Evaluation of School Magazine

IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS?

     My media product contains many aspects of real media products. For example, the front cover design contains the title of the magazine, a bar code, cover lines, sub-lines, a main image as the background, issue date and number and price. It also follows many conventions of real media products. One of these being the way the magazine title it spread across the entire width of the page. I used a simple colour scheme on my products to prevent them from looking tacky and unprofessional. On my contents page, I separated features and regulars into two sections to make it easier for the reader to identify what they were looking for.

     An example of the way my product challenges the forms and conventions of a real magazine is that I have not used a sub-line with my main cover line and it does not contain any buzzwords. This, in a way, would reduce the sales of my product as there is nothing that would stand out to the reader to make them want to read on. Also, the font I have used for the magazine name is very easy to be copied as I have not used a unique font style. This is also another negative for my product as it could be easily copied and it's not very recognisable. On my contents page, I did not credit the photography for the front which also links to the copyright issues. Any person could state that they took the picture and claim it was their work.

HOW DID YOU USE NEW MEDIA TECHNOLOGIES IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT?

   For my product, I used Photoshop and Quark XPress. These are both new technologies which I used to build the front cover design and contents page. I used a digital camera to capture all of the images used for my product. This was then uploaded to the computer and inserted onto either Photoshop or Quark XPress. On these two programmes, you can manipulate the shape and size of the image, insert text and fill backgrounds to create a design.

WHAT ARE THE STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES OF BOTH THE PRODUCT AND YOUR USE OF NEW MEDIA TECHNOLOGIES?

     As this was the first time I had used both of these programmes, I found it difficult to get used to at first. Although, once I had been using it for a while, it got easier. However, a weakness I had in using it was estimating the actual size certain parts of the design would be. For example, the positioning statement I used was much too big in contrast to all of the other aspects of the design. Also, on the contents page, the image of the front cover of the magazine was as well, much too big.

    Another weakness was my ability in using the camera. I had never used the camera before and found it difficult to adjust to. This made some of the images blurred and out of focus. However, I believe my knowledge in the camera angles was strong so I knew what kind of pictures I had to take.

    On a whole, I think my product looks professional, besides the blurred images and the fact that everything wasn't in proportion. The colour scheme I used was simple, modern and professional, meaning my product did not look tacky and overdone. Although, I think if I was to do it again, I would use brighter colours to appeal to my target audience of 13-16 years more. As well as this, I think my cover lines and sub-lines were quite intriguing and did not make the article obvious. This would make the reader want to read on. The fact that I used a puff on the magazine would also help in the sales of the product as it is a free gift and would be very useful for a pupil of a high school sitting their exams.