In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Before I made my student magazine I studied other magazines. These consisted of large mast heads that covered the 25% of the page generally from left to right however some of them were smaller this created their brand identity. To make a good front cover it should include a central image and appropriate articles in the magazines I looked at it covers the whole of the page and is overlapped by the splash, cover lines and other text. The text was kept too no more than 3 different fonts and these changed as they were suitable to the target audience the text were fun and exciting which connotes energy. Also the house style was kept consistent throughout, they did this by keeping to the same fonts and colour schemes this connotes youth. In my magazine I have followed how they use these generic conventions in their magazines to my work. I have done this by keeping the house style consistent. The colours I used were yellow and white which I kept consistent to make the house style throughout the contents page. These colours made my front cover fun and energetic which created my house style. The fonts were kept the same throughout using 3 simple and laid back fonts, this made the magazine less formal and to relate to my target audience which connotes to the fun and laid back youth. I used a digital camera to take my central image. I chose a boy to appeal to the younger market and he wasa student the same age as my target audience. This which taken close up because of the breif however it helped to give my front cover character as you can see the facial expressions. I chose the name 'student central' because it has the name 'student' so it is clear for the target market and 'central' because it makes you feel like you have to be their.
How does your media product represent the particular social group?
My magazine targets 15 to 22 years olds. This is about the age of students I have kept to my target research and kept it simple and but fun and youthful. The central image is fun and connects to the youth because of the age it is aimed at. I kept the price very low because it was aimed at student that were not willing to pay a lot for a magazine.
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
The institutions that could publish magazines like mine would be other student magazines colleges and universities. This magazine is focused on students and thus audience this would appeal by having useful and fun articles about the college or university. This would appeal to the students that also have a life at home as some of the articles are based around general life not all about work.
Who would be the target audience for your media product?
This would be males and females around 15 to 22 years olds. The magazine focus's on outside student life such as music and fashion and sports this would appeal to the target audience that have interests in those areas. It would appeal to people that like to read magazine and take interest in whats going around in the social media.
How did you attract/address your audience?
My audience feedback told me that in a student magazine they would like it to give off the impression of entertain fun and exciting. I have done this by firstly using different fonts for different topic areas. The fonts are simple and bold to stand out from the rest if the magazine. Another font is a laid back easy reading font which give the magazine a relaxed look which connotes an easy life which students like to feel. The changing in the fonts make the magazine different and gives it energy. My audience feedback told me that they weren't prepared to pay a lot for the magazine so I kept it cheap so that it was affordable for my audience. The colours I have used are yellow and white and red. The red is to make the puffs stand out from the rest of the magazine to break it up and make you want to read it. The yellow and the white are two very bright colours that work well together my audience feedback told me they wanted bright vibrant colours to make it more interesting. The overall feel of the magazine is informal this gives a student feel to the magazine which attracts the audience as they want to feel like it relates to them.
What have you learnt about technology's from the process of constructing this product?
I have learnt about Indesign because I have never used it much I have learnt the basics in how to use it and how to set out a magazine. I have also learnt about the bleeds so the magazine is made correct. I also learnt about the layers and how to move text and images around the page easily. I started by using the basics inserting texts boxes and images which was very useful and to insert a picture. I also learnt how to change the fonts and insert in background for my contents page. However I did find this programe difficult to use at the start as it was complicated to move the images around and edit the text I found myself doing it a difficult way. I have learnt how to use the basics of blogger interning in a post and editing it. Also I can insert different media onto my blog not just writing.
