Analysing Survey Results

The responses to my survey show that the majority of the responses came from people between the ages of 14 and 19, with a few responses from people of other ages. The gender responses were fairly similar, almost the same number of responses from each gender.

According to my survey, the majority of the students do not read the College magazine at all, and the ones that do read the College magazine think that it could be improved, because they think it does not appeal to the target audience of the students at all.

The next question asked which stories they would be interested in reading, so that I can put them on the front cover as teasers for articles inside the magazine. The four most popular subjects, according to my survey, are Media, Higher Education, Music and Social stories.

After this, I asked which of four mastheads looked most appropriate for a College magazine. The majority of responses said that mastheads 2 and 3 were most popular. I then looked at these two more closely, and decided that masthead 2 was more appropriate.

The final question I asked on my survey is which of four magazine cover designs appeals to the students. The most popular option was an Empire-style magazine front cover, and therefore my College magazine's front cover shall be in this style.

Target Audience Research

Overall, neither of the magazines I have analysed were particularly good, both of them breaking several of the common conventions of magazine front covers. In order to create a better College magazine, I will create a SurveyMonkey that I will put on Facebook and Twitter, to find out what people want to see from a Bodmin College magazine.

The questions I have used in my survey include: age and gender, to clarify which members of the target audience are responding to the survey, their usage of the current College magazine, their opinion on which stories they want to read about, their choice of which of four mastheads is best, and their opinions on the layout of the magazine front cover.

One weakness of me uploading it to my Facebook, is that I am not surveying the secondary target audience of the parents/guardians or teachers, because they are not going to see it on my Facebook. However, I am still going to get results that reflect the views of the primary target audience.

List of Common Conventions of Magazine Front Covers

Edinburgh University Contents Page Analysis

Target Audience

The target audience of the Edinburgh University magazine is the former graduates, aged 22+. They fit in the social classes of A - C1.

Layout

In contrast with common conventions, this contents page is a double page spread. Featured on the double page spread is a message from the Director of International, Development and External Affairs, and a message from the team who produced the magazine. In the centre of the double page spread, the actual list of contents, and images showing the key stories, is shown.

Colour

Similarly to the Edinburgh University front cover, this contents page shows the same colour scheme of red, white and black. This links in with the continuity of the magazine.

Imagery

The images on the contents page show links to the main articles inside. In accordance with the conventions, only four images are shown linking to stories. Also, two other images are shown. Each of the other images shows one of the people who are leaving the messages on the sides of the double page.

Typography/Text
The font style used is a formal style, in fitting with the target audience of University graduates. The text is split into three sections; a description of the articles shown in the contents page, a message from the team that produced the magazine, and a message from the Director of International, Developmental and External Affairs.

Conclusion
This contents page is bold, yet practical. It is very fitting with the target audience, and would certainly appeal to University graduates.

Edinburgh University Magazine

Target Audience

The main target audience for the Edinburgh University magazine is the graduates of the University, aged 22+. They fit in with the social grades A - C1.

Masthead

The masthead of the Edinburgh University magazine is appropriately sized following the common convention of magazines, taking up about 1/8^th of the page. The masthead also manages to stand out and draw attention without detracting from the general cover image.

Layout

The Edinburgh University magazine features a single central image, of a new building that has been constructed. There is also a caption for the image, informing readers of the relevance of the image. There are also several hooks on the front cover for other stories inside the magazine. However, there is no issue number on the front cover.

Colour

In accordance with common conventions regarding the colour of magazine front covers, a limited palette of colours is used: red, black and white. This creates a uniform appearance across the different captions, the masthead and the teasers.

Imagery

The image featured on the front cover of the Edinburgh University magazine shows a cyclist riding his bike towards a new building. This is immediately eye-catching, featuring colours that are otherwise not used on the front cover.

Typography/Text

The main text featured on the front cover describes the relevance of the central image to the Edinburgh University magazine. The other text is teasers of the articles inside, including an article that reflects on the previous year. This is useful because it allows readers to know more clearly what is inside the magazine before they buy it.

Conclusion

Overall, this front cover is effective and eye-catching, drawing the attention of people who are likely to read it, and is likely to appeal to University graduates, its target audience.

Bodmin College Magazine

Target Audience

The primary target audience of the Bodmin College Magazine is the students, aged between 11 and 19, of both genders. The secondary target audience of the Bodmin College Magazine is the parents and carers of the students.

Masthead 

The masthead does not fit the purpose because of a number of reasons. One reason is that the masthead is too small, because usually a masthead takes up one eighth of the page. Another reason is that the colours do not stand out against the background, which is also irrelevant to the subject of the newspaper. In short, this masthead does not fulfill the purpose of appealing to the target audience of the students. The masthead connotes that this school is old and a throwback to the 80’s, not fitting with the school at all.

Layout 

The layout of the front cover does not follow common workings of magazines, because it features three images on the front, none of which are particularly eye-catching or fitting with the masthead, as a magazine front cover should. There is no singular main image that draws the eye. Normally, there is one main image with some text and occasionally another small inset picture. It does not appeal to many of the target audience, appealing more to female dance students than the rest of the students.

Colour

The colours of the text are not readable compared to the images in the background, because the text has over-lapped the images and they do not follow the common convention that only about 5 colours are used on the cover of the magazine, instead using almost every colour available.

Imagery

The three images shown in the front cover are all taken as long shots that have blurred because they have been zoomed in and cropped too far, so the pictures are out of focus. Also, the smoke effect in the bottom-right corner does not look very good, looking more like the printer ran out of ink.

Typography/Text

There is not much text on the front cover. In terms of denotation, there are no story hooks or teasers, and no issue number. The text for the main story is hardly readable, and reads “Bodmin College’s 13^th Community Dance Platform.” This immediately loses the interest of anyone who was not involved in Dance, which is a large number of the target audience.

Conclusion

Overall, this cover is not very good, following none of the common trends of a magazine, with no strapline, teasers or issue number.

Analysing Existing Magazines

I am going to analyse two existing college magazine covers, as well as their contents pages, so that I can work out the common conventions for a magazine, so that I can follow these conventions in my own work, and use them to represent the needs of my target audience, because theorists say that creativity is not an instant process but:

“A process needed for problem solving…not a special gift enjoyed by a few but a common ability possessed by most people”  (Jones, 1993).

“The making of the new and the rearranging of the old” (Bentley, 1997)

“Creativity results from the interaction of a system composed of three elements: a culture that contains symbolic rules, a person who brings novelty into the symbolic domain, and a field of experts who recognise and validate the innovation” (Csikszentmihalyi, 1996).

Prelim Task

In order for me to work on my skills in photography, Photoshop, pre-production and critical reflection, I am doing a preliminary task. The preliminary task is outlined in the student brief:

Preliminary exercise: using DTP and an image manipulation program, produce the front page of a new school/college magazine, featuring a photograph of a student in medium close-up plus some appropriately laid-out text and a masthead. Additionally candidates must produce a DTP mock-up of the layout of the contents page to demonstrate their grasp of the program.

My AS Media Coursework

For my Media Foundation Portfolio I have chosen to follow the print brief, a music magazine cover, contents and feature spread, because I am interested in working in the music industry, and I think that it would be useful to develop my skills with prints because it provides a good starting point, from which I can move on to work better in the area of media production.

The brief I am working on is:

Print

Preliminary exercise: using DTP and an image manipulation program, produce the front page of a new school/college magazine, featuring a photograph of a student in medium close-up plus some appropriately laid-out text and a masthead. Additionally candidates must produce a DTP mock-up of the layout of the contents page to demonstrate their grasp of the program.

Main task: the front page, contents and double page spread of a new music magazine (if done as a group task, each member of the group to produce an individual edition of the magazine, following the same house style). Maximum four members to a group.

All images and text used must be original, produced by the candidate(s), minimum of FOUR images per candidate.