Evaluating My Student Magazine

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

Nearly all magazines have the same basic ingredients for their cover page. The masthead is large at the top of the page and then there is a banner with the main feature title. The other article titles are smaller at the sides of the page with some additional information. I have used all of these conventions to make my cover look realistic and professional. I did put my extra photographs at the bottom of the page into a filmstrip, I wanted a more interesting way of presenting them than most magazines.  Contents pages in real magazines are very varied, though they should contain a list of contents and often some pictures from inside the magazine. I did this and tried to keep the page quite clear because it could easily look busy with all the contents. 

• How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My magazine represents teenage students. This means most of the focus is on the pictures and there is as little text as possible so that it doesn't look too wordy. The text that there is uses simple modern language but does not use cliche teenage words. The pictures have had the backgrounds edited to look like simple graphics so that the focus of the images is on the students. I took pictures of students having fun and often out of lessons so that it didn't look too serious. The pictures are also colourful and the graphics use bright simple colours.  I think I have represented teenagers well as people who gave me feedback all said they liked the designs.

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

My magazine is college specific and so would only be distributed in the college. It would probably be made and distributed by the college also, as getting a company to distribute it would lead to a rise in price. We do already have a college magazine but I think mine has content that the students really want and mine looks more professional. 

• Who would be the audience for your media product?

My audience is students aged 16-19 who go to Ludlow College. The audience otherwise is all genders and type of person as if I made it any more specific then there would only be a few people in the college who would buy it. 

• How did you attract/address your audience?

The front cover is the main way that I attract my audience and make them want to buy the magazine. It uses pictures of students, some that they may recognise. I edited the pictures to look modern and colourful so that students would know this was a magazine that is aimed at them. The pictures had a balance of guys and girls so that it appealed to everyone. The graphics I used are in bright colours to attract the eye without clashing. The banner is large and bold so that it also captures the eye. The banner is about EMA and University cuts, something that will affect lots of students and they will want to find out about. There are also the other titles and the chance to win something on the cover, these are the other things that would persuade people to buy the magazine once they had picked it up. From the feedback I got I think I created a professional and very attractive magazine.

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

Lots of the technology I used in this process I have used already such as camera's and Photoshop, though i have never used them for a magazine and so I learnt new things I could do and thought about what I was doing more. For example when I was taking photographs I had to think about how they would fit into my magazine and how they would look. I have never made a blog before and so I had to learn how to use the site and make my site appealing.