School Magazine (Preliminary Task)

Kathryn Palos

Research

Why have a school magazine?Having a school magazine is important to allow students to feel as if they belong to a firm community within school. Creating and distributing a monthly school magazine establishes the sense of belonging among school goers. They have access to a platform to voice their opinions and also have a talking point to create conversation, resulting in new friendships. Contributing towards the magazine involves students in more ways than one, from making decisions to delegating specific roles to others With guidance students can form into individuals that will stay on the right track. School magazines also share student learning and achievements with families on a monthly basis. Some believe that once you have a school magazine the possibilities of information spreading further are endless. Some schools are starting to make use of modern day technology and social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. However if we combine social networking sites and classic non-digital media there are a number of benefits:• Non-digital media encourages face to face communication and eliminates the idea of cyber

bullying by allowing information to be up to date and factual – rather than logging on and seeing anonymous comments.

• Using social media allows easy access at any time of the day or night, it allows for more creative options e.g. interviewing a teacher and having a video of it rather than just text in a magazine.

Analysis of a school magazine front cover.

The school logo is the main image used on this specific front cover. This brings the readers attention fully towards the school as there aren’t any other images competing with the school badge for the viewers attention.

I assume that the colors used are the school colors, this brings about school pride and individuality No other school will have the same front cover as yours.

The target audience for this magazine could be for the older students as younger ones could regard the simplicity of the front cover as boring (with no sell lines or images). Whereas older students may find it intriguing because there is nothing giving away the content inside.

The magazines appearance is smart this could reflect the image of the entire school as a clean cut educational establishment.

There is no masthead, however it could be interpreted that the masthead is the school logo, this is extremely different as it doesn’t follow conventions of the layout of a magazine.

This is an example of a school magazine that doesn’t stick to conventions regarding the layout and visual content.

Tagline reading “Achievingsuccesstogether” This is of great importance as it puts forward what the school essentially is and how it makes them special. The school could be remembered for their tagline.

Headline positioned to the top left of the front cover is outlined by a white background (which is different to the main image) creating an eye catching image thus making it the first thing the reader sees.

Only 1 obvious sell line so this suggests there is only one topic of the magazine (the table below could also be interpreted as another sell line )

I notice that the main image consists of girls, rather than boys as they have a more welcoming nature encouraging those to read the magazine. The angle that the photograph has been taken is also influential as it shows the significance of the ball being used encouraging taking part in physical activities. It is almost as if they are glowing representing a happy and comfortable atmosphere.

Color scheme fits well and could be tied in with the school colors. The earthy maroon color is humbling + welcoming.

The target audience of this specific magazine would be the sporty students as the main focus is sport.

This magazine does follow a few conventions of school magazines when referring to the colors used as well as the use of a masthead, tagline and a few cell lines.

Masthead covers the whole width of the front cover, it is the biggest font on the page therefore naturally your eyes will fall upon it first when viewing the whole magazine. There are no capital letters in the masthead this could reflect the tone that the school is trying to portray as less intimidating, more relaxed and informal appealing to the students.

The main image is a school girl she doesn’t look photo shopped expressing the natural realistic view. She is smiling and holding direct eye contact with the reader persuading them to read the magazine

The color scheme is different as it doesn’t reflect the school colors. It has more pastel colors resembling youth. The green suggests intelligence and sharpness, yellow suggests happiness and pink is feminine and calming.

This is the first magazine that follows conventions regarding the layout there are several sell lines showing the reader what content is inside urging them to take a copy and start reading it.

The target audience for this particular magazine could be the younger female students as the main image is a younger girl and the colors used are childlike.Out of the 3 studied this

school magazine follows the most conventions.

School magazine Questionnaire Blank

Answers to the Questionnaire

Results of Questionnaire

Are you male or female?

This increases confidence in my questionnaire answers as there is an even amount of boys and girls taking this questionnaire therefore it represents both sexes equally. It is good for me to see both opinions as my target audience will be both male and female.

MaleFemale

Magazine Readers YesMagazine Readers No

Do you read magazines?

These results show me that the majority of people from my target audience do read magazines.

How often read Daily How often read WeeklyHow often read Monthly

How often do you read magazines?

Over half of the students asked chose the “monthly” option out of the 3 given. This shows that they prefer to read a magazine on a monthly basis because it may not become special and information would be sparse if there was a school magazine published weekly. The cost of production will also be less as less paper and ink would be used as a result of publishing a magazine monthly instead of weekly. However there were some students who believed that reading a school magazine was a waste of time mainly because they could already access this information online.

HoroscopesSubject revisionDriving TipsTripsFashion TipsVolunteering Activities

What do you expect to see in a school magazine?

I created this question to find out the interests of my target audience. Their answers have helped me to choose which topics I would include in my school magazine (in the contents page as well as the sell lines on the front cover) The top two most popular categories were Driving Tips and Trips, I will make sure to include them in my school magazine.

School colorsRoyal blue, black and whiteRed, green, yellow and blackOrange, white and blue

What color scheme would you expect to see in a school magazine?

The most popular option out of the 4 was the “school colors” option. This shows me that my target audience are proud to be a part of their school community and would relate more to the magazine if it had school colors throughout it.

ImagesTextBoth

Would you prefer more images, text or a balance of both?

Most students chose “Images”. Taking this into consideration I will try and get a general balance between the use of images and text in my magazine but preferably use more images, as they entice readers and make it easier to read the whole magazine.

How my research has helped me• I will try to make sure that I follow the codes and conventions of magazines as

closely as possible to achieve a professional looking school magazine. To add I will also take under review my target audiences opinions from my questionnaire given out.