This is my first entry to my Media Studies preliminary task. In this post I will evaluate the key codes and conventions of a school magazine.
Top Terrace Front Cover
-
Block
colour in squares and rectangles
-
School
logos
-
Pictures
of students in uniform doing school activities
-
Clear
text and font
-
School
name at the top of the magazine
-
School
logo
-
Date
and issue
-
Introduction
to school
Fusion Contents
-
Bright
colours
-
Cartoony
pictures
-
‘printed
on recycled paper’
-
Contents
as title
-
Every
story has a page number, intro to the story and title
-
Logo
of magazine title in the corner with page number
-
Introduction
‘Welcome to Fusion’
Front Cover
The block
colours within squares and rectangular shapes in the ‘Top Terrace’ front cover,
automatically gives the impression of a rigid school structure, where the
students are set to follow the structure that the school provides, reflected in
the front cover. This gives the reader
the sense that the school is a place where the students must conform to certain
standards of work. In my own magazine, I would use shape in a less harsh,
formal way to relax the feel of my magazine and have a more informal tone.
Another key
feature of a school magazine is a school logo. This is highly important as it
brings the schools persona to the attention of the reader. This confirms the
school identity and makes it separate to another school. This is something I
must include in my own magazine as it will allow the reader to know which
school the magazine belongs to, bringing a sense of school pride.
Something
which is key to all magazines is the date and issue number. This is shown on
the front page of ‘Top Terrace’ magazine as it gives the reader an idea of what
they might be reading about, usually something related to that month, date etc.
for example, in a spring issue, the reader might expect something about Easter
and how the students are learning about this. I will include this on my front
page to allow the reader to feel up to speed with the issue.
Contents Page
The colour
scheme within the ‘Fusion’ contents page uses a range of bright colours and
incorporates these within photo shopped images. The designer creates a page
that tries to relate with a young audience by creating a funky theme with the
bright colouring, grabbing the reader’s attention and making the school
magazine seem more interesting than it actually is. I hope to use this within
my own work to create a relationship with the reader, encouraging not only
teachers but also students to read it.
The next
factor that I find important to a contents page is the list of all the stories
which are being featured, this something that I must do, for obvious reasons,
however in the ‘Fusion’ magazine, I liked how they had a couple of sentences
under each story title to give a basic introduction to it. I think
incorporating this into my work will give the contents page more substance than
just a plain list of article titles.
My next
point concerns the magazine title icon in the corner of the page. This brings
the reader’s attention back to the magazine title again and again, reminding
them who is giving them the stories. This seems appropriate in a school
magazine as it reminds the reader of the context of the articles in a school
magazine. In a magazine with a name such as ‘Fusion’, the reader is brought
back to the fact that the school magazine is trying something new and trying to
relate to students. I would also put this in my magazine as it keeps up the appearance
your school wanted to present with the type of icon, title and positioning.
