Preliminary Exercise;

Preliminary Exercise;



Using DTP and an image manipulation program, proudce the front page of a new school/college magazine, featuring a photograph of a student in medium close-up plus some appropriatley laid-out text and a masthead. additionally you must produce a mock-up of the layout of the contents page to demonstrate their grasp of DTP.






Language: Technical and theoretical terms. Subject specific terminology. Technical Terms, specific medium forms: Masthead, splash(front Page), headline, photo(to attract audience) plugs, secondary headings coventions.


Institution: Production of media texts own ways/style to produce it to its audience. college form. to promote it. magazineproducers and the college students.


Ideology: Shared system of beliefs and values. Represented in its content. aspirational.


Audience: Consumers of media text. Niche – small specialised audience. target audience. Target Audience- age, gender, class16-18 years, neutral social economic positions. (upper/middle/working/under class) job education econmics, detrmains class)


Representation: Social groups rep.. in media suggests ideas about social groups (reflects society – media) students/possible students. denotation conotation. information, pictures,bullet points, lists and paragraphs.





Analysing Magazine's;















On the magazine there is a boy and girl both in the same coloured school uniform this means that they both have equal equalities in learning. Also the boy is having his had up to answer a question, were as the girl is sat down with a pen in her hand. She is look at across at him because, she already has her pen in her hand she is looking as if to say lets see what you got. She is also quite laid back because, she most likely already has the answer and is letting him have a go at answering the question. Also on the girls side of the magazine there is a question “Do girls learn differently from boys” is in pink but on the boys side it is in blue. Plus there is some writing about a free cookbook and the word above “Plus” on the girls side is in blue and on the boys side is in pink. This represents that both boys and girls use the colours pink and blue but, the pink on the boys side and the blue on the girls side is in small print to show that we use the colour pink to represent information about girls and blue to represent information about boys. Also on in the inside contents it is all information for teachers and how teachers from all across the country are teacher plus, how students all across the country are learning and what they are finding differently. Plus there is a section for the teachers to send in their contributions about the ways they teach and how the students they teach learn. So that other teachers can read. And maybe even use their ideas and ways of teaching for different learners E.G Auditory, visual, and kinaesthetic learns. Audience: The magazine is for secondary school teachers, as it is called “Secondary Teachers” . the teachers of the Secondary school’s will read this magazine to help them learn about the different ways school students learn. It fulfils the needs of the teachers that read the magazine to help them understand the ways that school students learn. Representation: The individuals involved in the magazine are secondary school students and teachers. The groups and issues that appear in the magazine are school students and the way they learn, plus the way that how boys and girls learn differently. Also how the teachers can tech the students in ways that they would enjoy. Media Language: Looking at the magazine side of the medium. Genre: The distinguishing features are the fact that there is a boy and a girl on the front cover. Also the magazine is split into two sides, because it will help the teachers understand how differently boys learn from girls or girls from boys. It fits in with the other text because the whole magazine is about how students learn and do the different genders learn differently form each other, also how teachers could make learning fun. Institution: The production process is controlled by http://www.teachernet.gov.org/ who make the magazines for the secondary school teachers. This effects the final product so that the magazine is produced for them to read and understand the learning of students.



Conventions


Masthead: the title, representing the newspaper’s identity and ‘personality’. SERIF CAPITALS, with a traditional feel. Note use of icons symbolising mission and tradition. Black on white (but red-top tabloids are white and red)

Sky line: ‘puffs’ for what’s inside or in the supplement, or for special offers and prizes. Reversed-out for emphasis on colour background. Here, sans serif, and with cropped images to illustrate.


Strapline: gives a taste of what’s to come in the story. Here lower case condensed, with a rule (underlining) Pull quote: brief extract from text, enlarged and often set mid-column to catch the eye.

Caption: phrase which identifies and ‘ anchors’ a paragraph usually in bold type.

Logo:A name, symbol, or trademark designed for easy and definite recognition, especially one borne on a single printing plate or piece of type.

SideBar: a typographically distinct section of a page, as in a book or magazine, that amplifies or highlights the main text.

Layout: a plan or design of something that is laid out.

Sub Head: a title or heading of a subdivision, as in a chapter, essay, or newspaper article.
House Style: house style is a simular style a document has used all the way through E.G text style, layout and font size






LIIAR For My Own Magazine;

Language: technical terms, specific medium forms: masthead, splash (front page), headline, photo (to attract audience, plugs, secondary headings conventions. Target audience- age, gender, class 16-19 years, neutral, social economic position, upper class middle class - working class and under class (job, education, economics, determines the class) Communication - subject matter Conventions = rules can be reinforced or challenged


Ideology: aspirational. what and who the magazine is for. the main information for the magazine/on the cover. some parts of the information for the cover.


Institution: the magazine producers and the college/school students. the magazine should be correctly produced for the correct audience also the magazine cover should have the right information for what the magazine is about. College /form to promote it.

Audience: the audience is for the school/college students, staff and parents. to be able to read the information on the cover to advertise the college/school. and to give the parents, staff and students with information about what the college/ school has to offer.

Representation: students/possible students. denotation connotation. The school/college students also staff and parents. the information will be shown by pictures, bullet points,lists, paragraphs and text. also on the magazine cover there will e just the information that's needed.


Narrative: the magaizne is not a story its a large leaflet that gives information towards a specific audience. if i was producing a story it would be about what the students at the college/school do on a regualar basis.


Genre: what the college/school is about and what it has to offer for its students and also for the staff to see how the students are learning and finding college/ school. and that the college magazine is ony applying to the students who are thinking of coming to the college and thier parents. also for the staff to fin out the differnet ways that the new students learn.




I like this design. And i am possibly going to use this one for my final front cover because, it is simple but rather effective. And will give the readers a good idea of what the magazine will have to offer. Also what the college is all about. Just by looking at the cover.

I have chosen these three pictures out of the several others i have taken. To place on my magazine front cover. I then edited each picture so that i could combine the three together.to place on my front cover.

I then went round each picture and cutout the person and the desk. so then i could then merge them all together so that they would fit on the main page to show a different variety of what school children do at school.

Picture 1 Picture 2 Picture 3


I then overlapped each picture and added words over the picture to state what it was about and to advertise the magazine basis. I placed picture 3 at the right hand side of my magazine with picture 2 at the left hand side and then picture 1 was then placed in font off the other 2. so that you could see all three pictures, and the different ways pupils do things.

this is my final picture after editing and combining the three together. this image will then be placed on my magazine front. with text around the image.

Final Magazine

Evaluation

To do this college magazine, I looked at different forms of college and secondary school magazine’s and analyzed each one so that I had a rough idea of what was going on the cover of my magazine. I found that many magazines where about helping children with further education skills at home and school. I decided to do my magazine on a secondary school for parent’s to help their children’s education from home, by using teachers strategies. I chose my colour scheme orange and black, because it is plain and simple, also it is not real full and things placed all over with loads of different colours, also I chose this colour scheme because it reaches its target audience by just having one bright colour to attract the target audience to view the cover and maybe buy the magazine. I chose the house style because I use two different types of text so that there is no one text the same, this also relates to the target audience so that they see the magazine is going to have similar layouts all the way through and that the main text is in bold and slightly bigger that the rest, so the target audience know what’s important and what the articles are about.
I also chose to take these pictures because they represent an average school girl, aso with her having her uniform on shows that this is what we expect to be going on at school. I chose to do the working one so that we can see school children at work, and the one with her arm in the air to show that all school children should take part in lessons and that school is not just about sitting down and writing all what they get told, but that school is about opinions and discussions of what they children think so they can learn from each other. I then chose to combine my three pictures together so that the become the main point of the magazine, and to show that the magazine is for parents about their children and their education.
I think the layout works well because we can see the main headline of what the magazine in general is about, and by placing the images in the centre makes them the focal point of the magazine to show what the magazine is about. Also by having the main articles at the bottom of the magazine covers shows the article with the images is what the magazine its self is about. But by putting the pages of these articles on the cover show’s that if the target audience want to just read that article they can skip all the others and find that article straight away without even looking at the contents page.
If I were to do the magazine again I think I would have chosen a different colour scheme, but keeping the same colours but adding one more red for example and making black the background of my cover and having orange, red and white text. Also I would have used a different programme to edit my pictures in, because I chose to overlap my images and combine them to just one, I could then see where I had cut the images away from the original background. Also I think if I were to do this again I would of chosen totally different photos to take, by maybe having different school children in the instead of the same one and maybe a group one. But overall I think my school magazine works really well and it shows that It is set for a set target audience.

Music Magazine.

Main task; The front page, contents sand double page spread of a new music music magazine. All images and text used must be original, produced by you - minimum of four images.

Research

Genre;
This magazine is a pop music magazine. There are similar magazines to this are top of the pops. This magazine extends to other types of media for example they have their own radio station, television channel and website. The musical genres that are represented in this magazine are pop and new music for example like girls aloud, sugar babes and The Saturdays. There are other musical genres which are not in this magazine for example punk rock, classical, country, Electronic, Latin and gospel folk music. These can be found in other magazines like ‘Q’, ‘Kerrang’ and ‘NME’ which would include rock and punk rock music. The stylistic features which identify the genre are the colours, the text and the images of the bands and singers who sing pop music. Also the content that is found in this magazine is typical of the genre because it is all about pop music and bands and singers which sing pop music.

Media language;
The fonts that are used on the cover of this magazine are large and bold, some is italic and there is also some small text that is used. These are used to advertise the important and less important parts of the magazine. The size of the text is all different like the mast head is bold and large so it stands out. And the text that overlays a picture is in bold but slightly smaller so it shows who they are, or what the picture is about. But then this inside contents is always smaller than the rest so that the buyer can just glance quickly at what is inside the magazine. The colours that are used are bias towards a female audience. Because the colour is pink and it will attract females more. Plus there is no other colour on the magazine that would appeal to a male audience. The photos that are used are mainly of women but the main image on the cover is of a male. The that are used are to advertise what stars get up to, new songs/bands that are out, how to look like stars and also what the stars feel about other or their relationships. The stars that are used are ones that are new out, in the pop industry also stars that are coming back into the pop industry. There is not a great range a mixed gender on the cover there is seven pictures and only two of them are of males and the rest are.

Planning my own music magazine.

Music genre.
The music genre my magazine will focus on is popular music (pop), and modern/new music. The key features of this music genre are the photo’s of the artist’s and bands which sing this type of music. And the text about the music and new albums. The magazines that already cover this genre are smash hits. The features that are in the magazine that show who its target audience are the text size and colours. Also the layout plus the images show its target audience. I could put additional features in my magazine to make it stand out and are not already marketed to appeal to my target audience could be different images bold and bright text and so on.

target audience;
My main target audience is going to be people aged 12 – 19. the target audience would expect the music genre to be more about what they want to see and would be interested in. plus also the colours would have to appeal to them. I am going to appeal to this target audience by using images, colours and music that is about pop music and modern/new music which most people between this age group listen to. The magazine will also attract them by been simple and colourful plus filled with images on the cover rather than text. I will make this magazine profitable by making it appeal to its target audience

Front covers and Contents page mock up's.

Final Magazine

Evaluation

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

The music magazine I have designed and created use’s convention’s of real media products because on the front cover I have used a large scale picture to emphases the main part of the magazine as do real media product’s to catch the audience’s eye. Also the masthead I have created and designed is bigger than the rest of the text on the magazine cover so that the audience know what the magazine is called and has an idea of what’s inside. I have also looked and analyzed music magazine cover’s and followed the layout’s to produce my magazine for example I have placed my masthead at the top and made the picture the focal point of the cover. I also used a house style throughout my magazine this would then be used on the other pages in y magazine if it were real. I also used a colour theme which real media product’s use and use in their other issue’s so there magazine is recognized, the colour theme I have used is bight yellow and red switching the combination of the two and black. Also in my double page spread I have split my writing into columns which is also used in real media product’s to make the text more appealing and easy to understand, also it doesn’t look like there is loads of writing so the readers want to read the text.
I have developed my masthead further because I have used a slightly different style of text than the ordinary bold heading, I have chosen the style Broadway and then used the same text in a different colour and over lapped the text to form my masthead. I have also developed the idea of borders around the edge of the magazine to make the cover look my interesting and catch the audience’s eye, I used the idea of borders but then added two at one side of different colours’s to enclose all the text on the cover rather than putting two at separate sides. Also I developed the idea of symbols because some magazines uses a symbol to create a letter in their masthead I took this idea and made a musical note to put next to the masthead to show that the magazine is about, I did this in the same way I did the masthead its self but swapped the colour over lap around.
I have challenged the real media music magazines because the majority are now set to one genre of music, the ones that I have analyzed are, I have challenged this idea because I have set my magazine to cover a Varity of music, so that it reaches out to a wider audience rather than a set audience.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The music I have chosen to be represented in my magazine is a Varity mainly focusing on a younger audience to middle age social group. It focuses on the younger audience by having popular and new music advertised on the cover, this is more their music because they are interested in the new songs and what bands are coming out next, also the tour dates and interview appeal to them because they like to know the latest gossip and all the next gigs to their favorite bands. It also appeals to the middle aged audience by having the focal point of the cover about an artist coming back this appeals to them because they will have listened to the artist before and be interested in when they will be bringing out a new single and tour dates ect. Also the fact it has bands like ‘Take That’ because there is information about a band that has reformed and the audience want to know more. Also the colours repreasent social groups because they stand out as individual’s just like the artisit’s and bands in the magazine and the audience reading and buying the magazine.

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

I would like to think that universal music group would be interested because they reach a wide audience all over the world and are interested in all the new band and artists also by having tour dates in the magazine if ‘Universal Music Group’ is the record label of that artist they will be making more money and so the magazine it’s self by reaching out to wider audience. If I were to go to a record company that dose a totally different genre of music would be defeating the object because the magazine wouldn’t be making a profit or reaching out to the correct audience. There would also be hard competion in the music business, for example ‘NME’ would be a hard music magazine to compete with because the magazine is jam packed with new music and comes out once a week, but also the ‘NME magazine reaches out to different audience than this music magazine, but they are both all about the new music that is out. It would be a competition of who get’s it out first. Although ‘NME’ does have a set audience this music magazine does reach part of that audience too by having some music from that genre in the magazine. But by having the ‘Universal Music Group’ to distribute this magazine could help with the everyday competition.

What would be the audience of your media product?
The audience for my media product is males and females aged 13-40 I have selected this audience because I don’t have to worry to much about the music and information put in the magazine because there is a wide age range and that means it’s a variety of music genres. Also I don’t have to be real careful about the colours used and the house style and also the pictures used throughout the magazine.

How did you attract/address your audience?

I attracted the audience by the colours I used in the masthead and down the side of the magazine cover, I selected these because they appeal to everyone not just a certain age or gender.
I addressed my audience by the language I used and the way the magazine its self is set out. Also by following and using the correct convention’s used in a music magazine. I have named the magazine ‘Base Beats’ because the name is an alliteration and also sounds appealing, also the name tells the audience that the magazine is about base music and beat’s which in the way I have chosen to appeal it to all types of music. I also chose the colour theme yellow, red and black to attract my audience because of the bright colours to catch their eye, and also because the colours are mutual they don’t just appeal to one set gender they appeal to both. Also I chose just to use black text to create the professional touch, but put the headings and important text in red or yellow, so that these bits stand out to the audience. I have used two types of text ‘ Arial and Broadway’ to keep the house style throughout and make the magazine have profession rather than use loads of different font’s. I have placed the images in these certain place so that the larger ones become the focal point and stand out to the audience and attract them to the magazine, I haven’t edited them too much, the only thing I have done is cut them out of their original background so that I can chose my own. When asking members of the audience I got mainly positive feedback, because people were saying they would by this magazine there selves, but however I also did get some negative feedback with people saying the questions on my double page spread were too big, and made it look like I hadn’t written much, and the pictures on the contents page were all over the place and made it look messy. So I then changed everything and asked for feedback and they said they liked my new changes.

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

I have learnt a lot throughout making this magazine, I have mainly learnt how to use Photoshop to my advantage because I can now cut out a picture by picking out the colours so that I just have the object I want left. Also I learnt how to feather my pictures so I can have my photo’s over lapping each other without them looking rubbish. The photographs I took and edited are more developed than the college magazine I did, because I learnt properly this time how to cut pictures away from their backgrounds. I have also learnt how to use Microsoft publisher more advanced by learning how to overlap text and pictures, also by placing border’s, text and images exactly where I want them to be, I have learnt how to use this programme to its full potential by listening and been shown how to use all the different features, and taking onboard what everyone has said and using it to my advantage.

Looking back at your Preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full project?
By looking back at the Preliminary task I can see that the magazine cover look’s rushed and unfinished, even though I did spend a lot of time effort on the college magazine. But because I now know how to use DTP and Photoshop to their full potential helped me create a professional and finished look. Also I have used up al the space provided and made the magazine look more effective and professional.