School magazine ideas

In this lesson we were asked to make a collage/mood board with lots of ideas for our school magazine's online and upload it to our blog.

Here is my mood board:

What my mood board involves:

• It's a collage of Bishop Ramsey school 
• It includes a picture of the logo of the school, this will go on the school magazine to show where it is actually coming from 
• There is a picture of a map, this will give the reader an idea of where the school is 
• There are pictures of events that are going on at Bishop Ramsey e.g. prom, sports day and 'the big build' to let students, pupils and parents know what is going to be happening around school. 
• There is a 'breaking news' picture that will be an exclusive page letting pupils/teachers/parents important news e.g. school trips, exam results, changes in the bus timetable. 
• Pictures of the '696 bus' which is the Bishop Ramsey school bus which will be explained in the magazine about its timetable, and any additional information the bus drivers would like to ask or tell the students e.g. littering.
• Pictures of the different houses and their given house points at that time so it shows the different competitions going throughout the school.

Preliminary task

In this lesson we were talking about the preliminary task that we will be doing and what the purpose of doing this task is. 

Within this task it must include:

• Cover and contents page of a new school magazine
• Cover must feature a photo of a student in medium close up and masthead as well as appropriately laid out text 
• At least four pictures in total (over cover and contents page) 

The purpose of task: 

• To practise using software - adobe photoshop and indesign 
• To practise using equipment such as the camera

School magazines

In this lesson we were talking about school magazines, what you find in them and the purpose of them. 

What you would find in a school magazine: 

• Pictures
• Recent news about school - whats going on
• Recent events (sports day/arts evening)
• Competitions within school
• Students work
• Students and staff included - featured writing 

Purpose of school magazines:

• It will benefit students - helping them to read 
• Extra curricular 
• It will inform parents, students and teachers
• A way to communicate with everyone in the school and parents 
• Helping students understand the school
• It gives students a voice 
• Bringing staff and students together
• Allows students to show talents

Conventions of a contents page

In this lesson we talked about contents pages and the conventions of a contents page.

Conventions of a contents page:  

• It will tell us what will be inside 
• Title
• It will tell us page numbers so it will be easy for us to find specific pages we are looking for
• Pictures relating to whats inside maybe using different varieties, types and sizes
• Titles of articles 
• Summary 
• Captions underneath the pictures 
• Quotes from what is inside 
• An editors letter 
• Found in the front of a magazine 
• Easy to navigate - Might be set into themes/page order/regular/feature

Analysing magazines with technical codes, written codes and symbolic codes

In this lesson we were given two other magazines, 'Woman' and 'Ruislip Eye' and were asked to analyse them both.  We had to analyse them going by:

• Technical codes - layout of the page, typeface/font, size/quality of photos, cropping of photographs, how photos relate to stories and why pictures have been used 

•  Written codes - size of cover lines, key words, missing information/fulfilling expectations, persuasive language used and picture captions. 

•  Symbolic codes - masthead/name of magazine, any other graphics, colours, symbols and overall impression. 

This is the magazine that I analysed.

This is the analysation of the magazine.

This is the school magazine that I analysed.

This is the analysation of the school magazine. 

Analysing Magazines

In this lesson, we were given a magazine cover of 'Closer' and were asked to analyse it. There are many features used on the magazine that gives many reasons why the reader will get drawn into buying and reading it:  

• Giant bold title, white standing out on top of purple background -  will draw readers attention.
• Shocking pictures - the audience will wonder what and how the incidents occured and will be forced into buying it. 
• A conflict of emotions - There are three pictures, in Geri's picture it shows that she's 'delirious' and happy with her love life, but in Cheryl's picture it shows that she is 'defiant', she is not upset nor happy, yet she is just grateful that the crash made her and her partner stronger and in Victoria's picture it shows that she is completely 'devastated' with what has happened between her and David - by seeing a conflict of different emotions will make people wonder why and will lead the audience to  read on to hear about the three celebrities lives at that moment. 
• Alliteration - 'delirious, defiant, devastated' - It will attract readers attention and draw them into the stories. 
• Personal experiences of public audience - the reader can relate to the stories being told by a general member of society and may buy the magazine for advice or comfort. 
• Date - to keep the reader informed that it is the up to date version. 
• Price - the reader may see the price and may be forced into buying it because it is such a reasonable price. 
• Special offers - the reader will be drawn in to read about all the special offers they can get for themselves. 
• Giant pictures describing roughly what's happening - will instantly draw readers attention. Also reader may be able to tell the feelings of the celebs in the pictures by the face expressions they are making and may wonder why they're feeling like that so will be forced to buy it.
• Barcode - Lets buyer know it is up to date.
• Insights/snippets of what you will be able to read more of inside - will grab readers attention as they read the snippet and won't be able to put the magazine down without buying it and reading the rest of the story. 
• Celebrity gossip - Readers love knowing about celebrities and want to know everything about them and know what is happening in their lives so are forced to buy it. 
• Meaning of title - Reader may feel like they are getting 'closer' to the celebs and feeling like they are actually getting to 'know' them.

This the cover of 'Closer' that I analysed. 

Signs and Signifiers

In this lesson we were talking about signs and signifiers that all media texts might use which subconsciously send messages to the audience. 

Definitions:

• Signifiers- shows something or means something, e.g. the colour red signifies love and romance. 
• Encoding- putting the meaning into something
• Decoding- working out the meaning of something
• Denotation- the meaning of something 
• Connotation- meanings associated with something

Key point: 

• All meanings vary depending on the reader/audience. 

Signs and signifiers:

• facial expressions and body language shows emotions/moods of people
• colours have a range of connotations
• lighting can create an atmosphere or highlight certain features
• objects can tell us more about people/places - they can be used instead of words

Here are 3 sheets that I filled out to show different types of signs and signifiers:

This picture shows different colours and what the colours may signify. 

This picture shows different diagrams and what they may signify.

This picture shows different fonts and what they may signify. 

Understanding magazines

In this lesson we looked at different magazine types. We were asked numerous questions about them:

What are magazines made to do? 

• Magazines are made to advertise, entertain audience, inform audience about recent events (news), inform audience about celebrities lives (gossip), to show pictures of celebrities and mainly to gain money. 

What are usually inside magazines? 

• Inside a magazine you will usually find products being advertised that will make you want to buy them, music advertisement, pictures and gossip about celebrities, general news (current events), personal stories so that the audience can also feel involved with the magazine, daily horoscopes, advice for the audience, competitions, interviews with famous musicians/celebrities and columns. 

Name the magazines that you know or have heard of: 

• Magazines that I have heard of are: Kerrang, NME, OK, Now, GQ, Look, Glamour, Closer, Fabulous, Star, Woman, Vogue, Beano, dancing times, Sky Sports, House & Gardens, Mens Health, Tv mag, Time and Elle. 

What sort of magazine genres are there? Give examples of magazines that are in these genres:

• Music/Rock music - Kerrang, Woman based - Glamour, Men based - GQ, Teen based - Vogue, News - Time, Sports - Sky Sports, Home and Garden - House & Gardens, Gossip/celebrity - Star, Lifestyle/Fitness - Mens Health, Fashion - Elle and Television/entertainment - TV mag.