Evaluation of School Magazine
In what ways does your school magazine, develop or challenge forms and conventions for a real magazine?
I tried to create my school magazine to a professional standard, making it represent a real magazine with typical magazine conventions. Before I began the creation of my magazine, I researched all different kinds of magazines to find out different forms and conventions for different genres such as how, music, celebrity gossip, games, home life etc. differ from each other. Magazines have different conventions to attract and engage their particular audience. For example, a magazine aimed at young people would have less formal language and maybe use slang to direct their audience in a better understanding for them. I took all this information that I discovered into account when creating my ideas for my magazine and then the final piece. I decided to keep to the particular conventions of a school magazine, however using my own original ideas which were different to a typical school magazine that made it unique to other magazines. I used bold colourful fonts for the title to attract the reader’s attention. Furthermore ‘Stand’ was coloured black, whereas ‘Out’ was yellow to emphasis on ‘Standing out’ resembling individualism from not only other magazines in the industry, but also students who are the targeted audience. I also used slogans and catchphrases on the front cover (hinting what is included inside the magazine for the reader), this could attract the reader into taking their time out into actually being interested and reading the magazine.
Does your school magazine represent particular social groups?
My school magazine represents student social groups and tries to emphasise on the point of stereotypes in schools, as well as throughout the world. The title ‘Standout’ creates an aspect of being different to everyone else, and the students finding their inner soul and being their own characters. I created a contrast with the imagery and the title on the front cover of the magazine to make it obvious to the reader what my intentions of the front cover were, which were to show the importance of being an individual. In the photograph, it includes 3 students of different clichés- a sporty girl, the popular girl, and the nerd. These are typical stereotypes of students in school, especially within the film industry. I wanted to use this as, as soon as the audience see the front cover, they straight away know what it’s about- school life for girls (girls also being the target audience). I also decided on the costume for the characters- which was uniform. This was to creat contrast as Fortismere School doesn’t have uniform (which was the school I based the magazine on), therefore it creates a new aspect to the school for students, creating contrast which could be more interesting.
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
The type of media institution, who would distribute my media school magazine, would preferably be the school which the magazine was written for as the genre of my magazine is a school magazine. Fortismere Secondary School- was the particular school I created the magazine for, which is the 6th form I attend.
Who is the particular audience for your school magazine? And how did you attract/address your audience?
The particular audience which I intended my magazine to be targeted at, were secondary female school children- aged from 12-16 years of age, as well as 17 and 18 year olds as the Fortismere School has a joint 6th form which involves older students. I was able to attract my audience by including themes in the magazine which would be addressed to them, for example help on exam revision, as well as music chart hits, student real life stories, celebrity vs. student look-a-likes, fashion week and more. I discovered from my research and questionnaire that my target audience would be interested in these particular features, therefore I think it would be able to entice my target audience into reading the magazine. Furthemore, the language I used throughout the magazine contents and front cover was fairly informal and child-like. This was so that the audience could relate to the text. The type of colours and text I used was also to attract my target audience, as I used pastel pinky colours which reflect my target audience.
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing your magazine?
Throughout creating my front cover and contents page of my school magazine, I have been able to learn how to use Photoshop 7.0 and manipulate images. I experimented with the use of tools throughout the editing facility, and began to get more confident with my creativity on different tools. I also tried to work with publisher just to test it out, however I thought Photoshop gave better, more professional looking work as publisher also didn’t have as many tools and equipment to use. Therefore I used Adobe PhotoShop 7.0 for my final piece.
How did you find making this school magazine and what did you find particularly difficult or easy?
At the beginning of the project, I found it fairly difficult to start as a beginner on PhotoShop. This was quite a challenge, as PhotoShop is crucial for creating a realistic, professional final product. I think with practice and help from peers/ teacher; I was able to become more confident with it, making my final product realistic-looking. I think I found the research the least difficult thing to accomplish as I was already familiar with it from creating a toddlers magazine in GCSE. I was able to put my previous knowledge through my work now, which I think helped me a lot to discover what my particular audience would like to see in my school magazine, to help my magazine be appropriate for my chosen genre/ audience.
If you had the chance to do this school magazine again, what would you do different to improve it?
If I had the chance to do the magazine again, I think I would try and be more prepared from the very start of the project and begin my ideas for my magazine straight away rather than after my research. This is because of the time limit in which I had little time to complete the project. I would have also liked to have more time in being able to learn in more detail about PhotoShop 7.0 and experiment with my work more.
In what ways does your school magazine, develop or challenge forms and conventions for a real magazine?
I tried to create my school magazine to a professional standard, making it represent a real magazine with typical magazine conventions. Before I began the creation of my magazine, I researched all different kinds of magazines to find out different forms and conventions for different genres such as how, music, celebrity gossip, games, home life etc. differ from each other. Magazines have different conventions to attract and engage their particular audience. For example, a magazine aimed at young people would have less formal language and maybe use slang to direct their audience in a better understanding for them. I took all this information that I discovered into account when creating my ideas for my magazine and then the final piece. I decided to keep to the particular conventions of a school magazine, however using my own original ideas which were different to a typical school magazine that made it unique to other magazines. I used bold colourful fonts for the title to attract the reader’s attention. Furthermore ‘Stand’ was coloured black, whereas ‘Out’ was yellow to emphasis on ‘Standing out’ resembling individualism from not only other magazines in the industry, but also students who are the targeted audience. I also used slogans and catchphrases on the front cover (hinting what is included inside the magazine for the reader), this could attract the reader into taking their time out into actually being interested and reading the magazine.
Does your school magazine represent particular social groups?
My school magazine represents student social groups and tries to emphasise on the point of stereotypes in schools, as well as throughout the world. The title ‘Standout’ creates an aspect of being different to everyone else, and the students finding their inner soul and being their own characters. I created a contrast with the imagery and the title on the front cover of the magazine to make it obvious to the reader what my intentions of the front cover were, which were to show the importance of being an individual. In the photograph, it includes 3 students of different clichés- a sporty girl, the popular girl, and the nerd. These are typical stereotypes of students in school, especially within the film industry. I wanted to use this as, as soon as the audience see the front cover, they straight away know what it’s about- school life for girls (girls also being the target audience). I also decided on the costume for the characters- which was uniform. This was to creat contrast as Fortismere School doesn’t have uniform (which was the school I based the magazine on), therefore it creates a new aspect to the school for students, creating contrast which could be more interesting.
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
The type of media institution, who would distribute my media school magazine, would preferably be the school which the magazine was written for as the genre of my magazine is a school magazine. Fortismere Secondary School- was the particular school I created the magazine for, which is the 6th form I attend.
Who is the particular audience for your school magazine? And how did you attract/address your audience?
The particular audience which I intended my magazine to be targeted at, were secondary female school children- aged from 12-16 years of age, as well as 17 and 18 year olds as the Fortismere School has a joint 6th form which involves older students. I was able to attract my audience by including themes in the magazine which would be addressed to them, for example help on exam revision, as well as music chart hits, student real life stories, celebrity vs. student look-a-likes, fashion week and more. I discovered from my research and questionnaire that my target audience would be interested in these particular features, therefore I think it would be able to entice my target audience into reading the magazine. Furthemore, the language I used throughout the magazine contents and front cover was fairly informal and child-like. This was so that the audience could relate to the text. The type of colours and text I used was also to attract my target audience, as I used pastel pinky colours which reflect my target audience.
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing your magazine?
Throughout creating my front cover and contents page of my school magazine, I have been able to learn how to use Photoshop 7.0 and manipulate images. I experimented with the use of tools throughout the editing facility, and began to get more confident with my creativity on different tools. I also tried to work with publisher just to test it out, however I thought Photoshop gave better, more professional looking work as publisher also didn’t have as many tools and equipment to use. Therefore I used Adobe PhotoShop 7.0 for my final piece.
How did you find making this school magazine and what did you find particularly difficult or easy?
At the beginning of the project, I found it fairly difficult to start as a beginner on PhotoShop. This was quite a challenge, as PhotoShop is crucial for creating a realistic, professional final product. I think with practice and help from peers/ teacher; I was able to become more confident with it, making my final product realistic-looking. I think I found the research the least difficult thing to accomplish as I was already familiar with it from creating a toddlers magazine in GCSE. I was able to put my previous knowledge through my work now, which I think helped me a lot to discover what my particular audience would like to see in my school magazine, to help my magazine be appropriate for my chosen genre/ audience.
If you had the chance to do this school magazine again, what would you do different to improve it?
If I had the chance to do the magazine again, I think I would try and be more prepared from the very start of the project and begin my ideas for my magazine straight away rather than after my research. This is because of the time limit in which I had little time to complete the project. I would have also liked to have more time in being able to learn in more detail about PhotoShop 7.0 and experiment with my work more.
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