Evaluation

As stated by Bentley the creative process is “The making of the new through the rearranging of the old” (Bentley 1997). I applied this to my media production by looking at the common conventions of magazines before I started working on my front cover and contents page. This meant that I had a better understanding of things that would look good and things that wouldn’t. I started the research into these common conventions by looking at the Bodmin College Magazine. By looking at this particular magazine I found that it didn’t fit it’s purpose as it didn’t appeal to the target audience because overall it looked too busy and not very professional. Due to this I decided to challenge and break the conventions of this magazine when making my own by using the results from my survey monkey to produce a magazine that would appeal to my target audience. My target audience preferred the style of Vogue but with Kerrang and NME coming close second so I decided to incorporate these styles in with vogue to create a simple style but with a slight edge that my target audience would like. On my front cover I did follow some conventions such as the masthead being 1/8 of the page so that it’s clear and stands out although this wasn’t something that was shown in the Bodmin College Magazine. I also stuck to the layout convention with the use of one main image that is a medium shot being the focus and writing overlayed in different sizes, I used this because it means that my front cover doesn’t look too busy but still looks professional. I also stuck to the convention of a tag-line underneath the masthead which again wasn’t shown in the Bodmin College Magazine. These common conventions link to my target audience as these aspects will make it look aesthetically pleasing and stand out more which will catch their attention and make them want to read it. 

My product represents the particular social group of students aged 11-19 as these are the students that attend the college I want it to appeal to them because it’s their magazine and so it should be about things they are interested in. Although from the results of my survey monkey I found that the most popular age range of people that would read the magazine is 17-19 so I wanted to appeal to this age range slightly more as they are the ones that are more likely to read the magazine. As the students I am mainly representing are in higher education this goes against Adolescence in 2 volumes that Stanley Hall wrote in 1904 where he came up with the ‘Storm & Stress Model’ that states ‘Adolescence is inherently a time of storm and stress when all young people go through some degree of emotional and behavioral upheaval before establishing a more stable equilibrium at adulthood’ he also thought that ‘common mood in teenagers was depressed’ and ‘criminal activity would increase at the ages of 12 & 24’. My magazine disrupts this theory because it is showing these students as not going through this upheaval as they have continued with education and my magazine is recognizing these achievements. Also as the target audience are ranged 11-19 but the most popular readers are going to be 17-19 it shows that these students haven’t become depressed and haven’t gone into any form of criminal activity as they are staying on to further their studies. I want my magazine to show that youth can be shown in a positive light rather than the negative light that is so often aligned with them. I think the cover and contents page that I have created stick to this ideology that I want to get across as it has a positive tone to the magazine through the colours used and the stories that are going to be involved in the magazine. 

The target audience for my product is primarily the students that attend the college as the content is about things that will involve them. The age range of these students is from 11-19 so the stories need to appeal to what they will actually be interested in so that they will want to read the magazine. Although from the results of my survey monkey I found that the most common age range to read the magazine will be students aged 17-19 so there will be more content that appeals to this age range. The secondary audience for my magazine will be the student’s parents/guardians as they will be interested in what is going on in their son/daughters school and will want to know about it. This means that the content needs to appeal to students while giving their parents information on what their student is doing. From this I ensured I attracted my target audience through an appealing colour scheme that didn’t have contrasting colours and looked aestically pleasing. I also made sure that my cover page wasn’t too busy with a simple layout that made it clear to read and didn’t overwhelm my audience, I think this was effective as it had the common conventions of how a magazine cover should be laid out. I also ensured that I addressed my audience by featuring stories that would appeal to them and involve them, such as the Bodmin College ‘Speak Up Speak Out’ Holocaust Memorial day which can appeal to all age range of students as anyone can be involved in it. Also the story about ’30 of the best tips for your university application’ appeals to the narrowed down target audience of students aged 17-19 as this will help them with their further studies and will make them want to read the magazine to find out these tips. My magazine also has the features of ‘New plans coming in for the college’ and the ‘Note from the Principal’ that appeals to the secondary audience of parents/guardians. 

“The view that the internet and new digital media as an optional extra is replaced with the recognition that they have fundamentally changed the ways we engage with all media” (David Gauntlett 2007) I think this quote represents the process that I have gone through with making my magazine front cover and contents page as the engagement with new media technologies has changed the way we can construct magazines. As this process has made me more confident with Photoshop and I can see how the layout on it is easy and simple to use which makes it the best way to construct my magazine front cover and contents page. I think what I have found from making these it supports Gauntlett’s theory because it is showing the way that we engage with new media especially through the use of ‘Blogger’ which shows an engagement with every aspect of my preliminary task. As it shows each process in an easily updatable way which also makes it a lot easier for changes to be made and different things to be added in. 

I think overall my front cover and contents page came out well because they stuck to certain common conventions which ensured that it looked appealing to an audience. I also feel I came up with a newer and improved version of the Bodmin College magazine that would appeal more to students as it wasn’t too busy and also didn’t have any contrasting colours used that would have looked too in your face. I still think improvements could be made to my magazine in my main task. I think this could be done by creating a more original magazine idea and creating my own company that has an original image that will attract a readers attention easily. I also thin k by creating a magazine that fits a certain genre it will be easier to make it look more professional and if it is a proper magazine. On the main task as well I will need to make the colour scheme is more gender neutral as the one on my preliminary appeals more to female audience than a male audience so I will stay away from this in future.