School Magazine Task Evaluation

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

I tried to make my magazine as real and as professional as possible, to make it look like a real magazine. I studied other magazines and aimed to give my magazine similar features to make it look more realistic, such as: insert photos and a professional finish. There are some features I missed off that could have enhanced make my magazine look more professional like page numbers, an issue number, a barcode and a price. I decided to use an bold font to make it stand out. I also used one large photo as a background rather than having a coloured background with an image on it as I think this gives my magazine a more professional look and thus makes it look more realistic. This technique was used in some magazines I studied for inspiration for mine. I decided to use an image of a teenage girl in Paris as I think this will draw in my target market as my magazine is aimed at teenagers. Also I decided to theme my magazine on the school trip of Paris which I think would interest many pupils.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

I have targeted my magazine at teenagers as it’s a school magazine. Techniques which I have used to make sure my magazine is popular with my target audience are using a photo of a teenage girl as my main image. I think this will interest my target market as I’m targeting the socio economic group of teenagers who are probably on a low income so the magazine would have to be cheap/low cost or free. I could have also used a image of a footballer or celebrity to target teenagers and that particular socio economic group as this would attract them to my magazine.

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

My magazine would be an informative product as being a school magazine it would inform students and parents of events, important news and other information about the school.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

My target market for my magazine would be students of the school. The features and news stories which are included in the magazine would be relevant to the school, its pupils and also parents.

How did you attract/address your audience?

The main way I attracted my target audience was through the use of the theme of ‘Paris’ I think that as the Paris trip was a real event and it is also current and exciting it would draw my target market as they would be interested in this theme. I also attracted my audience through images, i used images of other students doing activities that might interest other students such as the photo of two teenage girls outside the castle at Disneyland. I think this usual photo would interest the audience and draw in their attention also images are normally what draws a persons attention to buying a magazine.

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

During the task I have learned and developed skills on Photoshop and as wasn’t very experienced using the program. When using Photoshop I just made sure everything I did was on a separate layer and that the green ‘tick’ was clicked as when I first started using it I didn’t realise and I thought my screen was frozen. When using the camera I tried to position my ‘model’ making sure I was using the rule of thirds.