Primary Research - Magazine Analysis

 

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

How did you attract/address your audience for your contents page?

Although the original principal of a contents page isn't attractive for any other reasons apart from finding out the content I tried to make it more appealing to my audience. I enlarged pictures and text to subvert conventions and make it more interesting. I invested colour to create a more eye catching result, as the use of pictures filled with colour intrigues the eye and causes it to catch my audiences attention. I aimed to attract my audience by enlarging the pictures and text to make it bigger than anything else to draw the attention to the articles which would mostly interest my audience. 

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

In what ways does your contents page use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

What have I learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this produce?

How did I attract/address your audience?

I attracted and addressed my audience in many ways. The use of colour is very important when representing my target market, I used a bright red which has connotations of lively, this symbolises my target audience and causes it to be eye catching and fun, this is the aim for the majority of my target audiences life so therefore attracts them more. The use of slang and colloquial language relates to my audience on a one to one basis, my target market use this lexis to their friends, this connects to them more and lets them relate to my magazine, therefore attracting them to my magazine. I used a retro font as this can quite often be a fashionable trend among my target market, so this causes them to be attracted to my magazine more. Like I brought up in my last question I also mentioned major events among my target audiences calender, freshers week is a huge event to my target audience so this causes them to be intrigued about it, so therefore by using this as a cover line then this instantly attracts my target audience.

Flat plan and grid for my contents page

Here is a picture of my grid and flat plan for my contents page

My improved front cover

How does my media front cover represent particular social groups

Newbie College Evaluation

Ways my front cover followed, developed and challenged real magazine covers

Newbie College Evaluation

My Contents Page

Basics of InDesign

Above is the basics I have learnt through InDesign these skills are vital to create a document but I feel that at some point I should improve my knowledge of the programme to create more interesting and professional effects as these skills are very basic for a publishing magazine.

My Completed Magazine Cover

This is my completed magazine cover I added background shapes the same colour as the guitar to keep a theme for this cover. I added these shapes to make the cover less formal as if it was formal then this wouldn't appeal to my audience. It is important that this appeals to my audience as if my target market don't like or find the cover appealing the they won't read the magazine. I used the same colour as my guitar as I wanted to have an ongoing theme to make the magazine look more pleasing to the eye, which is also a key concept if I want to achieve the aim of providing a college magazine that is read by the whole student community. Also I used red as it is an eye catching colour and will make it more likely that people will see this over other magazine. I will use the same shade red on the contents page and if I was produce a whole issue then it would be repeated throughout as it would contribute towards a house style. I decided not to use many cover lines or buzz words as I find they clutter and ruin the front cover although this is generally convention to convey the contents of a magazine, this means that I will have to provide more information on the articles within my college magazine to make up for the lack of cover lines on my front cover. I have followed convention as the one cover line I do have is on the left, this is to do with the way the magazine will first be presented as the right side will be covered so if I did place any cover lines on the right then these would be covered and unseen. I also decided to put my bar code in the bottom right corner as when it is presented to be picked up it won't be seen, also by placing it in the corner is allows it to be discrete and not ruin my design. I could have improved my front cover by including the information that shows its free and you won't have to charge for the magazine. This is a huge flaw in my cover as it can put off people picking it up as they can be confused to whether money can be exchanged which I know from my audience research that my target market lack money as quite often their money has to go towards college supplies or if they are in accommodation then they will have to spend it on food. So I have learnt that for future projects that I must make sure that all needed information is provided before I finish the project.