How To Write Mag Cover Production Evaluation

“Production Supporting Account” essay This piece assesses your ability to evaluate AND your ability to assesses your knowledge of the three key Media Studies areas: • texts • audiences • institutions Length : 600-750 Words MAX Even though this can be one, continuous piece of prose, there are three distinct sections are required to gain the passing grades:

Part 1 – RESEARCH (about 25% of the total word count) a) Name the magazines that you examined (you could include thumbnail images of them) and the institutions that publish them. b) Explain how you analysed the advertisements in order to identify the target audience. Indicate the target audience (age and gender) and reader demographics (lifestyle, interests, personality type) that these magazines share. e.g. Rich Asian female music enthusiasts, or elderly Chinese women in Hong Kong. c) Identify the kinds of representation (of people - gender, race, sexualised, idealised, etc) featured in these texts. Focus on stereotypes. Link it with readers’ demographics. d) Outline the typical visual (e.g. colours, camera shot, stance, etc) and linguistic codes (slang, puns, exclamations, rhyme, mode of address, etc) these texts demonstrate – both connotation and denotation.

Part 2 – AIMS (about 25% of the total word count) a) Explain your aim in producing the media text. What niche does it fill in the genre? Explain which publisher (institution) you will use. Why this one? Consider market share, competition, financial constraints, current titles that they publish, etc. and link it back to the typical publisher profiles indicated in your research. E.g. is one of your aims for the institution to increase its profits by appealing to more readers, or is this a subscription magazine for a specialised niche market? b) Indicate the target audience (age and gender) and reader demographics (lifestyle, interests, personality type) that your magazine will have. c) Link these reader demographics with how your institution will promote your magazine. Consider costs and effectiveness of placements: e.g. Advertising the magazine - billboards near cinemas, sides of busses, television advertisements around 6pm C4 weekdays, magazines of same genre, etc. Promoting the magazine - price reduction, give-aways, competitions, etc. d) Explain the aim of your magazine cover – what are you trying to achieve? Are you using distinctive, different or typical conventions for your genre? Why? Consider : representation …of people, places, things. How does it link with readers’ demographics? linguistic codes e.g. imagery, alliteration, emotive diction, syntax, verbs, neologisms. masthead Title of magazine. Is it obscured by image? (suggests brand popularity) puff Self-promoting phrase, often under masthead (e.g. “The UK’s no. 1 magazine”) pug The ‘ears’ of the page at the top right and left sides. (For price, logo, promotion) image (stance, shot, lighting) E.g. teenage girls’ mags almost always head and shoulders shot, eyeline shot, model looking directly out, artificial lights from above, etc. (= reader identification)

colour codes taglines (coverlines) strapline star recognition

Colour symbolism (e.g. predominance of pink and yellow in teenage girls’ mags. Convey the contents of the magazine, using linguistic codes. A major tagline, usually running across the top of the page, above the masthead. Celebrity to endorse the magazine brand.

Part 3 – The Evaluation (about 50% of the total word count) Evaluate your technical skills : 1. Quality: • Readable font? • Clear? • High quality images (not pixellated)? • Effective colour scheme? • Aligned correctly? 2. Originality : • Have you created your own image (not downloaded)? • Have you created your own text (not copied)? 3. 4.

5.

Evaluate whether your magazine cover sufficiently targets your stated reader demographics. Consider : • How well did your actual finished product (the printed out magazine cover) actually meet its aims? (Look back at what you wrote about your aims in Part 2). • How successful have you been? • Explain any difficulties that you had (be specific). What would you still like to improve if you had more time or better resources? What specific changes would you make?