Alex Media: December 2010

Evaluation of my student magazine

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

The key ingredients to a student magazine are to attract students to buy the magazine. They have a masthead at the top of the title page of the student magazine. Also on the front cover there is usually a picture or a few pictures and description of the picture. A typical student magazine usually has a competition in it and has reviews of music, TV or movies in the contents page. Here is a typical student magazine contents page and my contents page which I made in Microsoft publisher.

Typical student magazine contents page my contents page

As you can see they look very different but also have a few similarities, for example they both have clear contents sections and have a main picture that our eyes focus on. I have tried to put the conventions of a student magazine into my magazine, but I think I have a better contents page, than the real student magazine, because it appeals to students, because of the pictures and the fonts that I have used. The masthead and the layout of my content page were done by audience feedback. I posted the contents page layout, masthead and title layout and I asked people to vote for which one is best.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

I think that I have represented students in my magazine, because of the fonts that I have used and the content I have put in my magazine, for example I have cover lines about first cars and also have a competition to win tickets to see a band, which students are into. I have also used the pictures to be the centre of attention, because students like looking at pictures than reading a lot of text. Also my student magazine layout would appeal to students, because I asked students to give me feedback about which content layout they liked best and masthead. I have tried to not stereotype students, however I think that there are a few sections in my magazine that may be stereotyping students.

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

The types of media institution that would buy my student magazine would be institutions that have contact with students on a regular basis. Most likely institution that would publish my magazine would be the college, because my magazine offers information about students that live in the local area and go to Ludlow College, because some of the information is for people that go to the college, for example the competition that I created to win tickets is only for the people at Ludlow College.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

The audience for my media product would be students that go to college. The age would be, between 16 – 19 years old. The gender would be either, because I have parts in my magazine that would appeal to both genders. My audience would also have to be into music, films, cars and games.

How did you attract/address your audience?

I attracted my audience by having a good looking masthead, which I think shows style and modern. The Cover lines I used talk to the audience, which attracts them to read and have a look inside. When you first glance at the front cover your eyes are fixed at Jake holding the guitar, which would attract students which are interested in music. I also have a picture of Bullet for My Valentine and in bold yellow writing, a description of how to win tickets to see them live, which would attract students who like the band and wouldn’t mind going to see them. I also asked students what they would like to have in the student magazine by doing a questionnaire and I used the feedback to come up with the three main headlines for my front cover.

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

The technologies that I have used to create my front cover and my contents page of my student magazine were publisher, Camera and paint. I used publisher to create the layout of my front cover and content page, I used the Camera to take pictures for my magazine and create a photo shoot and I used paint to create my masthead. I have also learnt how to create a blog and how to create polls online, by using poll code.