This document summarizes audience feedback from a preliminary evaluation of a college magazine, reflections on magazine research that informed the design of various magazine elements like the front cover, contents page, and double-page spreads, and discusses the target audience and purpose of a school/college magazine. Research into other music magazines helped with incorporating typical design elements like prominent cover lines and bright colors that relate to the genre. Contents pages listed page numbers and highlighted article names/titles. Double-page spreads typically featured a large central image and surrounding text. The magazine aims to engage and inform its target audience of students and teachers.

2. Preliminary EvaluationAudience Feedback:Would you buy this magazine?Yes: 6 No: 4If so, for how much?£1-1.50: 3 £2-£3: 1 £3+: 0Do you like the style of this magazine? Yes: 7 No: 3Making the college magazine helped me to understand how to address a specific audience in a magazine, and to help me to get an understanding of how to lay out a magazine. The audience research and feedback also showed me what the audience would be looking for in the magazine and what a general audience wants and then how I could incorporate specific elements into the magazine to make it more specialist with a general audience. The college magazine was a good basis for my music magazine, as I could see how I could develop my music magazine and keep typical magazine elements and use them in my music magazine (like the layout of the contents page.)

3. These are two examples of school magazine front covers, they portray model students, and promote good things in the school/colleges. i.e. there is no typical magazine scandal articles. The magazines use very plain and serious colours, for example grey and green. The cover lines are informative and are calming, and do not jump out that the reader, for my college magazine, I think I will make my approach to my readers more friendly and use colloquial language. I would probably make the magazine more of a student magazine, rather than just information about the establishment. The close up shot of a young student working, instantly indicates the subject of the magazineAdvertising relevant features on the cover, In a serious manner with formal language.

4. Front Page ReflectionWhen researching other music magazine front covers I found that they each shared similarities in design, which I became accustomed to and could incorporate this in my own front cover. For example, many magazines use cover lines to advertise the content of the magazine, and usually place this on the left hand side of the page. So, I used this technique in the making of my front cover. In the research I also found that front covers use bright colours to capture an audiences attention, and usually with a colour that relates to or connotes with the genre/subject of the magazine. So, for the front cover of my ‘Indie’ music magazine, I highlighted my text in neon colours to make it stand out and be a little different from typical rock style magazines.

5. Contents Page ReflectionMy research of magazine contents pages showed that many magazine contents pages list the page number before the name of the article or subject. They also enhance either the page number or the title In a brighter colour or a different font. I used this and brightly coloured the article names and wrote the page numbers in capitals. Contents pages also have little features about articles in the magazine, encouraging the reader to look at them and engage the reader. Here I used this in featuring an advertisement for the holiday competition and an image and caption that the audience would be interested in.

6. Double Spread ReflectionWhen I researched the double page spreads, most of them were articles about particular artists with a large image, the title of the article, and then the text surrounding this. Looking at this, I could get a feel for how I should design my article. I decided to put my title and main image on one side of the page, to create more space for the text, and also, I created my double page spread on a competition my magazine would run, and I had some really good original photography on location.

8. The uses and gratifications theory illustrates how people consume the media and bring it into their lives actively. My magazine fits into this theory as it offers information to the reader and offers them more entertainment and knowledge of their selected subject. The magazine also offers other extras to try to engage and bring in the audience. For example, free gifts and competitions. The reader will also actively consume the media by entering the competitions and taking part in it. From my magazine, the reader can indulge in their particular interest and get a wider range of interests and be introduced to new aspects by the media/magazine.

9. Here are two school magazine contents pages. These pages consist of colours that would be associated with schools and young people, i.e. the blue for boys and the more generalised purple. One magazine has the articles sorted into categories, the other by page number. I shall use the page number technique for my contents page. But I will point out which stories have been featured on the front cover.Features about particular articles, out of order in the page numbers to grab your attention.Close up shot of student, portraying them as the important subject of the magazine.

10. Audience Research for College MagazineThe target audience for the School/College magazine would be students and teachers of that particular establishment. Depending on the style of the magazine (formal and informative or a more colloquial one aimed at students), it could also have the parents as target audiences. The target audience also affects how the magazine is created, in that if it were a magazine aimed primarily at students, it may use more colloquial language, different layout, brighter colours, and different articles, perhaps surrounding some of the latest news which concerns the students interest. Rather than the more formal language, Bolder and more formal colours and articles about changes within the school and statistics of the students progress perhaps.

11. Personal Learning and Evaluation - ResearchIn the research tasks, I discovered that could understand so much more about the production of music magazines, and how to lay it all out and make it look effective for each different genre, and use establishing techniques in making it look a certain way for a certain genre and style. This research created the basis for my knowledge in the production of my magazine and set the pathway for me to be able to plan the actual making of my magazine and get It into some kind of action.