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

 

I have used lot of typical conventions of what a real magazine would have; also I have used techniques that a real magazine would do to make the magazine more desirable. I am going to split all of the conventions into sections:

The Masthead

 

 

 

 

this is the masthead that is on my final design for my school magazine, as you can see I have used a dark striking colour against a contrasting light background also it is right at the top of the magazine, these are main technique that a typical magazine would use to attract the audience I found this out when I did my research on the three magazines that all used the technique so I thought that it was appropriate to use it to try to make my magazine as authentic as I could. I feel that my title links in perfectly with the context of the magazine, the school I am writing about is Thomas Bennett so I have used the ‘Bennett’ and merged that and ‘Network’ together because network suggests that all of the students are connected in some way and that they’re communicating and share things with each other and with the school. The colour blue associates with the school because the blue is in the logo of the school making it recognisable and personal to the school. I have taken the audience into consideration by doing a survey that asked them what kind of style the Masthead should be; there was a majority vote for this so I decided to go with this style.

 

Mise-en-scene of the image

 

This is the main image of the magazine, it is the background to the front cover, I have decided to use this as the main image because shows the school of as not being chaotic in anyway there is loads of children running around, I wanted to make the reader of this magazine to feel calm, I feel this image does that because the sky is bright suggesting peace, not grey and depressing. Also we get to see trees in the background which shows nature and almost symbolises the growing and the journey that the child has to go on as they go through their school years at the school. Maybe a criticism of having this as the main image is that there is no students or teachers which readers could potentially think that the school is ashamed of them. 

 

This is a secondary image that features on the front cover on the sidebar, this is showing that the school has high achieving students and that the students are happy with their grades and ultimately happy with Thomas Bennett, the readers can infer this by the joyful facial expressions. The bright light that is coming through the window could suggest that there is a bright future for these students for going to this school and getting the knowledge to get the results they want. Because these students are in sixth form they don’t have a set uniform, they can wear whatever they like, but they are still dress smartly suggesting that they’re proud of their school and want to show maturity, this will give a good impression off to parents who are looking to get the child into this school, who might get this magazine to read up on the school.

 

There is not a lot of text in neither the front cover nor the contents page, but when there has been text I have used Calibri (body). The reason why I have used this is because one in my survey that I conducted the majority vote was for that certain text type, secondly I feel that it is easy to read and this is needed for a magazine if the reader picks it up and can’t read it then will automatically dismiss it, I can say this because in my research I found one magazine hard to read and it made me feel disinterested because of the fact it was hard to read, it made me feel that they hadn’t gone to effort to look into what was an easy font to read for everyone. Furthermore, I have made sure that the colour of the text contrasts to the background that it is on so that it is easy to read for everyone.

 

 

1. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

 

The target audience that I will be targeting at will be the ages of 12-19, so from year 7 all the way through to sixth form. There are different sections that will interest each of the years, not just trying to appeal to everyone. An example would be for year 7 children features such as quizzes and word searches and other things along those lines, then for sixth formers exam times and dates and bigger competitions such as winning tickets for festivals. The gender will be for both males and females there will be a balance of different section as to keep both sets of sex interested, e.g. sports for boys and drama and dance sessions and evenings. Also I will use multi platforms so that it can be accessible at any time for anyone, also because the type of target audience I am using they’re will be familiar with that type of technology, this is the advantage of targeting this type of audience. My magazine represents all of the social groups around school, this will make the students feel excepted and feel that they can be a part of the magazine, this may seem impossible but the fact that I have separated it into year sections means that everyone will be happy. I had also asked the demographic to answer my survey, my survey included questions like “what would you like to feature in the magazine?” this was a positive because then I didn’t have to guess what they wanted the y were able to tell me through the survey.

 

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

 

The magazine will offer students a chance to find out more about their school on a different level on a more personal level as well as there are ways that they can get involved in making getting stories for the magazine, also they will see their school on a personal level because the magazine will have features on every single year and they also might be involved in some of the events that will feature in the magazine.

 

1. Who would be the audience for your media product?

 

The audience for my magazine will be the students that go to the school, from all of the years from year 7 to the second year sixth formers. The reason I have such a wide range for my demographic is so that no one at the school feels left out of their school, if I focused on just one year or gender then I would be losing out on a massive audience who could be reading the magazine. I feel that the techniques that I have used in the front cover and contents page show that I have tried to cater for every student at school; I have not chosen childish colours if I did this then the older students would get immediately be put off, I have used the colours of the school logo so that it would fit for everyone because everyone goes to that school. The audience I have also taken into consideration is parents that want to get their child into the school, I have included exam results and an interview with the new Headteacher, they would be interested in both so they could assess. By having these types of articles then it shows that the school is proud and doesn’t want to hide, which will have a positive impact on the parents.

 

1. How did you attract/address your audience?

Freebies, promotions will be an important part of my magazine and more importantly my front cover, pugs and puffs will defiantly be used on the front cover, as to give the appearance of a typical magazine that are sold in shops. Again this will drag people into read it because freebies and promotions persuade as it gives the audience a chance to gain just by buying the magazine. For features, interviews and stories there will be a feature every week called ‘celebrity of the week’ this will be for every weekly issue were there is a story of this celebrity chosen and an interview with selected questions from the readers that they have sent in. there is a section below it that tells the readers of next week’s celebrity and how to enter their questions, this will get readers involved and feel they’re a part of the magazine. By using this weekly feature it brings the reader back every week to find out what the interview was like and how they answered there questions. His feature will set my magazine apart from others, because although it’s not a conventional feature to have, it will bring in and increase membership especially from my target audience which are teenagers and they would be interested in this type of articles.

 

 

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

 

Technology in this process has been straight forward. I have used a variety of different technology and programs to create my final designs and work.

 

Adobe Photoshop

This was used to touch up my images, to focus on certain parts of the image. I have learnt how to do that function and other functions; this will come in handy when it comes to the main task.

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I had not used the camera that I had been given before, so just being able to take images of what I needed was good experience so that I am more comfortable with using the different features, as this camera would be the one that I use for the main task.

Wix website

I had not used a program like this at all, at the start I found it difficult to navigate around it, so I just decided to use all of the features so that I knew what each part were, again this will make me more confident when it comes to the real task.

 

 

1. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

 

Looking back at my preliminary task, there are a lot of parts that I have been happy with, however there are several things that I will be changing for my full product.

 

• My survey I felt didn’t have near enough questions to really get the demographics true opinion on what they wanted to be in the magazine, for example the layout was not one of the questions. Although they did have a say on the features and fonts, I want to do more questions so that I am sure what my demographic desire.

 

• Although the images which I got for my magazine were originally what I wanted, I feel that I could have gotten more of students and teachers, the reason why is because they are the main point of the magazine. When I come to do the full task I will make sure that I plan carefully and take time getting the images that I need to get.

 

Mode of address

My magazine did not feature enough addressing the reader, there wasn’t much persuasion to buying the magazine on the front cover, for example popular magazine uses phrases such as “must read” my language wasn’t assertive enough that will be something that I will look upon and change for my full task.

 

Time management

I need to manage my time better by organising what I am doing at what time. This would save on getting behind and making my task as good as it possibly can. I will be putting my schedule in a date order so that I don’t full behind for the full product.