Evaluation

How does my magazine use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
I have followed the conventions through the analysis points of ‘LIIAR’. The masthead is a huge funky ‘s’ I created using Paint and Photoshop, it stands for students, I made sure it’s short, therefore memorable for the magazine title and it’s specially presented as a large, dominant icon to be noticed. A clear house style consisting of bright green, bright turquoise and deep purple only. I included anchorage as the text directs the reader through the signifiers of the image towards a meaning chosen in advance by me. The institution is shown by the Hull College logo and website address, this let’s the target audience know it associates with them and their college lives. This may make students want to buy it because they’d know it’s relevant to their education and for general lifestyle support. I made the headline ‘drugs’ huge, because if a Hull College student was to just glance at it, they’d be attracted by the word if they wanted to know more about drugs. Ideology wise, the magazine’s main connotation is a social one because drugs are introduced through social life, I think it’s relevant to advertise a social issue because students need support and their outside life needs to be at peace, or this effects their education at Hull College, also because my magazine would sell better, my studies show that most students would rather read about things that are relevant to them in their own time, instead of focusing on a subject they know nothing about or have nothing in common to relate to. The target audience would find it appealing because it’s written for students, by students. Therefore they will know what they’re talking about and what’s not relevant to the variety of students. I should’ve used a picture of a boy as well, but the best pictures I had were of girls. I hope my audience wouldn’t see this as sexist or the male audience not interested. Although on the contents page I’ve used some pictures of boys, so it’s not all sexist. The cover raise’s a serious issue onto the reader what they may not even think much about, since it's not boring, nor overwhelming as I think it has enough white space, but not a lack of text, so the audience can remain informed without feeling overpowered. It doesn't come across as strict, which is a good escape for a student to endure because student life can be very stressful sometimes. Overall I see it as a young and edgy cover.
How does my magazine represent particular social groups?
I didn’t want to throw the impression that teenagers are all linked with drugs, because most of us don’t make stupid decisions by taking substances we don’t know all about. This main subject is for those who don’t or do take drugs to find out more just for general knowledge they may find the interview interesting, the interview is supposed to contain a story on a girl’s bad experience with drugs. My magazine cover says “yes, some teens do drugs, we can’t stop it altogether but we can try and put them off it, let them know more about it and prevent them from using drugs”. This magazine is targeted at students who are aged 16-19, or maybe also some people over the age of 19, who are also in the same college as a student. I’d say the magazine would achieve its potential to its targeted audience as it's not dull therefore it should appeal to most students. Another technique I used to attract my target audience is how the model which is the main image I used looks like a student or of that age range (someone who looks like they would be a fellow student if the college magazine was official) The reason I believe this would appeal to my target audience is because students would be able to relate to the model through age range, I believe this may make a young adult pick the magazine up as people who have no familiarities with a subject do not find it appealing.