Evaluation

Evaluation

             Bentley once stated "The making of the new through the rearranging of the old"(Bentley, 1997) this applies to my media magazine production as I had to look at the common conventions of a magazine before creating my own front cover and contents page. By doing this it meant that I had a better understanding of what looked right and what didn't look right. I started my research in to the common conventions with looking at the Bodmin College magazine. By analysing the college magazine I found out that it didn't actually fulfil its purpose as it didn't appeal to its target audience because overall it just looked messy, thrown together and just unprofessional. I decided to break the conventions when making my own my target audience stated that they wanted a more creative interesting take on the college magazine. As it has to appeal to the target audience of the college magazine which is students between the ages of 11 and 19 and the secondary audience of the parents/guardians of the students. My target audience preferred the style of NME but Cosmopolitan and Q followed closely behind. I decided to incorporate slightly the style of NME in to my front cover like there being one main image and this being the focus area. I did slightly incorporate the edgy font in to my heading and also the masthead includes the logo which the target audience would recognise. I used only one image on the front so it wouldn't look busy and would appeal to the target audience. The common conventions of the magazine link to my target audience as it will attract them and then get them to continue reading.

                My product represents the social group of students between the ages of 11 and 19 as these are the age range that attend the college, I want it to appeal to the target audience so they take an interest in the college magazine and actually want to continue reading. I think that my target audience would be the top end of the age range scale as they would probably be more interested in the stories and what the college has to offer as the younger students probably wouldn't read the college magazine as much as the 16-19 year olds. The students therefore that I am representing in the magazine are in higher education this makes it slightly easier to appeal to them. Stanley Hall said in 1904 "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" he also said that the "Common mood of teenagers is depressed" My magazine defies these perceptions of teenagers as I have a model that is smiling as my main image also the fact that my target audience is at the higher end of the age range means that the students have stayed on to higher education in order to achieve. The fact that the target audience is students between 11 and 19 but the most popular ages of the readers is 16-19 means they haven't been involved in any form of criminal activity as they are carrying on their studies and they are furthering their education. I want my magazine to show off the fact that students and teenagers can be shown in a more positive light and I want to express the achievements of the students in the stories that are included in the content.
                  The target audience for my product is primarily the students of Bodmin College as the content involves the college and will apply to them. The age range of the Bodmin College students is 11-19 ranging from compulsory education to higher 6th form education. The secondary target audience is the parents or guardians of the students as the content of the magazine will concern their sons/daughters school and what is going on in the establishment. The magazine provides information on how the school is doing and the available opportunities for their children. The content needs to appeal to both audiences (students and parents/guardians) Through this information I ensured that my front cover appeals to the audience and that it is aesthetically pleasing, I made sure I avoided contrasting colours and kept to a colour palette of 3/4 colours on the front cover. I think my front cover fulfilled it's purpose as it contained the main conventions of a magazine. I think the headline of 'Student gets into Cambridge' would appeal to both audiences as parents would think highly of the education standards and therefore think highly of the college and students would hope to follow in the footsteps of the student.
           "The view that the internet and new digital media as an optional extra is replaced with recognition that they have fundamentally changed the ways we engage with all media" (David Gauntlett 2007) This quote represents the process I have gone through making the front cover and contents page as the way we use new media technologies has changed the process of magazine construction. The process has built my confidence up with using Photoshop as I know how to use the different tools in an effective manor including; magic wand tool, crop and how to work with different layers. From making it I can say that it supports Gauntletts theory and we engage with new media and the use of 'Blogger' as a way of submitting work and it shows engagement with each of the different aspects of the preliminary task. The use of 'Blogger' is a way of updating pieces of work easily also making it easier to change bits where needed.
             I think overall that my cover and contents page are an improvement on the original Bodmin College magazine as mine improves in appealing to the target audience specifically. My cover is not as busy and actually contains normal conventions of a magazine including a; masthead, main image (medium close-up) and headline. I still think there could be major improvements could be made to my front cover as it is still not as appealing as it could be. There could be more on the front cover that would appeal to the audience, however I do think I have included main features that have a big impact on what people think about the magazine. 

            Typography- The typography of both pages link together as the same font it used for the text on the front cover and contents page. The way the typography is arranged on the contents page make it look less messy and more organized and clear to read when looking at it. I haven't used different colours as I want it to be clear and simple, however this might have made it look more aesthetically pleasing. The black/white typography would appeal to the parents/guardians but not to the younger audience which is an improvement I could have made. However it draws more attention to the images which is what was intended.
            Images- The use of images is very effective as they need to link up to the stories that are included in the content of the magazine. I didn't want the images to make the contents page look busy or messy at all so I had to consider the layout of them and where I was going to place them on the page. This again needed to appeal to the target audience and the audience of students and they would like to see the images of to match the text. The audience are more likely to continue reading if they see images that appeal to them.
         Conclusion- Overall I think that there could have been a lot of improvements in the presentation of the front cover as it could include more imagery and text that would appeal to the target audience, however I didn't want it to become busy and overloaded with information. I like the colour palette I have used as it all links together and it makes it more aesthetically pleasing and this is a big improvement on the college magazine. I think the overall contents page is a boring with the white background and the lack of depth with the imagery. This could have been a major improvement I needed to address and in order for the audience to carry on reading.