This document outlines the tasks and deadlines for a coursework assignment to create a college magazine. Students will complete a preliminary task of a front cover and contents page, which involves research, planning, production, and evaluation. For the main task, students will create a front cover, contents page, and double page spread for a music magazine, requiring research, planning, production, post-production, audience feedback, and a final evaluation. The assignment aims to teach codes and conventions of magazines and skills with desktop publishing software to design magazine layouts.

1. Henley College AS Media Coursework: Print
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Start Date: 14th January 2013 Submission Date: 28th April 2013
For this coursework assignment you will have 2 separate tasks to complete; a Preliminary
Task and a Main Task. Each of these will need to be completed to achieve a grade for this
assignment.
During this unit you will cover:
1) The codes and conventions of a college and music magazine
2) The importance of primary and secondary research
3) How to use DTP software to create a magazine layout
4) How to use DTP software to create a FC, CP and DPS
5) How to reflect on and evaluate your own project
Further assistance for this coursework can be found on the blog:
http://henleycolmagazineportfolio.blogspot.co.uk/
Additional documents, templates and support will also be available during lesson time and
on LearnZone.
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2. Preliminary Task:
Deadline –2nd February 2013
For the preliminary task you will need to research, plan and create a Front Cover and
Contents page for a college magazine. In order to complete this you will need to complete
the following tasks:
Task 1: Research
For this task you will produce:
 An analysis of 2 college magazine front covers
 An analysis of 2 college magazine contents pages
This analysis should draw on the codes and conventions you have learnt about in class as
well as analysing the specific effect these codes and conventions have on the magazines
target audience.
You will also produce a:
 10 question questionnaire that will be asked to 10-15 people
This should aim to find out what your target audience will want from a college magazine
and should inform the planning for your front cover and contents page.
You will also produce:
 A 250 word evaluation
This will summarise the key points you have found in your primary and secondary research.
This should also state how this research has impacted on your ideas for your front cover
and contents page for your college magazine.
Task 2: Planning
For this task you will produce:
 2x Drafts/mock ups of layout for front cover
 2x Drafts/mock ups of layout for contents page
These will be produced using DTP (InDesign). These layouts should be accompanied by a
brief explanation of the pros and cons of this layout choice.
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3. Task 3: Production
For this task you will create a:
Front Cover containing:
 A photograph of a student in medium close-up
 A masthead
 Appropriate laid-out text with considered font choice
 Barcode, issue number and date
Contents Page containing:
 Title
 Appropriate laid-out text with considered font choice
 Appropriate contents with page numbers
 Additional images to anchor contents
The photographs, article titles and masthead must be original and be created by you in
order to qualify for a grade.
Task 4: Evaluation
Finally you will produce a short 250-500 word evaluation answering the following points:
 How successful was this task? Did you successfully apply the conventions of a
college magazine?
 What did you learn?
 If you were to do it again, what would you do differently?
Main Task:
For this task you will produce a front cover, contents page and double page spread for a
new music magazine. This magazine will be in a genre of your choosing and all of the
photography and editorial content will be produced by you.
To complete this task you will be required to conduct research, plan, produce and finally
evaluate your product. Marks for this coursework are awarded as follows:
 Research and Planning – 20 marks
 Construction (FC, CP, DPS) – 60 marks
 Evaluation – 20 marks
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4. Research:
Deadline – 16th February 2013
In order to complete this task you will need to conduct both primary and secondary
research. Your secondary research will involve you analysing a variety of music magazine
FC, CP and DPS, whereas your primary research will involve you conducting research into
your target audience.
Task 1: Secondary Research
To complete the secondary research task you will need to research into several magazine
institutions that produce similar products as well as the products themselves.
1. You will need to produce a PowerPoint illustrating the main features of these
institutions looking at their primary magazines and how they advertise these magazines
to appeal to their target audience.
2. You will also need to produce a few slides applying Uses and Gratifications theory to
magazine production and consumption.
3. You will also need to research into several genre specific music magazines, analysing
the codes and conventions of these magazines as well as how they appeal to their
target audience.
To get into the highest mark band for this section you will need to analyse (in detail):
 5 music magazine front covers (genre specific)
 5 music magazine contents pages (genre specific)
 5 music magazine double page spreads (genre specific)
When analysing these magazines you should consider:
 Conventions
 Layout and page design
 Integration of illustration and text
 Variety of fonts and text sizes
 Mode of Address
 Mise en Scene
 HOW THESE ELEMENTS TARGET THEIR AUDIENCE
4. After completing this you will also produce a Flat Plan for 2 existing music magazines,
illustrating where particular articles, images and adverts are placed in an existing
product.
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5. Task 2: Primary Research
You will now need to conduct your primary research, looking into your potential target
market and their expectations for your genre of music magazine. This will ensure your
creative decisions have weight behind them, as well as ensuring you are creating a product
that audiences will buy.
1. To complete this task you will create:
 An audience questionnaire
 Analysed results of the audience questionnaire
2. You will also take part in a focus group presenting your ideas to a group of your peers
and gaining feedback from this.
3. You will now create a reader profile for your magazine, taking into account all the
research you have done so far. This may take the form of a media board highlighting the
key products, bands and trends that apply to this audience.
Task 3: Evaluation
After completing these tasks you will need to write an evaluation reflecting on what you
have learnt and how this will affect your production. You should create a PowerPoint for
this, creating a slide for each of the areas of research you have completed. For example:
 What you have learnt from your Front Cover analysis? How will you use this for
your own front cover?
 What you have learnt from your Contents Page analysis? How will you use this for
your own contents page?
 What you have learnt from your Double Page Spread analysis? How will you use
this for your own DPS?
 What you have learnt from you Questionnaire’s and Focus Group? How will this
feedback affect your product?
Planning:
Deadline – 9th March 2013
You will now need to start planning your production, this will involve a large amount of
organisation and
You will need to show excellent organisation of actors, locations, costumes and props. As
well as excellent work on shot lists, layouts, drafting, scripting and/or storyboarding.
You will need to complete the following:
1. A Timeline/Diary/Calendar/Gantt chart of what needs to be completed and by
when.
2. A table showing the organisation of music artists/bands/models. This should include
a list of the models contact details and may include screen prints of emails and
confirmations sent.
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6. 3. Location recces, including images of the locations and explanations as to why these
are or are not appropriate.
4. Props list for use in the photoshoot. This should include a written analysis for each
prop explaining why they are appropriate and appealing for your target audience.
5. Storyboard style drawings for shot types to be used in the photo shoot. This should
also mention the reasoning for each shot and the meaning conveyed by it.
6. Drafted examples of your genre specific masthead.
7. Front cover mock ups.
8. A mood board for colour, fonts, layout etc…
9. A flat plan for your entire music magazine. This should draw from your research and
the flat plans you created for existing music magazines
10. Audience feedback on your magazine
11. After completing each of these tasks you will then write a reflection on your
planning process. This reflection should look at the overall effectiveness of your
planning as well as the audience feedback on your product, stating any potential
effect this feedback has had on your product.
Production and Post-Production:
FC Deadline – 16th March 2013
CP Deadline – 23th March 2013
DPS Deadline – 6th April 2013
Task 1: Production
Throughout this process you should refer to your research ensure this affects the design for
your final product.
Photo shoot
You will now need to complete the photo shoot you have organised. You may want to
consider if the subject for your FC will be the same as your DPS. This will need to be
completed outside of class time.
You should analyse these photos in terms of their effectiveness and suitability for your FC
CP and DPS. You should also state how these may need to be changed or altered in
Photoshop to achieve your desired effect.
Articles:
You will also need to produce the article titles for your FC and CP, stating how these will
appeal to your target audience.
You should also produce the fully written article for your DPS, considering your mode of
address and the how the overall style of your article will appeal to your target audience.
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7. Task 2: Post-Production
Using the layouts you created during your planning stage you should create several drafts
of your final layout. You should briefly analyse these stating their pros and cons and their
overall suitability for your audience.
While creating these layouts you should be taking screenshots of your progress,
documenting your use and understanding of InDesign.
Task 3: Final Products
You will now decide which of your drafted layouts will be your final product. You should
take your previous research into account when making this decision.
Task 4: Audience Feedback and Reflection
You must now receive audience feedback on the success of your product and reflect on
this. You should consider:
 How successful your final product is?
 Did you achieve the desired effect?
 Was the combination of your pages successful?
 Were you successful at targeting your audience?
Evaluation:
Deadline: 28th April 2013
You must now produce an electronic evaluation answering the seven key questions listed
below. This evaluation may take the form of a blog, PowerPoint, podcast or DVD extra.
This evaluation must answer the following questions in detail:
 In what ways does your music magazine use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real music magazines?
 How does your music magazine represent particular social groups?
 What kind of media institution might distribute your music magazine and why?
 Who would be the audience for your music magazine?
 How did you attract/address your audience?
 What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this
product?
 Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the
progression from it to the full product?
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