College Magazine Contents Page Finished Draft

Student Magazine Finished Draft

• I have added more cover lines that will appeal to the readers of this magazine and are relevant to their college lives, i have also rearranged the cover lines to fit more content on the front cover without it looking too crowded and hectic.
• I have also used the colour red again to highlight important parts of the magazine cover which will stand out and attract the audience.
• I have also given the puff/plug an outline to make it stand out more.
• i have added a barcode to create a realistic magazine

Student Magazine First Draft

• I have used blue for the majority of the colours on this magazine draft including the masthead and cover lines as I think the colours go well with the pale background but they also stand out as the boldness catches the eye of the audience.
• I have also used the idea of the theory that our eyes go from the top left corner to the bottom right, which is where my model is stood, she is facing the camera and making direct eye contact, this also addresses the audience and focuses their attention.
• I have used short sentences and subtle cover lines and used rhetorical questions to appeal to the audience and make them want to find out more, therefore reading the contents of the magazine.
• I have used a puff/plug in a slightly lighter shade of blue with the bold and contrasting colour of red and the capital letters used in the word 'FREE'. I have used red as it is the first colour our eyes pick up and the word 'free' has been proven to attract the most attention, this will therefore draw the target market in.
• I am not quite yet finished with this magazine cover, I am planning of adding more colours such as red to attract more attention to the product, I also need to re-position some of the cover lines to create more space.

College Magazine: Flatplan

Front Cover                    

Contents Page 
                                                 

College Magazine: Proposal

1. I will be aiming my magazine at college students aged 16-19 years old, both genders who take an interest in their learning and need additional help and guide to get them through college

2. My magazine will act as a source of entertainment and information to students, it will include content of help guides such as exam tips and timetables, job vacancies and what is happening at their college

3. My ideas for cover-lines need to be interesting, simple and relevant to students, for example 'Exam stress top tips' and 'New Job Vacancies', these will appeal to the reader as these are issues they are interested in. I also think I should add a controversial cover-line to really capture the attention of students, such as 'The truth behind curly fries' which will also add humour

4. My title needs to also be simple and easy to read as there will be a range of students picking up this magazine, therefore the title needs to be easy to recognize and remember. I have gone through a few titles suitable for a college magazine:

• College Times
• College Weekly (CW)
• Study

I decided to use College Weekly (CW) as it is simple and easy to recognize, especially if I use the abbreviated CW. I rejected 'College Times' as it seems too formal and aimed at an older age group, I also thought 'Study' seemed irrelevant and would not appeal to students aged 16-19.

5. I need the font to be simple and clear to read, it should be recognizable and appeal to students, I have       a few ideas which are displayed below:

All of these styles are similar as I wish to keep the title simple, I like Baskerville Old Face as it is clear yet eyecatching.

6. I have decided not to use a tagline as it may deter from the main idea of my magazine to be simple. But I have decided to place 'College Weekly' underneath the masthead of 'CW' to show that it is abbreviated and what it stands for

7. This magazine will be published all year round, once a week as the name is 'College Weekly', this allows students to keep up with everything they need to know on a week to week basis

8. I expect to put a medium-close up of a student on the front cover, against a plain background or area around the college. The mise-en-scene for the image will be kept relevant to college and will include the student's bag and a notebook as this is what students typically carry around college. I will go about getting this image by taking a photo of a student at college.

9. The magazine will be published frequently as it is a weekly magazine, therefore once a week to allow students to keep up with the latest news and events happening at their college.

10. The size of my college magazine would be approximately 21 cm by 15 cm, so about A5 size. This size is smaller than the standard larger size of magazine and I think it is appropriate as it allows the student to be able to fit it in their bag without taking up too much space

11. For the contents page I will use the same student but in a different scene/stance to keep the magazine as simple as possible. I will use the same colours of dark blue to keep up the theme shown on my front cover.

College Magazine: Initial Ideas

- Magazine will be free as students do not have much financial support

- Smaller size of magazine (A5 size approx.) as it is easier to carry around in a student's bag

- About 20 pages to keep the magazine thin and easy to flick through

- Magazine will act as a guide to college life, will offer guidance on bus timetables, exam tips and job vacancies as these are issues that affect and interest college students

- Simple colour layout to allow simplicity and ease of reading

Task 5: Skills Audit

Task 4: IPC Case Study

International Publishing Corporation (IPC) is the UK's leading publishing brand, reaching almost 27 million UK adults including two thirds of women and 44% of men. IPC is made up of three publishing divisions; IPC Connect which comprises women's weeklies such as 'Now' and 'What's on TV'; IPC Inspire which manages famous men's magazines such as 'Country Life', 'Nuts' and 'NME'; IPC Southbank which is the upmarket women's division including magazines like 'Marie Claire' and 'Essentials'. IPC also has an advertisement line where companies can purchase advertising solutions across their different brands and magazines. Current news of IPC includes their most famous music magazine NME recently celebrating 60 years of success, Livingetc (IPC's best selling modern homes magazine) celebrating 15 years of success and IPC launching a major partnership with PeerIndex to create Social Catalyst, a new marketing product.

The International Publishing Corporation Ltd was formed in 1963 following the joining up of the UK's three leading magazine publishers, George Newnes, Odhams Press and Fleetway Publications. The magazines were then created five years later although the previous three companies had already been inventing and publishing magazines since 1881, 1890 and 1880 with titles that are still in the market now under IPC Ltd. Overall the history of International publishing Corporation goes back 150 years.

IPC would be an appropriate and ideal publisher for a new music magazine as currently, the company is not publishing a large amount of music magazines, therefore there may be a demand for more music magazines in IPC. The company has over 100 years experience and states that their dedicated team will understand the magazine's market needs. They will offer support with the new magazine to allow the acceleration of growth and success in print, online and mobile. A new music magazine will need all the support possible, IPC provides this and is therefore an ideal publisher for a new music magazine.

IPC would be likely to publish a large range of different genre music/types of magazines due to their extremely large interaction with the UK public, they reach around 26 million adults, all with different interests. IPC have 3 divisions aimed at different target audiences; mass market women, upmarket women and men. Each division has a readership of approximately 10 million each, therefore showing that the audiences interests are spread equally and widely over different types of magazine. I think IPC would be likely to publish any genre of music magazine, but especially something that appeals to a large majority of the readership, such as another alternative music magazine like NME or something that will be relevant to popular culture, which is very common in the readers of IPC published magazines.

Alternative publishers like Bauer may be appropriate to publish a new music magazine as they already own extremely successful music magazines such as Q, Mojo and Kerrang! Therefore showing their expertise in this area. Bauer also owns several radio stations such as Kiss 100, Radio City and Magic, also famous music TV channel The Box which has links to 4Music. If a new music magazine was to be published by Bauer, they have more connections, expertise and ways of promoting this type of magazine as they are already in touch with a target audience suitable for a music magazine, therefore creating the possibility of more success than if the magazine was published by IPC.

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Task 3: Essay

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

Women's magazines that are primarily aimed at teenagers, all follow conventions and methods to make their magazines appeal to the target market as much as possible. The front covers of magazines such as Company, Cosmo Girl, More, Bliss and Glamour all use similar visual effects that present the audience with a form of ideology of women and the stereotypical images and interests that appeal to them. 



There is an ongoing colour theme of pink and red throughout the mastheads, cover lines and puffs/plugs which connotes flirtatiousness, energy and even some sexual undertones. There are various images of glamorous celebrities that have been portrayed on the front cover of these magazines, they are all photographed looking slim with make-up and revealing clothes on to show the target audience what women should idealistically look like. This presents the readers of this magazine with a role model which suggests that all females are supposed to be skinny, girly and beautiful. Reflecting this stereotype onto the audience and bringing forward the idea that if their appearance is not similar to the celebrities displayed on the magazines, then they do not conform to the norms of the stereotype of femininity. 

Although these magazines are said to be aimed at audiences ranging from 18-30 years old, children as young as 10 have been found to flick through a 'women's magazine'. This means that teenagers and young girls are being exposed to make-up, tight outfits and 'idealistic' figures and these images being portrayed by magazines are telling them that they should look like this too. This has multiple effects on young girls. A 2004 study by the Dove Real Beauty Campaign states that 81% of 10 year olds are "afraid of getting fat". There has been a rise in the amount of young girls   wearing makeup on a regular basis, for example, teenagers have began wearing fake eyelashes, foundation and hair extensions; this is all due to the effect that magazines and ideology have on them.


 But it's not only the physical appearance that these magazines portray onto young girls that is having a major effect, teen magazines also give an insight into what stereotypical women should be interested in. Judging by the contents inside these magazines, women are interested in gossip, fashion, boys and sex. Cover lines such as "My sister slept with my boyfriend", 'Snog Swaps' and 'Naughty Sex Questions You've Been Dying to Ask' are all displayed clearly on the front cover. Advertising to the 'target' audience and young teenage girls what they should be interested in.


 Another cover line, '387 Hottest Back to School Looks' makes the clear assumption that school girls want to and should look 'hot' on a regular basis. This is causing girls to act and dress older than they are and to attract the wrong kind of attention from boys. Four out of 10 girls in England have underage sex, which is more than in any other European country. This suggests that the media, especially magazines play a large part in this, offering the readers 'Erotic Fiction', 'The Secret to Being a Great Kisser', posters of boys and even an 'Are You Too Easy? Quiz'.


On the other hand, this recent 'outbreak' of young girls wearing too much make-up and gossiping about boys isn't all down to the magazines they read and the images they are presented with. It is not even a 'recent outbreak', young girls have always aspired to look pretty and often experiment with make-up and dressing-up. 


But due to these glamorous magazines constantly displaying female stereotypes and ideology, it is certain that too many young girls are being told and shown what they should look and act like. In conclusion, I think that women's magazines are partly to blame for the social ramifications of the representations they offer. There should be some form of censorship to prevent younger than intended audiences from reading these magazines, or perhaps just a general awareness on behalf of the parents of these young girls that seem to be growing up too fast due to teen magazines.

Task 2: Magazines & Audiences (Part 2)

'Babytalk' magazine is aimed at a target audience of expecting or new mothers, hence the selling line which is positioned beneath the masthead that reads "straight talk for new moms". Cover lines such as "Will I need a C-section?" are presented clearly in black bold writing to capture the attention of the target audience of a woman who is expecting a baby soon, this particular story which is obviously featured within the magazine will entice the customer to purchase the magazine as expecting mothers will be worried about the delivery of their baby, and due to curiosity; will want to know whether or not they will need a c-section, therefore the magazine subtly persuades potential customers to buy the product.

The colour scheme of the magazine cover is very simple, the use of the white background with the large, central main image of a baby smiling makes the photo stand out to the target audience of mothers, as babies and children are the main focus of their attention. This image will also probably be the first thing they see when viewing the magazine, so the picture should stand out and be relevant to the target audience when on the shelf. The continuous colour theme of pink and blue are soft and stereotypically used throughout the subject of babies and children, as pink is usually used to represent girls and blue represents boys, these colours are repeated in the layout of the cover of the magazine to highlight key points in the cover lines and make them stand out to the target reader.

The plug which is aligned to the bottom left of the cover is in a different shade of colour, making it stand out more to the reader, the plug reads "holiday traditions to start with baby now!" which is advertising to the new mothers who will be interested in purchasing this magazine that they should get started with interacting and building a life with their baby "now" as that is what most new mothers are interested in doing. This also makes the topic seem urgent, convincing the target audience to want to find out what the "holiday traditions" are and therefore persuading them to buy the magazine and get started with introducing tradition and routine into their baby's life, which is very popular with the target audience.

The magazine cover has tried to appeal to the target audience by building trust with their customers, this is evident in the top right corner where the small phrase "on diaper duty since 1935" which suggests that the magazine has been advising new and expecting mothers for many years. This will appeal to the potential customers as they need to trust a magazine and it's advice, especially if the advice is given about babies and children, which is the main focus and priority of the target audiences' interest. 

The cover lines "6 secrets to happy babies" and "tips to better breastfeeding" appeal to the target audience as these are topics which are relevant to being a mother; which is obviously the main focus of the magazine. These short descriptions of what is contained inside the magazine catch the readers eye as they want to know what is best for their baby and curiosity subtly persuades the target audience to purchase the magazine.

Task 2: Magazines & Audiences (Part 1)

Glossary:

Masthead- title at the top of the magazine, usually central or to the left of the page.

Dateline- date the magazine was released and the price

Main Image- Large photograph or picture displayed on the front of the magazine cover, catches readers attention and is relevant to the main story featured in the magazine, also usually represents the audience in some form

Cover Lines- Short sentences displayed on the magazine cover that link to the articles and stories featured inside

Spread- A set of two pages viewed together, like when you open up a book

Left Third- Graphics and text that are aligned on the left side of the page/cover

Margins- Space that surrounds the contents of a page, can be adjusted to create more or less space

Downrule- Vertical line that is found between two columns of text to seperate them from eachother

Flush- To set out text or images along an edge of a page layout

Puff/Plug- Writing or statement used to attract audience's attention

Selling Line- Short and bold description of the different articles and stories that stand out to the reader and is often the main marketing point

Bar Code- Identifies product, used by retailers

Font- Style of text used by the magazine, can have an effect on audience

Colour Scheme- Combination of colours themed throughout the magazine, usually kept simple as can be important when relating to target audience, red is often used as it stands out more than any other colour

Gloss- Shiny finish applied to magazine after printing, hence 'glossy magazines'

Task 1: Getting to know Blogger

Task 1: Getting to know Blogger

Things you can do with Blogger:

• Post pictures/videos/other multi-media to your blog
• Receive feedback and comments from blog users, other students or lecturers
• Comment on other blogs
• Get inspiration from photos, videos, text and other multi-media from other blogs or sources
• Organise your work/posts in a simple and clear perspective
• Edit your posts easily at any time
• Interact with other bloggers and followers
• Customize your blog

How I think blogger will be useful for my coursework:

• Get inspiration from other posts and bloggers that could be relevant or help me with my own
• Use of pictures, videos and text posts will allow me to use different forms of posting to show a variety of media in my work
• Receiving feedback from other bloggers, students or lecturers on my posts will allow me to understand where I can improve my work and what I can do more of
• Displaying my work and posts clearly on a blog will help me keep my work organized and prevent losing sheets of paper or notes
• I can edit my posts and work easily without having to re-print or dispose of it
• It's environmentally friendly as no paper is wasted
• Easier to access work at home without having to transport notes, paper, etc.
• Allows us to have access to the internet, websites, online newspapers and documents so we can expand our media useage