School magazine cover and contents page

Cover

Contents page

Evaluation of school magazine task

Evaluation of school magazine cover and contents page

For this piece of work I had to construct a school magazine aimed at one of three audiences; the whole school, a specific year group or the sixth form. I chose to aim my magazine at the sixth form as I thought it would be interesting to have a less academically based magazine.

Overall, I am happy with the way my magazine has turned out. A couple of things, however, did go wrong and I did not have time to put them right. This includes the quality of the photos on the contents page as they seem quite blurred and the colours also seem quite dull. I am still pleased with the layout of the contents page and I feel that it works well. If I did have more time I would have taken the time to style and position people for photographs, rather than just walking around the common room during a lesson. This is something that I will take on to the music magazine and hopefully to make it better.

I have also found that usually contents pages are white with black text. I have used a blue background with white text which goes against the usual style of a magazine. I feel that the white box at the top helps to balance the amount of white space; however, for my music magazine I will have to consider what magazines are usually like a lot more. If I had more time for research, which I will have when I make my music magazine, I would have looked into school magazines and the normal layout a lot more than what I did.

I feel that the image on the front cover is very effective as it symbolizes and relates to the main featured article. The fonts are all the same, with variety on the size and colour. This works well as it enables the viewer distinguish between the text but also allow it to all look as if it belongs there. The four topics stated at the bottom are all related to the results of the questionnaire as these were among the favourite things to read about. Also because they are all quite different it means that the magazine can appeal to a wide variety of people, and therefore, the whole sixth form.

Another problem I had was resizing the photos to the correct size. This means that they become distorted due to the constant stretching and shrinking of the images. I am now used to what size an image needs to be for a specific task. This means that this shouldn’t be a problem when I make my music magazine.

I feel that all of the problems that I have had have helped me in going forward to make my music magazine and although there are some problems, I feel that with the time I was given and the fact that this is my first task, I feel that it went very well.

School Magazine Title Questionnaire

I have carried out a further questionnaire because the titles question was not specific enough. I used all of the ideas that came back from the last questionnaire and added some of my own ideas as well.

Question:
What is your favourite choice of title for the school magazine?

Results:
Sole = 0
YourSpace = 14
Read It! = 4
Shrew News = 0
Sofa = 0
Brentwood County High Sixth Form = 0
Gossip Girl = 0
LOL = 1
Other = 0

I feel that these results prove my theory of people just being too lazy to think of a title. This is a much better idea and so I can therefore learn from my mistakes and use this knowledge for when I start my music magazine.

I am going to call the magazine YourSpace. This is because I like the idea of using something relatable to the students and changing it slightly. It also suggests that it is what they want inside. Also, because the students themselves have agreed, with 70% of people choosing YourSpace.

Magazine Title Ideas

I have come up with three titles for my magazine. I am going to submit a questionnaire to the sixth form to see what is the favourite option.

Option 1:
Sole
I like this idea as it is short and simple. This means that it will grab the viewers attention and it will be memorable. It also suggests it is one of a kind, which it is, but this will make the viewer want to read it.

Option 2:
YourSpace
This idea came from the social networking site, MySpace. As most of the sixth form use myspace I think this is a good idea as they can easily relate to it. The title is longer, but I think that as it is so similar to MySpace it will be eqaully as memorable in the viewers mind.

Option 3:
Read It
This idea came from the questionnaire results. This was my favourite choice from the sixth form and I feel that it is short and memorable. It speaks for itself really which could reflect in the magazine being an easy read. Obviously you don't want to get too confused when reading a magazine.

Questionnaire Results and Analysis

I have collected all of the results from the questionnaire and carried out a small analysis of the data I found.

1. State three article themes, for example, sport or music, that you would be interested in reading about in the school magazine.
   With 15 people saying they would like to read about music, this was the most popular by far. I could use the school band for this or have chart music reviews from the students themselves. Other popular options included fashion, comedy and film. For this I could use various different techniques such as, jokes publised by students, pictures of students talking about their own fashion and film reviews. 2 people said gossip and real life. Obviously gossip couldn't be about the students themselves as people could get upset but I could use celebrity gossip.
2. What would you rather there was more of on the front cover?
   Options: images; text; equal combination.
   Half of the students said images and 8 said a combination. This tells me that there must be a majority of images on the cover with some text.
3. Would you prefer the colours to be:
   Options: Dull; bright; a mixture.
   With 9 people saying bright and 9 saying a combination I feel that I have to make the cover bright and eye catching but equally have enough blank space so that the cover doen't look to over the top and busy. I could achieve this by having bright text, as this obviously won't take up too much space. Contrasted with a white background, this could give all of the sixth formers what they want.
4. Suggest a title for the magazine and why you have chosen it.
   Most people said something along the lines of "Brentwood County High Sixth Form", which I feel is mainly to do with lack of imagination. Other ideas included "Read it", "Sofa", "Shrew News" and "LOL". These are all imaginative ideas, however, I think that i am going to make another questionnaire so I can use a list of titles. I will include all of the ideas above and add a few of my own ideas and an other section.
5. What, in your opinion, would work best on the front cover?
   Options: the school; the students; other (please specify)
   The majority of the students said that they wanted the students to be on the cover. This shows me that I should have a photo of a sixth former on the cover of my magazine.
6. How often do you think would be appropriate for the magazine to be released?
   Options: weekly; monthly; seasonally; annually.
   The majority of students said monthly. I agree with this and think that this would be best for any school magazine.
7. What usually draws your attention to a magazine?
   Dominantly images but also the headline, colours and boldness. This tells me that the image should be large and take up a lot of space with bright and interesting headings and sub-headings surrounding it.
8. Would you prefer the font to be:
   Options: modern; simple; traditional; elaborate.
   The majority of students wanted simple and modern text. This shows me that the students probably relate more to more modern fonts and therefore, I should use modern fonts. I think that the reason for this is because students use computers a lot of the time and are used to the modern fonts on a pc.
9. Would you rather read about:Options: extra-curricular; academic; a mixture.
   Most people said both so I need an equal combination for the cover and contents page.
10. Part 1) What is the most important part of school life?
    Most popular answers included friendship, education, art, happiness and fun. This will help me to think of articles and features for the contents page.
    Part 2) How do you think this could be reflected in the magazine?
    To have articles and images about the above topics.

These results will help me a lot with the school magazine and will count as primary research for my magazine. This means it should be exactly what the students want.

Questionnaire

I handed this questionnaire to a total of 20 sixth formers. 5 female year 12's, 5 female year 13's, 5 male year 12's and 5 male year 13's. This was to get fair and evenly distributed results.

Here is the questionnaire:

1. State three article themes, for example, sport or music, that you would be interested in reading about in the school magazine.
2. What would you rather there was more of on the front cover?
   Options: images; text; equal combination.
3. Would you prefer the colours to be:
   Options: Dull; bright; a mixture.
4. Suggest a title for the magazine and why you have chosen it.
5. What, in your opinion, would work best on the front cover?
   Options: the school; the students; other (please specify)
6. How often do you think would be appropriate for the magazine to be released?
   Options: weekly; monthly; seasonally; annually.
7. What usually draws your attention to a magazine?
8. Would you prefer the font to be:
   Options: modern; simple; traditional; elaborate.
9. Would you rather read about:
   Options: extra-curricular; academic; a mixture.
10. Part 1) What is the most important part of school life?
    Part 2) How do you think this could be reflected in the magazine?

I feel that all of these questions will get me a better understanding of what the sixth form want from a school magazine.

Contents Page Ideas

These are my initial ideas for the articles shown on the contents page. They are mainly based on question one of my questionnaire. I have not yet thought about categorizing articles.

1. School band review.



2. Chart bands and student reviews.



3. Film reviews.



4. Revision guides.



5. How to beat common room boredom.



6. Fashion trends.



7. How to dress for school.



8. Sixth form, extreme Frisbee competition review.



9. Girls football advertisement.



10. Boys netball competition review.



11. Photos from the sixth form.



12. Jokes page (submitted by the students).



13. Upcoming events.



14. Road runner trip review.



15. Newly released films.

I am probably going to end up cutting down on this amount of ideas, however, this will help me to categorize and check that this is what the sixth form really want.

I will then take this list and transform it into a contents page.