College magazine evaluation.

In this essay I will evaluate my college magazine front cover. I will evaluate my use of conventions; representation of social groups, the audience the magazine is aimed at, the technologies I have learnt about, written about what I have learnt and what I will do differently in the future.

The conventions I used in my college magazine front cover are a mast head to show the reader what magazine it is and makes it easier for the readers to quickly find the magazine they want. Another convention I used is a skyline to promote social media that also relates to who the magazine is aimed at, the magazine is aimed at teenagers that go to college and typically their worlds revolve around social media so promoting it makes them more likely to buy the magazine. I used a barcode on my magazine to show the issue number and how much the magazine is. I used feature stories to interest the reader and make them want to read my magazine. I also used a plug on my magazine to entice the reader because plugs generally show important information or give special offers that the reader may want therefore they buy and read the magazine. Finally I used only 3 colours in my magazine to make it sophisticated thus not confusing the reader and to make the magazine easy to read because many colours can make things harder to focus.

The social group my magazine aims at and represents is a general group, teenagers that go to college. I represented this social group in my magazine by using social media and a picture of a female college student. Unfortunately I did not represent the full social group because I did not have a male student in my image on the front cover.

The audience of my magazine links closely to the social groups represented in my magazine as they are all teenagers of college age that go to college, in this case Wyke college. The references to social media will attract my audience to buy this magazine because this generation is largely focused on social media. Another reason my target audience may be attracted to my magazine is because of the special offers advertised in the plug as many teenagers do not have much money they like free things or chances to win expensive things. The magazine’s feature stories are about things that have happened or are going to be happening in the college such as trips and tour de wyke therefore appealing to my target audience because the stories are more relevant to them and not generalized.

The technologies I have learnt about whilst making this magazine is photoshop, when I first used photoshop I was not very confident at using the tools and did not really know how to put a picture on to an a4 size and how to use things like the scale tool to make things bigger and smaller. Another technology I have learnt about is the camera. I have learnt how to take pictures with and without the flash and how to put  them on to the computer during this task.

Looking back from making the perfume advert to making this college magazine I feel that i have learnt that I need to use 3 colours to not confuse the reader but the colours must be bright and stand out so the reader is attracted to my advert/magazine. Another thing I have learnt is that I need to have a font that will go well with the style of the advert or magazine and does not look confusing.

If I did this task again I would take a picture with both a male and female student. I would do this so that I could represent the social group fully and appeal to my target audience more as I only have a female student on my magazine front cover. I would also put an image next to my feature stories to make them more appealing to my target audience as they may not know what it is about and feel the story might be boring or not relevant to them but if they say the picture they might feel differently therefore buying the magazine.

To conclude I feel that in this essay I feel that i have evaluated my use of conventions, representation of social groups, the audience the magazine is aimed at, the technologies I have learnt about, written about what I have learnt and what I will do differently in the future.