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

I would say that my media products uses, develops and challenges the forms and conventions of real media in a variety of ways. In most real media magazine products you will find that the masthead runs straight across the page, however mine only covers third of the length of the page, but has been section in a particular area of the page by my borders. The use of my borders was to have things concise and formally structured on the page executing white spaces and deviate from the idea of having things float around in doing this it has narrowed it down to being more professional looking.

Furthermore the positioning of my text is what I would find challenges the forms and conventions of a real media product because the text overlaps over the images which can be seen as quite unprofessional. The solution to this problem would be to maintain the thought of alignment when positioning images and text as on the page there needs to clear cut margins so that all things need to be perfectly aligned to it as it will be structured better and avoid things wondering off the page.

The font choice of my text is quite reasonable and is still able to maintain professionalism in selecting clear and formal looking writing to make it playful/inviting. The difference between the text of my media product and a real media product is that with mine there is a consistency of the use of font but the only difference in size and in colour. Real media products also convey these features of alliteration of varying the texts size and colour and mine only has two of these main features which is unusual compared to real magazine products.

As much as my magazine is for the Plumstead manor sixth form and is mainly targeted towards sixth from student. I have realised that I haven’t used much colloquial language but where I have used it is quite good such as `Pick your own study buddy’ and `Mix, mingle and make new friends’ (Power of three or triplet. My media product uses a variety of contrasting colours that have been extracted from the palette of the image of the sixth form building. Using these contrasts helps to make the product seem lively with colours that bounce off each other.

The use of colour has also been developed in being used in the colour of the text made the important and interesting things stand out giving the alarming effect to capture the reader’s attention just like what a real media product would do. I also used my ICT skills in creating shapes and changing the colours with the intention of neutralising the front cover as the clack border might have been too dark, adding the white and red squares was to brighten it up a little bit but with still using the schools buildings colours.

The media product I produced challenged the form and conventions of real media greatly as I didn’t particularly consider the thought of making sure the margins on the page were perfectly aligned as there is no proper alignment of the images and the text. I didn’t particularly pay attention to the skill of the optical centre of the page with the text or images as the essential parts of the magazine were ideally the first place to look at. But however I could argue and where my masthead is, is also the point of my optical centre also with the image of the school building.

A range of shots had been used in my media product; an image of the sixth form building, young people socially interacting and doing a medium, close up of a student doing work. What may

challenge the forms and conventions of the medium close up image is that it is an image that doesn’t convey the detailed amount of emotion and expression on the students face. Also the lack of eye contact would be another downfall as most real media product images have at least one image where the person is giving direct contact. I feel I wasn’t able to convey image manipulation of which the reader would be concentrating on the medium shot of the image and why it makes us think what we think when we look at it

2) How does your media product present particular social groups?

My media represent social groups in many ways. The images taken are able to convey the schools ethnic acceptance of all types of students. The medium close of the student sitting at the desk is made to come across to the reader as that she is very hard working and is independently studying, determined to do well. I feel she was made to seem quite innocent but is self-motivated focused in what she is doing. The image below the page has made people seem sociable and friendly as people are able to freely have a discussion with each other. The people are made to seem this way because of the way that they have been position as they sit around the table suggesting that this is the way that all voices are heard and able to maintain eye contact with each other and making them seem more engaged in what they are doing. The image shows that they do really seek some interest in what each other are saying, making it seem that like no matter what you have to discuss you will always be listened to. This photo was to also empathize a variety of people you could meet promoting ethnic variation showing that the school welcomes all types of people of different ethnic backgrounds and religions. But I what I could have done to really empathise this was to take pictures with a wider range of people having a mixed discussion between them to really show how people really enjoy being around different people.

3) What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Ideally it would be the school as it is responsible for the image it portrays to students as well as others viewers, because they are the ones viewing the media product and their opinions of the school will be based on the content of the sixth form magazine. The reason why the school would distribute this media product is to promote the sixth form and to inspire people from what others do so that people will be drawn to wanting to come here increasing the student population and enhancing the school’s reputation in amongst all the other schools of the borough.

4) Who would be the audience of your media product?

The audience of my media product definitely would be for students aged between 16-18, because 16 is the age in which you would start sixth form and therefore the look of the magazine must appeal to their early interests of the sixth form, as their decisions are likely to be based on the things they see and read form the sixth from magazine

6.) What have you learned about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

From constructing this product I learnt how to use photo shop when creating an example cover in the task of getting to know the software. I was able to understand why this software is used when editing pictures like changing the colour effects of an image. Also being able to remove or disguise the writing put on copy while image, with this software altercations can be made on images easily in extracting the white background surrounding the image and pasting on to any background of your choice. Additionally on this software I have learnt that images can be put on the front cover in layers where many images and texts can be layered out to pile and overlap each other.

I have likewise learnt how simple image editing can be really effective in displaying what the image entails. For example enlarging a picture so it can be seen more clearly using this technological strategies. Another example could be cropping images to really focus on the details to present the whole essence of what the image is about.

From presenting my work up on blogger I was able to read the feedback given from my classmates and teachers which made it easy to get a direct response on how to improve things. From this use of technology I am able to easily view others blogs and gain ideas on how to improve my own. However the process of converting my files to be posted on my blog is a difficult situation yet I am willing to learn how it is done properly so I can add new things to my blog next time. When using Microsoft Word I was able to use all things that were relevant to appeal to my audience and incorporate shapes as well as images and text to find the perfect layout or page set up.