Evaluation for prelim task.
1. In what ways does your media product use develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Before I produced my own student magazine, I researched other magazines to look at the codes and conventions of student magazines. One convention I have used is having a big central image with cover lines on top, informing you of what inside the magazine. On my front cover. For all the text I used one single colour and this challenges magazine conventions. Typically magazines usually have colour scheme that involves more than one colour to attract a wider audience. On my contents page i used a green and red colour scheme, had a list of contents and a few pictures and this is similar to most student magazines, a bright colour scheme, list of contents and pictures. looking at other student magazines I realised that they included information about courses and content to do with college work and that’s why I included features like ‘ top ten tips for revision’ and this did make the magazine balanced , because it now had information on courses and also on fun things to do around college.
2. How does your media product represent a particular social group?
My magazine represents teenage students, so I aimed to make it fun and youthful but also aimed to make it informative. on the cover and the contents page I used a simple Arial font and also used standard English and this would represent teenagers in a positive light than using text speak and having the words different sizes and fonts because this would just reinforce the dominant stereotype that teenagers are uncontrollable and troublesome . I used pictures that represented student life outside college i.e. pictures of students during the Christmas concert arranged by Ludlow College. This also represents student in a positive way because it shows teenagers can have good clean fun that doesn’t involve alcohol or troublesome behaviour.
3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
My student magazine is college specific and only features information about Ludlow College or events taking place locally, so the magazine would have to be published and distributed by Ludlow College. I think I would do well if I sold the magazine at the college because it’s not like other magazines that only focuses on the serious side of college and feature articles only about courses, careers and universities, mine is about the fun side of college i.e. like my article of the bake sale for red nose day.
4. Who would be the audience for your media product?
my audience would be college students aged 16-19 , that attend Ludlow college . the audience all genders , any sexual preference , all ethnicities and any cultural background , the magazine ia already niche because its targeting on students ,if the audience was more specific it would limit sales .
5. How did you attract / address your audience?
I attracted my audience through the front cover. I used a colour scheme that they had chosen in a previous questionnaire so I was aware they would respond positively to it. The central image was slightly dark and I also used the image as the background. So to make the magazine more contrasting and striking I decided to use red for the tittle and all the texts and this made my magazine look interesting and professional. The cover lines on my magazine were in little boxes that also included images and I think this made the magazine look less busy and serious. The images on the context page are slanted and this connotes a sense of fun and youth, it also makes the magazine seem more carefree and a lot of the students would relate to this.
6. What have you learnt about technology from the process of constructing this product?
Technology was really useful during this task and I think I have learnt a lot during the production of the magazine. I have learnt how to use Photoshop to edit the images that I had taken using a digital camera. To make the magazine I had to use the software ‘InDesign’ to create the front cover and contents page , prior to this task I had never used ‘InDesign’ so it was fun having to learn how to use everything. It was also the first time, using a blog to post my research but I’ve learnt how useful it is to use a blog because you can keep track of your progress during the prelim task.
