Magazine Evaluation Preliminary Task

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

• I tried to use some typical conventions of magazines when I created my cover and contents page, for example I used a bold masthead which stands out. I also kept to a simple colour scheme and used article headlines which relate to my magazine genre. It challenges conventions as it is quite uncluttered where-as in most of the magazine covers I researched I saw that they were all quite busy and had a lot going on the front cover. I did this because I wanted to create a calm feel to my magazine. Another way I stuck to the conventions is by using a colour scheme similar to the colours that my model is wearing. These colours are also contrasting and so work well together as font colours. One other way I am challenging the conventions is that my model is not making eye contact with the camera, this gives her a cool and more casual look which i think will help the students relate to her.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

•I think my media product represents a slightly “indie” labelled teen as it features edgy looking teens on the cover and contents page.

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

• To sell my product I could go direct from the college as this is where my target audience go to school and so I could appeal to them directly. An alternative to this would be to use an online format and put the magazine onto the college website, this would appeal to my target audience as they regularly check this website and wouldn’t have to go to a shop to buy it as they might be busy with school work and classes.

• One other option is to sell my magazine at retail outlooks such as news agents like WHSmith. This would mean I could sell to an even wider audience as it would be available in many more places, however, because it is a magazine for a specific college I don’t think many students from other college’s would buy it unless it is a very well known school such as Harvard or Oxford University.

Who would be the audience for your media product? (Refer to your research)

• My magazine is aimed at college students. It contains articles which would appeal to this target audience such as “top ten homework excuses” or “college trends”. I also think that it would appeal more to girls as it features a female cover star; however this is not the same for every issue so males could become regular readers as well.

• Looking at my research I think this would appeal to a wide range of students as the articles are quite varied. I have also included elements of both fashion and music into my design which I think will help my product appeal to both genders as in my research I noted that most of the magazines aimed at males were music based and those aimed at females were fashion based e.g. “Glamour” magazine is fashion based and appeals to females, whereas “Vibe” appeals more to males and is music based.

How did you address/attract your audience?

•To attract my audience I used pictures of student aged people so that they can relate to the product and identify that the magazine is targeting their age. I used a range of different conventions including bold colours to help my magazine stand out which will help catch their eye.