AS Media Coursework Evaluation: Question 7

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

In response to this final evaluation question, I have constructed a direct YouTube video answer. The link is below:

http://youtu.be/SV_vPhmQuW8

AS Media Coursework Evaluation: Question 6

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Here is a Prezi presentation of my response to Question 6 of the evaluation task.

http://prezi.com/embed/wyhxashp13bx/?bgcolor=ffffff&lock_to_path=0&autoplay=0&autohide_ctrls=0&features=undefined&disabled_features=undefined

AS Media Coursework Evaluation: Questions 4 & 5

Who would be the audience for your media product (Q4) and how did you attract/address your audience (Q5)?

This is the simultaneous response to questions 4 and 5 centred around audience and their requirements from my media product.

Pictured are some of the identities that I was reaching out for as my target audience whilst designing my media product. The top photo is one of my main feature album - this is because the people who would typically take the time to consume my Press PLAY 'franchise' would be the same sort of people who are featured in the magazine itself, to enhance the opportunity to relate. The conventions used in the product often reflect the interests of my target audience, which would specifically be described as around the 16-25 region (as specified in Q2) and a unisex trend. I have used a variety of different features to appeal and suit my target audience, as I would imagine my typical reader to be a college/university student, either male or female (the features are generic and follow a lot of latest trends and chart changes), one obviously interested in quite a wide array of music, and maybe with links to music in wider society such as someone who performs somewhere in the music industry in their spare time. The latter of those is not part of a fixed criteria but would maybe boost interest. The modern world of music is usually an interest to almost everyone to a certain extent, to the degree where anyone with literally any social background, hobbies or pastimes may take a read, whether their main aspirations in life lie in music, sport, education, politics, fashion, technology or any other major topic of interest. It is difficult to hold down one identity of a typical reader whilst at the same time going beyond age, general interests and gender. Whilst there appears to be nothing remotely specific about the conventions of my media product, other media my target audience may consume could be through most notably modern technology, through the overwhelming significance that it has taken on the lives of people of the younger generations. There could be a decline in media sources such as newspapers and radio, but instead the ever-hatching Web 2.0 of user-generated media, applications and an increasing deep sea of television channels and box office access.
The visual and aesthetic appearance of a typical audience member could be considered to follow or expand on latest trends (top two images); have an element of vintage subculture or postmodern influence, taken on by new meanings and motives of how one looks (third image from top), or have their own spin on proceedings whilst still looking appropriate for the way society is (bottom image). The mode of address I have largely used is in a friendly manner, acting sociable on the part of the magazine writers and editors to give a degree of comfort to a typically young and vibrant audience reader. From the features advertised in the contents to the synergised font and colour schemes and the direct address of the cover stars, there is a level of social quality maintained throughout, as touched on in other evaluation responses. As a whole, there are thousands of ways a member of this magazine audience may construct their entire life, appearance, personality and interests, even the way they consume media, but somewhere they will have a link of relevance to Press PLAY.

AS Media Coursework Evaluation: Question 3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oJQPnjyvMM&feature=youtu.be

Here is the link displayed which will open a new window for my interview-style video response to question 3 of the evaluation task: What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

AS Media Coursework Evaluation: Question 2

This is my PowerPoint presentation to answer Question 2: How does your media product represent particular social groups?


http://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/32711823

AS Media Coursework Evaluation: Question 1

In what ways does your product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?


The example I will use for this question will be the written annotation of two front covers: my own (Press PLAY) and, as you can see here, an edition of the popular and widely recognised NME magazine cover. I think the front page conventions are linked somewhat through the features they simultaneously carry, and the overall layout. Similarities that are evident are firstly the largest text for the masthead, which is an obvious convention in almost all magazine covers, along with the tagline accompanying it tucked underneath on the left-hand side. There are box-out features running along the bottom of the page which completes the cover and keeps readers intrigued from top to bottom, and another notable convention present in both covers is the overlapping of the cover photo by its text. It could be argued that this is done for different reasons with the two - the NME cover will simply be further promoting the highlighted title, whereas Press PLAY will simply be for first notice. The colour schemes are different but still maintain synergy through their use of no more than three or four colours and fonts. The cover line and its strap-line are situated in the same region on the page, as the eyes of the reader will typically be attracted to the middle of the page after seeing the masthead, and reading from left to right. This is further helped by the large and brazen text with which it bellows its appeal. The major development that the Press PLAY cover makes from its counterpart are that there is a brief abandonment on the strict font maintenance to signify both the feature content of mods, US top 40 and a teen music survey (with corresponding fonts relative to its nature) and the notification that the edition is a discounted Easter issue. The latter also moves away from the colour scheme in a stereotypically seasonal-themed yellow. The colour works as an eye-catching notice that the magazine is a cheaper bumper issue which works to advertise as well as appeal with the inside features. The two differ with their forms and conventions simply by some of the positioning, the nature of the cover image and the larger abundance of text on the NME front page. Whilst the text positioning on both covers is dominant on the left-hand side, it appears this is for different reasons. With the Press PLAY cover, the text is black on a white background given to the cover by the background cover image; on the NME cover, the text on the left is simply to clear space for the cover photo displayed entirely down the right-hand side. My cover photo is through the middle of the page, enveloping the text beneath the stars' faces and overlapping the rest of the image content. 

Music Magazine Final Front Cover - 'Press PLAY'

This is my final magazine front cover, improved upon its previously published drafts. I have inserted an image with portrait fitting which does not appear pixelated and is not too dimensional in its lighting. The white background helps to shine out the more outstanding edges of the cover photo, which enhances the boldness factor of the text. In my opinion, the cover image's position over the entire magazine page means that it does not need to be further broadened, whereas areas of the text can do with a slight enticing technique. The main colour shades and swatches of black and green and the most frequent 'Charcoal' font the cover's synergy with the contents and double page spread which demonstrates a linked trademark amongst the magazine as a whole. The use of red at the bottom of the page briefly leaves the synergised font and colour schemes but instead works to maintain an attraction and an interest to the bottom of the page with the bold red block showing box-out minor magazine content, next to which is tucked a barcode to maintain published realism. The other changes in font are for the remaining box-out features, with each font corresponding indirectly most relevant to each of the listed three. Similar to a 'puff' or 'starburst' on the cover is the previously mentioned (on the draft posts) notification of the edition being a lower-priced Easter issue in an festivity-themed yellow colour and 'fluffy', even slightly infantile font.

Music Magazine Final Double Page Spread - 'Press PLAY'

This is my final double page spread. Unlike the front cover and contents pages, the spread has links to my previous piece. I have kept some of the quotations but changed the images around, also incorporating my font and colour schemes into the spread. I feel this has improved because the layout and spread storyline is modern, it uses conventions of a professionally published magazine and it maintains a clear and neat nature with its commitment to the synergised colour and font schemes. Having said that, I have used the Helvetica font for the small written text on the spread, which is the case because magazines often briefly abandon a font scheme when writing in a very small text size, as the priority is to be clear and readable in publishing. The page numbering is relevant to the contents page, and the two pages of the spread are clearly separated when reading individually, boasting thorough clarity. After some pondering, I also thought that the image and caption layout fits comfortably to complement the outer text.

Music Magazine Final Contents Page - 'Press PLAY'

This is my final contents page for my magazine issue, 'Press PLAY'. The developments made from my previous draft published a few days ago are the finishing off of my listed contents, alongside the addition of what I decided would fill the bottom-right corner gap most efficiently - an editorial. I decided on this as it was probably the strongest of my choices that I could potentially insert into the available slot rather than a larger and more repetitive further abundance of contents or anymore images. An editorial is crucial to success in a magazine issue and due to the task assigned being the publishing of a cover and a double page spread along with this piece, the editorial would without doubt fit most naturally into a contents page out of the three. I used the basic feather and outer glow effects within the gradient tool on Adobe InDesign for the edited box, which maintains the colour scheme throughout the entire magazine features; this is simultaneous with the font used - 'Charcoal'. This is used on the entire contents page aside from the page numbers, which I thought would look a slightly more creative design with the 'Minion Pro' font, complementing the overall design. As opposed to my last piece's 'collage' layout with photographed blocks filling the page accompanied by numbering and a limited amount of text, this in my view appears more tidied up and aesthetically pleasing. There is no over-crowding and the structure appears more organised, with a solitary image and the editorial placed on one side of the page, leaving a large path to list the main contents. Other improvements and alterations that I have highlighted are explained in my previously published draft contents page post. A final point I'll make is the content displayed and advertised throughout the numbered list spread down the left-hand column. As the target audience is a more generic aim towards teenagers and young adults - the stereotypically more interested age range in the current charts - the roots of the magazine features are modern and relatable to today's 16-25 generation. However, there are different spins put on the genre of the magazine, with teen music, the mod era and references to advanced studios and social media such as Twitter fluctuating between the present day and some of the rejuvenated past eras, spanning music and other topics such as sport and fashion.

Music Magazine Contents Page Draft Progress

Unfinished so far, but this is the progress I am currently making with my updated contents page. I am basing this page on an entirely different style to my last contents page, and in my opinion, like my front cover, this is considerably tidier and uses less page-loading imagery, thus making the page less crowded.

I feel that my previous piece was too crowded, which was a sacrifice I had to make following my idea to lay the page out in a 'collage' style, with images of different sizes pasted across the page leaving limited availability for writing. Although I think the idea itself was useful and reasonable to work with, I feel that it made the page look rather unprofessional and maybe even slightly tacky and over-colourful. As opposed to last time out, I have taken on a more relaxed and in my view more aesthetically pleasing layout to work with, including complementing shades such as black and white with the primary theme colour, green. I have based this on a number of different contents pages I have seen in published magazines which combine this relaxed feel with the withstanding ability to convey all details required such as page numbers and subheadings. I have taken a useful portrait photo which is included to promote the cover feature of the particular edition of the magazine, and the column spread down the left accompanies it well. There will be spare room available in the bottom-right corner of the page, which as yet I am still deciding how to fill up. Initial ideas include further contents to other minor features; a couple more photos relevant to the page or a brief editorial.

Music Magazine Cover Draft 2

This is the second of my music magazine cover drafts. Upgraded from my previous draft is my masthead, cover line and subheading fonts, along with the positioning and sizing of portions of text, and introduction of a strap-line.
  I raised the masthead font to 100, along with altering the font to make it appear tidier. This is also to prevent the Macs having to change the fonts around automatically as not all of them accommodate certain styles. Along with expanding the masthead, I also downsized the cover line as whilst it is still the second-largest piece of text on the cover, it does not threaten the authority of the masthead.

The cover photo will merely be added in underneath the text. Usually, the cover star(s) will often be placed over the top of the masthead in published media products due to its prioritised importance of the particular issue; however this is not a published piece and 'Press PLAY' is not a popular or widely renowned media title and so this must be pointed out clearly.

Music Magazine Cover Draft 1

Shown here is my first draft for the front cover of my music magazine, 'Press PLAY'. A somewhat dynamic and modern style piece, this front cover contains a bold green masthead which connotes a positive, 'go-ahead' sense behind the action of 'pressing play' to begin music. It is accompanied by a simple but in my opinion effective tagline 'The UK's leading chart magazine'. I did not want to overcomplicate the issue of the tagline, as it is not a main attraction of the page and should just meet the criteria of reliability. When readers come across the tagline, it will appear cliched and magazine-esque - exactly what I want. On the right, currently in an eye-catching yellow, is the notice that the particular magazine is an Easter issue - therefore the price has been reduced. The yellow on the page is very bright and connotes the traditional Easter theme (like Christmas would be red and green) and as one's sight would typically travel from left to right (top to bottom), this 'outstanding' effect boosts the attention span on the right-hand side of the cover. The main title will lay over the top of a cover photo, yet to be decided. The font of the cover line and the decision on a strap-line to accompany it will be given its final decision in due course, along with the font of the masthead - other ideas will be blogged soon. Down in the bottom right are subheadings, having the ideal effect of a boxout to be able to attract attention to further features in the magazine. Having noticed professionally published magazine covers on public shelves, these subheadings are often made to sound the most enticing they can possibly be, and this tends to hugely bolster the encouragement of customers to purchase them. Making these appealing is crucial to make readers decide whether the issue is worth their time; I feel I have done this by attracting a wide range of interests, including the 1960s mod-era, the notion of music in America despite the magazine being centred around and supposedly sold in the UK, and something has to be included to involve teenagers as they are arguably the most open-minded generation with regards to music interest. A bold red bar with a barcode wraps up the cover, briefly noting other less major articles included in the magazine. These are included in practically every professional magazine and so this is key to make the cover ultimately realistic.

Music Magazine Breakdown

Music Magazine Target Audiences

Music Magazine Target Audiences


Music magazines come in a huge variety of conventions and categories, according to the diversity of music genres. There are so many different genres of music which often define people as a whole, and these are supported by their genre-correspondent magazines which are often read by the people who are interested in a certain genre.

Some examples of music magazines of a certain genre and their target audiences are listed here below. Notably, some music genres will be appropriate not just to personal interests, but moreover to age and environment as well.

Kerrang!

"Kerrang!" (named so due to its apparent sound similarity to the strum of a guitar) is a rock music-devoted magazine, and arguably one of the most well-known genre-specific of its kind. It is obviously aimed at rock-enthusiasts and general fans of acoustic, alternative and heavy rock and metal. It is aimed more at teenage to early-middle age, as you wouldn't imagine a 10-year-old nor a citizen of fifty enjoying "Kerrang!" or its corresponding television. This genre of music has an acquired taste and is rather heavy-going, as is the magazine. This is why whilst there is a gap in the market for magazines such as this one, there is a narrow audience to appeal to, whereas other genres may have slightly more freedom and width in the public to manoeuvre     its product appeal towards.

Smash Hits

"Smash Hits" magazine centres around pop music and is aimed mainly at females of what could be portrayed as most ages but sways more towards the age range of childhood and teenage. What is meant by this is that a girl of around nine, ten or eleven aspiring to be a bit of a gossip-girl and pop-girl would most likely be interested in this genre of magazine. It is orientated around pop music and celebrity culture, sharing its pop music interests with gossip and celebrity rumours and stories. This particular issue is extremely fitting to the stereotype of a young girl's appeal (pink, male celebrities, gossip and celebrity stories) although other issues of this magazine are not necessarily pink or include the dedication to celebrity culture as this one does. However, I chose to use this one as it outlines what the magazine is about and what it revolves around.

NME

"NME (New Musical Express)" is a magazine which although displays acknowledgement of chart music and singles rankings, mainly focuses around the genre of punk rock music. Formerly a newspaper, this could imply that it originally aimed itself at adults (predominantly male) at the age at which you would read newspapers. However, due to its status as being a newspaper, has its agenda to serve the interests of punk rock and therefore this wouldn't be targeted to suit middle aged or older adults. Now that it is a magazine - in fact one of the most popular music magazines of all-time, it is firmly suited to between teenage and just before middle age, but its widespread popularity sees it bought by a larger age range, and mixed gender. This would ultimately result in it just coming down to the taste of music that someone may have, whether they choose to purchase "NME" magazine.


Rolling Stone

"Rolling Stone" is an American music magazine, again differing to the tastes of "Kerrang", "NME" and most considerably "Smash Hits". It focuses around not only music, but notable other topics such as culture and liberal politics, finances and business. This variety makes it incredibly appealing and you can see the main devotion to music through the front cover of this particular issue, featuring Cee-Lo Green,  Adam Levine, Christina Aguilera and Blake Shelton. The wide scope of interests provided by the magazine give it an edge over other music magazines as you could say that a person's whole main set of interests are all talked about in the magazine. Adults including politics and business-orientated men with a strong interest in any genre of music (a nuclear example) would take a fondness to this magazine in particular over any other. This typically sways away from the interests of both children and the elderly, perhaps taking its main threshold on adults in their twenties and thirties, possibly forties.

Final Student Magazine Cover: "College Status"

Preliminary Task: Brief

Initial Ideas:

Target Audience: Suitable and appropriate for any age but more applicable to students, around the 16-21 age range, quite small - yes, but it must be this way to fully focus on targeting 

Topic: School/College Magazine, flavours of humour, advanced lexical use to give an added  academic aspect whilst reading.

Dominant features: Bold masthead and cover photo, clear taglines and cover lines.

Titles: College Status, Academic Times, Planet College, State of College were four that I thought most fondly of and will nominate from for my final magazine title. This is important as my masthead is the most dominant and important feature on my cover.

Fonts: Preferably Sans Serif where feasible, but I will sacrifice that preference when appropriate.

Ideas for Taglines: We're For Students, Stick to the Status, A Better Status Than On Facebook, College Students Station.

Publishing Time: January, in time for the new calendar year and after Christmas for college students.

Cover image: A student or group of students.

Dimensions: Yet to be considered although definitely will take up the majority of the height of an A4 page.

Images/Colour use: I would use casual and positive pictures, with laid back and casual colours, but still bold and aesthetically pleasing at the same time.




Proposal:

For my magazine, I would like to focus on appealing to the target audience chosen. This is of course students, which I marked out at around the 16-21 age range. Despite this being a small age range of just five years, it does however aid the focus of the magazine on simply students, rather than the unnecessary need to appeal to younger or older audiences. Even so, if a parent or whoever wanted to have a read, the topics in there would still be of understandable and mature nature, as adult appeal is very similar to that of students anyway - students aren't children.
If the entire magazine were to be made, I would include advanced lexical terms, words and phrases to give that added adult and academic nature to it. The magazine would be based around the happenings around a college, like a bulletin magazine.

To what extent should magazines be held responsible for the social ramifications of the representations they offer?

To what extent should magazines be held responsible for the social ramifications of the representations they offer?

My five examples of teenage girl-orientated magazines are Cosmo Girl, Bliss, More, OK and TeenGirl. They are all linked into the same genre, discussing fashion, young relationships, gossip and other teenage topics.

Most of these appear slightly more young adult-orientated whereas others sway more towards the 9-13 region. The most obvious upon apparent of the younger magazines is TeenGirl, which shows pictures of girls who look to still be at school age and dominant colours are things like lilac and calm purples and pinks, which stereotypically centre more around younger girls, before adolescence. Magazines such as Bliss and More are more attracted to young adults as they centre around the fashion genre, and take adult life more seriously as far as relationships and fashion are concerned.

The front cover of More (example left), for instance, is often unable to present a clear masthead as the other contents of the cover are barraged on, a la scrapbook. This however is not a negative factor, as it is the trademark style of a female fashion magazine and how readers would expect to interpret it anyway - moreover, magazines of this genre which do not sport these conventions all stuffed into one A4 page are considered to be too bare and plain. Main features of these magazines do not mean to be inappropriate but can at times be so, as shown statistically below.

Every leading piece of any industry, for example female-orientated magazines in the creative media industry, will have its controversies. Government consumers such as Watchdog value a handful of magazines under this genre to be too explicit for its average age of readers. An example taken from an article of The Telegraph insists that these magazines are 'sexualising' younger readers, and that Sugar magazine's shirtless pictures and sex-centred competitions and articles are encouraging the sexual minds of children aged as lowly as just eleven. Furthermore, Bliss magazine (average reader age of 15) advertises these similar kinds of sex-orientated articles and images that could potentially be deemed a breach of the deal with their industries. A given example of this according to these consumers is a picture of male underwear model Justin Gaston, stood without clothes on with his private parts censored by just a panel. These can encourage derogatory terms and potentially also unprepared premature sex lives among children in early adolescence.

However, despite claims by these government consumers, where I see where they are coming from, I do see a sense of over-protection and I think that decreased age engagement in sexual acts and knowledge and involvement in derogatory phrases is more down to the current environment of teenage socialisation and has little link to the magazine industry. All media goes by similar classifications such as the BBFC and they are rather on the more strict side and are often disobeyed and this is where the consumer's claims stem from, therefore I do not see any requirement to hastily censor all slightly unsuitable qualities from magazines from children from eleven plus, as long as they do not exceed obvious unwritten guidelines.

Empire Magazine Analysis Essay

Empire Magazine Analysis


This is a front cover from an issue of Empire Magazine from 2008. Empire is a magazine centred around films and at times, regularly associated with actors/actresses, recording artists and film and music producers among others.

This particular magazine cover is the one that I will analyse, the cover of Empire featuring Robert Downey Jr. as the main image. To begin with, I will mention that, starting from the top, there is an enticing opening message, used as a tagline to accompany the masthead. It is also notable that the tagline of many magazines is always trademark and the same, but for Empire this feature varies to suit the summary of each issue of the magazine. The golden colour of the message connotes a winning and positive manner in which the message has been attempted to be put across by the creators of the magazine cover, and the masthead is one of, if not the most important feature of the cover and almost all magazine covers. Obviously, it reads "Empire" and this particular masthead is in a bold, dangerous, serious red, which attracts eyesight immediately as the colour is on a darker background and the rest of the cover lacks a range of colours. The colour red can signify love (could be love for films, actors or just the magazine) but on the other hand can indicate danger and preparation, and the need to be noticed, which it certainly is.

Then comes the commanding cover photo, of world-famous actor Robert Downey Jr. His pose is belittling to others and shows his immense power and authority as should be the case on the cover of a leading magazine. He is in this pose to show his status as his new role in his latest film, the Iron Man. The dark background of the cover merges into a spotlight feature, focusing on Downey Jr. to highlight his authoritative appearance even further and to let readers know his vital importance to the magazine. His figure notably overlaps the masthead too. This is because not only do readers know what the magazine title is anyway so it loses introductory importance, it furthermore indicates how essential Downey Jr. is to this issue of the magazine and how he can appear to be "more important than the magazine itself" if you like; a lot of other magazines use this tactic. He is holding Iron Man-related props in either hand, and has a trademark lighting feature in the centre of his torso, which is puffed out to enhance his visual appearance, masterminded by the photographers at Empire. He also gives partially direct address, looking towards the camera but slightly downwards in a manner appearing to seem alert and prepared, and moreover demanding. The words "Iron Man" are outstanding in a bright white on the dark background, below reading a quote: "Attitude? You damn betcha!" suiting Downey Jr. and his role very well. This quote is in a commanding font style and the same dangerous red as used for the masthead. Graphology also becomes taken into account, as the quote appears to have a blur feature to it, to add an aspect of speed to it, relevant to action movies.

Looking past the intimidating cover photo and its affiliated features, the bottom of the cover adds the sub-categories of the magazine. These are the other articles in the magazine, just not the main one which takes up the majority of the cover to let readers know what the magazine primarily focuses on in this edition. The introducing word to the host of sub-categories is "Plus!" which connotes equal importance to the main article (which of course still isn't the case) and encourages readers to still hold excitement over these supporting articles. Box-outs are stretched down the right-hand side of the cover, which is a change to the usual left-side that a lot of magazines opt for and Empire do themselves sometimes. These show stylish images of other film stars (Shia LeBoeuf, Ben Barnes and Emile Hirsch) in other new roles of theirs in films, accompanied by small titles (a bright white and silky gold on the dark background), informing the reader of their new roles in an upbeat way, attempting to lure the readers into viewing more of these categories. Box-outs are used as many readers are attracted to images and prefer them over extra words and they are clear and outstanding on backgrounds. This box-out technique could also increase reading figures in a way, as even children and people who aren't gifted at reading can look at pictures and use them to base their opinions on the magazine just like literate people would with words. However, these box-outs are notably ranging in size due to their incapability to overlap the cover photo. Nothing overlaps the cover photo! Downey Jr. is the most important article and so the creators of the cover have ensured that this image maintains all major leadership. The barcode is positioned bold and clear in the bottom-right corner of the cover in plenty of space for easy scanning upon purchase, and even the smallest of features can be noticed and have an effect. By this, I mean that where the time of issue and the price are situated just in amongst the masthead, they are shown to look like rolling credits at the end of a film or TV programme, used by the creators of the cover so as to keep all relevance of the topic of film. These small factors assist to maintain Empire's status as one of the world's leading film and music magazines, as well as the larger and more obvious factors, and how they correspond to their target audience.

Terminology Glossary

Glossary of Magazine Design Terminology

Background - The backing to a magazine cover and the base feature, can be coloured or patterned to add effect.

Barcode - Not just on magazines, this series of black bars and usually numbers on a white background identify the details of the product.

Box-out - A separate headline and sub-headline, isolated in an appropriate location on the cover of a magazine.

Colour - Pretty straightforward, contributes hugely to effect and the way we interpret a magazine cover.

Contents - Usually situated very close to the cover at the beginning of a magazine. Can also be designed similar to the theme of the cover to add effect and realism.

Cover photo - Also known as the main image, usually of a celebrity or group of whom the main article of the particular edition of the magazine is about, and this image usually overlaps the masthead to signify the huge importance of the star of the magazine.

Editorial - In most professional magazines, this is a foreword written by the magazine's editor, whose moment to shine effectively is here throughout their significant importance into the making of the magazine. A columned piece usually accompanied by a caption and a signature.

Font - The style of writing which is very important to the way we interpret a magazine. Many fonts exist, and there will always be a font appropriate to any sort of magazine.

Issue - A particular edition of a magazine. Issues of a magazine are usually numbered and shown on the cover to help collectors know where they stand. Issues are usually released weekly or monthly.

Masthead - The title of a magazine, always at the very top and shows the name of the magazine, usually in its trademark font. Important, but often overlapped by cover images.

Plug - Also known as a star-burst, spot or puff, this is similar to a box-out and is an isolated category of the magazine, which designers ensure stands out on the cover.

Sans serif - A particular font style, where letters of a certain font do not sport ridges on them and will be written more as block letters, without any decoration (serif).

Serif - Opposite to sans serif, this is a font style containing ridges or decoration.

Strap-line - A slogan or tagline which accompanies a sub-headline. Less important than a lot of magazine features but still features well on professional leading magazines.

Tagline - A basic slogan or phrase which usually accompanies a masthead; often the same at all times for a magazine and crucial to maintaining the individual qualities of it.

Getting to know Blogger

Things you can do with Blogger

• Produce work online without the need to print
• Submit work to your lecturers online
• Publish media such as videos and images online
• 24/7 internet access and easy ability to publish
• Use it as a personal work journal to connect interpretations to the media
• Clear and simple assessment of your work is carried out online

How I think Blogger will be useful for my coursework

• Simple submission of work without worry or fuss
• Improvement of organisation with ability to easily file my work on Blogger
• Autosave system can prevent me losing my work which can occasionally happen
• Blogger account will be a useful base to store and publish my work

Overall, Blogger will make it easier to conduct, file and publish my work at the simple location of an account, modern technology has so many simple advantages!