Evaluation of Cover
The cover of my magazine SME challenges develops and uses classic media conventions. SME uses classic media conventions because it has many things included on most magazine covers. This includes a masthead. SME is abbreviated from St Marylebone Education. The reason for this is because it makes the masthead bolder, short and eye catching. For the teenage target audience, their general preference is things which are short and don’t take along time to read. Therefore the masthead is more likely to be successful in attracting its target audience. The strap line is another classic media convention. It is emplaced above the masthead and is in a smaller font. This is purely so it doesn’t take priority over the masthead but is still in a position to be seen. The strap line reads “First for school news”. This is effective and attracts the audience because it shows that they are the most effective and quite simply get the information before anyone else, or before any other format. It shows that the magazine is up to speed and means that the students can keep up with facts they need to know on time. This links to the actual goal of the strap line which is to persuade the audience to pick up the magazine. The magazine also uses kickers and explanatory texts which highlight the features which are discussed within the magazine. Due to the strict time scale and lack of creativity on my part I only included three of each. Most magazines have roughly five to six. The advantage of this is that the audience can be persuaded further through the finding out more of the features in the actual magazine. The advantage of having so few kickers and explanatory texts is that it kept my cover very clean and concise and away from a huge problem which many magazines have, overcrowding. It makes the cover look more attractive and less forced. This is a fresh magazine idea as they feel the clean free feel of the magazine will get them more buyers. This develops media conventions further. Another quite conventional media convention that is on SME’s cover is the button. Generally in magazines the button is used to advertise magazine prizes where the audience can win something. This attracts an audience because people are attracted by getting things through using little time and effort. This is the reason I used it on my magazine cover. It is placed in the right hand size of the image in a small bubble because it isn’t the main feature of the magazine but in its position can still attract a certain amount of attention.
In a sense the media conventions are challenged as every detail of the magazine is replicated on that of the music magazine “NME”. SME hopes that the audience recognizes that they are replicating NME because it is a successful popular magazine. They are also aware that many young people read NME so they hope through moulding their cover on NME’s the students at school will be attracted. The camera angle of the image is one widely used for magazine front covers- the medium shot. This specific shot was employed so that the image of the models whole body is revealed and also so that the audience can gain an understanding of the school environment and what it looks like. In a sense, the magazine cover challenges typical media conventions in that; it is ridden of any form of “fixing” of the surroundings or the model. This shows how the school is proud of the school and the individuals of the school because they show them in a way that is real. The cover also features a normal student from St Marylebone’s sixth form Danielle Emina. She is 17 years old and is emplaced to represent the values of the school. These are expressed through the motion on her face. Danielle’s smile has connotations of happiness and that she enjoys studying at St Marylebone. Again through featuring Danielle, it shows how the school gets the students involved and also to reflect them. It also shows that they are proud of the students. Due to the fact that it features the students, naturally they want to buy something which they are proud of. This challenges media conventions as most magazines would rarely have people inside their company on the cover occur as the model is often the selling point of a magazine. Danielle is also holding a file to show her connection to working at school. The smile on her face shows her enjoyment of learning aswell. The fact that she appears so fashionable is so it links to the cover and makes everything on it link. Most magazines use this technique so it keeps to media conventions.
The language was determined by the target audience that SME looks to attract. In this case the target audience is the students who study at St Marylebone sixth form. For this reason, the style of writing on the cover is informal, fun and involves a great deal of puns. This is because that is what that target audience is generally attracted to. This is a technique used by many magazines that target a young audience. This is one of the selling points of the magazine. Generally students would be forgiven for believing that the typical school magazine would be dull and very formal. SME attempts to go against that stereotype by making the language entertaining and as though it has been written by a student at the school, someone who the audience can relate to. Not many magazines employ this technique, so it does challenge typical media conventions. Most magazines feel their magazine will be more successful if they employ qualified experienced journalists because the level of their work would be expected to be greater. SME is aware that their students don’t just want to read another textbook and would prefer something that reflected their student’s voices. Giving power to the students through SME does just that.
The language on the cover of the magazine is also very motivational as it is based purely on to help the students with many aspects of school life. For example the kicker, “Unifying You” will attract a wide selection of the audience because many teenagers are keen on presenting themselves well and saving money! Any guide to help them do this successfully will persuade the audience to buy a copy of the magazine. Many magazines focus on their audience in order to successfully sell their magazine. Generally woman’s magazines are well known to use this technique because they woman are said to be particularly interested in being their best possible self. SME also wants their audience to feel this way but more in an educational sense. This technique is also founded in teenage magazines because teenagers like advice on how to be better. This is a common media convention which would probably also be founded in educational magazines but would probably be more based strictly on academic work rather than student lift. On the cover of SME, there are only four fonts used. The advantage of this is that it keeps the cover clear and concise, however what can occur is that the cover lacks creativity and can be boring. This means that it doesn’t connect with the fun feel that the magazine is meant to have. This is also like the sizes of the fonts. The kickers are generally the same size as so are the explanatory texts. This keeps the layout consistent and clear. This is a media convention which most magazines use as they do not want to overcomplicate the cover and therefore turn away the audience.
The colour scheme of the magazine is representative of the school and the students at the school. When one thinks of Marylebone’s denotations they cannot help but see the green uniform. Although at 6th form uniform no longer applies, the school wants to show there history and not let it be forgotten. This is the reason the masthead and button are green. I also used purple because it’s the colour which Danielle is whering so the cover tends to blend it more and not look overdone. It also represents the freedom that the students are allowed and highlights the fact that 6th has no school uniform.
As the magazine is run by the school it would have no distributor. This means that the goal of the magazine would not be to sell copies but would instead be for them to pick them up and take into account what the magazine says to help them with their schooling at St Marylebone. SME has no barcode. This shows that it does not aim to sell. All magazines which are for sale include the price of the magazine and a barcode.
The magazine aims to attract a unisex 6th form audience between the ages of 16-18. Through including a teenager on the cover this becomes clear and the fact that she is whering her own clothes show how the magazine is only appropriate for 6th formers. The reasons they are attracted are listed above.
The contents page holds absolutely no techniques which pull in the reader. All they do is set out where the audience can find the articles they are looking for within the magazine. What the contents page does do is reemphasize that the magazine is related to the St Marylebone School through their logo. What would have made the contents page better was if it included activities which were taking place at school just to keep the students up to data with the current topics at St Marylebone. NME for example will have a picture of someone they are interviewing to relate the article to the contents page. Through this the audience may become interested in the person based on how they look and therefore will be interested in reading the interview
Technologies
Overall I believe my understanding of skills on Adobe Photoshop improved greatly during this task. The tool which I particularly enjoyed and valued was cropping because it helped me remove irrelevant parts of images and to keep the important part of it. This was handy when deleting irrelevant parts of my cover. I hope to take on more skills in the actual task to improve my work.
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