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

…However, I incorporated a few generic conventions in my front cover (such as the masthead and left third) so that, even though it doesn’t follow all the

codes and conventions, it could still be identified as a magazine

For my school magazine, I decided to go against the usual codes and conventions of typical magazines.

Above: my magazine, which doesn’t follow the ALL the usual conventions of a magazine

Right: A magazine that follows the conventions and overall layout of a magazine

I did this, mainly, because of the fact that in my earlier research and analysis, on school magazines, I found that most school magazines DID go against the conventions (shown right). One other reason for this is that within schools, school magazines are not widely expected to look like, or follow the conventions of, a proper magazines…

Who would be the audience for your media productWho would be the audience for your media product??

Like many other school magazines, I chose to aim my magazine towards the students.

This is due to the feedback I received from the questionnaires I handed out, the majority of the people who completed my questionnaire were aged between 11 and 16 –which is the age group/range of many secondary schools

PRODUCTION FACTS…

The boy that features on my contents page, left, stood in the same position for as long as 5 minutes while I tried to figure out how to turn the camera, which I had never used before, on.

It turned out, that it was already on…

My advice to these guys for their poses was:

“just look professional…”

I think these photos turned out pretty well considering the lack of direction I gave them…

How does your media product represent particular social groupsHow does your media product represent particular social groups??……and also attract/address your audienceand also attract/address your audience??

Front Cover:

I didn’t include any price because the feedback I received from my questionnaires (shown above) made it very clear that the majority of people wouldn’t be willing to pay for a school magazine

The people on my cover all maintain eye contact, making the reader feel involved and, in a way, like they’re on a personal level with the person in the picture

I used the left third of the magazine as it‘s the first part of the magazine cover that the reader looks at

The coloured lines, separating the pictures, represent the house colours within the school, this shows the link between the school and the magazine

Pictures still maintain eye contact with the reader keeping the feeling of involvement present

Continuation of colours, theme and style shows that my contents page is from the same magazine as my front cover

Competition allows the reader to get involved in the magazine, and by putting an ‘iPhone’ as the prize it appeals to the targeted audience

From the feedback, I knew that Horoscopes, Achievements and Cartoons/Comics were the most popular amongst the choices so I knew I had to add them in, the rest of the choices were pretty close, looking at the bar graph above, so I added them in too; the least popular of the choices turned out to be Acknowledgements, therefore I didn’t include it in the contents of my magazine

Contents Page:

In order of sequence e.g. Agony Aunt = First Bar, Revision Guide = Second Bar, etc-

There is evidently more images to text in the front cover and contents page of my school magazine, this is because the feedback from question 2 of my questionnaire, below, let me know that this is what my audience preferred

I tried to use all the feedback I received from question 6, in my front cover.

Overall, I’d say that my cover is clear. The colours present, are quite bright and therefore would appeal to the younger target audience. The colours are used in a subtle way and the fact that they are placed on top of a black background adds to the clarity that I feel both my cover and contents, has. My fonts are clear and easy to read and it is easy to identify the masthead from the

features, although this is helped by their placement on the cover. The people in the images maintain eye contact with the readers and are all smiling, making the reader want to know the reasons behind their smiles- the readers are intrigued (at least that’s what I was hoping for…). Also, a few of the students who filled out my questionnaire said that they would read my magazine if they were in it, therefore by including a number of students on my front and contents I have, in a way, succeeded in meeting the requests of the readers

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

[this is parents/governors/carers in this instance as well as students]

I would choose either the students or the school governors to distribute my magazine. I would pick either one, as I think these, above all, have the most involvement in the school, therefore, not only would it be more suitable, it would also be more beneficial in the sense that if this were a real magazine, to be sold every month, as shown in the questionnaire feedback (left), then the students would be creating and contributing to the magazine, as the majority of people answered ‘yes’ within the responses shown below. They would also be learning and developing their knowledge on magazine distribution within media. I think that the governors would benefit by getting further involved with, and also be keeping up to date with the goings on throughout the school.

The reason I wouldn’t want my magazine distributed by the parents, carers or guardians is that, being a carer(s), they probably wouldn’t be able to find, or spare, too much of their time to distribute my magazine so that it was meeting the high standard that I would expect it to be at.

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

To create my front cover and contents page I used the programmes Adobe Photoshop and Adobe InDesign. To take my photo’s I used the Nikon D19.

I’ve learnt a lot about the processes I have to go through to transfer different things from Photoshop to InDesign. Like saving files as JPEG’s, some as PNG’s and also remembering to put everything on a different layer.

This was my first time using the Nikon D19 and I found it difficult remembering the buttons I

needed to use and remembering the functions of each one. It took me around 20 minutes to half an hour to get the hang of the camera fully, and after that I think I took some pretty good, pretty professional looking photos.

+ Take these for example: