The Evaluation

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

After looking at examples of student magazine's i was able to see and understand may over the common features. They usually consisted of a house colour of about 3 colours and has students on the cover. The magazines also included a masthead, cover lines and splashes.  When developing my own magazine i use the colours light blue, silver and aquamarine that connote calm and relaxing. For my central image i used a picture of a college student in a medium close up shot.  My magazine articles where interrelation to the themes of college e.g. exam stress, money saving tips and included articles that students wanted to read. 

How does your media product represent different social groups?

My magazine is aimed at students my age (16-19) so i designed my magazine in a way that was appealing to me.  I used light blue because I felt it was a calm and neutral colour as it both attracts boys and girls, I used the colours aquamarine with silver and i felt they went well together and work well with the light blue and didn't give the magazine a specific gender base. My cover image was of a student. This was to show that the magazine was for the students about the students which went well with the title of the magazine. The font i used text was bold and large, this was to grab the attention of students, also using bold text made the magazine feel a bit fun which relates to students as their fun. 

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

I think that my magazine would work well for my college because it contains articles that people want to read. The magazine contains information about the newest games and movies which relate to teenagers  also give the students help with their exams and give then tips on how to save money which is useful for students that dont have a job or just need help with money management. 

Who would be the audience for your media product?

My audience is 16-19 year old college students. Who want to find out what's going on in their college and their local area.

How did you attract/address your audience?

I attracted my audience by using bold font to grab the students attention. The colours I used stand out again the centre image. I did used lots of bright colours and too much information because I didn't want the magazine to feel cluttered and busy. For the contents page I kept to the same style, keeping it simple but sticking to the house style. I made the background colours simple so that once the font was added it was bold and in your face, along with three images that linked to the magazine content. 

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

During the creation of my magazine I used Photoshop and InDesign. I already knew how to use Photoshop but InDesign was completely new to me. I would normally use Microsoft Publisher to create a magazine but after using InDesign i see that magazine would be better suited to InDesign. I took my photos with a digital camera, this was good because it was portable and the quality of the images was good. 

Generic Conventions

Magazine Designs

Magazine Front cover and Contents page

Focus Group

Research Evaluation 

below is a brief summary of the video above, the answers they gave are to do with what my magazine is going to look like and what people want to see in it. 

- Title: Student Talk

- Content: Student Life

                 Money

                 College news - Sport results + musical

                 Film, game and album review

 - House Style: Medium Aquamarine, light blue 2 and Silver

 - Mode Of Address: Informal

 - Image: mid-close up outside college, with games and other pictures linking to content

 - Price: Free

Initial ideas

One of my tasks is to create a student magazine, so below i'm going to write down some of my ideas for name, content, house style and so on.

Name

- College Mag
- 24.7 Student
- Ludlow Gossip
- Student talk


Content

- student life
- student finance
- collage news
- film review
- game review
- album review

House Style

- Medium aquamarine, light blue 2 and silver
- Light Blue, White and grey
- Silver, light green and black







Mode of Address

-Informal
-Chatty
-Slang
-You - Talking to the audience

Images

- Mid-close up of student outside the college
- Mid close up of group of students outside the castle.
- Picture of student with game, dvd and album for the reviews


Price 

- Free - 50p
- £1.50

Research And Planning: Analysis of 2nd Student Magazine

Research and Planning: Analysis of Student Magazine

Preliminary Task: Brief

As part of my AS Media studies course i have to manage my time effectively. Below im going to write a plan for what im going to do for the coming weeks. 

Week 1

- Explore Generic Conventions of a students magazine and create a A3 mind map on these idea. 

- Analyse a front cover and contents page of a student magazine and put it onto here (my blog)

- Conduct a focus group to establish what the student audience what in a new college magazine. 

- Analyse front cover and contents page of another Student magazine.

Week 2
- Mock up for front cover and contents page.  (Use my findings from magazine and focus group to produce my mock up front cover and contents page)

- Begin designing the front cover for my student magazine. 

- Design the front cover and contents page for my student magazine.

Week 3

- Design the front cover / contents page

- Introduce the evaluation. 

Introduction to AS Media

As part of my AS media studies coursework the brief my coursework requires me to create a Front cover, Contents Page, Double Side spread of a new music magazine. before i do this, i must produce a student/college magazine and a mock-up contents page.  
I am writing this blog in record the basis of my work, planning and research. So i can make a magazine to the best of my ability. : )