A MEDIA EDUCATION
Gabrielle J. Sellers
PRELIMINARY EVALUATION
In what ways does you media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
 The overall layout of my media product (a school magazine) is largely conventional of both school magazines and magazines in general. Such a layout was based on my Mock-Up 1 (and to that plan it has remained mostly faithful). Following convention for the layout makes the magazine appear both professional and familiar to the audience who will value such traits as it implies the same of the content and its producers (who would be students and staff of the school the magazine it belongs to). |  The cover features the traditional mid-shot of a subject but also has two subjects rather than one which breaks conventions of school magazines, particularly those aimed at 16-18 yr olds. I have employed the mid-shot as it allows the reader to connect with the subjects whilst not being overpowered by their image, hence the coverlines receive greater attention. The two subjects connote the community of student life and Christmas, a value often ignored in magazines but integral for students. |  The serif font used in the masthead is conventional of public school magazines. As a Sixth Form, the audience of this product aims to be the best and strives for success and thus such a typeface, though unconventional, is representative of the desires and professionalism of the target audience. The red colouring is solely for the Christmas issue of the magazine and is conventional of many magazines as it implies festivity and familiarity, a main focus for my product. |
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 The chosen coverlines feature content related to two areas desired by the students given my questionnaire: current events and essential-living information. It is uncommon of magazines to feature such content which school info being generally preferred. However, I am for Subject Matter to be a learning resource rather than newsletter and such content is perfect for that mission statement. |  The headline is formatted to the right of the page but its size means it spreads across the whole cover. This is common of all magazines and i have conformed to convention as it makes the headline the page's main focus point (which is emphasised by its greater size and brighter colouring than the rest of the coverlines). The sans serif font is more typical of school magazines due to its modern appearance. Such a choice is relevant as the respective content is more about student life than school. |  Conventional of magazines, the coverlines reside along the right edge of the cover as this is where the eye naturally drifts and will therefore become the main focus of the reader who is likely to be interested in the described content as it is designed for intelligent and inquisitive individuals. Each coverline appears with a brief description but no page no. so the reader becomes interested in that story whilst having no choice but to flick through to find it; hence, adding interest elsewhere. |
 Challenging convention, the cover of my product features no price, barcode or issue number instead having only a monthly date. I have ignored the common form in this instance as i believe such features are not relevant to an in-house magazine where personal interest and knowledge control who is going to buy it and why, making a price etc. redundant of marketing use. |
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
What kind of institution may distribute your media product and why?
The content listed on the cover is informative and current. Areas such as the Syria Airstrikes have been largely debated across the world and by students who are entering it. Such educational content represents the audience as intelligent and inquisitive: they want to learn more about the world as soon they will be living in it and have the ability to vote and debate such issues. Furthermore, content relating to University life emphasises their intelligence and represents them as people thinking towards their futures.
Although the cover only depicts women, the close proximity of these subjects aswell as their happy facial expressions and sunny lighting suggest both unity and happiness between the students of this particuoar audience and the auidence by association. Having women on the cover is also conventional of magazines in general, thus representing the audience of the magazine just a section of the wider print-media target audience. The highangle backlighting also provides an angelic implication on the subjects. This combats the largely negative portrayal of students in the media and connotes to the audience themselves that someone does see the good in them.
The presence of a Christmas tree on the cover initially suggests those depicted and the auidence to be Christian, however, such a prop may also connote the happiness, family and festivity of students (whom love Christmas due to the time off). Furthermore, the tree on the cover was blurred of detail when editedm suggesting that the main content of the magazine or the main interest of the auidence does not lie solely with Christmas but rather it is just a happy backing to the magazine's usual content.
Whilst only women (17-18 yr old) are presented on the cover, the coverlines of the magazine make it clear that Subject Matter is not just for girls. The presented content is ambiguous, aimed at neither men or women but rather intelligent, worldly individuals. Furthermore, the content isn't solely about school, articles on Uni Life and Christmas are present suggesting that this audience aren't just students, but young people also who like to have fun and enjoy themseves (as the smiling women of the cover suggest).
Subject Matter is likely to be distributed by the school from which it is produced (or rather its Sixth Form). Royal wootton Bassett Academy is a state school with a Sixth Form which prides itself on hardwork, dedication and a desire to learn. I have tried to meet these needs within the magazine itself. Many A-level courses require students to be well read and in undwerstanding of the ins and outs of their subjects, a magazine such as Subject Matter would have been created by such a school to pool together wider-reading resources for a range of subjects that are applicable to the modern world and thereofre their exams and other work. An in-house distribution would guarrentee exclusivity of content for the Sixth Form students and allow teachers (and students) to have a direct influence on how the world can affect their education. On a more basic level, in-house distribution would be cheaper and faster than turning to an external company, so whilst such a magazine may be of poorer printing quality it would be easy to obtain by students from any economic background on a regular (monthly) basis.
Who would be the audience for your media product?
Students suffering the stress of being in full time education on top of jobs, extracurricular activities, family commitments, social lives... Such pressures can make students hate schooling and resultantly put less effort into school. Subject Matter would remove some of this stress by providing useful reading and advice so they don.t have to go looking for it.
Young people about to enter a world they know very little of. Modern society is very good at hiding facts of the world from the younger generations, as a result it is difficult for students to develop opinions without being considered difficult, naive or ignorant. Subject Matter aims to provide the news, social issues and everything else to students in a way they is easily understoiod and can thus be the basis for opinion.
Anyone who is interested in learning a little more about areas they are largely ignorant or unaware of.
16-18 year old Sixth Form students studying their A-Levels. Most will have a desire to attend University after school and will thus have a great desire to learn about both their subjects and the world they are entering in to.
For students living in a largely digital world. A school magazine that has an educational purpose and function may help remove the students from their computers as it is something they will be more interested in than the generic celebrity gossip and politically aimed news which is strewn over the majority of print media.
For the students who also are teenagers. Too often is school all about work and repeating information the average person has little interest in or few uses for. Subject Matter allows students to still have fun by providing features of age interest rather than what teachers deem suitable so they can get a break for textbooks and read something of actual help and interest.
How did you attract/address your audience?
I put them on the cover. Research has shown that people are more attracted to and more likely to focus on people their own age as you spend the majority of your life with people in your own age group. Thus, any possible reader will be drawn to the cover as they have a similarity with the subjects; age.
I asked them what their favourite parts of magazines were. The majority of those I asked claimed that 'High Quality Feature Articles' and 'Information' were the desired characteristics of magazine content, so that is what appeared on the cover.
I asked them what they wanted. By asking such a broad question I was able to find out what specific what specific types of people wanted from a school magazine. Men tended to ask for information, particularly those interested in the sciences, whilst women and creative individuals asked for items of interest that were relevant to them as people rather than students. Hence, the coverlines combine these two areas. The articles featred are socially important and informative whilst others are dedicated to life as a young person; informative but informal. Furthermore, the cover is more Chrsitmas than College, highlighting the distance of the items of interest to the things taught in schools.
What have you learnt about technologies through the process of constructing this product?
Purple for Adobe InDesign
Blue for Adobe Photoshop
It was very important to me that the two subjects took centre stage on the cover. To make this a reality, I employed Photoshop's 'Blur Tool'. I used a variety of 'brush' sizes to make the entire background of the image blurred and used the tool on its highest level of contrast/power to reach the finished effect. As I was fairly new to Photoshop, I tested the tool multiple times as diffent power levels and sizes before deciding on what effect I wished to cvreate on the cover. As a result, I am very comfortable using 'Blur' and I am likely to use it on my final project.
Other than the background, I also used 'Blur' to mask some of the imperfections my two models were insecure about when looking at the initial, undedited photo. This involved using a far smaller brush on a variation of low power/contrast settings to mask the shine and redness on their faces but only to an extent where they still looked natural as I would not want to make the audience of teenagers feel insecure about themselves upon seeing two model-esque people on the cover (hence the 'Blur' tool was not on its most effective setting).
The first thing I did when opening InDesign was importing my completely edited image. On top of this I then overlaid the elements of Mock Up 1 to see if the layout, as I initially designed, fit in with the picture. I was very quickly noticed that due to the increased brightness, levels and contrast of the image, I would not be able to read the coverlines due to the bright backlight on the right side of the image. After looking at how Mock Up 2 looked on the image and deciding it would not work either, I contemplated creating a whole new layout, until I saw InDesign's option to 'Edit' images. so rather than changing the image altogther or having to create a new layout I flipped the image. to my relief all of the text would be visible and readable. As a result, I have learnt a lot about the editing features available through InDesign which, though far more basic than Photoshop, were easy to use and did the simple tasks in seconds that would take me far longer to find and employ on Photoshop.
Having used Photoshop for my Art GCSE, I already had a basic understanding of how some of Photoshop's tools worked as I had used them, to varying effect, on images before. A key desire for this cover image was to have the colours be as bright as possible- without being overpowering- to make the magazine appear as fun, playful and eyecatching as possible. To create the final image, I employed the 'Levels', 'Brightness' and 'Contrast' features. I created three layers ontop of the 'Background' (the image) and used a seperate one for each feature. I chose to do this as I know the effects can sometimes not work out thye way you wish them too so rather than having to start afresh each time I went wrong, building up new layers (I used this technique when using the 'Blur' tool also) allowed my to delete and indivdual effect I was unhappy with without losing everything I had already done.
Firstly, I upped the brightness slightly. This enhanced the reds and greens in the image as well as creating a halo effect around the model wearing the black shirt because of the sunlight that was behind her.
To combat the loss of detail increasing the brightness causes, I increased the contrast. When used fully, this feature can give an image a Pop-Art quality resemblant of Andy Warhol's images. Whilst I didn't want to create areas of block colour, enhancing the contrasts adds darkness where the Brightness feature got rid of it, thus adding depth to the image, esspecially amongst the branches of the Christmas tree.
Wishing to enhance the colour further, I used the Levels feature. this can affect the effects of Brightness and Contrast by changing the range between Black and white the image utilises. I didn't want any part of the image void of colour, so I adapted the Levels so the image's range was from the harshest possible black to a very pale grey which allowed the dark areas to still be dark whilst the light areas (such as skin) still appear warm due to the minimal put present colouring there. Thus, despite changes in contrast and brightness, the image still appeared to have been taken in natural light. this was important to me as the magazine needed to look like it had been created within a school environmnet which doesn't have the creative capabilities of a 'proper' magazine.
Brightness/Contrast, Blur and Levels