In what way does your school magazine use, develop or challenge the forms and conventions of real school magazines?

To answer this question I need to look at the codes and conventions of a school magazine and see whether I have used them effectively.

What conventions I have used:Masthead – I have used a masthead for both my cover (Ideal) and my contents page; I have used them effectively by using a stylish font in white, which contrasts with the bright background colours, enabling them to stand out as they should. I found that this appealed to both students and parents.

Centre Image – I have used a centre image which represents the lead story of a talent show, this centres around my main target audience of students. I have made sure the centre image stands out by making it large, but not large enough to stand out as much as the masthead.

Left Third – The left third on the cover of my magazine is used effectively because all of my contents are written there, including my lead story. I have also put my mast head there, enabling it to be seen when the magazine is put on the shelf. If comparing the left third to the rest of the cover, you will realise that most of the detail is found in the left third.

Cover line – My cover line is in fact my lead story, ‘The Talent Show Results!!!’, because it is exaggerated by three exclamation marks, and has unique formatting compared to the rest of the stories.

Pug – I have used the school logo as a pug as it is a logo which promotes the school; as well as this, I have used a half price logo which also acts as a pug because it is placed in the right hand corner to catch the reader’s attention.

Puff – My lead story is also being used as a puff because, ‘The Talent Show Results!!!’, is exaggerated by the three exclamation marks, reinforcing the one of a kind story which can only be found in the school magazine.

Can – I have used the school website, ‘www.trinityvalley.co.uk’, as a can because it is a form of interaction with the readers (students and parents); in addition to this I have also used a competition in my magazine which is a form of can, including the students and allowing them to participate.

Lead Story – My lead story is visible on both cover and contents page because of the creative use of formatting. I have made, ‘The Talent Show Results!!!’ stand out by: changing my font styles, changing the colour of the text and changing the size. My lead story has also been effective as it has been reflected through my images such as my centre image and the collage in my contents page. My lead story is about my target audience, In attempt to appeal to the students.

Secondary Leads – My secondary leads have been present on my cover and my contents page. In the left third of my front cover, the secondary leads have been in white in a simple, small font, in hope that it wouldn’t stand out as much as the lead story, I have also done this in my contents page.

Headline – My headline reflects the lead story and is presented in a large, capital font that crosses the page.

Kicker – My lead story is also a kicker because the formatting allows the writing to stand out from the page, this includes the use of colour, font and size.

Lure – The secondary lead, ‘Sign up for School Play Auditions’, is a form of lure as it is a verb which directs the target audience to participate.

Tip-On – As an attempt to lure in readers, I have included a free gift with the magazine, ‘State of the Art stationary FREE with this issue’.

When looking at my magazine it is clear that I have tried to attract and address my audience through the use of my codes and conventions.

Masthead

Centre Image

Left Third

Cover Line

Pugs

Puff

Can

Lead Story

Secondary Leads

Headline

Kicker

Lure

Tip-On

My School Magazine

As you can clearly see, my magazine can be classed as a real magazine, due to the amount of detail considering the use of codes and conventions, compared to the amount seen on, ‘evolve’s’, cover.

On the left is the annotation of my school magazine and below is the annotation of a real, present day school magazine.

As you can see the real, ‘back to school’, magazine has roughly the same amount of detail as my school magazine. However, when looking at the real magazine, you immediately realise the school elements reflected in the colours, masthead and the centre image, but when looking at my school magazine it does have school elements, although my colour choices don’t immediately portray a school magazine. This is one thing I would like to improve on when doing my music magazine.

On the right is another school magazine annotation which has a target audience of parents and below is the annotation of my school magazine.

Who would be your target audience and why?

Before constructing my magazine, I made sure that it was crucial to look at target audiences, this was presented when I had done my audience research. By questioning all possible audiences on whom they’d prefer the school magazine be targeted at, the main response was to aim it at children, with a sub-target audience of parents.

In the end, I stuck by my research and targeted my school magazine at students and parents. However, in order for the magazine to be aimed at them, I found it necessary to research what they would like in a school magazine. Almost all of the replies mentioned that they wanted the magazine to be relatable to the students as they were the ones who spent most of their time in school. I agreed to this and decided that in order for the magazine to be relatable, I needed the writing to be directly addressed to the students (e.g. having all the stories centred around them, for example, having my lead story as a talent show, and having the centre image reflect that) whilst having a separate section for the parents (e.g. weekly parents guide) because from the research, I understood that their perspectives were completely different.

Another way I wanted to appeal to my target audience was through the formatting, I wanted the target audience to look at the school magazine and I wanted them to be drawn to the magazine. I attempted to use the following to achieve a positive response:

Colour and Font – I chose vibrant reds, blues and purples to make the magazine stand out from the usual, dull school magazines, I did this so the magazine would be interesting and appealing to the students, however, I used a simple white, font which contrasted nicely against the back ground. I hoped the format of the formal writing would appeal to the parents of the students.

When looking at my magazine, you’ll realise that it stands out amongst the rest as the colours and the overall formatting is vibrant and appeals to the youth today, as this is one of the responses that I had gotten from my target audience feedback.

How does your school magazine represent your particular target audience?

When looking at my magazine, immediately it is obvious that I have targeted today's youth as my magazine represents them as being:

•Energetic which is shown through the vibrant cover

•Creative because of the bright colours

•Expressive as my centre image is in fact a picture of two students who are out going and are holding an electric guitar and microphonewhich they express them selves through.

When looking at the cover of my magazine, the representation of my main target audience of youthsis very obvious and clear, as I’ve represented them through a stereotypedunderstanding of parents and teachers.

Do you think a school may distribute you school magazine and why?

I think that there is a high chance that a school will distribute my magazine because:

•It is very unique as it isn’t restraint to the traditional plain colours constant through out many school magazines, instead using bright, eye-catching colours which appeals to today's youth,

•There’s more of a chance that a student will pick up my magazine, not only because of the eye-catching formatting, but the topic of discussion, it doesn’t just talk about school itself, it also explains the things that children want to know about and participate in, like extra curriculum activities e.g. My lead story of a school talent show,

•Some may feel that my school magazine won’t appeal as much because there is a price, however, I have chosen to give away a tip-on which is a free gift within every issue, hopefully this factor will compensate for the price e.g. This issue has a free stationary set with the magazine.

My feedback in the form of an audio clip supports why a school would distribute my magazine (the clip can be heard below this slide show) …

What have you learned about technologies from the process of constructing this school magazine?

I have learnt a lot during the construction of my school magazine:

•During the photography stage I looked at the lighting in photos on front covers of magazines, I noticed the lighting coming from the right hand side of the image and attempted to imitate that in my magazine also, but I found it difficult to make sure that the lighting was good in all of the images but the end result was successful.

•I also found it difficult when doing a group shot as one person may be ready while one person may be talking, that is why I made sure I was in control and that everyone was listening to me, in the end I decided that I couldn’t use the images due to this problem.

•The preliminary task gave me the opportunity to use Photoshop for the first time and the experience made me realise that editing pictures was harder and longer than I had initially thought, in a few cases I could not get rid of the green which was reflected on to the image from the green screen.

•I decided to have a centre image of a boy and girl on my front cover to broaden my target audience but I found it difficult to keep the image the correct size while trying not to get the writing in the left third to over lap the picture.

The things that I’ve been successful with in the preliminary task I hope to take with me, but I will try to overcome the difficulties when constructing my music magazine.