Mariya Ahmed Magazine Evaluation Tuesday, 15 October 2013

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Magazine Evaluation

My masthead is positioned at the top, and it is simple and

bold so it can grab the reader’s attention and also it follows

the convention of having a masthead at the top. The key

image is the medium close up which has eye contact

towards the reader, which makes the reader feel engaged

and displays the student’s emotions as she’s smiling which

connotate’s happiness.I positioned the image on the left

hand side because it’s in the optical centre and if the image

was positioned on the right hand side, it would seem as if

the student is walking out of the magazine.My font style

and size is appropriate, however, the font sizes are

different which shows the importance of the information in

the bigger font and the less important information is in

smaller font. Also, the font style is simple and

understandable for my target audience and not too funky

because I wanted it to stand out and be understandable.I

added the logo on the top left hand side so the students

are familiar with their school logo and it makes the

magazine look more professional. Also, I added the boxes around the text because it makes my

magazine look more professional and stand out and also changed the colour of the outline to a

lighter shade of blue to blend it in with the background colour. I used appropriate colours as purple

has connotations of femininity and royalty, whereas the colour blue connotes masculinity, loyalty

and intelligence. I decided to add a bit of red to the text because it had the colour in the school logo

which represents ‘Success & Harmony’, the colour symbolises love and danger. Nonetheless,if I had

the opportunity to do my magazine again, I would want to add a barcode on the bottom right so I

follow the conventions of magazines, and I’d also like to delete the background of the logo using

fireworks to make the magazine look more professional, I would also add a slogan underneath the

masthead which would attract the audience and grab their attention and finally, I would do a spell

check after I have finished the whole magazine cover, just to make sure I don’t have any spelling

errors.

The images I have taken of the sixth formers are suitable because they are dressed formal/smart

which gives out a good image to the students at this sixth form and their parents. The image at the

bottom right connotes that students at this sixth form are happy and enjoy their time here, as they

are smiling and having a laugh. Also, the medium close up shows the students’ facial expression in

more depth which emphasises that she is happy and is enjoying her time at this sixth form. I also

took an image of the new school building which they have built for the sixth form students, this

shows how much the school has spent for the students to have a good education and are providing

everything the student’s need, in order for them to get a high grade. Also, the image on the top right

suggests how hard working the students are at the school and it also gives the chance to show the

technology the school provides for the students.

The school will distribute my media product because it’s about this sixth form and the school would

like to promote their school so they have more students coming to attend this sixth form. Likewise,

Mariya Ahmed Magazine Evaluation Tuesday, 15 October 2013

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the students would like to be kept up to date with what’s happening at their sixth form and maybe

would like some tips on revision or even careers advice. The students would also like tocheck if the

school exam results are improving or not and maybe give the school some suggestions on how to

improve the examination results e.g. by organising more after school clubs..

The target audience for my product are students from ages 16-18 because the information put in the

magazine is relevant to them and it will help them develop more skills and decide what they want to

do in the future. Similarly, the target audience are also parents as they would like to know how good

their child’s school is and whether it’s progressing to aim higher in exam results. I changed the

colour of the cover lines to blue and purple as the colours are bright and bold, and it would attract

both genders, and the font style is simple and readable which would want the students to read

on.Also, there is a quiz to do in the magazine which the student would want to do as they would

want to know what kind of learner they are. Also, I used a little bit of slang as I wrote ‘Uni Advice’

instead of ‘University’, through the use of slang we can immediately tell that the target audience for

the magazine are teenagers, but other than that, the language I have used is formal. I used a

medium close up image which has eye contact towards the audience so it makes the reader feel

engaged and you can see the students facial expression more clearly as she is smiling and happy.

I have learnt several of techniques from the process of constructing this product, one of the

techniques I learnt was how to blog as I have never used a blogger before as I never needed to, and

then I had to adjust the blog layout and make it suitable for the purpose of the blog. Another

technique was, using slide share to upload my presentation work on it and then I embed it so I am

able to upload it to my blog. However, my magazine front cover and contents page was on publisher

so I had to covert the file to PDF and then JPEGto be able to upload the file to the blog as you can

only upload the file on the blog if it’s saved as a JPEG file. I also learnt how to use Photoshop

because I needed to edit a few of my images which I had taken for my magazine cover.

Overall, I have learnt many things such as the alignment has to be straight on both sides so it looks

professional and make sure none of the text is cut out, the barcode has to be small and mostly put

on the bottom right hand side, the colours need to contrast well,there should be no dead space

because it doesn’t attract the audience and it would seem as if there is nothing interesting in the

magazine, the cover lines should be short and simple so it can stand out, the cover lines should have

little information on what the magazine will contain and the masthead should have a big and bold

font so it can be the first thing that the reader sees and makes them want to carry on reading. Also,

the image would stand out more if its placed in an optical centre, as then it will be the first thing the

reader sees as the first place the reader positions their eye is on the left hand side , and then the

right hand side, they look in a ‘Z’ shape.