The key features of a student magazine front cover will be a prominent picture usually mid shot mainly because it immediately draws the students eyes to the magazine, also a catchy and bold title because it will either relate to the students or not and allow them to identify the magazine. Lastly the cover lines are important again because this will be the decision maker on wheather they purchase this magazine or not and the basic layout of where all of these components are placed. I have included all of these key ingredients and I think my title "Wild" relates to my target market audience of females from year 11 to year 13 excellently. Another basic quality to have when designing a magazine is to make sure the colours used are good against each other and contrast well, allowing easy reading for audiences. My magazine consists of all these key elements which I think are of a high quality and connects well with the students. On my front cover I have added a dog paw which interlinks with the title "Wild" to put my price in to inform the buyers how much it will cost. This makes my magazine more aesthetic for the teenagers to look at but also takes a way the dominance of the price.
A contents page is basically a page informing the audience on what the magazine is about, what is consists and will navigate you to all of these places. It is usually made up of a headline, cover lines, page references and occasionally contain pictures. Pictures can be very important in the contents page especially for teenagers as they will instantly look at them making them either want to read that article or not. I have added a letter from the editor, which is me and added a picture of the editor. I that was good to include so students can get a feel for what this magazine is about and why it has been produced. Throughout this whole process I always look at each comments posted on my blog to make sure i take in and improve on what watching audiences were commenting on whether it was positive or negative feedback.
Overall I feel like I have challenged forms and conventions of real media products because student magazines are usually quite serious and based around the subject school, compared to my magazine, firstly being called "Wild" and being more of a gossip magazine. Also I went for the target audience of just girls which excludes a big group in society.
Here we can see the differences of a usual student magazine or school magazine, compared to my student magazine.
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
My magazine is mainly targeted at students from year 11 to year 13, and for females not males. I have made both the front cover and contents page quite stereotypical of girls around this age because it looks very gossipy and girl like, for example using the colours pink and having catchy titles. The language I used was very colloquial and quite young so that the audiences can relate themselves to the magazine. The main picture on my front cover shows a girl doing a wild pose, making it quite fun and laughable, also she is of the audiences age. This picture being the only picture on my front page as well as being the main focus on the page immediately attracts the students eye to my magazine. I did not put much text on the front cover purely because I think students will get bored reading lots of texts. My headline and coverlines are very short and too the point as well as being quite funny.
For my contents page I have got a lot of text as I have mentioned all of the coverlines throughout the magazine, the page references and the letter from the editor. But I have also a lot of pictures of my contents page making the text to picture ratio only a little bit higher.
My magazine has definitely been targeted and represents the stereotypical life of females and gives students from year 11 to 13 a selection of what they will want to read and are interested in.
Here is a gossip magazine but not aimed at students but all of the public.
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
My magazine can be distributed in our school although a school magazine has already been published and handed out to many students, as well as one that is sent home to parents. My magazine differs from the school magazine that has been given out because it has a specific target group, and I think would sell really well to all of the targeted audience. A lot of schools do have a student magazine in order to inform students what is happening around school, news and events coming up. Most of these student magazine's are very serious and basic, especially the ones that are sent to parents as they are very informative. "Wild" my magazine lies on the edge a little because it is very different due to it being mainly evolved around gossip and celebrity news. But I have included advice columns and tips on how to cope with school work and how to get into university so this could open it up from not just the targeted audience but many more people.
Who would be the audience for your media product?
After handing out my questionnaire and asking many people of both genders and all ages to fill out the form I came to a decision of who my targeted audience would be. The audience of my magazine will be of students from year 11 to year 13 so from the age range of 15 to 18. It is a female dominated magazine as this was voted as the highest option in my research, and all of the components included within my magazine is very girl orientated. I have included some stories on how to help balance your studies and partying as well as many tips on how to keep up with work, which could be focused for boys. Also my magazine could be aimed at girls who are either younger or older then the targeted audience as some of the stories may interest them.
How did you attract/address your audience?
Many people buy magazines on the spur of the moment and their immediate attraction is to the front cover. The front cover should take the most time to make and be drafted a number of times to make sure when it is in competition with other magazine it stands out to the audience. For my front cover the main focus was a big mid shot photo of a girl doing a mad pose, which will grab most students eye and attract them to the magazine. Bright colours was one of the main elements that I considered when designing my both of my pages, as you need colours that are well contrasted together and will stand out. Another prominent key when designing the front cover is the language used, which I made quite informal, young and even laughable for example when I said "Bluff your way to uni!" Also on the contents page after reading comments posted and taking into consideration the audience's feedback I made my letter from editor very friendly, to make sure readers felt that they could relate to the chatty tone used instead of getting bored by it. I think my magazine would stand out from a lot of other student magazines due to the coverlines being quite funny, bright colours being used, good quality pictures and even the masthead "Wild".
For my contents page I have got a lot of text as I have mentioned all of the coverlines throughout the magazine, the page references and the letter from the editor. But I have also a lot of pictures of my contents page making the text to picture ratio only a little bit higher.
My magazine has definitely been targeted and represents the stereotypical life of females and gives students from year 11 to 13 a selection of what they will want to read and are interested in.
Here is a gossip magazine but not aimed at students but all of the public.
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
My magazine can be distributed in our school although a school magazine has already been published and handed out to many students, as well as one that is sent home to parents. My magazine differs from the school magazine that has been given out because it has a specific target group, and I think would sell really well to all of the targeted audience. A lot of schools do have a student magazine in order to inform students what is happening around school, news and events coming up. Most of these student magazine's are very serious and basic, especially the ones that are sent to parents as they are very informative. "Wild" my magazine lies on the edge a little because it is very different due to it being mainly evolved around gossip and celebrity news. But I have included advice columns and tips on how to cope with school work and how to get into university so this could open it up from not just the targeted audience but many more people.
Who would be the audience for your media product?
After handing out my questionnaire and asking many people of both genders and all ages to fill out the form I came to a decision of who my targeted audience would be. The audience of my magazine will be of students from year 11 to year 13 so from the age range of 15 to 18. It is a female dominated magazine as this was voted as the highest option in my research, and all of the components included within my magazine is very girl orientated. I have included some stories on how to help balance your studies and partying as well as many tips on how to keep up with work, which could be focused for boys. Also my magazine could be aimed at girls who are either younger or older then the targeted audience as some of the stories may interest them.
How did you attract/address your audience?
Many people buy magazines on the spur of the moment and their immediate attraction is to the front cover. The front cover should take the most time to make and be drafted a number of times to make sure when it is in competition with other magazine it stands out to the audience. For my front cover the main focus was a big mid shot photo of a girl doing a mad pose, which will grab most students eye and attract them to the magazine. Bright colours was one of the main elements that I considered when designing my both of my pages, as you need colours that are well contrasted together and will stand out. Another prominent key when designing the front cover is the language used, which I made quite informal, young and even laughable for example when I said "Bluff your way to uni!" Also on the contents page after reading comments posted and taking into consideration the audience's feedback I made my letter from editor very friendly, to make sure readers felt that they could relate to the chatty tone used instead of getting bored by it. I think my magazine would stand out from a lot of other student magazines due to the coverlines being quite funny, bright colours being used, good quality pictures and even the masthead "Wild".
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