1. CREATIVE CRITICAL REFLECTION WANJIRA KARUNDITU (0764)
NAIROBI INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL (KE045)
2. HOW DOES YOUR PRODUCT USE OR CHALLENGE CONVENTIONS AND HOW
DOES IT REPRESENT SOCIAL GROUPS OR ISSUES? This magazine represents
how girls of different ethnic backgrounds face insecurities because
of how society expects you to look. The magazine looks at how girls
face the challenge of having light skin you are considered more
attractive. Having been a certain body size you determines who you
are and if you are mixed race there is a certain way you are
supposed to look. For example, for my cover page , my model is
short, she isnt the average model, she is no size zero. With this I
am just expressing to girls that you need to be proud and confident
and also I am breaking the norm of magazine cover girls having to
be the clich tall and skinny.
3. Even models in the magazines are of different ethnic
backgrounds and are of different body shapes and sizes. This
magazine challenges the idea of that being a size zero is
beautiful. The magazine just encourages girls to be comfortable in
their own skin.
4. When it comes to the conventions that my product follows on
the cover page, is where the barcode is located at the bottom
whereby the reader can focus on the cover image, the position of
the date, is just inform the reader that it is a monthly magazine.
Another way in which I followed the conventions, would be by giving
little insights of what is inside of the magazine through the cover
lines and the fact that is to just to get their attention. Looking
at the font and colours such as pink, green, yellow and purple,
give a very summer feel to the magazine and also very simple. I
have left the masthead in the largest text and also a different
colour and font type to ensure that it is noticeable. Another
convention followed on the cover page is the direct mode of
address, the model is directly looking into the camera.
5. HOW DOES YOUR PRODUCT ENGAGE WITH AUDIENCES AND HOW WOULD IT
BE DISTRIBUTED AS A REAL MEDIA TEXT? How this product engages with
its audience is through, the content on the cover page, the
contents page, and the double page spread. As a teenage girl I know
what us young girls are interested in but I also asked students in
my school within the age group of 13-17. When it comes to the cover
page, the content looks at the interests of young teenage girls are
into fashion, beauty and summer. Looking at colour scheme, I chose
bright colours but not too bright because I wanted to go with the
theme of summer and keep it subtle. The different kinds of font is
to show the various topics in the magazine and the fact that there
are some words underlined is to just to get peoples attention. For
example, the puffs such as, double issue, the freebies and the
swimsuit issue. For the contents page, I chose different colours to
bring up a certain pop which brings in an element of fun. The font
for the editors note looks like handwriting, which brings an
element of scrapbooking which teenagers are into, this just
emphasizes on how I brought out what most teenagers like to do and
incorporated it into my magazine by how I place my pictures and
also the font used.
6. The double-page spread, for this, I chose to have an
article, just giving advice to girls encouraging them to embrace
themselves, I used quotes. This was just to let girls know that
they are perfect no matter what skin colour, body shape and size.
For the other page, I decided to show the questions I asked
different three girls that represent different ethnic backgrounds
and different body types. This was so that my audience can relate
to these girls and also understand that they are not the only ones
facing insecurities. Why I called the article LOVE YOURSELF
UNCONDITIONALLY is to send out the message that you are beautiful
and that you should feel comfortable in your own skin. The use of a
selfie ( the black & white picture) just shows how I interact
with audience by incorporating the things that they are into. The
language of the article is simple, just get the message out there
and also for them to understand that they are not alone when it
comes to feeling insecure.
7. When it comes to distribution, if it were a real media text,
I would like to get an application created for my magazine, this to
show the impact of digital technology on distribution, another way
I would like my product is that one can order for one online and it
will be posted to them. And finally salons, schools, retail stores
e.g. Woolworths, Mr. Price etc. and bookstores.
8. HOW DID YOUR PRODUCTION SKILLS DEVELOP THROUGHOUT THIS
PROJECT? With this project, I realised that every media product has
stages; pre-production, production and post-production. During
pre-production, I got the idea of basing my products idea on
insecurities and with the up-coming Dove adverts I decided that my
article will be of advice to young girls. I used blogs, websites
and my personal experience to get data for my project. This
teaching me to broaden my research skills, I also used primary
research, open ended questionnaires this would bring up the up how
people ended up feeling insecure. For the magazine layout, I did my
research on magazines just to help me come up with an idea with my
layout for my whole magazine especially for my target audience. For
the production stage, when it came to taking pictures, I learnt
more about lighting especially on the fact that I was relying on
natural lighting. When it came to creating the magazine I used, Ms
Publisher, through using this software I learnt more about how I
should do my layout and also that I have to correct grammar and
spelling teaching this is because I was my own editor and
writer.
9. Throughout this project, I blogged about my product. This
helped in teaching me how new media plays a big role, hence even
putting in the position of being a blogger giving me an experience,
so all in all I know how to create a blog and also make use of
it.
10. HOW DID YOU INTEGRATE TECHNOLOGIES- SOFTWARE, HARDWARE AND
ONLINE - IN THIS PROJECT? 1. Software For this project, the
software I used was Ms publisher to create my magazine, this
software helped me in the layout, especially when it comes to
positioning the images and texts. I used this software to create a
magazine that is appealing to my audience, just look at the colour
scheme, fonts and images. 2. Hardware I used a Sony camera and my
phone( Samsung Galaxy S3 mini) to take good quality pictures, just
to bring out an element of fashion and beauty of my models. This
was to add vibrance to my project and give it a sense if colour. My
laptop played an important role in this project because without it
I wouldnt have been able to create my magazine, it was used for
different purposes; To blog To surf the net- to collect information
To create the magazine To keep my photos
11. 3. Online I blogged about the all stages for this project
to show the process it took to come up with the final project. This
would bring the element of new media and how it has made such an
impact. http://wanjirakarunditu.blogspot.com/
12. THE PROBLEMS I EXPERIENCED Sometimes my laptop would hang,
this would take up a lot time, meaning it took longer for me to
finish coming up with my project. Another problem was that when
taking the photos, I was relying on natural lighting and the
weather that day was dull, so finding the a reasonable place with
good lighting was difficult.
