An evaluation of my college magazine

Front cover

I have been asked to produce a college magazine front cover and contents page. To help me do this I have taken many different photographs of people around the college building. Also, the images that I found were the best I used on my front cover and contents page.

My front cover presents a medium close-up shot of a female student with her earphones in. I wanted to use this image because she represents the typical appearance of teenagers and the fact this is a medium close-up of one person means less attention on the surroundings and more focus on the centre character. What I like about this image is her costume; she is wearing a black jacket which means text can easily stand out in contrast with the darkness.

I also like the big bold masthead written in capitals which clearly lets people know that this is not an ordinary magazine you buy in the shop but it’s one for the students in the college. I used purple as my main font colour because it matches really well with the main image and it works with red and blue which are used within the magazine to suit the male and female audience. Another great feature on the front cover is the selling line which is a short, sharp description of the title’s marketing point. In red it says ‘top news!’ which tells the audience that the magazine does not include only one subject but nearly everything about college.

There are a number of things that wasn’t so well for example, the main coverline ‘what is the real cost of rising tuition fees?’ was not large enough to catch the audience’s attention and the position of the text made it look unimportant. It could have been located across at the centre of the page in a larger size seeing as there’s little text at the bottom.

Contents page

The contents page includes three different images which will capture the audience’s interest even more. One of the images is landscape shot from over the shoulder to show what the student is drawing in design and technology. I also like the image of the person wearing these big headphones while listening to music looking rather trendy and urban which is why you’ll find text at the bottom of the contents page about winning Beats by Dr. Dre headphones. This also relates to music as well as fashion.

What makes the contents page attractive is the white background that makes the bright text stand out especially the large title. Also the layout of the different topics and page numbers makes it easy to read as it’s listed altogether at the bottom right hand side of the page. I like the fact that purple is used as my main colour font together with the title and sub-headings using less colours than the front cover.

My contents page could be improved by labelling the different images with page numbers that relate to a topic in the magazine, so that the reader can go to the specific page without any trouble of trying to find it.

Contents Page

College Magazine Front Cover

Sketches



Questionnaire

I am conducting an audience research to find out what students like to read in a college magazine as this would help me create one myself. The questionnaire will only take a couple minutes to fill in so can you please tick the following boxes.

1)      What gender are you?

Male

Female

2)      How old are you?

16

17

18

3)      Do you think there should be a college magazine?

Yes

No

4)      How much would you pay for a magazine?

Under £1

£1+

5)      Would you rather the magazine be more entertaining or educational?

Educational

Entertainment

6)      What do you look for in a magazine?

Fashion                                                               

Sports                                                  

Music

Art

Other

7)      How often would you like the college magazine to be distributed?

Weekly

Monthly

8)      Would you like competitions with prizes?

Yes

No

9)      Which of these colours do you find most appealing?

Pink	White	Green	Yellow	Red	Black	Purple	Blue

10)   Do you think college magazines should be free?

Agree	Strongly agree	Disagree	Strongly disagree	Neither agree or disagree

11)   What size is most suitable?

A3

A4

12)   Do you want to see images, text material or a mixture of both in the college magazine?

Images

Text material

Both

Thank you for your time.

Audience Research

Question 1: What gender are you?

I wanted to see if there are any correlations with the gender of people and their answers. For example the males could agree upon one thing, while the females could agree upon another. This is helpful for me to know my target audience’s opinions and what may attract them to a college magazine.

Out of the 20 people, I asked 8 males and 12 females. To make sure that my results were not dominated by any factor I asked around randomly and managed to get roughly equal proportions of both genders so that my research was fair.

Question 2: How old are you?

I wanted to see if there are any correlations with the ages of people and their answers. For example, one group could agree upon one thing, while the other group could agree upon another. This is important for me to find out my target audience’s opinions and what attracts their attention to a college magazine.

Out of the 20 people, the majority of the people I asked were 16 years old (13 people) and the rest were 17 years old (six people) and an 18 year old.

Question 3: Do you think there should be a college magazine?

I wanted to know what people thought about this question. If they agreed, then the magazine would be released. If they disagreed, then the magazine would not be released because less people will read it.

However, 18 out of 20 people would like there to be one.  

Question 4: How much would you pay for a magazine?

I want to find out how much people spend when they buy a magazine so that the college magazine would roughly be the same price.

My results tell me that they would not pay for a magazine that is over a pound so my college magazine should cost under a pound seeing as more people are likely to pay for it.

Question 5: Would you rather the magazine be more entertaining or educational?

I want to know what type of magazine would attract my target audience. An entertaining one would be more fun-based and exciting to read whereas an educational one would be very informative and straight to the point.

My results tell me that my magazine will be entertaining and educational.

Question 6: What do you look for in a magazine?

I asked this question to find out what kind of topics would attract my target audience to a college magazine. This will help me to create a magazine that interests people.

I found out that people mostly want a magazine based around music something that both sexes can read about.

Question 7: How often would you like the college magazine to be distributed?

It is important to find out an appropriate time of the month that the magazine should be released.

My results tell me the magazine is likely to be distributed monthly.

Question 8: Would you like competitions with prizes?

To draw readers to buy the college magazine I wanted to know if competitions with prizes help.

It goes to show that people would take part in these competitions if prizes were included.

Question 9: Which of these colours do you find most appealing?

I wanted to know what types of colours attract people's attention, so that I could make my college magazine as attention grabbing as possible.

Blue and pink got the most votes so I will be using these colours for my college magazine.

Question 10: Do you think college magazines should be free?

I wanted to know what people thought about this question. If they agreed, then the magazine would be free of charge but if more disagreed, then the magazine will cost.

My results tell me that the majority of people do not have an opinion on the matter. Five people agree and four people disagree. This suggests that the magazine is most likely to be free.

Question 11: What size is most suitable?

I asked this question to find out how big the magazine should be.

My magazine is going to be A4 as everyone voted for it.

Question 12: Do you want to see images, text material or a mixture of both in the college magazine?

This question allows me to identify what more or less could be included in the magazine.

Nearly everyone voted for both so I guess my magazine will include a fair share of text and images.

Textual Analysis College Magazine

The selling line is a short, sharp description of the title’s marketing point ‘your exclusive guide to everything hip, hot and happening’ people tend to remember three things so the rule of three is used to give a powerful yet memorable effect. The fact that ‘hip’ is used, it represents the main image and music in general. A lot of teenagers will like the magazine since it’s not totally about studying and ways to revise; it actually talks about college life which is more fun to read.

Seeing that the background is black it makes certain coverlines stand out especially the ones in green such as ‘college couture’ simply to indicate everything else in the same colour will be a topic about college lifestyle like the large masthead stating ‘college’. The blackness slightly lightens behind the main figure’s shoulders like he’s someone you could to look up to.

Other coverlines are in contrast against the dark background making it easier to read, ‘why we love blackberry’ is in white bold capitals following another question beneath it in small transparent text ‘and why it’s all the rage on campus’. At the bottom left of the page displays the barcode and price where it is usually placed. A specific month is not shown but the season plus year lays beside the selling line.

The front cover denotes a young man dressing rather stylish, his big watch and long silver chain reminds me of someone belonging to the music industry. A shot of his upper body from the waist draws attention to what he is holding rather than what he is wearing. If it was a shot of him from head to toe it will look like a fashion magazine instead he represents an intellectual student by holding a set of law, business and society text books.

Main coverline is the largest coverline on the front cover ‘Dancehall’s Bright Future’ in a bold green font with an explanatory line ‘Jeffrey Assassin’ Campbell’ in capitals making the character subject of the magazine. It may also attract people who are interested in this type of Jamaican popular music and perhaps promote ‘college’ a place where bright futures commence. Given that dancehall artist Jeffrey Campbell is to receive a scholarship, he is one of the few who wants to inspire his listeners through his actions and open the eyes of others to the value of education. Therefore, he uses a college magazine with his image on the front cover to highly portray this idea.

Introduction

Hi my name is Lan Che and I have created this blog to keep a record of my media coursework.