In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
My media project can relate to real media products as it uses the forms and conventions to produce it. Every magazine has a basic layout thats always followed, the mast head at the top and a centre-piece image. With my media project i use a mast head and a centre piece, this being the victoria college embelem and also the image of the batsmen. The focus point was for an audience to recognise that it was a school magazine, so to do this i used a large image of the school logo and included a large masthead. Now with this being a one off magazine the masthead would have not been recognisable to my audience. Therefore i had to make sure it stood out. I made the mast head the main focus by using a bold colour for the text, yellow. This also resembles the school colours due to the background being black. I found this effective as the colours were an identification that it is a Victoria College magazine. I also used yellow for the subtitles that showed what featured in a magazine. Usually magazines follow this trait also as it makes it easier to digest if the titles and subtitles match each other. I didnt want to have too much text on the front cover so kept the main festures on the page down to a minimum of three. I believe this works well as it gives the audience an insight into what the magazine's about, but also doesn't make the front cover look too cramped for space.


How does your media product represent particular social groups?
My media product isn't really focussed upon any social groups particulary. It's aimed at three types of audience, school pupils and teachers, parents and guardians of pupils and the general public who are interested about college life. It's a school magazine so doesnt really reach out to any social groups, just pupils of the school e.t.c. The closest my magazine gets to social groups would be sportsmen. This is indicated on the front cover with a picture of a batsmen. This symbolises the college as a sport school as one of the main features is 'Cricketer Of The Year' interview.


What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
With it being a school magazine i was thinking a local paper, for example the Jersey Evening Post would be a suitable one as it reaches most households in Jersey. This will benefit the college as it will gather more coverage and will hopefully get more students wanting to come to the college from this magazine. It could also be produced on the web as an online magazine. This would prove effective as most people have access to the internet on a daily basis and would therefore increase the number of viewers/audience. This would also save the production of this media as there would be no printing costs and also a profit could be made by using their website for advertising local companies/events that are being held in the island.


Who would be the audience for your media product?
The audience for a school magazine would be the students themselves and also staff at the college. Parents and Guardians of the pupils (and also any other relatives) and also the general public.


How did you attract/address your audience?
I feel i have allocated these audiences suitably as the magazine front cover looks classy yet sophisticated, this addressing the parents and general public, but having a sports based image reflects the college's not so serious side and would appeal to students and also the general public. I believe the mast head is sophisticated and stands out to attract the attention of the audience. My magazine has no specific social group to attratc so would appeal to my general public audience as it doesnt have a closed view on society by focussing on one specific social class.


What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
I have learnt different aspects about technologies, especially by using Adobe Photoshop. I never realised how much there is to do with an image and i took full advantage of this. I explored how to use the program and eventually got the just of things. I found the magnetic lasso tool on Photoshop to be a favourite of mine and have used it on both my front cover images, this allows me to select a certain feature on an image and work with that instead of the whole image itself. I also learnt how to use iphoto and also the apple mac computers. Although i have used it before to do my Trident Work in which i worked for Gallery Magazine, i still found it difficult to explore the programs and get the hang of things. I feel i will benefit from this preliminary task as i havent got to grips with apple computers and its main features such as Photoshop and hopefully this will allow me to produce high quality work in the further tasks to come.