Lolayates: October 2010

Evaluation of my magazine .

In the task to create our own college magazine ,my end product follows typical conventions of real media products .It uses most conventions found on a high street magazine ,apart from it hasn’t been processed by the best repro-houses nor did a top photographer take the shots . What it does have are what will sell the magazine to the target audience (to whom will take a free copy ).The magazine has no barcode ,so is therefore free .My magazine uses a masthead ,with the heading ‘College Life ‘ hence it being a college magazine ,it has also a dateline ,main image (my shot to advertise Wykes Halloween party at Asylum).Cover lines ,which indicate what can be found inside the magazine .Therefore it uses most conventions of a typical magazine .
My college magazine represents Wyke as an institution but not by having a typical shot for the main image .The model my subject for this task is a student yes ,but bends the rules of how you’d imagine a typical student to look ,in their attire ,looking preppy maybe with files .So she doesn’t really represent a certain social group ,she can’t because she is dressed in a Halloween costume ,but she does represent students dressing up for the Wyke party ,because it is a student event. Therefore my college magazine represents the student body (a student ) by showing a student dressed up for a ‘student event’ .
The audience for my magazine with Wyke being a Sixth form college ,would be 16-19 year olds from around Hull and the East Riding who are students here at Wyke ,they will see a college magazine as informative text about what and where things are happening in the college or around Hull and the East Riding ,for this target audience to be interested it doesn’t need to have been published in the best repro-house ,it just needs a good hard image for the main image and cover lines that the target audience can be interested by. To attract my audience I let my main image do what the rest of the cover couldn’t ,with an interesting bold shot I knew I could purposely draw in the audience. It has long been a mantra that an editor must use the cover shot to sell the magazine ,because it is so important to cover shots in the shops .Therefore from this I have taken that for a free copy of my magazine to be taken the main image must appeal to the audience ,Its going to be the sell line.
My main image ,the model a student at Wyke herself ,is her dressed up in a Halloween costume ,full makeup ,effective lighting ,a bold hard backdrop to make the makeup seem harsher and stand out more .With the Wyke Halloween party coming I decided to link my cover with it ,drawing in more attention from the audience who will be intrigued by a Halloween main image as my audience are still at an age to be interested by anything linked to Halloween and the prospect of a college party .There is also a cover line to go with the main image ,therefore again attracting the audiences attention ,with three others cover lines spread out around the main image like a border. The cover lines highlight Wykes student body for those students interested in gaining extra credit for university by becoming apart of it ,another about speaking to your tutor about getting yourself a mentor to help you with your work load which will appeal to most students with lots of coursework. Working to create this magazine has taught me a lot about the technologies of creating a magazine ,lots of things are essential in order for the magazine to attract an audience and sell. Most magazines follow the same technology .All magazines follow the same conventions all have a masthead ,cover lines, main image ,dateline ,main cover line ,left third (in most western countries ,the left third of the cover is vital is vital for selling the issue in shops where the magazine is not show full-frontage.) Most magazines with also have a barcode ,unless of course the magazine is free.