In what way doe your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
The first thing I did before creating my magazine was to research other examples of ‘Student’ magazines. These examples gave me the information I needed to produce my magazine such as, contents and the conventions that the magazine would need to include. There are a few key contents that I found from this research that would need to be included in my ‘Student’ magazine. My magazine needed to contain college type information such as revision and exam timetable, which I included in my final product. From my research using a questionnaire that I created and gave to college students to complete it was clear what they wanted from the magazine. The students were much in favour of an informal, laidback style magazine full of gossip and tips, much like that real media product. To please my target audience I created features such as reviews of popular games and DVD suitable to the age group like ‘Skyrim’ and the ‘Inbertweeners Movie’ and spring/summer fashion tips. I put these features and more into my contents page and also included pictures to create a more laidback appearance. Images from around the college and Ludlow created interest.
How does you media product represent particular social groups?
As my magazine and contents page are aimed at teenage students like myself so I felt that the magazine needed to be something that I would be interested in reading myself. The central image for my front cover it a medium close my of a student in the common room surrounded by many other groups of students. Text was easy to add to this image and it already gave a laidback and friendly atmosphere and so the right text would enhance this. Images from around college and of students having fun represented student life and showed it and the magazine to be interesting and happy. As the images I used were out of lessons it stopped the magazine looking too serious.
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
As my magazine and contents page are from a student magazine this makes them specific to colleges meaning that it would only be distributed in college. As my college magazine is for Ludlow College there would be no need to have a professional company distribute it as the college would be able to do this its self. The use of a company would increase the price of the magazine, which contradicts what the students wanted to play for it. As well as this it would most probably need to be sold world wide to create any profit and if I wanted it to be successful I would have to widen my target audience and so it may not be a student specific magazine.
Who would be the audience for your media product?
The target audience of my magazine is students ages 16-19 that attend Ludlow College; their parents may also be interested in the magazine. Is I aimed at certain groups inside the college that magazine would not be successful. Both males and females are the audience of my product,
How did you attract/address your audience?
The way I attracted my audience to my magazine would be by the use of colour and my central image. By making the masthead and central image fun and eye catching the students that are my target audience will be attracted to it. I used my questionnaire to get the point of view of my audience on what colours to use on my front cover and contents page and they wanted bright colours so I used blues, purples and oranges. I used these colours to highlight important parts in the features and other parts such as price and issue number. The main coverline is in a handwritten style font to attract attention as it looks attractive. I also included a puff on my cover. I used a red circle to highlight the prize that the students could win to attract my audience to a feature that would help them a lot to perchance the magazine.
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
While constructing my ‘Student’ magazine I encountered one main new program that I had not used before, InDesign. I had to learn how to use this program as I went along while creating my magazine cover and contents. It was complex at times but overall I feel I was successful. I also used cameras which I had used before but not in this way. I had to take notice of shots and angles to get the correct effect for my magazine. I also encountered Blogger for the first time. I had to experience creating a blog but it turned out to be simple and an easy way to handle my coursework.
