Preliminary task: Draft and final version of magazine

Draft Cover

This is the start of my college magazine, at the moment i am not 100% happy with it. I have started to use Photoshop to edit it which i have never used before. I am happy that i got a picture of a student from Southdowns College in a college environment as i believe that it is very important for it to be a success. What i need to do to improve this is get some more room for cover lines by moving the image to the left this will also help me use the rule of thirds as the image will then not be in the center as much.

Final Cover

This is my final product, I am very happy with it as i have never used InDesign which was a key part to creating this magazine cover. I also used Photoshop to help move the image so as i could fit in the cover lines. I believe that i have done a good job with my images. I probably could improve this work.But for now I am very happy with what i have acheived













Contents Page

This is my draft contents page, i have made two designs, One is a more normal style of contents page, it is quite simple with just one big area for the articles and then is surrounded by photos that are related. on the other hand the one on the right is a more indie crazy look with things slanted and not as many photos. In the end i decided to go with the one on the left as it is much more simple and i think it would be more affective in the long run.

Preliminary Task: Brief

Preliminary task

Initial ideas and proposal

    
I am going to making my own college magazine. I am going to be doing research and analysis of other similar magazines. By doing this i will therefore be able to make a more realistic and successful final product. 
     My magazine is going to be called S.D.C.M. (South Downs College Magazine). For my magazine I am going to take a photo of a student and use that on the front cover of my magazine. The target audience for the magazine is going to be 16-19 year olds at college. The magazine will be about college life.
    I have thought about a few coverlines. Things about new students, how to look good, interviews with members of staff and also competitions. Hopefully having coverlines that will help to attract people to want to read the magazine.

     One of the main magazines i looked at when i was researching was an Magazine called "college" it was an american magazine but it had all the concepts that i liked about a magazine. I am going to be using a similar cover plan and image for my magazine. I am doing this because i believe that you should have a young person preferably from the college as it is more attractive to the other students/audience. 

The main conventions of a college magazine are 

• Single main image on the cover
• Masthead at head of page
• Use a theme that reflects the main image
• Bright bold contrasting colours
• Images of young people

Flat Plan

I have created two sample flat plans. I have looked at some other magazines to see different ways that a cover can be displayed and used these to create my samples. In the end i didn't like either of these and i decided to crate a different one with the main image to the left hand side with the cover 
lines to the right.

Contents Flat Plan

This is my sample for the flat plan of my Contents page. In the end i decided to go with the one on the left as it is simpler and more effective i believe and also it is the most common one you see.

Task 5: Skill Audit

AS Media Coursework: Skills Audit

Using a computer

	YES	NO
Are you confident on a PC?	x
Can you insert text and image into a Word document?	x
Can you find relevant documents and articles on the internet?	x
Can you find images of different sizes on the internet?	x
Have you ever used a Mac?	x
On a Mac, do you know how to open an application?	x
On a Mac, do you know how to cut & paste text?	x
On a Mac, do you know how to copy images from the internet?	x
Do you know how to scan images into a Mac?		x
Do you know how to upload photographs to a Mac?	x
Do you know how to Bluetooth files?	x
Are you confident using Powerpoint?	x
Do you currently have a Blog?	x
Do you know how to burn data to a disc?		x
Do you know how to upload files to email or a Blog?	x

Taking Photographs

	YES	NO
Do you have your own digital camera?	x
Does your mobile phone have a camera?		x
Do you know how to take photographs in B&W?		x

Using Applications

	YES	NO
Have you ever used Photoshop?	x
Have you ever used InDesign?		x
Are you able to crop an image?	x
Are you able to apply any special effects to an image?		x

Task 4: IPC Case Study

Task 4: IPC case Study

IPC Media produces over 85 iconic media brands with print brands alone reaching almost two thirds of UK women and 44% of UK men and almost 27 million UK adults – while the online brands collectively reach 20 million users every month.

History of IPC

The International Publishing Corporation Ltd was formed in 1963 following the merger of the UK's three leading magazine publishers - George Newness, Odhams Press and Fleetway Publications - who came together with the Mirror Group to form the International Publishing Corporation (IPC). And IPC Magazines was created five years later, in 1968. Some of the first magazines for IPC were Country Life, Women’s Weekly, The Field and T.V. Times.

News

IPC Inspire today announces the appointment of Ellie Miles to the key role of senior marketing and events manager for music brands NME and Uncut

Woman's Own, IPC Connect's weekly magazine for consumers who want expert advice, inspiration and value, today celebrates its 80th birthday with a special commemorative issue

NME celebrates 60th anniversary

The types of magazines and target audiences that IPC have been associated with over the years are ones that have been widely accepted with magazines that appeal to everyone from teenage girls to old men with yachts with genres for everyone and anyone. Some of the genres are, Teens girls. Equestrian, fashion and beauty, sport and leisure, sport and entertainment, women's weekly and young men and music and many more. IPC has many magazines targeted at people who partake in sports with over 30 magazines targeted here. Also there are many targeted at middle aged to older women.

IPC would be a appropriate publisher for a new music magazine because they have experience in publishing these sort of magazines and therefore would not find it challenging to make one they have a large audience who follow them and so people would look for this magazine and expect it to be good and if it is with their support it surely would be successful.

The genre of music that IPC would publish could be anything but from my research i would expect them to publish a metal or indie genre of music. I say this purely because of other magazines they already publish which include NME and Uncut.

Bauer could be a more appropriate publisher for a new music magazine, i believe this because of the fact theta Bauer has a slightly younger audience than IPC. And also they have more similar magazines therefore they will find it easier as they have experience in this field. 

Task 3: Essay

To what extent should magazines be held responsible for the social ramifications of the representations they offer? 

   Magazines should be a held partly responsible ramifications of the representation they offer, although there are also lots of other factors that that could be held responsible for this.  

   The way magazines aimed at teen girls attract their audience with there cover page. The magazines use colours that appeal to girls eye, these colours are, Orange, White, Pink, Yellow and some Red. The reasons these colours attract teen girls are, they are usually thought of as colours that a vast majority of girls like therefore when a girl goes into a shop she will automatically look for those colours. Also these colours have been stereotyped to girls. Also the creators of the cover use images of well know celebrities who some girls will idolize, therefore making them want to read the magazines. Pictures of cloths and accessories that are new, expensive or worn by a well know person, girls find this interesting as most want to be rich and able to afford all of these designer cloths. Or on the other hand the magazine advertises all of the bargains out there which will have the same effect. Other ways they get there audience is by using cover lines which the reader is going to relate to like, Breast size, sex, boys, hair, looks/beauty tips, cloths and education.  Overall magazine creators use very effective ways of attracting a certain type of reader and they obviously work with the large number of girls buying these magazines.

   There are lots of magazines that use these techniques, such as Bliss, More and Cosmo Girl plus many more. The reason they use them are that they know that it is effective and will get girls wanting to read them and using the contents. When teenagers, especially girls, buy a magazine there will most likely be a cover line on the cover explaining to them how they should look, dress and wear make up. This has social ramifications because while they are trying to appeal to a audience, in telling an individual how they should look which can damage a persons self esteem.
    Coming from this, theses magazines cover lines (shown in this image to right) such as "Vending machine diet" and "90 electric essentials". This can give young people the thoughts that in order to be seen in society that they have to dress a certain way or to dress similar to a celebrity, giving them no sense of individuality this will be the same for every teenager boy or girl who reads these magazines.
   As well as putting pressure on teenagers many of these magazines use sexually explicit material. The average age range for these magazines is between 11 and 16. It is not appropriate to pressure girls with this type of media as it could have social ramifications.
      In conclusion, i feel that these magazines editors should reduce the amount of stereotypical and sexual material that is in the magazine. I know that some representations go through  mediation but sometimes a teenager just wants to read about things happening in a celebrities life instead of how to be like them. Therefore, i would like to see more information in these magazines that real teenagers would be interested in like life events about celebrities and reviews on other aspects of media instead of explicit and damaging information.

Task 2: Part 2 Magazines & Audiences

Part 2

    From studying this magazine for a while, I believe that the target audience for Vogue is women from 20-37, who work in fashion or have a desire to work in fashion or simply enjoy reading about it. Vogue target more upmarket woman as they would have to be in a more well payed job in order to afford £4.10 a month. The articles that Vogue write about are also more sophisticated, talking about magical makeovers, From the Whitehouse to a  fashion empire and smoldering makeup. Compare that to magazines like Hello and Heat, all they talk about are other peoples lives, who's cheating with who, how ugly or hot celebrities are and how to save money etc. You can tell they are aimed at a less sophisticated by how they're written and how much they cost. Also Vogue wouldn't have to write articles like Heat and Hello, as the readers wouldn't care how hot celebrities are and wouldn't have to worry about how to save money as they are obviously well of if you can afford to buy Vogue for £4.10 a month.

    The word vogue means "Prevailing Fashion" which gives you an incline to what is going to be going on inside the magazine. The front cover of Vogue attempts to grab its readers attention by putting a reasonably well know person looking very nice, in one of the dresses that are being advertised within the magazine. also they have simple colours nothing too extravagant, just black, red and some white. Red is usually though of as a womanly colour, whilst black can sometimes be seen as a very sophisticated colour.  They use words such as "Magical", "Daring", "Smoldering" and "Plunging" they use these to get peoples attention. Who wouldn't want to see what a "Magical Makeover" looks like or some "Smoldering Makeup"? Vogue has got a well known masthead that people would recognize instantly, the majority of people know the  Baskerville Old Face font that Vogue is written in. The magazine front colour is almost minimalistic. With it only having two headings with a few sub headings, this means you have to read on to fin out more. The magazine only comes out once a month therefore the information inside the magazine will be much more and should be better quality compared to a weekly one. The magazine also talks about how women can look good naturally as well as what they can wear to improve their looks. It has a section in the Left third saying "Vitamin D, The Healthy side of sunshine". This shows the magazine is all about how women can look good naturally with tips on what to eat, drink and do to be more healthy in general.

     I think Vogue have created a very successful cover page for their target audience. Overall it shows they have researched into their target audience very well and used what they have learnt to create a page which will be good for there audience and will hopefully gain them more people who will buy the magazine regularly 

Task 2: Part 1 Magazines & Audiences

Part 1

Glossary:

Font, it is the size and style the letting e.g. Times new roman and Arial.

Masthead, its the name of the magazine e.g. Empire, Cosmopolitan and TIME.

Colour, The colours used to attract  the specific audience, e.g. pink, red and yellow are linked with femininity.

Colour depth, The number of colours used in a picture file. The more bits available for each pixel, the more colours available.

Barcode, The number of the product so you can buy it, or check which one it is.

Cover Lines, Information about a particular major article.

Edition/Issue Number, The number of the specific edition of the magazine.

Main Cover Line, The main headline of the magazine.

Publisher, The company who actually makes the magazine.

Puff/Plug, Are small bubbles with words in which enhances the magazine and helps to appeal to the audience with words such as "Free" and "Also".

Pull Quote from Interview, Taking a small quote from an interview inside the magazine which will attract people to find out what else the "Celebrity" had to say.

Left third, Information used to attract readers is placed on the left hand side vertical third of the cover page.

Date Line, The date the product was issued.

Sky Line, a small line of information sometimes about the masthead.

Main Image/Celeb, a image of a famous person so that people want to know about them, why they're in the magazine and what they had to say.