EVALUATION

       I would agree that both of my products follows the real conventions of a magazine. This is important so the customers recognize the product which makes it look professional and realistic fulfilling its purpose. For my magazine cover, I have followed the standard conventions such as the masthead positioned at the top of the page supporting the Z theory. Other conventions I included were cover lines which attracts the reader to read the contents of the magazine which also anchors  the text to the main image. The issue number and date to inform the reader when the magazine was published, a puff to advertise a competition inside the magazine engaging and exciting the reader, subheading to help summarie the theme of the magazine which was back to school. I have also included more conventions which I have listed in a previous blog post. However I did challenge my plan and the conventions as I did not include a barcode on my front cover. This is because I found it was unnecessary to include a barcode as the magazine was going to be distrusted within the school which does not have an electronic scanner. Instead the magazine will be distributed upon payment which is easier than selling a magazine costing 20p electronically.

      My media product represents a wide variety of social groups.  A range of social groups attend Chislehurst school therefore I wanted my magazine to reflect all of them so everyone feels equally included. I included three different girls from three different backgrounds which I hope will be presented clearly on my product. Because I want to attract everyone I included a variety of articles which would appeal to different people. On the other hand my main target audience was mainly those of a working class seeing as the school is a state school. This is important as the parents are also my target audience who mostly have full time jobs.

      Because my product is only a school magazine it means it will not distributed on large scale, only within the school. The magazine will only be created by the students and teachers of the school meaning it will not be fully professional as it is made by unskilled persons. This means a large publishing house is not required to print the magazines as they are only being sold to the students and parents whom of which will not all purchase the product.

      The main targets of my products are the current students and their parents, potential students and their parents. The current students would be very interested in the school magazine as it advertises things that would interest or involve them including school trips, advice, year group and form of the term and much more. Especially for this particular issue the students would want to gain advice about how to settle back into school which would be particular helpful for new pupils. Their parents would also want to know about the latest news and progress the school is making. The magazine is great way to promote the success and achievements of the school to potential parents which would hopefully impress them and want them to send their child to the school. Potential students could also get a feel of their new school as see what exciting things it has to offer.

       In order to draw my audience’s attention inwards I needed to address them. I used words like ‘EXCLUSIVE’ which immediately intrigues the reader making the magazine more special and exciting. I included a competition where the text was written inside of a brightly coloured star representing the amazing prize at stake. I put the word ‘iPod’ in a larger font size to emphasize the prize making it stand out against the rest of the text – this applies to all of the other enlarged words.  I positioned both mastheads on both products at the top of each page boldly in the centro coloured vividly. I also followed a specific colour scheme which were the same colours as the school's logo so my magazine could evidently connect to the school. All these conventions and more are important to inform the reader what type of magazine it is.

     By making this media product I have learnt about technologies from the processes of constructing a magazine. Before making this product I had little knowledge about InDesign and only some knowledge about Photoshop. I now know how to use a range of tools on both software’s effectively and how to apply to them to the assembling of a magazine. I created the front cover on Photoshop as this software allowed me to easily insert and edit photographs as well as use a range of fonts of different sizes. In InDesign I created my contents page where I could re-size/crop images, add text, easily colour text and images as well as putting all the conventions in an organised manor. I now know how to apply the conventions of a magazine successfully and how to make the overall look of the product look professional. I can now appreciate the amount of detail and effort put into making a magazine and why certain conventions are used. I have learnt a range of skills which I will be able to apply to my music magazine efficiently.

      Overall I am pleased with the overall look of both of my media products. I think my front cover looks realistic as I have used each convention to their correct purposes. However if I were to do re-do it I would include more cover lines around the main image as there are some sparse spaces on the cover. Nevertheless I am also happy with my contents page as I have successfully filled the page with 50% images and 50% text. I am pleased with the layout of the page as I think it looks relatively smart and organised making it clear to read and easy for the reader to find the article they want. On the other hand to improve it I would make ensure I included all the colours that were apart of my colour scheme as I did not use much yellow or black as much as I could had.