Evalution

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

The conventions of a student magazine are a background picture that relates to what the magazine is about and usually a mid close up is the most effective type of background picture. A catchy and bold masthead is a good thing to have in order to draw the viewer in and to represent what the magazine may be going to contain inside. Eye catching cover lines help to explain a little more about the magazine without having to actually open it, so things that would really appeal to students are a good thing to have on the front cover. Putting a website on the magazine is helps to advertise the magazine further. A bold reasonable price should be used on the front cover in order to attract students, but if its too cheap it could effectively make people think it’s going to be a bit rubbish, but in my case the price for the magazine is free, which is vastly voted by the students as the would not want to spend any money on the magazine. The biggest element on the front cover of the magazine should be the most exciting article, for example if you were interviewing someone famous this should be represented big and bold.

I think that I have done all of these but the thing I did slightly differently to conventional magazines is that the foreground of my picture is in colour whilst the background is in black and white.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

I think that my magazine has represented teenagers in general and I don’t think that it is specifically aimed at students but I definitely think that this would attract students more because it is not specifically aimed at college or school based subjects. The language which I have used is simple and easy to ready which in some cases could be argued that would attract more customers as there no complex language present. Overall, the representation is very positive and friendly, proven by the smiling faces of the students.

                                           

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

I think that there is a gap in the market for student magazines, in shops and newsagents it's mainly music, or lifestyle, or motor, or hobbies, or girls or boys but no students. Viewpoint should be sold in local shops, school shops or even online where the student can log in or open the website. My offers a wide range of articles which already suggests that the target audience is wide, both male and female. Even though there is already a magazine being published at St. Edmunds College, about school, VIEWPOINT would be a good idea to be read by the students as well as the articles are aimed particularly at them! Furthermore, if the magazine would be sold in other school the articles would need to be adapted as section SCHOOL would be irrelevant.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

Before I started even creating the magazine and making any draft, I wanted to find out some information on who my possible target audience would be. Through the use of questionnaire, which I have asked ten students from sixth form to fill in, I was able to find out some crucial information: the target audience would be both sexes which meant that information provided would have to be interesting for both male and female students. Furthermore, the magazine would be aimed at older students (Year 11-13) as the articles would be about health and university advices. It is very hard to describe a stereotypical profile of the student who would be interested in reading the magazine, but some factors could include: the student is concerned about the future, interested in news, music and different gadgets.

Key points

Gender: Both

Target Audience: Year 11-13

How did you attract/ address your audience?

In order to attract customers, the product has to be either unique or very interesting in terms of content. In my case, I think the cover is very colorful and eye-catching which already brings potential customer’s interest. By making my magazine FREE, the number of students who would read the magazine would increase dramatically, as they don’t have to pay any money at all. In my cover, the medium close- up of two students, gives an idea away of who the target audience would be . In terms of content, there is a wide range of articles and stories included, as students would be interested in different sections of the magazine.

Furthermore, by creating different competitions where the students could win a prize of either 10 pounds or a free ticket to the Christmas event, the magazine would find that the ‘sales revenue’ would boost dramatically.

Why would someone buy my magazine? Not only due to the fact that the stories included are very interesting and well written and the front cover and content page would attract many customers, the editor has massive experience in media industry  :D 

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

I have used a wide range of programs in order to create the final draft of the front cover and the title page

·         Camera- I took couple pictures of my friends

·         Photoshop- I have used this program in order to edit pictures, for example, make the background in black and white

·         Scanner- I have used scanner couple of time- to scan the answers from the questionnaire and the front covers of the school magazines which I used for the textual analysis.

·         Printer- I have used printer in order to print out the questionnaire which I have give to ten students

·         Microsoft Office- before posting any information to the blogger, all of the typed out text is being done using Microsoft word.

·         Blogger- this is the website where the students keep the track of all the work done through out the year

·         InDesign- in order to create a Content Page

Dafont- where I have taken my font from