A Level Media Studies – Preliminary Task Evaluation (School Magazine Cover Design)

1. A Level Media Studies – Preliminary Task Evaluation (School Magazine Cover Design) By Harry Appleyard

2. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? Throughout my time working on my final school magazine cover design, I ensured that typical features, codes and conventions were added and used not only to attract certain target audiences, but to also make the design of the cover similar to that of many official magazines seen in Britain today. In other words, my magazine does develop forms of conventions from real magazine products. During my research on school magazines, I was surprised to see that many key conventions such as the dateline, splash and barcode were missing. The layout of my magazine’s front cover is quite different to those I found on the internet, but very similar to magazines on other subjects that I had seen in the past using a splash to inform the target audience about the contents of the magazine successfully if placed behind other magazines or items, a dateline to tell frequent or infrequent consumers the date of the magazine’s publishing and a main image as a visual representation of the main headline, seen towards the bottom of the cover. Supporting headlines are also used not only to attract audiences if the topic of the main headline does not appeal to them, but to also give them ideas about the content within, without having to turn the pages of the magazine before purchase.

3. How does your media product represent particular social groups? My media product was made to not only interest people of ages 16 and over, but to also include them within the main content of the magazine, if ever published. When designing the cover for “Hazeley’s Sixth Form”, I wanted to represent young adults well. For the main image, I chose an image of a female student in her late teens. She is shown smiling with direct mode of address, appropriate workplace clothing and several books in her arms. I felt that this image was a good choice for the cover, as it would help to show young adults a pleasant, caring social group, challenging stereotypes that perceive people of around the age of 16 as anti-social as rebellious. The direct mode of address and her smile suggests that she is not afraid of those looking towards her and generally, quite happy and well-prepared for her working day with several books to support her studies. Another noticeable feature of the image is its angle, which is taken at eye-level with the girl, suggesting that she is an equally-powered character to those looking towards her on the magazine’s cover. The fact the she seems happy to see others and prepared for work challenges many modern stereotypes on British teenagers who are often shown as ant-social and lacking in motivation within the media.

4. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? I think a media institution similar to MagBook would distribute my media product successfully. Unlike other magazine distributors, MagBook does not specialise in distributing magazines of similar subjects and genres but distributes magazines of many different genres and subjects instead. I feel that a distributor like MagBook would succeed in distributing the Hazeley’s Sixth Form magazine as MagBook usually puts their magazines, which are usually stand-alone publications, into well-known stores around the country including the supermarket Tesco. If MagBook did sell an issue of the magazine as a standalone issue rather than the first in a series, data could be taken from the sales of the magazine and could help towards making improvements on the magazine or further development of the product. While the Hazeley’s Sixth Form magazine is only intended for sale and distribution within the Hazeley Academy, MagBook could easily support its sales and popularity. I also feel that the magazine could be distributed by MK News as part of their weekly newspaper. While MK News would only give the product localised distribution, it could also have a good effect on the magazine’s success in the near or far future.

5. Who would be the audience for your media product? If the Hazeley’s Sixth Form magazine did become an official, monthly publication, its target audience would be young adults from ages 16 and onwards. In order to attract this audience, I would ensure that the magazine used various features from other magazines that aim themselves at people of the same age such as images to represent written content, news page to display information about current events, articles that would contain only key information and not any other elements that can be seen as boring or irrelevant and many more. How did you attract/address your audience? I attracted my target audience to my final cover design by using various typical magazine features. These features included the splash, a short summary of the magazine’s content at the top, which is the part of the cover that is unlikely to be blocked by other magazines in stores or other places, a main image to relate to the main headline and various headings which with various light colours, stood out well against the green background of the cover. I also incorporated the colours of the Hazeley Academy logo, green, yellow and red to appeal directly to students of the Academy who would be more likely to associate them with their place of education rather than with other imagery relating to the colours themselves.

6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product? During the construction of this product, I learnt much more about using Photoshop, a piece of software which have occasionally used to edit some of my own photography in the past. As I made the cover design, I began to develop a good understanding of masking and discovered various ways of manipulating/enhancing certain aspects of both text and images. Although some parts of the product’s development were difficult even with such an advanced form of software for a assistance, I still enjoyed making the product within Photoshop. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product? When looking back on this task, I would say that I have learnt a lot more about the making of magazines and once again, have improved my knowledge on editing software. I have also made many more discoveries about general magazine codes and conventions which I have frequently overlooked in the past, without realising how much of an impact they have on a magazine’s overall outcome and appeal.