2. How does your product use or challenge conventions and how
does it represent social groups or issues? Cover page Content
page
3. DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD
4. Use of and challenge of convections Use of convections The
convections I used in this magazine are convection's expected to be
seen in magazines that are targeting the youth, as there isnt a lot
of magazines with the theme of activism directed at the youth ,I
used convections that entertainment magazines for the youth use to
be able to attract the targeted audience(16-21). And as much I used
convections I also challenge other convections with the same aim of
attracting the audience to want to buy and read the magazine as it
Is different from their usual interest in the print industry.
5. Cover page-mast head MAST HEAD TITLE-The mast head of this
magazine is THE ACTIVIST I chose this name as it reflects on the
type and content of the magazine when someone reads the title they
immediately know what the magazine is about and can decide whether
or not they want to buy it. Hence why it will attract my targeted
audience because the title clearly explains what the magazine is
about without even having to go through it contents page. FONT
STYLE- I used the font Bauhaus 93 for the title, compared to the
other fonts I chose this one because its simple but not plain, it
removes the serious element of the magazine attracting the
audience, because the youth are most likely not to buy a magazine
that looks like is discussing serious issues as the majority prefer
entertainment and so to be able to attract them I chose this font.
FONT SIZE- The font size is 74, the size is big enough and clear
enabling each word to be seen clearly. FONT COLOR-The black color
font works well with the white background bringing out the title
making the title easily noticed if it was to be on a magazine stand
attracting the audience.
6. The masthead In general uses conventions as its aim is to
attract the targeted audience to want to buy the magazine, the
audience who are usually attracted to gaming and entertainment,
will be curious to know what this magazine is about As most youth
targeted magazines, the magazines title can be clearly seen and not
behind the central image in order to attract the audience through
the title and not only the central image. And because the title Is
just as powerful as the central image thats why I decided to not
cover the title up.
7. Cover page-Tagline The tagline goes with the title as the
word activism goes with the tagline of the world is ours to take,
the tagline empowers the article showing what the magazine is
about, showing the theme and hence attracts the audience who are
interested without giving away to much making the buyer buy it to
find out more about the magazine by reading the articles inside.
Hence the tagline uses convections as it something that most
magazines use to explain the title or further enhance the
title.
8. COVER PAGE Central image & cover model The central image
and cover model both use and challenge convections, the use of
conventions is through the use of a model as most magazines use
models as a way of attracting the audience for each audience a
different kind of model is used. But this magazine challenges the
convection as the model is bare backed and usually for youth
magazines the model is usually not supposed to be presented in such
a way, I challenged this convection because I didnt use the
bareness to present sexuality or to sexualize the model. I used a
bare backed model to show strength as seen the model has a defined
back, as the back(spine) is known to be the core of the body, I
used this presentation to show the youth that they are the core and
strength of the world without them the world has no hope. The chose
to cover the model with writing to distract the audience from the
model himself and make them read the words on the back which again
shows the theme of the magazine the future is ours-
9. -with other words around it that are all related to the
magazine. The convection that is challenged by the central image is
the use of color, the whole image is filtered by using brightness
and contrast making it look black and white, usually magazines that
are meant for the youth are supposed to be with a famous or
familiar face, I challenged both this convection because unlike
other magazines this magazine isnt aiming at entertaining its prime
focus is educating and informing and because the magazine aims at
that the use of a familiar face would help the sells but the
audience wouldnt be buying to know about the theme rather they
would buy it to know what a certain famous person has to say about
the topic.
10. COVER IMAGE-Cover lines The use of convections can also be
seen in the use of cover lines as any magazine needs cover lines to
attract the audience on what is inside. The cover line's show what
is inside without giving too much away keeping the audience
captivated and wanting to know what each cover line has to say
inside.
11. COVER PAGE-mode of address Further more, this magazine
challenges the convection of mode of address, most magazines use
direct mode of address between the cover model to attract the
audience through front body presentation, the body posture and
facial expression. Ive decided to use to remove the focus on the
model but on the words on the back of the model
12. COVER IMAGE-barcode and edition The use of convection can
further be seen with the use of edition this is done to enable the
audience to know which issue it is when buying and also gives an
insight on how often a magazine is released. March/ April shows
that the issue is going to be in distribution for two months and
the next issue will be out in June. Barcode convection is followed
as it is located at the bottom like most magazines so that the
reader can focus on the cover image and lines.
13. COVER IMAGE Use of color I challenged the convection in the
use of color, as most youth magazines aiming at attracting the
younger audience uses color to attract the audience, I decided to
use black, white, grey and a pop of red as these colors are calm
making the reader concentrate on the cover lines and image and not
being distracted by the colors and the use of red was to bring a
pop to the magazine as leaving it without red would make it
boring.
14. CONTENT PAGE The content page shows use of convection, as
it gives information of what is to be found inside and on what page
with the use of pictures for the most important issues to attract
the audience. Also the use of convection's can further be seen by
the use of social media icons that show that the magazine also has
social following which with the digital era of everything being
online also attracts the digital audience to the magazine. In
addition to the content page also uses the convection of giving
credit to people involved in the creation of the magazine an action
that is done by most magazines.
15. Double spread page The double spread page uses convections
to represent the main article with the use of pictures to show what
the article is talking about. The use of color is the article to
make it attractive to enable the young audience to not be bored.
The use of an interview to not bore the audience with lengthy
articles and the use of different colors in the interview to
distinguish the interview and the interviewee. Also the font used
though small it is clear and readable.
16. How it represents social groups or issues ? Apart from the
use and challenges of convections, the magazine also represents
social group and issues, The social group that is presented is of
the youth;, on the cover- through the choice of words "the future
is ours on the cover and the image of a young mans body clearly
represents that the youth is in control of the future but it also
creates a stereo type of men being leaders of the world as a mans
body is shown but I used this because it is hard to use a womans
body without it looking sexual and this could have derived from the
magazine from its original theme. The double spread page presents
the social group by the article itself being about the youth and
the pictures help elaborate this point. The magazine in general
presents issues through the cover lines, the content mentioned in
the content page and the other issues briefly mentioned in the
article.
17. How does your product engage with audiences and how would
it be distributed as a real media text? TARGET AUDIENCE The
magazines targeted audience Is the youth age group of 16-25, its
engages the audience through the simple language used in the cover
lines this enabling majority of the age group to be able clearly
understand what it is about. The cover(through the use of color and
model) itself attracts both genders making them both able to buy it
without feeling that its not for them. The use of a models back is
also a method I used to engage the audience as these days working
out and keeping fit is something that most people are engaged in
and hence keeping a model with a good body structure with words
written all over his back also helps the audience engage in the
product in wanting to know what the magazine is about.
18. I had an interview with kids around school to see if they
would buy the magazine, most people who were interested were year
11 and above the year 10 and below didnt seem interested on matters
except for a few students. The targeted audience were interested in
buying the magazine, but I also got an un intended audience of
quite a few teachers (25 +) who were interested in knowing what the
magazine was about and the articles involved.
19. DISTRIBUTION & PROMOTION As it is a print media, this
magazine would be self-published and distributed to news's stands
and other media outlets. But before that Ill launch a media
campaign online to promote the magazine to the targeted audience by
using social media like Facebook and Instagram Ill attract the
audience by giving away prizes online for giving out shout outs of
the page this way the audience will share it and want their
followers to like the page this way it will cause people to be
aware of the magazine. The magazine will also be sold in
educational institutions and stationery and coffee shops to get the
target audience to notice it everywhere this way it will raise
their curiosity to know what the magazine is about. The price of
the magazine is affordable, because of the targeted audience we
need to be able to make it affordable to them to be able to buy it
even with their break money. It will also be advertised on tv on
certain channels like Channel O and MTV Basw
20. How did your production skills develop through out the
project? My production skills developed through this project
compared to before I had no skills whatsoever related to
production, as I had to work with software's like Photoshop and
publisher I learnt quite a lot that I didnt know in the beginning.
I also had to go through the whole production steps such from
pre-production which involved research to production. This process
helped me acquire research skills, interviewed the potential
audience and find out how to come up with a product they would be
interested in.
21. How did you integrate technologies- software, hardware and
online -in this project? HARDWARE I used my laptop, this helped me
get most the work done from browsing the net for research to using
software's to create the magazine and edit it. I also used a canon
eos 1100 for all the pictures this helped produce quality pictures
and gave me an easier job while editing. ONLINE I used the internet
to do most of my research for the magazine To generate the barcode
Online I used my blog to blog on my magazine progress through-out
and this helped me as reading and writing my ideas on a blog helped
me analyze those ideas and hence lead to many changes that improved
the final project.
22. SOFTWARE The software I used was Microsoft publisher were I
need most of my work as I found it hard working with InDesign. And
I wasnt able to use photo shop because my laptop didnt support it
and I since I preferred to work at home I came across an online
editing software called Pixlr and when I tried working with this it
proved to be just as effective and had all the necessities that I
needed.