Introduction
In this Media coursework unit, we were asked to print two artifacts from a set brief. The main purpose of this unit is to asses our ability:
- To use technical and creative skills when planning and constructing the print products
- To apply our own knowledge and understanding when evaluating our own work
- To research appropriate material and successfully apply it and present it within our work
Preliminary Exercise:
Our preliminary exercise is to produce the front page of a new school/ college magazine using DTP (Desktop Publisher) and an image manipulation program. The front cover must include the typical conventions of a college/school magazine such as laid-out text and a masthead. The front cover must also feature a photograph of a student in medium close-up, in order to attract an audience. In addition we must also produce a mock-up of the layout of the contents page, to further demonstrate our technical skills using DTP. This exercise is to be finished by 7th November.
Main Task:
Our main task is to create the front page, contents and double page spread of a new music magazine. The magazine must feature the conventions of a typical music magazine also including a minimum of four images . The front cover must be an original design, therefore all images and text must be produced by me.
The main task is due on the 19th December and the presentation of my research, planning and evaluation will be presented in the form of a blog.
Four Key Concepts
As an introduction to the start of the Foundation Preliminary Task we looked at the main key concepts of media which are applied when producing any type of media text. Our task is to create the front page and contents page of a college magazine by using these key concepts to guide us.
The acronym used to remember the five key concepts of media is LIIAR. This stands for Language, Institutions, Ideology, audience and representations.Language- These are the technical and theoretical terms which are specific to the medium. My magazine in this case will include for example: a masthead, headline, images, plugs, a splash and jumplines. These are all examples of media terminology and are used to produce magazine front covers. Denotation and connotation are also classed as media language. Denotation means the specific idea, concept, image or object that you can visually see and what it refers to, whereas connotation is what is implied or suggested from this.
Institutions- These are the companies or business that produce the media product. In this case, Wyke will be the institution of my college magazine and will control the production content of the whole magazine.
Ideology - This is the institutes shared sytem of beliefs and values portrayed in the media text. The ideology is represented in the contents, so for my college magazine I will take into consideration the general beliefs of that institute and reinforce a similar ideology into my own magazine. Wyke's ideology is that students have the freedom to achieve and have a good quality education. This is generally made very clear and direct when they are promoting the college, so I aim to do the same for my own Wyke college magazine.
Audience - These are the consumers of the media text and when poducing my magazine i need to consider who my target audience is and therefore appeal to that particular audience. I will most likely be aiming at middle class students aged 16 - 18 years old. This is because the majority of upper class people will not generally choose to attend a college and the under class would generally not apply for somewhere like wyke. The age range is appropiate i think for a college magazine too because they will mostly be 16 year olds just leaving school, however it needs to appeal to slightly older people to if they wish to apply to do A-levels. My target audience too will be mixed gender of course, so my magazine should im to attract both males and females students.
Representations- The media reflects society and represents the stereotypes found within different social groups. The media represents class, ethnicity, gender and age and is used so that the audience can relate to these representations. I could consider for my magazine cover to use images of students together from different ethnic backgrounds to show equalism and unity within the college. I could vary the age and gender of the students in the pictures too so that they are portrayd to be both socially accepted.
