Evaluation

Working with existing forms and conventions


My magazine related to music magazines in various ways. Firstly simple things like the mode of address. For example I would say things like "exclusive" or "breaking news" and even "the new kid on the block", in order to entice people into reading my magazine. In addition to this I made my mode of address slightly informal this was because my ideal reader was between 16-18 years old, and if i made my mode of address overly formal it would of alienated them. Also the design was conventional. For instance on my front cover the title of my magazine was the biggest size of writing. It stood out and was easily identifiable. Another thing that was conventional in terms of design was the use of things like bar codes to make it clear to my reader that this magazine was official. And also on my front cover I included things like the price, which all types of magazines regardless of whether its a music. In terms of my use of imagery, this was also conventional because the types of pictures that I took were typical of the R&B genre that I was trying to represent. For example on my front cover my artist is porting at my reader, this appropriately displays the attitude that the majority of \R&B singers posses.


Working in media production contexts



I approached both tasks in varying ways. For example in my preliminary task I did a lot of research with my peers because the magazine was aimed at them in particular seeing as it was a school magazine. Therefore I had to regularly do surveys in order to get information on what they wanted.


For the main I approached it differently, I mainly looked at examples of magazines like "clash" and "classic rock" in order to see how there magazines looked at how best I could implement some of there ideas into my own work.


During the course of the work I had to make some creative problem solving decisions. For example the editing of my images. Like in my preliminary task I took a picture of some of my friends outside of the sixth common room on a very sunny day. However I didn't realise how much a problem the sunlight would be. So I have to use a burn tool to darken the images, in order to make it more presentable.  Another problem was that when I had printed my preliminary task it came out extremely pix elated, therefore I made sure this didn't happen again, so on my main task I learned how to print off without it being very blurred.  

I organised my human resources simply by asking some people in my sixth form whether they would be able to participate in the making of my magazine. Some said yes, and some said no. For example I asked my Friend to be my artist, and we organised a date to have the photo shoot so that I could use the images for my magazine. The locations were easy to find because out school had a specialised room to take photos.  In terms of costumes and props I just asked my friends to bring in clothing that would be appropriate for a R&B mag. Other locations were hard to come by due to time constraints.  For my photo shoots I managed my time in class by doing 30 minute photo shoots, and then 30 minutes in class in order to edit photo's and to think of ideas about how I wanted my magazine to look.

Using technology

The use of technology was a key factor in enabling my ideas to come into fruition.  At first my creative ideas were
impeded by my lack of photoshop skills. This meant that I couldn't implement ideas that I wanted to for example on my prilimanry task I wanted to change to font of my title but I couldnt becuase i just did't know how to do this meant my lack of DTP technology understanding meant some of the idea I had floating in my head couldn't be done.  But by the time I needed to my main task I had managed to have a better understanding on how to use photopshop, and that meant I could use websites to change fonts etc.

Phottoshop was one of the main tools that I neeeded. It helped me edit my photto's like adjusting lighting. It helped me create a good front cover for my main task.

Thinking about audience
During the process of making my work I was making decisions based from ideas I was developing from my reader. Some of these ideas came from surveys. For example When I was choosing the name of my school magazine in the prilimnary task I had a range of names some boring and typical like "BD magazine" and some more exiciting like "Jimba" and "BD heat". When "BD heat" got the most votes I realised that my target audience wanted things to be more fun and funky, aswell as a little bit serious, this was good to find out because I could then use this information, and later applied it to my main task.

My audience also influenced the composistion of my shots because my target audiences attention neeeded to be caught, so I decided to take a picture for my main task of my artist pointing at the reader. They also influenced my micro detail becuase although my target audiecne wanted my magazine to be fun, they also wanted it to be intrested and informative. So I decided to frame my picture in black and white, which changed the complexion of my double page spread. So although my article was exciting, the pictures in constrast were reflectiive.

Representing
My ideas approached specific representations of school life because in the prilimanry task I took a photto of students together smilling and having fun. Which have a positive refelction of school live, and therefore it helped to include everyone because both females and males were being reprented well.

Contrastingly in my main task, although I wanted my magazine to appeal to both boys and girls, the choice of my front cover excluded the girls. This is becuase some of the colours I used were more manly and this would not attract a female audience. As well as this my mode of address excluded the much older audience, for example my magazine is R&B, consequently people from a middle class background, are highly unlikely to want to read . Where as those from a working class background would.

This is both pages of my double page spread. As you can see i have maintained some continuality because i have used the same colours. On my second page i put a much larger image,and also added a blur to it, as it maintains that retro vibe.  I have quoted my artist and made it big and bold because this a typical media convention that is used in all types of magazines whether it be music or media etc.  The photograph of my artist on the second page highlights the arrogance of my artist as he is wearing sun glasses, its as if he doesn't want you to see what he is like beneath the glasses but at the same time. I have purposefully made my artist take this pose because In most music magazine the R&B artists typically look arrogant, and in your face. 

There are some improvements I could make like checking my spelling as if i don't I could look vital marks. And also little things like adding page numbers. 

And here is my final draft of my contents page. I have made numerous changes in order for it to look better, and to add detail. Firstly I have changed the layout, for example there is a black boarder in the middle of the page. This helps seperate the information on the page. Secondly on the second half of the page I added 1 more image, but crucially I have made all 3 of the images smaller, which givers the illusion that there is more content than there actually is. On the left hand side of the page  I have added some features that will be in the magazine, I've done this becuase it very conventional as almost all the magazines I have read like "clash" included it. Below features I have a competition for the readers of my magazine for a ipod. I have done this because an ipod would be something my ideal reader would love to have.

Another thing i've done is moved the quotation from my double page spread to the main pictue  which in black and white, because it looked better. Lastly I put the title of my magazine "flow" at the top, so that it connects my front page with my contents.

 Here is my first draft of my front page spread. Firslty I have included a small image of my music artist DJ dexter, and have put it in black and white just like the image on my contents page of my artist. I've done this so that the contents page and the double page spread are linked together. I have been conventional with my  double page spread because I have done it in a Q&A format which means the I ask my artist a question and they respond. Also I used the same colours that were used on the contents page and the front page, red, white, and black.

Here is the first draft for my front cover, and as you can see its still a work in progress and it does seem a bit empty without a lot of content. I tried to make the layout very simple in order for it not to look to cluttered. I have put one of the images in black and white intentionality because I feel that when my reader see's it he will realise that the tone of the article might be serious. I have then put the other images in there real colour which indicates that those articles might not be as in depth, and also it might mean its more light hearted. I have added features on the bottom to make it more conventional as in music magazines they often include features that show the reader what things that that magazine will contain that is special to that particular magazine.

I tried to make my mode of address appropriate for example it says " his new album, is it any good". I've done this  to entice my reader as it will make them want to see whether or not Lil Wayne's album is actually any good. For some improvements I will add more pictures. Also I will try to add a competition advert somewhere. Then where the quotation is of my main article I intend to put it onto the actual image. And finally I want to alter the layout to make it look, well...better. 

2nd draft of my front cover

Here's the second draft of my front cover. The big difference between my previous front cover is that I have changed the colour of the background. I did this because I thought that red was a bit overbearing,  and I also thought that black would suit my front cover best. So I decided to have a vote involving the people in in my class I up 6 people participated. 3 people said that they prefer the red background, and another 3 said that they like the black cover instead. What was most interesting was the the 3 people who voted  for the red background were all female, and the people who voted for the black background were all male. What this shows is the because red could be seen as a feminine colour and it generally has female connotations  females are more attracted by this colour. And black is more neutral so therefore you could argue that males would be more attracted to it. And considering the fact that my I have identified my ideal as a male I took the decision to keep the black in order to attract the reader I want.

First draft

Here's the first draft for the front cover of my magazine for the main task of my media studies coursework. The first thing I did was decide upon the colour of my background. I decided to use red because I thought red would look best with the gold text theme i wanted to use. I also added a lighting affect so that its if there is a light shinning on him.


Another thing I worked on for the front cover was my mode of address. I tried to entice my target audience. So for example on the front cover I said " Beyonce reveals all" I deliberately tried to get the reader thinking, what she could be about to reveal instead of actually telling them she has to say, as a result my reader is more likely to look inside at the content page. 


The position on my artist on the magazine is at the side because i thought it would work well with the text being on the side, and with my artist pointing directly at the reader. However I still wondering whether this is a  good idea or whether I should change it.

Photos

Here are some of the images that I have taken for the front of magazine:
This iamge I took of my artist pointing at the camera becuase I wanted it to stirke the reader, and also it comes across as arrogant. Which I wanted. One of the the problems with this shot was that my teacher said that the artists hands is to big, however I disapproved because I like the image a lot. Another prolbem is that you can see the top of the background. But this can easily be cropped out.


ANother one of my images that I liked was this one becuase the lighting is quite good and therefore I won't have to edit as much afterwards. Also it makes him seem  modest, but of course stil arrogant at the same time.

Media homework

The gratification theory apply's to the typical reader of my music magazine because my magazine will have certain media conventions that I can use to appeal to my ideal reader. For example on my double page spread of my magazine I can include an advertisement of a album. Also in my magazine article I will ask my music artist questions that talk about his latest album. This is an example of the gratification theory because my ideal reader could use this information and discuss it with friends etc.. Additionally this creates a sense of belonging because the reader will feel like there in the know, and that they have the latest info on there favourite music.  My magazine will also contain entertainment through competitions that will be advertised on the front cover and this acts as a way of making the magazine sort of connect with my ideal reader, moreover it acts as a form of escapism because the reader knows that if they win the competition that they will be reward.  Another reason my magazine promotes escapism is that my music article will give them an insight into the music and entertainment world.


On of the articles I read in the Classic Rock magazine was a double page spread where various musicians  commented on a music producer with each musician praising him. For example one person said. "Jimmy was very innovation. Also he was very thorough, he knew what he wanted". This might appeal the the magazines target audience and ideal reader because they are likely to have a an in depth knowledge of who these musicians are, and will probably be very intrigued and interested to see what these musicians views are on a particular subject. On the next page which is also a double page spread they continue to interview people about the producer, but on this page they advertise the latest albums, this I think has been used to grab the readers attention as the article is quite long and they could be board, but at the same time classic rock's target audience is of a much older demographic and therefore you could argue that they aren't actually beginning to get board.

Camera angles

For this blog I have dedicated it to thinking about the different camera shots I will use for my magazine. There are various types of shots that I can use from close up, extreme close, mid shot, full length shot etc etc. For my front cover I think it would be best if I do a close up shot or a mid shot becuase firstly it would be easier to edit on photo-shop and becuase I think it stands out becuase of the simplicity of it. However the problem with close up shots is that If I try and add some text on the side it may go over the music artists face and I don't know if this would look good. So I think that I will use a mid shot for the front cover. Also on the front cover I will also have another picture which is quite small, for this i'm going to use a close up shot because the reader will be able to see the artists face easily because of the actual size of the image.  

For my contents page I will defiintely being using a variety of shots. Like close up's, and possibly long shots. This is becuase on a contents page you can put your photos basically anywhere mainly because contents page usually is a bit funky in it's design.


For my double page spreasd its harder to decide what type of camera angle that I should use. This is becuase I haven't decided how much space the picture will take up. The most important thing about the pictures I take is that it has to look as if the person in the image is artist. So things like there stance and the way they look into the camera are all key elements I have to think of. For instance i'm planning on having a picuture of my artist pointing at the camera.

Ideal reader

My Ideal reader would is a 16-18 year old male who lives in London. They usually where things like designer clothing or occasionally track suits as well as things like goodies, just generally trendy clothing. The person shops at a variety of different clothes shops like JD, H&M, River Island and a couple of other clothing shops. My ideal reader likes listening to music like RnB and hip hop along with watching TV channels like MTV base and channel AKA which are music channels that specialise in showing this kind of music. My ideal reader also watches music shows on MTV and even the apprentice, and other television shows like EastEnders which shows that they like a variety of shows.  The main channels they watch are BBC 1, E4, MTV, Channel AKA. My ideal reader would be going to college or university. 


I think my magazine would appeal to my ideal reader because it will have things that interest him eg RnB music. And also because the magazine will have things like competitions and maybe even advertisements that would interest him.

Target audience

For my target audience I decided to target 15- 25 years old. This is becuase my music magazine is going to evolve around R n B music therefore the 15-25 age group will imediately be able to associate with it because there are more likely to listen to this type of music. Also the social class I am choosing to target  is working class and possible the middle class. This is because say for example in London there are a lot of urban youths are they live mainly in working class families. I'm also targeting the middle class because I believe that middle class people listen to a variety of music genres whether it be rock, classic etc etc. So I thought that I shouldnt leave that out. On the other hand I have decided to neglect the upper class because I think they are less likely to listen to RnB let alone perchase a magazine about it. When thinking about my target auidence I also have to consider how I appeal to them. SO this is things like the colour of the magazine. So for example colours like red and white would do well when trying to appeal to my demographic. Secondly the colours I suggested are quite neutral becuase I also have to consider that I'm not just tagerting males but I'm also targeting females. One I could possible do to attract my demographic is put a male rapper on the front cover, but then I will use the text on the side I will talk about articles in the magazine that are more female orientated. Therefore I will not be alienating any particular group. Look at the cover of the music magazine vibe, where you if you look carefully on the side in yellow text they tell the reader that there is a article about mariah carey, but yet there is a male star lil wayne on the front cover.

Here is my flat plan for my front page. Unfortunately it did't come out clear as I wanted but that doesn't really matter. The front page looks organised. I've decided to this because My contents page is going to be more chaotic so I wanted the front page to look more disciplined. I'm going to have 1 main image of my music star and some text surrounding him. And maybe some pictures one the side next to the text. . On the right there is information on articles that the reader of my magazine can find. So for example it will say things like "find out how Jay-z decided the name of his new album". The mask head at the top represents my title and Right next to it will be a logo. However I'm undecided about including a logo, but when I creating my front page on photo shop I will decide whether or not it looks good. I will probably be including text on both sides of the page, but on the right there will be more text, and on the left there will be less, so that it doesn't look to cluttered. But like I said before I'm still open min dined about it and I'm willing to change the layout to making it  more chaotic if I feel it works.  Near the bottom of my flat plan where it says information I going to try and include a quotation from the article on my double page spread, I will do this to entice the reader into opening my magazine up. Also below that there is a box that says competition, this is where I will advertise something like free tickets to a music concert or cash vouchers.

WHsmith

In media our teacher asked us to visit WHsmith in order to understand how shops that sell magazines organize where they sell their magazine products for research purposes.

The first thing I noticed when I walked in was the women magazines where at the far right. These magazines were solely for fashion. The next shelf to the right was another women's magazine. But this time it was mainly showbiz, gossip, and soap based. This shows that the shops try to match things accordingly to what a certain demographic is most likely to be interested in.   

Afterwards there were magazines directed at a male demographic. Firstly on the top there were magazines like "men's health" that was directed at men who liked fitness and keeping themselves healthy. Then there were car magazines like formula 1, and top gear.  However the men's section was not as organized as the women's and there were varying types of men’s magazine muddled together. One thing I did notice was there was bigger variety in the men’s than the women's as the women’s revolved mainly on fashion and shopping. This potentially meant  if I am doing a magazine mainly for males I will possible have to reach out more to a varitey of age groups. How do I do this? I could add more "manly" colours however im still going to try and make it colourful and vibrant as I can because my supposed target audience is probably going to be 16-24.

Research and planning denotating and conotating magazines

In  media studies class we had to disect and annotate magazines  to see what feature they had. Firstly our teacher instructed us to look at really simple things like what is the title? or what is the price ? just ot ease us in. Each student was given a magazine at random so for example I was given a magazine called Hammer.  Afterwards we learnt about analysing the types of adverts magazines use.  There were 4 types of promotions that we found out magazines use these were:
1. Music promotion
2. Lifestyle
3. Classified ads
4. Other


A music promotion is simply where the magazine promotes music like for instance they will place an advert advertising a new album that is coming out, like in the magazine I had had "hammer" they had a main picture on the front of an album and around 12 images advertising different songs.  The there is lifestyle magazines which are advertisments like alchaol drinks or even adverts for mobile phones. Then tere are classified adverts that Magazines often have at the back in small boxes, this type of convention is used almost universally in magazines probably because they get paid to advertise people's products. And then the last advert we look look at was other. So any advert that isnt a music, classified, or lifestyle related.


Next we look at a page in our chosen magazine that was a double page spread. This helped with research because it will allow me to see what double page spreads our meant to look like and I can implement some of the ideas that I have seen into my own double page spread. 



Look at this example of a double page spread featuring Lily Allen. The first thing I can see is the massive quote which says " people think I'm an attention seeker, but I'm just honest". This is a typical convention that is used in magazines especially when its a big article containing a interview of someone. Another think that I can take from it is the use of the image. The picture of Lily Allen takes up most of the second page and a little bit of the first. Although for this type of music magazine it looks good I don't think that this would work well If i were to do something similar in my own double page spread. But the editors of the magazine have done this pacifically because it works for there target audience. As say if this is the a 16 to 25 demographic and about a music celebrity pictures especially big ones is more likely to appeal to them. And that brings me to the text. In media we talked about the significance of how much text you use for different target audiences. So for example someone who is reader a classic rock article if probably over 25 years old and so they are more likely to read a article which is more text based, presumably because they are more intellectual, and because they have more concentration.  Now when you look at the article with Lily Allen there seems to be a reasonable amount of text but not to much. 

Also Interestingly  you would expect the article to have more female orientated colours like pink and yellow because Lily Allen is more likely going to be associated with a female audience but the article has more neutral colours for example only black white and little bit of red is used. I've learnt here that say if you have a male artist that you are doing a article on it doesn't necessarily mean that you have to use stereotypical colours. But on the other hand I still think that I am going to use the stereotypical colours because more often than not they are used in almost every magazine and I think it will go well with my work.

Another thing that I have noticed is that Lily Allen's pose is slightly masculine which shows that maybe she is trying to speak out the both boys and girls.  The articles tone is humerous and rude at the same time so this will of course appeal to teenagers because they are more likely understand this kind of humour.  The article is has a mixture of informal and formal language. Formal language has been used because some teenagers will be able to understand it, but informal language is still there so that it doesn't alienate anyone.

Front page mock up

In this blog I will be talking about the significance of making mock ups for my magazine. Until I create it and am able to scan some of my initial ideas. Firstly mock's helps me evaluate some of the ideas I have for my magazine that are running through my head and allows me to put it into action. As planning is an important stage as without it you will be able to know if someone has not thought things through properly.

In my front page mock up that I started to draw in school the first thing I did was make sure I included media conventions. Like mask heads and even bar-codes. These little details are important because It shows the intended reader of my magazine that its professional. However I really struggled with the mock up of my front page because I did't really know how I wanted to present it. For instance the choice of shot is awfully important in determining what the magazine will look like.  For example we looked at an example of a R and B magazine that had Jay Z on the front cover with an close up shot in which Jay z engulfed most of the page. With such an overbearing use of the camera techniques I reacted negatively to it because there wasn't really enough room to include other information on what other articles the magazine would included. However I did understand that not is the target audience of that magazine likely to already be associated with the themes of the magazine, and also that Jay z is one of the biggest R and B  artists in the world and so the magazine is sure to sell copies just because of his status.

Here is the Jay-z on te front cover of clash magazine that I was refereing to before. one thing that I can say is a positive of the front page is that there text all matches and is easy to see, but nonetheless I just think there is too little of it for a reader outside the target audience for them to be able to pick up this magazine and read the front page and be able to gather what the rest of the magazine will contain. This then forces the consumer to look at the contents page for futher information. But what if the costumer doesnt want to look at the contents page? But still there is a good mode of adress on the front cover where it says " warp records 20th anniversary" here the magazine is advertising music related content and the target audience is sure to react positively to this as they will be able to identify with this.

Analysing different types of magazines

In media studies class today we looked at magazine front covers and how they are displayed and we also look at how magazine design double page spreads. Firstly what I find out with the layout with this front cover conforms with the normal conventions you would associate with a magazine. For example the title is the biggest text on the page and it stands out and is identifiable.  Then you notice that the rest of the text is smaller, this text is where you are likely to find information on what articles you are going to see in the magazine, and also the colours of black, white, and yellow is used repetitively which shows the designers have thought about what they are doing. Then of course there is a picture of a famous celebrity and in this case Justin Timber-lake. This will likely attract people who like music. This is interesting because CQ magazines is not a conventional music magazine and focuses more on celebrities.  Also because there is so much info, it will be able to attract a whole range of people like those who like reading celebrity mags, or those who like music etc etc. 



Now look at this image on the cover of empire magazine. I have used this as an example because in media class today at a music magazine that had Jay z in the cover but used a close up shot and included little information on what the magazine contained. That  was an example of a magazine not being conventional. Here Empire magazine have actor Marlon Brando on the cover, with essentially no other text apart from the title which is in gold. However it has to be said that the simplicity of it makes it stand out from the crowd. However with a cover like this you would assume that film lovers are likely to buy this magazine, as a cover like this is unlikely to attract say someone who is interested in rock.

Final contents page

Here is an example of my final contents page. The first thing you will notice is the colour combinations. Red and blue which I also used for my front cover remain. I have done this in order to show that I have look at conventions of other magazines where there contents pages colour scheme matches there front covers.  I included for pictures from different areas around the school like art and French. I have done this because I think it would attract my target audience because it will show them that this magazine is likely to have something for everyone. So basically it prevents my magazine from being to stereotypical like other magazines that are very specialist like vibe magazine. In hindsight I think I would of tried to make the images bigger however I did struggle with a couple of aspects of photo-shop. Also I think it would of been better If I had arranged the images in a more funky fashion as it looks a bit too plain. Nonetheless simple things like the type of text I used is also similar to my front cover and I hope to do something similar with my main task.

Final draft

Here is hopefully the final draft of the front cover and I stress the word HOPEFULLY. I have made only one adjustment from my previous draft. At the bottom I added a red banner and added text which is basically saying that you can earn money from a competition. I've done this because it will definitely entice people because my target audience which is sixth form students will love the fact that they could get money to spend at a shopping mall. Also I've included it because it a typical media convention that is included in almost all magazines and newspapers, for instance tabloids like the sun, the daily star etc, and its even used with broadsheets eg the independent.  The colour red has been used as the primary colour in the little banner essentially because I stands out, and because when you add a blue text to it it doesn't class. I've have also followed my teachers advice and used a similar text to the title. So that it all looks familiar and in sink. I feel this draft I easily better than my first because the lighting is much better and this is complimented by the blue background which makes the students stand out more, whereas before with the school building in the background it just look too confusing and muddled up.  Also I added a diagonal banner on the top. I have used this because I was inspired by a cover of Empire magazine which I included in one of my previous blogs as that magazine had a banner on the top and it made it look more professional and unique. Another reason I have used it was because the top half of my magazine cover was filled with the colour blue and I thought that it was just too boring so I had to make it more vibrant. 


Another thing I would like to point is that I think that my decision to use a mid shot instead of a close up was vindicated because with a close up shot I think it would of looked to distracting. But also I mid-shot shows our school's uniform, which shows that our school is very professionally when compared to other sixth form's who do not where uniform.

Personal learning

During the process of creating some of the drafts for my front cover and my contents page I have started to become a little bit familiar with how to use phottoshop. At first I struggled immensely but luckily during class my teacher gave us a couple of simple territorials.
Here is an example of a website that our teacher gave us that we could use :http://www.pegaweb.com/tutorials/beginners-guide-adobe-photoshop/4-blending-options-special-effects.htm
This website shows our class how to do some of the simple things that you can do with photoshop. For example I learnt how to change to colouring of a image to make images look darker, I did this when I had a image that was to bright because of the sun. You can see this in the second draft of my magazine front cover as the colour of the students is noticebly darker and iroinically this actually makes the image stand out more. I also learnt one of the most important yet basic things to need to know about photoshop and this is about the use of laeyrs. This allows you to add things like colourful backgrounds without having to over complicate things and it helps you edit things a bit more easily.

Another thing that I learnt during the process of making another draft of my front cover is how to make my front cover more professional. My teacher adviced me to change the font of my title so that it would be in sink with the other font that I had used. As otherwise it did't match at all. I tried t aruge with me teacher as I said that it made it look unique, however once I refelcted and changed it I realised it made the front cover look extremely professional.

Audience

Whilst working on my magazine I wanted to look at the my target audience and wanted to evaluate whether or not I had not only represented them well but also if I had done well to involve them in the process of creating the front cover of my magazine. Firstly people in my sixth form of course have a whole different range of likes and dislikes, for instance people like rock music some like R and B or some people like more creative subjects like art or more "academic" like ICT  and so on. I had to make a decision on should the layout of the front cover address there interests. I decided not to as this would stereotype the magazine, and although stereotypes are hugely popular in media, I thought that my magazine should be a reflection on everyone in the sixth form not just a particular group.  So for example if you look at the draft for my front cover you notice the lay out if slightly formal and serious, no funky text and its very organised.
Another thing I had to think about is that If I were to create an actual magazine the magazine would likely adapt in time in tune with the people who are likely to buy it. Bot of course this is just my theory.  But I did make sure was that a range of interests were put on the magazine,  so all I did was for example in the contents page I put a picture of students in a ICT class to show the reader that the magazine would reflect there interests but then I included pictures of a art lesson, which once again rein-firms that fact this magazine inst biased towards a particular subject or interest. Another thing to add is that the colours used was also not reflected for instance the magazines primary colours of blue, white, and red was unbiased because it were colours that everyone was familiar with as it was the colours that the school is associated with. So maybe I might have gone about this the wrong way because I never asked the people in sixth form what colours they would like, as I'm sure male and female students opinions on this would differ, therefore It could be seen a neglecting my target audience.

Mode's of address and media conventions

In my latest media lesson we learnt about the way in which the media addresses people. A primary example of newspaers that do this is the daily mail, and the sun. In titles they address the reader usually as if they are talking directly to them. For instance if you look at an article about Wayne rooney leaving Manchester United  it says " I am to good for united" on the title. Even though if you read the rest of the article Rooney doesn't even say those things. So the newspaper fabricate things as they know that there target audience will also agree with these staetments.  Now if you look at the sun, almost all there titles they use slang to hunerous there articles. And most of there articles are biased in the way that they report things. In broadsheets like the guardian or the independent these newspapers are more serious and unbiased. This is becuase there target audience are considered more intellectual.  Therefore the quailty of the articles will be very high.


Also in this lesson I discussed with my teacher on how to improve my front cover. He suggested that my front cover did not have some of the conventions the magazines usually have. Simple things like not having a barcode. So i put this in. Also the font i used for my title before did not match with the rest of the text on the cover. So he suggested that the title's font should match with the smaller text. When I looked at my front cover and how I adress the audience I think I've done this already. For example on my front cover in red it says " the must have montly magazine". This tagline is slightly serious which is appropriate because the sixth form school i am representing is also serious for example students in the school where uniform, and teachers in he school treat them just like they would in lower school. Also the font is straight and moody, which is a perfect representation of the seriousness of BD sixth form. One way of me using representation is that my front cover is very orginised, and it not choatic or messy. The symbolic conventions like the colour schemes is important for setting the scence of what the magazine is going to involve.

The gratification theory

The gratification theory is described as  a way of understanding mass communication. So this basically means the theory revolves around how people use media in there every day lives. Its how we use media, rather than what media does to us.  So for example when we find out some interesting news for instance when we find out football results or when we watch a good episode of a good television show we often go to our friends and discuss these issues, and this is a way of socialising. This is one of the main things people use media for, a way of initiating social interaction.


Also the gratification theory promotes a sense of belonging . So I decided to see if my magazine cover does this. The second draft of my magazine cover has a image of 3 students smiling. This promotes a sense of belonging because the the picture is very inventing and creates a friendly atmosphere.  Another intresting thing I discovered about the gratification theory is that people use media to fulfil there particular needs. So for example people who are interested in rap music will often listen to choice fm via the radio or Internet. This is something I want to put into my magazine, for instance on the front cover i could advertise music.


The next question I posed was what entertainment my magazine has to offer. In my magazine I will have a advertisements of competitions, I have already included this but it doesn't stand out enough because I put with the rest of the text in yellow, this means its hard to read.

What information was provided about my school's courses?
This is another thing  that isn't on my front cover, there isn't really information on what kind of courses my school offers. So its quite ambiguous in that department.

2nd magazine front cover draft

Here is my second magazine front cover draft. Firstly one significance change is the colour in the background. I did this because the previous background which was part of the school building was too distracting and I thought that it was not very appealing. So instead I filled the background in blue.  Subsequently what this has done is that now the title stands out more for example the white colour used when it says "BD heat".
Secondly I changed the lighting. As because I took a picture outside the common room the sun made the image to bright. So I decided to use the burn tool on photo-shop. This meant that I could darken the students in the picture, so I basically made the lighting more appropriate for the front cover of magazine.  However I did fail to implement some typical conventions to the magazine. Like for example i did't put a bar code which is of course on all magazines. But also I could little banners for competions etc, all these things make my magazine look that bit more professional and ultimately more appealing to my target audience. For my next draft I want to add a bit more fun and variety on front cover, just little details that I'm lacking at the moment that make my front cover look more professional. 



Look at this magazine cover of a monthly addition of "empire magazine". Firstly there is the most predominant image of the 3 movie stars Matt Damon, George Clooney, and Brad Pitt that the main image. This is just like my magazine where I have 3 students on the front cover. But interestingly at the bottom they have in a black box 3 images of other movie related pictures. That's what I want to add to the next draft of my work. Today I took pictures in art class, as I already have other pictures ready to use, so I my next draft I will hopefully try to put the pictures near the bottom of my magazine cover. The advantage of this is that i gives my target audience a little taster of what else the magazine has to offer, as well it shows that the magazine has variety.  When look on the internet having multiple images near the bottom of the front cover is one of the typical media conventions used so I'm interested in what the end result will look like it I can implement it successfully. 

Reprensentations and research

For research I decided to think of how my magazine represents the social groups within my school. In my school there are people from many different social backgrounds. Whether your from africa, asia, europe etc. I would like my magazine to repressent of these ethnic backgrounds and not alienate anyone. That is not to say that my front page has to be muliticultral, as I want my front page to be something that I think would attract people's attention. However I want my contents page to involve having pictures from many different areas of the school eg art, science, and even pictures of what people do in the sixth form common room.

Then for futher research I decided to have a survey on what people would expect ot be on the front cover of the school magazine. There was 5 options for pictures:

Pictures in a  science class
Picture in an art class
Picture in the common room
Picture of students doing an activity
Other

Firstly I had 5 options because if there were many options then the would be no clear winning, and therefore I would gather no informtation.  $ of the options were the pcitures I was intrested in using. I chose up to 20 students, 10 from upper sixth form, and then another 10 from lower sixth form. I done this becuase it would of been a fair representation of what sixth form studdents thing, and it would alow me to gather an consensus.  Here are the results.


Pictures in a  science class- 6
Picture in an art class-4
Picture in the common room-8
Picture of students doing an activity-2
Other-0

Total number of votes 20

Analysis of results

What the results show me is that people from sixth form wanted pictures from the common whether outside or inside to be on the front cover the most. This tells me that people in sixth form want the magazine to reflect on what they do when they are soccialising outside class. Luckily enough the first draft of my magazine already has a pictures of  students  sitting outside in the sixth form playground. The second most popular thing that students wanted to have on the magazine was oictures take from science class. If I were to use an image from science class I hope to represent science as intresting and fun. This is important becuase I want school to come across as enjoyable, otherwise my target audience will not be at all intrested in reading my magazine.   It will also be going against teenage stereotype, in which people expect teenagers to look thugish.

Connotations and denotations

In my most recent media studies lesson we learnt about connotations and denotations. We also learnt how the front cover of our magazine will always involve these two things and that it's important to implement them.


First lets look at denotations. A denotation is the first level of meaning of an image for example when you look at a picture of a rose it represents and flower and reminds the person  of the real thing. So if you look at the first draft of my magazine cover you see 3 students wearing uniform outside the sixth form common room. You can also see that 2 of them them are from a African or Caribbean background, and the one in the middle originates from Asia.


Now lets look at connotations. Connotations is a meaning associated to an image that is beyond the obvious. As you can tell the students in the picture are from an ethnic background. So the reader of the magazine will then be able to infer that the school is extremely multi-cultural and very diverse. The reader of the magazine will also have connotations that people from different backgrounds are able to mix.



For research I decided to look up a real life example of a connotation so that I understand fully why it's used and whether I should also use it. 


Here's a primary example of connotations used in a film poster. Here's an image of the iconic godfather film poster and in the picture you see Marlon Brando wearing a red rose. The rose has connotations of death, murder and blood, whereas you would usually associate a rose with love. The movie makers have clearly put emphases on the rose because the rest of the poster is in black and white, which makes the red of the rose increases in prominence and it stands out


Looking back at my first draft of my magazine cover I'm glad that I have already used connotations by representing the cultural diversity of my school. As previously stated becuase I used people of different backgrounds. 

Contents page

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Questionaire

In this blog I decided to create a questionnaire that people in 6th form could fill in because I wanted to find out what they think I should include on the front cover of my magazine. And also It would give me a chance to hear what other people think of the first draft of my magazine cover.


Name


What is your age?


15-16   16-18


What are your favourite lessons?
English      Maths     Science     Art      Geography    Other


What are your hobbies?


What would you like to be included on the front cover of the magazine?
Competitions       General info     Pictures        Gossip        School curriculum      Other


What colours do you want the title on the front cover to have?
Blue     Red    White      Other


What did you like about my first draft of my front cover


What improvements do you think I should make to the first draft of my magazine cover?


------------------------------


I asked up to 10 students who were all in my 6th form. Although this was biased because people from the other year groups did not participate, I wanted to know what my target audience thought, and that was my main concern. Also I asked simplistic questions and kept it short so that people would want to fill it in otherwise if it was too long they might not want to participate, I know I wouldn't!  In my next blog I will attempt to scan a draft of someone who completed my questionnaire. 


What did I learn?


Well surprisingly when it came to  what people wanted on the front cover of my magazine  everyone wanted to have competitions on the front. This  was good for me to find out because I had already included it on my first draft this shows that my initial ideas were in line with my target audience. .Other things that people wanted on the front cover was information on the school curriculum, this would include things like what knew and exciting things lessons will involve. I had thought to put this in at first, but I honestly thought this would make the magazine seem boring. 


Also some of the questions I asked like for example "what are your favourite subjects" has been used to find out what subjects people like most and if people like one subject in particular I would include it somewhere on my contents page. And the subject that came out on top was art which received 7 votes out of ten.

First draft

Before I did a questionaire which would ask what would students ideally want on the cover of my magazine I created a first draft. First for the title I used colours that are synomnomus with the school blue and white. 
For the sub headings I used red becuase red was also used in my title and also becuase it was easy to read. However I did have some problems with the the text below the sub headings, initially I wanted to use blue however it was difficult to read the handwriting. So I experimented with numerous colours until I settled on yellow.


The picture in the background I took was of students in the 6 form garden. I used this picture because I thought it would look more fun and enjoyable than having a picture of students working in a classroom on the front of the magazine as this would look boring and would not attract my target audience due to it being too

unamaganative.

However seeing as its my first draft there are still some improvements I could make. Maybe I should change the lighting slightly because it does seem to bright. Also it does look slightly boring. So this encouraged me to start thinking about how to jazz it up a bit.

Media studies blog

In today's lesson our media teacher requested us to look at examples of magazines and then to answer a series of questions that are related to it.  These questions range from what its target audience is, and also there is more in depth questions to do with the inteneded reader of the magazine, for instance What kind of breakfast would the reader eat who reads a magazine like classic rock..

Here are just a list of some of the questions and answers we used to investigate the readers of the magazine:
What car or transport do they use? - a cheap car
What music do they like?- Rock
What is thier favorite meal?- takeaways
Do they vote and if so who for?- No one becuase the readers of this magazine are unlikely to be intrested in politics.

What I learnt hear  is that the front cover should be a representation of what my targer audience stand for. It should show what intrests them. So that when someone who is not part of my intended  target audience looks at my magazine they will know what kind of people would be likely to read it. Just look at the cover of this classic rock magazine the celebrities are look directly at the reader in an agressive way, but yet they loook relaxed, as if they do not have a car in the world.

This is good research becuase for my magazine cover I will have a picture on the front which will be representative to a teengae audience..

School lesson

In yesterday's lesson we learned about there various forms of representation.


Firstly we learnt about represetation. This means how media represents people like individuals, groups and events.


Then we learnt about media institutions and how they use a range of sterotypes and this is used as a visual shortcut.  These steroetypes are used repeatedly and as a result people become accustomed to them. So consequently when you watch televisions or movies it becomes second nature to people and we make assumptions.


And then we learnt about:


Archetypes- the ultimate stereotype.
countertype- the opposite of stereotype and archetype


Also representations can change over time. What I learnt about in this lesson is that the front page has to represent well my target audience, so I want my front page not to be too stereotypical.

Researching film posters

In this blog I will be examining a movie poster that is aimed at teenagers. The movie poster that I am going to use is kidulthood. This is becuase its a movie I have watched and is popular amongst my friends and people of my age group.


Here the teenagers are represented in primarily a negative way. For example there is a image of a black youth holding a baseball bat and wearing a hoodie. This is very stereotypical of black urban areas. Also all of the characters are looking at the camera menacingly as if they are angry or being agressive. This is another stereotype of teengagers in the UK as most people percieve them to act and behave this way. I think this has been used to attract a teenage audience becuase maybe they can relate to the teenagers in the poster.

The layout and design of the poster is also intresting. There is dark clouds in the background ellude to the fact that the movie is dark and serious.

Slogans are used in the main title, as it says " before adulthood come kidulthood" stands out to teenagers becuase this really shows that this movie is made for teenagers.

The second movie I am using is high scool musical.

Here the image of the teenagers is happier than kidulthood .  The teenagers are represented well becuase you can tell that they are in school, and they look academic and its as if they enjoy being there.

The colours use are vibrant and striking so this will attract a teengae audience mainly girls. Unlike kidulthood which used darker more neutral colours that it could appeal to a broader teenage audience.  Another thing about the layout is that the posters looks like sometinhg you would see at school.



The last movie I will be analysing is bend it like beckham. Here the teenagers are presented as fun and as if they enjoy themselves. However the poster uses a stereotype in the layout because the main characters is asian and in the background you see olderly members of her family looking at her as if to say "what is she doing". This makes the poster seem humourous. Here you can see that the poster is trying to attract a teenage audince aswell as a asian one becuase it shows images of people from an asian background.

The movie has a tagline " who wants to cook aboo gobi". This is a humerous tagline which emphasises the fact that the movie is likely to be a comedy.

Title

Here is an image that I want to use as the title for my poster. It has the name that won the most votes from my peers, as it had 16 votes double the amount of the title that came second. The title has a blue background, and then has white and red handwriting. I have used these 3 colours because they stand out and also becuase 2 of the primary colours of my school are blue and white, so the students will be easily associated to it.

I will use this at the top of the cover of my magazine. I want the rest of the front of my magazine to simply be an image of a student doing something ordianry like writing in a book, or doing experiments in a science class, this is becuase it will be similar to the collegue magazine that I looked at in my previous blog becuase I like the simplicity of it.  But of course its important to remember that this is just a template and when I finally create an image of what my magazine will look like this title might not blend in well. Hopefully by the time I write my next blog I will start to take the pictures that I want for my magazine.

College

After taking some advice from my media teachers I decided to do some more research, but this time instead of looking at real life, mainstream magazines I looked at school and college magazines. This would be good becuase it will provide an insight at what my work should ideally look like.
Whats intresting to see here is the simplicicty of it. It just has a picture of a student in a science room doing experienments. There's nothing fancy about it but it's simple and effective, and it does stand out,surprisingly. Secondly the most obvious thing the title is bold and white and stands out, also the rest of the sub headings are also in white. One criticism is that some of the text is in green, which makes it hard to read but becuase the rest of it is soo good its hard to notice. What I can take from this is that instead of making my magazine to bright and colourful, all I could do is get an image of someone in the school doing something posistive and intresting. Maybe simpicity is more exciing than you would expect.

After taking this in, I showed this image to people in my sixth and asked them what they liked about it. One person said" its looks intresting, and you can tell its a school magazine and that makes it attractive". Another person said " you can tell its a school magazine, but maybe it should be more colourfull". Two completly contrastnig perspectives, but one thing they both agreed on was that it was easily identifyable as a school magazine.

29th September 2010




In this blog I went onto the internet to look at real life magazines to see what devices they use and to learn the layout of it. One example of a magazine I looked at was GQ magazine.



With this magazine the title is big and bold and so it stands out. Secondly the colors of gold and white which is also in the title are prominent everywhere. For instance at the sub headings are in gold. What you can also see is that the rest of the text is small when in compared to the title.

Most importantly the picture of Beyonce is clear to see and is in the background, this means that the text doesn't get in the way. What I learnt from this is that the image and the text all have to blend in with each other like in this magazine gold, white, and black all intertwine and that it shouldnt look jimbled up and muddled.

Now lets compare the previous magazine to something more like a tabloid.

Here the title stands out because it's in red. However the sub-heading "Cheryl" is bigger than the actual title. What I took from this is that I wouldn’t want the sub headings to be overbearing because it makes things to chaotic.

Creating a front cover

28th september 2010




In my media lesson I had to create a front cover template and present it to the class. First one of the students in my class had already creating a frony page. So me and my class analysed his work to see what was good about it and what was bad. His design was light blue and black. However I criticised it because I thought the colours were dark and not appealing. So I suggested that he change the colour to something more vibrant like red for example, because red s a colour which will strike people, and because our target audience is sixth formers this is very important.
Some of the positives of his work was that the title was good. It was called "life". Another positive was that his title was bigger than the rest of the text. This is a very important feature magazines and it was good that he implemented it.

Afterwards I had to start work on my own front cover and here is a quick tmeplate of what is looks like now





Although very basic now, throughout the course of the next couple of days I will add considreble more detail.

First blog- Task

27th September 2010


Today I was given a sheet with details on how to complete my coursework. The sheet gave me information on when our deadline was and what was expected from the examiners. In my second lesson of the day I went on fronter to look of A* examples of coursework for me to look at to get an idea on how our coursework is ideally meant to look.


But first I had to prioritise my preliminary task. In my preliminary task I would have to create a school magazine with an appropriate front page, and I also have to create a contents page. With this in mind I decided to carry out some research. So firstly I had to make up some names for my future magazine. It took me a considreble amount of time until finally I had 4 titles. They were Jimba magazine, BD heat, sixth form times, and simply the school magazine. Each title had it’s pros and cons. Jimba magazine sounded random and weird, but at the same time it was exiting and different. BD heat, my favourite, was good because it would grab people’s attention immediately aswell as it sounded fun. 6th form times sounded to official and boring so I was sceptical. Finally my last title was school magazine, it was short and precise, and also the students would immediately know what the magazine is likely to contain.


Here are my results from asking students in sixth form to vote on a title for my magazine


Jimba magazine-8


BD heat- 16


Sixth form times 2

School magazine-1

The title I predicted most likely to win came out on top. But I was also glad that it was universally popular with most of the peers. Also because of the success of my research I decided that I would try and ask the students more things to do with the magazine In my next blog I will be do more research in what real life magazines are like and whether I can extract new ideas from them.