     University Information
     Current Events
     Politics
     Technology Information
     Music News
     Advice Page


How often would you like to receive the magazine?
How much would you be willing to pay for the magazine?

What should i call my magazine?

What should my magazine be called?
	The Classroom
	The White Board
	Chalk
	Local Learner
	Ink
pollcode.com free polls

Magazine Comparison

I looked through at 3 student magazines, I noted down all of the things that I liked about the magazines.  I will choose some of the things from these lists.


First Car

road deaths
what not to do in a car
good cars to have
technology section
theory test information
car/bike tips


Student ID
cartoons
clubs
adverts
latest news
new people
articles on popular television
university stuff
reviews
horoscopes


ETC - education/training/careers
adverts
current events
information on the bib (church propaganda)
alcohol info
student achievements
politicsmusic info

Action Plan

I have been asked to create front cover and contents page of a student magazine.  This is my action plan.

Week 1 - 15th November 2010

Write Action plan

Create Blog

Comparison of Student mag’s

Audience Questionnaire

Textual Analysis

Week 2 - 22nd November 2010

Layout designs

Organize photo shoot

Edit photos

Draft Pages

Week 3 - 29th November 2010

Create cover and contents

audience feedback

Week 4 - 6th December 2010

Evaluation