First Draft Ideas of School Magazine

This is my first draft mock up of my Maricourt newsletter/magazine and does need a few changes, however the initial ideas are mainly down on this. It features a large but not bold mast head as I think it looks professional, but when it comes down to making the actual magazines front page, the font of the masthead is likely to be a different font and different style that looks more professional. The image of the Maricourt logo is evident next to the masthead which is going to stay when I make my finished draft, because I want it to be evident that it is advertising the Maricourt school. The name 'Maricourt Times' will be my final name for it as a number of names were suggested to a group of my peers and they decided that this was best of the 3, out of 'The Maricourt Monthly' and 'The Maricourt News'. Underneath the masthead also states a shortened down version of the mission statement which will be included when I make my final draft because I believe that it gives an insight into the schools aims and objectives, which I think is vital in a schools magazine. It then features a text box which may differ when I make my final draft as it could tend to look slightly unprofessional and I mightnt want to include as much text on the front cover, nevertheless it features information about the insides of the magazines and eye catching titles of pages that will feature inside to draw the readers attention, as well as following the maroon and yellow house style set as the traditional Maricourt colours which works well over all in a number of ways. Also, the two borders give a nice touch to the magazine and again, the maroon colours helps with the house styles in the Maricourt colours. Lastly, it features an image of the new drama block and a heading that states how much it cost and that it is newly built, which again gives a good impression of the academic and modern aims of the school, which again looks good to the target audience to look modern. The background of the front page is more than likely going to be changed in the final draft of the front page as I believe it looks unprofessional, however it does feature the traditional Maricourt house style colours which I want to stay the colours of whatever back ground I use on the final draft. Finally, there is space on the bottom of my front page which can be used to include pictures or vital information, but I am yet to decide what to put there, but when it comes to making my finishing product that space will be filled with information or pictures, to give it a more professional feel and use the space I have effieciently.

Basic Plan for Contents Page

This is a basic plan for how im going to lay my magazine contents page out, it will contain a mast head and a large image preview of the double page spread with annotationns and the date and issue number, with the magazine logo next to the mast head that says "contents." I will use the same font and colour scheme as the front page to give it a proffessional look.

Photo Storyboard

Here is an example of a story board that can be possibly used to help me make my newsletter. There are 5 different pictures of different facilities throughout Maricourt to help portray them in a number of ways; Sporty, Academic, Healthy & Modern.

Magazine Research and Information on Magazine

I have chosen Mixmag to analyse because the Genre of music that it covers, Electronic Dance Music, is the genre in which I am going to do my magazine on. The target audience of my magazine will be male and female people who enjoy all sorts of different dance music aged 14+.




 This image of a front cover of mixmag features a Masthead and the Mixmag logo that is featured on every magazine. It has a large image on the front possibly to catch the attention of the consumers along with a barcode and issue number. I think the large masthead logo is a good idea and also a big bold image to catch attention are things I will use when designing my magazine as it looks professional and catches attention. This is also the same genre as the magazine I wish to design so a lot of ideas will be took from Mixmag.

This issue of Mixmag features an image of Joris Voorn as the main image on the front cover, and the star gaze theory will make people who arent regular readers of Mixmag buy into it because he is a worldwide known dj. Also, it features bold yellow background on black house styled text which looks good and I will probably use in my magazine because it gains the attention of the reader. It also features a bar code and issue number. This is also very similar to other Mixmag magazines which is good as it features a housestyle throughout.

 

Ideology and why relevant, Feminism, Semiotics and Moral Panic defenitions.

Ideology simply put, is the ideas behind a media text, and is the secret agenda of its producers. In sociological terms, ideology is a body of ideas or set of beliefs that underpins a process or institution and leads to social relations. These sets of beliefs are those held by groups within society, and the prevalent ones are those held by the ruling/dominant groups.

In my school newsletter, I will aim to portray a number of different pieces of ideology through a number of different ways. I will show that Maricourt is a modern school specialising in the newest technology by showing a picture of the new drama block containing the Mac's. Also, I will show that the teachers care for the pupils education by showing the GCSE results. As well as that, I will show that Maricourt provides for the pupils  all round the clock, by showing a screenshot of the Maricourt website. Lastly, I will show that Maricourt are specialists in making their pupils happy and providing a good edcuation at the same time by showing a picture of a number of happy pupils working.

Feminism is a collection of movements and ideologies aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights for women. This includes seeking to establish equal opportunities for women in education and employment.

Semitiocs is the theory and study of signs and symbols, especially as elements of language or other systems of communication, and comprising semantics, syntactics, and pragmatics.

A moral panic is an intense feeling expressed in a population about an issue that appears to threaten the social order.

Alsop High School

http://www.alsophigh.org.uk/School_docs/Newsletter.pdf

The Alsop high school newsletter is spread out onto one page and i think this is the ideal length for a newsletter as it contains all of the key points in broken down paragraphs which also makes them easy to read, the fact that it is so short could be seen as a bad point of the newsletter but i believe that it makes it better because it isnt alot to read and the vital information is portrayed easily on the one page.

A negative of this newsletter is the fact that it is mostly in black and white, and the fact that it isnt in colour could put people off that are going to read it because it makes the Alsop newsletter look dull. The fact that there is only one picture could also be a bad point as there could be a few more to make the newsletter look more accessable.

I think the Alsop high school newlsetter appeals to its target audience perfectly as the number of text on the one page isnt too long and it possesses the key facts that parents want to know, and compared to the deyes high school newsletter, that has games and puzzles appeal to children more than the adults, and the fact Alsop dont do that means they probably pay more attention to their target audience which is a good thing.

The use of the 'Headteachers message' on the newsletter is again a nice touch and i believe that it also helps break the text up, and gives the impression the parents are in contact with the headteacher.

Django Unchained Empire Contents

This is a rough copy of the contents page from the january 2013 version of Empire. It features a house style type font throughout and has a main image that covers some of the text in "contents" and this is the type of style i will use when making my magazine as i think it looks professional and attractive. The use of the font being the same throughout the front page and contents page is another good feature and this is one I would like to use when designing my music magazine, due to the fact it looks very professional.

Deyes High Newsletter Analysed

The Deyes High newsletter from the 30th January 2013 has a number of different bits of text on the frontal page and a negative about the front page of this may be that it is has too much text and only one picture as this could cause the reader to be put off it because of its content, and if I was to make changes to this front page I would include more pictures and less text to make the reader keep their attention. However, I do like the way it is laid out as it doesn't look too formal, and the way it also includes key dates in the schools plans is a good idea because it gives key information on the front cover. I think the colours are also a bit too bright for my liking and i believe that it is a bit off putting if that colours are overly bright and too in your face, and could put the target audience off.

The use of how the paragraphs are split up is a good feature of the newsletter because it makes it easier too read and stops it from being too much of a length to read. When i design my magazine, i think i will use the feature of the text being broken down into multiple paragraphs.

I think that the games and quizzes on the newsletter are a very bad feature as it is a pretty pointless part of the newsletter if it is trying to appeal to the parents of children, and i think that this lets the whole newsletter down as it seems theyre almost trying too hard.

The length of the newsletter is also another bad point and the overall length of text after the quiz page also let the newsletter down because it is an offputting prospect having to read all this, i also believe it needs more pictures as the ratio of pictures to text is too much of a difference.

Also, another negative point about this newsletter is that it doesnt really keep the same housestyle throughout with a page on a completely different topic to the actual newsletter, about an event happening in the school, but this is good because it shows that the school are trying to appeal to a multiple audience.

http://www.deyeshigh.co.uk/user/74/152418.pdf

Link To Questionnaire

For my questionnaire I used Google Docs to create a questionnaire to help me gather information that may help me towards making my magazine, I found it very easy to use and I have tried to make the questionnaire quite accurate but not too long at the same time. It features a number of questions and the link can be found below.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dDVuajE2X2h6Y2JuWlZPLVFMaEJ5RlE6MQ#gid=0