College Magazine

EVALUATIONBY JONATHAN HEAP

My College Magazine

In what way does your media

product use, develop or challenge

forms and conventions of real media

products?

Conventions

of a

magazine.A Traditional Magazine will include:

• Masthead

• Strap line

• Puff

• Sell lines

• Cover lines

• Left third

• Pull Quote

• Price Line

• Date Line

• Bar Code

• Main Image

• Banner

Conventions of my Front Cover

My Magazine

Conventions used

Masthead

Puff

Sell line

Cover lines in left third

Pull Quote

Date line

Bar code

Main image

Developing and challenging

conventions of a traditional

magazine.

The masthead isn’t like a traditional college

magazine as it isn’t just a bold font right

across the top of the magazine, and it’s just

placed in the top left hand corner of the

magazine like the Q magazine does. In my

college magazine I have decided to blend

the two so have a big bold 6TH and then

have form next to it. So it goes across like

empire using letters like empire but at the

same time is very much fixed in the top

corner and the 6Th is the main masthead

and the bit saying form is almost like a

strapline to the right of it.

Masthead

The Puff

The puff used on the college magazine of mine

(top left) is quite bold with its jagged edge and

colour and really jumps out to the audience.

This challenges most magazine puffs as they

tend to just be a circle and want the

information with in it to stand out more, but still

are their to be noticed. Mountain Biking UK

magazines puff (top right) is the closest to mine

as it is jagged and stands out. However the kit it

is showing, so the suspension, bag and gears

stand out even more. So I believe this is the

best example of a puff I’ve seen as it really

jumped out at me. Therefore if I were doing this

magazine again I would possibly have images

with in the puff linked to what it was saying so

tickets or textbooks.

The Main image The main image used is good quality and focused well in my

magazine (top left). It also in composites techniques like rule

of thirds. However due to the colours of leaves in the

background it made it difficult finding a colour that could go

on top and be read easily. A bit like the yellow and white at

the bottom of NME (bottom left) as it isn’t the easiest of

themes to read off and follow. However if I came across this

problem again in future magazines the technique used in

empire (top right) of having a coloured strip right across like a

banner is good as it makes any text clear as well and adding

further emphasis for the audience. Part of this I think is down

to the equipment I had available as the image used is straight

off a camera and all the others have been edited some way

or another by professionals and lots of time and money has

been put into creating them. But this also goes with the other

types of genres of magazines as empire and total film are the

biggest film magazines out their and try to create a scene on

their main cover and are probably done in a studio or

cropped and photo shopped in. Also like the who in NME will

have had the cover done in a photo-shoot in a studio so all

lighting and background was un-natural but what they

wanted.

Traditional Conventions usedAlthough my magazine has incorporated many new styles of

tradition conventions or even just used the traditional

conventions as many you cannot change as a sell line and a pull

quote will always be a sell line and a pull quote no matter what

font, size and colours you use to make them stand out. However

the puff isn’t just a plain traditional circle and looks more like an

explosion to make it stand out again. But things like the masthead

and main image you can change and work with to make a top

quality magazine cover that the audience see and want to

purchase.

Contents page

Conventions used

Sticks to the theme

Images

Lists articles

My magazine contents is very basic and shows

that I hadn’t done adequate research for the

contents like I had done for the main cover. The

only thing I was more confident on was the

types of stories you found in college magazines

so before I do another magazine I definitely

need to improve this area. However again it

uses a good image and sticks to the theme but

Is more traditional and to the book rather than

having a unique style to entice the audience

further.

How does your media

product represent particular

social groups?

Images

My magazine shows a sixth form student both on the

cover as well as on the contents page. Both of these

are males so it therefore doesn’t represent female

students at all when you get an initial glance. Also

due to the genre of the magazine being a college

magazine it is therefore representing a certain age

group between 17-18 years old.

Articles The articles mention are mostly aimed clearly at the

17-18 student social group. With articles on University,

revision and the leap from GCSE. It represents a range

of students by the stories from hard working students

who are wanting to get ahead with revision to

students who may be struggling in the leap from GCSE

or what to do next with their lives. This is a good diverse

range of articles as it doesn’t limit the audience.

Except the Sell line being about tips from the head

boy and no where in the contents or front cover has it

mentioned a head girl so then again it is male

orientated. This is probably down the fact that I did it

and was working with fellow male students when

taking the photos.

What kind of media

institution might distribute

your product and why?

Institutions most likely to issue a magazine like

this are the school/sixth form, UCAS (a university

application website) or social media and

pages linked to the school or students as a high

percentage of the 17-18 year olds represented

are on multiple forms of social media. However

the school and sixth form it is from is the biggest

institution that would distribute the product. The

distribution its self could be done by the school

through email and a pdf version of the

magazine could be sent out to all students and

parents registered for it as well as having

physical copies is communal areas of the

school and sixth form as well as the reception.

As many could distribute this magazine but

depending on the size and popularity of the

magazine it would depend on how many

people would want to distribute it and

predominantly down to how much money they

themselves could get. But a the small scale it

would start on it would most likely be free in a

school.

Who would be the audience

for your media product?

The audience

The audience for this magazine would be Students aged

17-18 and studying A-levels. Also teachers of this level of

education may also be interested in the magazine as

their tips and may be in it. Another audience may be

parents of the students, but chances are this isn’t a

primary audience as the magazine would probably just

get passed on.

How did you attract/

address your audience?

The audience were attracted to the magazine by the

sell lines and cover lines stating articles that interested

them and were relevant to them. ‘Not going to uni?’

is a question that if relatable and relevant to the

student draws them in especially if they have been

asking themselves these questions and want help.

Also the main image was of the head boy, which if

was somebody they recognised then their were more

likely to look at it more. Also the puff said about the

social which will have the audience as it informs then

of information they want to know, such as when the

next social is?

What have you learnt about

technologies from the

process of constructing this

product?

Technology

Through making this magazine I have more about using

a DSLR camera (we used a canon EOS 600D) in manual

and changing the aperture to vary the focus of the

shot, so if you wanted the foreground focused but the

background blurred and vice versa. Also I have learnt

more about using Microsoft Publisher and how to move

things, crop, and change size, font and colour of

multiple sections at once. Also although it was not

needed in the final image I have learnt how to use parts

of Photoshop and know how to do some editing of

photographs I have taken. I also learnt when

researching other magazines about studio lighting and

camera angles/ shots. This was very beneficial as I could

consider this when planning a shoot and what angles

and distances would work best for a shot.

By Jonathan Heap

Blogs www.jaheap1.blogspot.com

Magazine production