Audience feedback

Here is a video of me presenting my 3rd draft of my magazine to my peer, who are the same age as me, 16-17 years, and a mixture of male and female. They are not my primary audience (12-14 years old, girls), however many of them have younger sisters and therefore could fall into my secondary audience of older people who would buy the magazine for their younger siblings. I found the feedback very useful as many of my class gave me advice on elements of my magazine which needed to be changed to suit my audience.
The aim of my video was mainly to gain feedback on these elements of my magazine:

Whether the colour scheme reflected my music genre
Mostly everyone said it did, however, some commented that the house style was too bright and that I had used too many different colours, therefore I have decided to review my use of colour and decide on three colours only. Although I already knew this was a convention of a magazine, I thought my magazine should look more colourful to reflect my younger audience. However, after hearing the audience's response, I know I will have to change my colour scheme.

Whether the content was appropriate:
As my article included a story of the artist's sister who suffered from bullimia, I wanted to ask my audience if they felt talking about it in my magazine would be too severe for such a young audience. Many people commented that I have focused too much on the artist's lifestyle, and should talk more about her music as it is a music magazine, however I explained that my questionnaire reflected thatmy audience were more interested in the celebrity over their music.
Overall the response was about 50/50, as some people believed the topic was too complex for my audience and they wouldn't understand, whereas others believed it was a good idea to educate girls about eating disorders at a young age. My teacher, who falls perfectly into my secondary audience (female, 30-40 years, social class ABC1, mainstreamer), who has a daughter, believed it was a good idea, and that she would be happy to buy the magazine for her daughter as she believes by educating children about eating disorders they will be less likely to suffer from one. Because of this, I definitely will keep this element in my article, as I now can be sure that parents would like their children read and be aware of eating disorders.

Which layout they prefered more:
I also presented my 2nd and 3rd draft of my contents page to ask which layout they prefered. Again, I recieved a mixed response, where half of  the class said they really liked my 2nd draft (which I felt looked less professional) as it reflected my younger audience more. On the other hand the rest of the class said they liked my 3rd draft, but thought I should change the colour of my pull quote to make it stand out more. During my presentation, I handed out various questions to gain feedback from the areas I was most unsure about and this was one of them. Out of 15 people, 8 people said they prefered the layout of draft 3, which was my favourite too, and therefore I will continue to use this layout in my future drafts of my magazine.

Draft 3

Draft 2

First sketches

These are a very rough sketch of my first ideas for my layout which I decided to think about before beginning to construct my magazine.

First Draft of my article for my Double Page Spread

Here is my first draft of my double page spread which is an interview with "Cherish", a fictional pop singer who has become world wide famous in the past year. The article discusses how she is finding her new celebrity status.

Draft Article

Proposal Feedback

Proposal

Audience profiles

Here are profiles of 3 young girls who fit my target demographic and would want to read my magazine. 

 

 If Vokis do not load, please click the links below to view them on the website. 

 
http://l-www.voki.com/pickup.php?scid=8989151&height=267&width=200

 http://l-www.voki.com/pickup.php?scid=8989244&height=267&width=200

 http://l-www.voki.com/pickup.php?scid=8989028&height=267&width=200

Article Drafts

I have decided to change the format of my article. Whereas before the article was in an interview form of question and answer, now I have written it to be more of a story as I believe this would be better suited to my audience and sounds more interesting. I felt as though the article became very repetive and seemed very boring as it sounded as though the audience was listening into their conversation. In the second draft, I believe there is more of a conversational tone, which would appeal to my audience as the informal tone denotes their younger age group. This is seen through phases such as "we are just dying to ask", "Gosh, it's no wonder she's stolen the hearts' of the nation!" and "Trying not to die of jealousy". The phrases make the writer appear to be equal to the audience as it seems like they are just as excited to meet the artist as the audience would be. This means the audience can also use my media product for personal identity, following the uses and gratifications theory, as they can relate to the article more.

Cherish Artile 2nd Draft

Here is my first draft for my article which will be based on the pop artist, "Cherish", who will be featured on the front cover. From my questionnaire, I found out that my audience would prefer to read about the lifestyle of the artist, over their music. I have put this down to their age, as they are only 12-14 years old, and, stereotypically, music is more important to 16-25 year olds, and at 12-14 they will mainly use media for social relationships (following the uses and gratifications theory) to speak about the celebrities they like with their friends, especially as at their age they are just beginning to gain their independence and go out with their friends without their parents.

I have tried to include a variety of topics in my article to catch and maintain the attention of my audience, which includes her background, her boyfriend and healthy eating. As I know my secondary audience are parents (aged 30-40 years, social class ABC1, as therefore they would have money to spend on buying magazines for their daughters), I have taken care to include tame topics which parents would be happy for their young and impressionable daughters to read. As many parents are concerned about the rise in unhealthy eating disorders, including over and undereating, I have written about my artist promoting a healthy and regular lifestyle, as I believe this topic would really appeal to my secondary audience.

Draft Article

Preliminary task ideas

Preliminary Task

Preliminary Task - Front cover

Preliminary Task - Contents page

18/09/13 In media I have been focusing on creating my preliminary task which was to construct a front cover and a contents page for a school magazine. Firstly I took a range of photos for the magazine, which included long shots, close ups, shots where the model was conforming to the male gaze and ones where she was not. I chose to take several photos as I had not decided what my cover story would be yet so I didn’t know what photo would be appropriate. The next lesson I decided on two photos to use and then began constructing a draft for the pages. I used this as an opportunity to record my ideas and decide on the layout. I then transferred my drawings on paper to the computer by using Indesign and started to create my front cover and contents page. I found that I had drawn the titles too small on my draft and had to put less on my front cover in my final design as there was not enough room for the subheadings. In the next lesson I polished my final designs and uploaded them to my blog.

Preliminary Task Design Ideas

Before creating my preliminary task, I sketched a design of how I wanted my final product to look. I have photographed them and placed the images below. During construction of my preliminary task, I will refer back to these drawings to remind myself where to place the images and the texts, etc.

Preliminary task video

 

Text format:

To start the course, we were asked to do a preliminary task of creating a front cover and a contents page for a school magazine. I was excited, and quickly sketched some ideas for my layout. I then used a DSLR camera to take photos of my models, Amy and Grace, which included a range of long shots, mid shots and close up shots, which I have used on my front cover and contents page.

I wanted a name for my magazine that denoted its purpose of being a place for the students of Haydon to voice their thoughts and opinions, and therefore decided on the name “Haydon Talks”.

In the next lesson I began constructing my pages, which I found great difficulty in as I had not used InDesign before. I have used a simple house style of navy blue, yellow and black as these are the school’s colours, and therefore link the magazine to Haydon.