By Sarah Killen

Front cover page Here are the features I have added to my school magazine front cover page.

Contents page Here are the features I have added to my school magazine contents page.

1) In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? I feel in general that my media product keeps in line with the traditional forms of real media products. I feel the layouts are similar and I have stuck to the traditional house style throughout my work. While using the same fonts, effects, colour schemes and layout style, I have found how to create my own house style, which helped me make my media product more professional. I have also used a traditional magazine layout, as I have placed the masthead at the top and placed my cover lines on the left third, I feel they will attract the most attention here. Though I have kept quite a traditional layout, I have also broken away from some forms of the traditional magazine. For instance I have placed my slogan not under the masthead but at the very bottom as I feel it will attract the most attention there and make the magazine look altogether more attractive. Also I have edited all my photos to look almost painted to break away from the traditional clear cut image; I feel this makes the magazine stand out a cut above the rest.

2) How does your media product represent particular social groups? I feel that my media product has a target audience of teenage girls around 14 to 19, with this in mind; I have based all my reach around this specific target audience. Every detail has been suited to fit the need of this age group. This includes the colour scheme of blue, green and yellow which are all mature and friendly colours, specifically chosen by my target audience. My target audience requested for the media product to have a friendly appeal, I have tried to convey this in the bubbly text and the inviting friendly pictures which I have used for my media product. The pictures I have used are of smiling, happy students having fun, I feel they are welcoming friendly images which my target audience will enjoy and relate to as they are also about the same age. I feel the overall design is very cool and trendy, I feel this target audience will be drawn to it, as the fonts and images, while being friendly are also fun and exciting. This “cool and trendy” layout relates well to my masthead “cool in school”.

3) What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? I feel that the school which is represented in this media product would be an ideal distributer. As I feel it would be a great resource for both students and teachers because it includes the latest school news, events and competitions. It is a good resource to easily get this important information to the students on a regular basis, so no one will be left out on the latest news. It will help students get more interested in school and other activities in school, like school competitions. It will also be a great help with their studies with such features as “study tip of the week” and “10 steps to an A*”.

4) Who would be the audience for your media product? The main audience for my media product are girls of St Catherine’s school with ages around 14 to 19. I have based all of my research around this particular target audience. Though this is my main target audience, I also feel this media product could also be targeted at teachers of the school and students parents, as it provides important information which they can all enjoy.

5) How did you attract/address your audience? I attracted my target audience with the use of questionnaires and even simply asking individuals opinions. I have given out ten questionnaires to 10 members of my target audience, analysed the results and then used the information collected to create the ideal magazine product for my target audience. The information I collected gave me an important insight into what I should include for my school magazine, everything from fonts to colours. I feel that my magazine has everything my target audience wants and so they will be attracted by the media product, it is truly created for the people, by the people.

6) What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product? Throughout the process of creating my media product, I have used and learnt about quite a lot of new technologies. For instance, I have learnt about the rule of thirds when taking photos for my media product. I have used a number of new sites such as “pbworks” blog site which I use to show and update all of my work for media studies. Another site I have been introduced to is “Animoto” which has allowed me to show my photos for my media product in a creative slideshow. Though the main technology I have used has to be “photoshop” and though at first the program seems complicated, after a while I started to get the hang of it. Through this program I have learnt to edit photos in a variety of ways, from taking away the background of a photo to fading it or even making is glow, all at the click of a button. I found the main tools I used where the magnetic lasso, eraser tool, paint bucket, eyedropper tool, horizontal type tool and such effects as “cutout” to give my images a painted effect. Over all I feel I have learnt a lot while creating this media product and I hope to improve my skills for my main media product.

Front page comparison I feel that maybe the use of a plainer background will help make my magazine look more professional. I feel maybe the slogan would be better placed under or above the masthead. I feel I need to use a bigger and better quality images like the one in “insight” and be more careful with my picture editing. Like Insight, I feel that by using different fonts, sizes and colours for my cover lines, I can help make my magazine stand out more. I feel that I could make my mast head bigger and more exciting to attract my target audience. I like the idea of adding the school crest to the school magazine to give authenticity.

Contents page comparison Again I feel that a different sized and coloured fonts, better and bigger quality pictures, better editing and a plainer background would help make my media product look more professional and appealing. I feel that the editing on some of the pictures needs to be improved as it is a bit messy. I also feel I have added too many features and I should make the layout a bit more structured to make it look a bit more professional. I feel that the layout of my magazine needs to be improved as it is too plain and unstructured, I feel that the professional magazines block layout would be a better choice than my freeform style. I also feel adding a small blub about the magazine with will give it more authenticity.

THANK-YOU