Evaluation

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

When I created my magazine I looked at other student magazines for inspiration. I noticed that in the examples I looked at there were references to references to local events so in my magazine I included an article on the ‘Christmas fair’. The covers I looked at had the masthead in the top left of the cover, and the cover lines down the left hand side. This is where I placed these features on my cover to make it look neat and professional. The contents pages I looked at both had titles for sections of the magazine in them to make for easier navigation (for example: features, sport and news). This was also a feature I included in my magazine.

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My magazine represents student life. I wanted to represent students as friendly and confident. For the image on the cover I used a medium close up of a Ludlow college student. His facial expression and body language are quite happy and confident, which ties in with the representation I was trying to create. I used quite professional language that is not too formal; this connotes confidence. The images I used in the contents page are photographs from around the college and town. There is not much going on in the photos; this represents student life as peaceful and relaxing.

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

My magazine has articles mainly specific to Ludlow College, so would probably be made and distributed in college. A company could distribute it but this would raise the price, most students in the questionnaire voted the magazine should be free.

4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

 My audience is students from Ludlow College (16-18 year olds). The magazine is aimed at both genders.

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

I attracted my audience by including content that students said they wanted in the questionnaire. I included both serious stories and gossip stories. I used a puff on the front cover highlighting the fact that the magazine is free. I used green and black for the colour scheme. The title on the cover is green as it is quite an eye-catching colour; also green connotes peace and relaxation.  I used a neat layout, especially on the contents, to make it easy to navigate and read. I also used quite formal language, which has connotations with professionalism. 

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

When designing my front cover and contents page I used Adobe In Design, which I had never used before. I found this worked well and was quite easy to use, although it was a little tricky getting the photos from the memory stick onto the software. I also used blogger, which again I had never used before.  It has been a very useful way of recording all my work. It was also fairly easy to use although it was a bit difficult to upload the slideshow presentation, cover and contents page.