College magazine evaluation.

1. College
Magazine
Evaluation
FRIDA WAYWELL
1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge codes
and conventions of real media products?
2. How did you use new media technologies in the construction of your
media product?
3. What are the strengths and weaknesses of both the product and your use
of new media technologies?

2. Magazine Cover Evaluation:
For our preliminary exercise we had to create a magazine cover and a single contents page for a
college magazine. The magazine had to appeal to teenagers and educate them about
college and help them have a good start. When creating the magazine cover I had to
consider the codes and conventions in order to create a successful front cover.
I made my college magazine cover on Photoshop. On my
cover I made sure that I had included all of the correct codes
and conventions, such as: a masthead, cover lines, a barcode, a
positioning statement, one splash, bold fonts, and the person
on the front cover is looking directly at the camera. I feel I
included the majority of the correct codes and conventions,
however one thing that I would do differently is make sure
that the background in my photo is blank so that my cover
lines stood out and were more clear.

3. I compared my magazine cover to another
magazine so that I could see how successful
my project was.
The majority of my codes and conventions are
also shown in this real magazine. I know that my
front cover was successful as I have compared
my magazine cover and a lot of my codes and
conventions were done correctly.
Eye-catching cover
lines.
Bold masthead.
Barcode.
Direct eye contact.

4. Weaknesses:
In some ways my college magazine front
cover was successful, however it does have its
weaknesses:
• One weakness is that the background is not
black which makes it hard for the cover lines to
stand out. This also makes the cover look messy,
if I were to change this I would retake the photo
making sure that the background is blank.
• Another weakness of my front cover is that the
person on my cover is wearing a patterned t-
shirt. Because the t-shirt is patterned it makes
the cover line very unclear and hard to read.
• If I were to do this front cover again I would
have made the changes above, and I would have
changed the font of my title as I think the font is
very boring, and does not catch attention.

5. Contents Page Evaluation:
This is my contents page for my college magazine. I
made my contents page on quak. In my contents page I
used pictures of the college, a picture of the front cover,
a bold title, and picture of the social media sites in order
to contact the college. I felt that using all of these codes
and conventions made my magazine cover successful. In
my contents page I used columns to set it out so that it
was easy to read.
Weakness:
One weakness on my contents is the layout. Because
my pictures were different sizes I ended up being left
with a blank space on my page as it was too small to
fit anything in. also there is blank spaces on each side
of the title. When doing my contents page for my
music magazine I will make sure there are no blank
spaces.

6. In the columns I included information
which says what is included on each page of
the magazine. I had page numbers in a
bigger font, and in bold going down the
side of the page. Next to the numbers I
wrote down briefly what is on each page in
the magazine.
I also had a little section
in my column called
‘news’ this is telling the
students reading the
magazine occasions that
are happening in
college.
Strengths:
Another strength on my contents page
is including social media sites; this
gives the students ways of contacting
the college through their social media.
I think that the pictures I included in my contents
page make it a success as they relate to what is in the
magazine, and show certain parts of the college.

7. New Media Technologies
To make my contents page I used quak. Firstly, I
started by making to columns so that my pages
were divided evenly. I then begun by adding my
title to the page, as well as the date in the top right
corner. After I had decided on my chosen fonts for
the title and the writing font I then began to fill in
the first column. In the first column I wrote the
page numbers and a brief explanation of what was
on each page.
After doing that I started to add my photographs of
the college to my contents page. I then added text
over the top of each image stating what was in the
image and made sure that it related to the page
number.
Once all of my text and images were on the
magazine in the correct places (basing off my
sketch) I then added a background colour. I chose
the colour black because I felt that it looked a lot
better than the whole page being white. However, I
did decide to leave the left column white as well as
the news and the social media section as that
seemed to stand out more and look a lot more
clear to read.

8. Overall..
 Overall, my magazine front cover had its strengths and
weaknesses. From assessing my front cover I now know
what changes I will make when making my music
magazine front cover. From doing this college magazine
front cover I now know how to use Photoshop so that my
next magazine cover will be a lot better, considering I
know more skills.
 From evaluating my contents page I now understand
what I will need to include when it comes to my music
magazine contents page. There were strengths and
weaknesses within my contents page which will help me
to improve on my skills using quak.