Evaluation of my school magazine

Abbie Newell

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

products?The front cover

• On my front cover of my school magazine I have followed and challenged many of the codes and conventions by including and using the following;

• A mast head - “ Bridge View High” this is clear and bold and goes across the whole top of the page. This is so that the readers know what the magazine is called, also so the magazine would stand out. Also this is what many other real life magazines look like.

• A Barcode - I have positioned my barcode in the bottom right corner of my magazine front cover, I did this because this is were the barcode is usually placed. However, I have challenged the codes and conventions in the respect that my date, issue number and price should be next to my barcode.

• Date and Price - They are included on my front cover. However, they are not in the correct place on my page (next to, above or below my barcode) like they normally are on other magazines.

• Images - My front cover has a main image of a student (sixth former) in mid shot. My model is giving direct address so that the target audience become instantly attracted to the magazine. However, that is the only image on my front cover, normally on magazine covers they have subsidiary images to make the cover lines become less ambiguous. Moreover, I had to leave out the image of the Eiffel tower on the puff ‘WIN! A TRIP TO PARIS!’ as I could not take the image myself.

• Colour scheme - I kept the colour scheme to a minimum of three colours to follow the codes and conventions. My colour scheme consisted of; Yellow, Red and Black. I used these colours as they would stand out and appeal to the correct target audience.

• Cover Lines - The cover lines on my front cover follow the codes and conventions in the respect that they are in cap lock and are in bigger text that the sub lines. However, they do not follow the codes and conventions, due to some of the cover lines consisting of five words when really, cover lines consist of three or four words (to keep the story ambiguous).

• Sub lines - The sub lines that I used do follow the codes and conventions as the cover lines are in lower case just like real magazines. Also, they are in a different colour from the cover line to make them stand out. However, they could have been a little shorter to keep the cover line ambiguous. the cover lines are in lower case just like real magazines.

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

products? The contents page• On the contents page of my school magazine I have followed and challenged many of the codes and conventions by

including and using the following;

• Title - By using a title ‘contents’ I have followed the codes and conventions due to the fact many other real magazines do it too. Also it tells my target audience what page it is, and the target audience would then know that this is the page to look for if you want to know which page something is on.

• Website, Date and Issue number- Underneath my title I have included a website for the reader to visit as it is in the codes and conventions. However, I did not follow all of the codes and conventions as I did not include the date of the magazine or the issue number. I did not include the date as the date of the magazine is on my front cover.

• Font – The font on the contents page of my magazine does not follow the codes and conventions as the font should be sized 12 for the cover line, and sized 11 for the sub line. The sized of the font for my cover lines are18, and the size font for my sub lines are 14. However, my font is in ‘Ariel’ which is one of the fonts that real life magazines use.

• Editors letter – My contents page does include an editors letter and is sized 12. Also, it welcomes and explains what the magazine contains, so in that respect it does follow the codes and conventions.

• Creditors letter - My magazine did not contain a creditors letter, so my magazine does therefore not follow that convention.

• Colour scheme - On my contents page I used three colours to keep it simple. However, I did replaced the yellow for blue so my magazine does not follow the codes and conventions in the respect that the colour schemes should match to keep the magazine consistent.

• Subscription details and information - I put a banner across the bottom of my front cover. However, I forgot to put the details needed such as website and contact number and email address onto the contents page.

• Layout – My magazine followed most of the codes and conventions for layout;-There is a page number next to each story on my contents page.- The features and regulars in the magazine were on separate sides of the page so that the reader knew which was which. - My contents page was split up into three columns.- There is a main image which links to the main cover line on my front cover and would link to the double page spread.- My page number is a different colour to the text the cover line is written in.

However, I did not include break lines within each story which would make the magazine harder to read and work out each story from another.

How did you use new media technologies in the construction of your products?

• To collect the images that I used on both my front cover and contents page I used a digital camera. Then I had to upload them onto the computer using a USB lead. To create my front cover I used Adobe Photoshop. I did not find this very hard to use as I used it to do my media GCSE and remembered how to use some of it. Also, this programme is used as it is more effective and has the correct tools needed.

However, I created my contents page on Quark. I found this a little challenging to use as I had never seen or used the programme before but it was not too bad to use. Quark was used as it is more effective for creating contents pages, e.g. you can have 2-3 columns, Add text boxes that will run into other text boxes if needed. Also, you can add image boxes anywhere. For example my main image over laps all of the columns.

what are the strengths and weaknesses of both the product and your use of new

media technology?

• productThe strong points of my product;My front cover; looks almost like an actual magazine front cover and follows many of the codes and conventions for a magazine cover; Simple colour scheme, Main images, cover lines and sub lines etc.I knew how to use Photoshop so the cover did not really take that long to create.My contents page; looks realistic: due to having a main image regular and feature stories/activities, cover lines, sub lines, ‘contents’ as the title/

• However, the weak points of my Product;My front cover; The cover looks to packed with information making the cover seem very confusing and busy.Also, the model does not match the colour scheme or the main cover line.I missed out the Issue number.Also, the text on the front is far too big.My contents page; Looks very plain and dull. Needs a bit more colour added to it. Also the text is over lapping the main image which breaks the codes and conventions. The font is also too big.

what are the strengths and weaknesses of both the product and your use of new

media technology?

• My strengths are;I knew how to take and upload images onto a computer.I knew how to use Photoshop so that did not take me too long to create my front cover.

Weaknesses;

• I had never used the camera that I had been given before, but to be fair it was quite simple. I did not know how to use Quark at first which meant I had to spend more time on my contents page.