Homework Task- Magazine Research

Homework Task-

Research into school magazine: Leaving School Issue 7.

This magazine focussed on what issues are raised once you have left school itself, hence the magazine name. There is a picture of a famous celebrity on the front cover, which would be appealing to students as it is what they want to know as well. The front cover includes ASOS fashion tips for him and her, sexual health advice, Diplomas uncovered and a land based careers special. There is a play on words, as it says ‘Paint the town Pink’, which is also the name of the celebrity revealed on the front page. The contents include many different aspects of the magazine that appeals to its target audience. This magazine looks like it has been aimed specifically at the younger generation and just the students, rather than acknowledging staff and parents. It shows that it includes advice about different ways of post student life from diploma discussion, to sexual health advice. There are advertisements including Price Water House Coopers, which is aimed at students who want to go to university, other adverts include RAF careers and Camp America opportunities which give advice to students that are leaving school. A main part of the magazine’s purpose is the careers advice. There shows to be a lot of information about different careers that will suit the majority of its readers from NHS health workers, down to careers at sea. There is an entertainment section which includes the celebrity Pink and a page full of information on her and how she made her career a success. This has probably been used as a way of showing how any person is able to make something of themselves, as she is famous for being quite an uncontrollable character. There is a page of reviews towards the end of the magazine, which shows film of the month, game of the month, and a response card. This suggest that this is a monthly magazine, and it gives the students a guidance into there life after school. I think that this type of magazine looks very professional, and will gain an audience successfully. It consists of 50 printed pages of information on various topics, and shows to have a balance between informative topics like careers advice, to more personal advice and celebrity gossip like the information on Pink.

Didn't know how to do a link! Website is:

http://www.leavingschool.co.uk/downloads/LS_7.pdf

Lesson 3

23-1-09
Lesson three- In todays lesson, we focussed on the making of the fron page of our school magazine. We looked at the ideas from our sales pitch and gained knowledge into the production layout. We continued in our groups of two's and three's to produce different issues of the magazine itself. In my group we included imaghes from previous magazines and tried to tie it in with our content ideas. On the front of the first issue which I produced, I included community news, a free promotional stationary set advertisement, wrote the cost in bold font and used many others. This lesson helped me gain an understanding into how we should consider all aspects when producing a front page of our magazine, from how appealing it is, to suiting our target audiences appropriately.

Lesson Two

22-1-09
Lesson Two- In this lesson, we worked on our sales pitch presentation which helped us see our ideas in a clear and understandable way. This will be very useful when starting to plan and produce our magazines and we listened to everyone elses ideas which was very effective. Within our groups of two's or three's we started to come up with a plan and gain a visual construction of how the magazine could look.
I worked with two other students within the class, and we came up with very good ideas which will benefit everyone. We focussed on how the magazine will be produced and included the costs of production. Our presentation included how we would attract and appeal to our target audiences of pupils, staff and parents by including different content on a monthly basis. We decided that we would include themed pages including a problem page, dates for upcoming school events, subject news, and a page about changes within the school. We worked out that with a 15 double page A4 magazine layout, including one coloured front cover and a ringbinder fastening, one magazine would cost around £1.06 to produce. Therefore, we came up with ideas in which we could make the money if we were to sell each magazine at 50p each. These included advertisements which would be of some use to the audience, inlcuding promotions from local food stores etc.
From this lesson, I learnt that we have to think carefully about the selection of items to produce the magazine. This can be very costly, if no profit would be made. Secondly, we have to think about what would suit the target audience as there has to be something to suit every kind of reader from a member of staff, to a parent of a student. Lastly, we have to show a mix of entertainment and fun from the school magazine, to a certain level of news and school topics. This would be a good balance and should suit our target audience with higher success.

Lesson One

20-1-09
Lesson one- In this lesson we focussed on The Foundation Portfolio. We were talking about the process and outcomes of the preliminary exercise. We have to be aware to consider all parts of the school magazine including, target audiences, content, format and the costs. We looked at the key themes of the school magazine, and started to work on our sales pitch presentation work, which will give us an insight into what we are going to produce. It will help us be able to see what will work within the magazine itself, and listen to other ideas which could be of our benefit.