Codes and Conventions of a School Magazine

Codes and Conventions of a School Magazine

One of the tasks I had to do was to analyse a school magazine front cover in detail to find what codes and conventions are used and why, the purpose of this task was for me to be able to gain a better understanding of what codes and conventions look good with one another and to give the chance to get a better idea of what codes and conventions I will aim to include when I come to design my magazine front cover for the school.

Firstly the masthead, in my opinion the masthead has many good and bad points, the colours used could be improved as the white writing doesn’t stand out too much on the background that mostly consists of light grey and also the red and yellow colouring also looks a bit out of place in my opinion. However, one good point about the masthead is that it covers the entire width of the page, this is effective as it seems to add a bit more professionalism and quality to the magazine as it looks like it’s supposed to be there rather than the masthead just being on one of the sides not covering the width making it look odd.

 

 

 

Another code and convention that I noticed was the ‘puff’ in the top left of the front cover, this is effective as, first of all the blue stands out on the page as there is quite a drastic contrast in colours between that and the window that makes the background. Also, the puff will make readers want to read the magazine as they will want to make the most of the free gift.

 

The magazine also uses a strip down the right of the page which I think is effective as it gives the reader the chance to quickly see what is in the magazine enabling them to make an informed decision on whether to read it or not. The colour choice of the strip is a good one as the white writing really stands out on the page as that section of the magazine has a dark grey style background which contrast with the white.

Finally, the main feature article picture adds a sense of professionalism to the magazine as the image is of high quality. However, one major improvement that could be made would be the choice of background, this is because the writing is predominantly white and it doesn’t exactly stand out and ‘jump off the page’ at the reader, however the background was improved the magazine as a whole would stand out a lot more than it already does.

 

Overall, the editor of the magazine has done a good job as he/she was able to fit in a lot of the main codes and conventions making it a successful front cover.

 

Test Screenings

Test Screenings

 

Test screenings are used to ensure a film or a TV programme/ series reaches or surpasses the potential, they are basically when members of the general public are invited to view a small preview of the show before the official release, and this enables the film producers to get an idea of the viewer’s opinions and make improvements to the programme/film to make it better. After the preview has been shown the audience are given a questionnaire style sheet about the film which they are able to state possible improvements that could well be made etc. Changes after test screenings are usually quite major and influential ones, regular changes are often length of the film, endings or even a change of title.

The image below is an example of a questionnaire, as you can see it is quite a detailed information sheet that has various styles of questions, such as multiple choice and normal questions where you can have a specific opinion instead of being limited to only 4 or 5 answers.

 

 

 

One report that came out recently related to Test Screenings was about Batman: The Dark Knight Rises, after a test screening had been shown the director was almost forced to re-edit the audio as a lot of the viewers struggled to hear and understand what the villain ‘Bane’ was saying.

 

 

 

 

 

Overall, test screenings are very important in my opinion as they can have a massive impact on the end product, and they are extremely helpful to the producers of the film or programme as they are able to get a clear indication in to what the audience like and dislike.

 

Magazine Codes and Conventions

 

Codes and Conventions

 

One of the first tasks I had to do was some research on magazine Codes and Conventions. I found out a lot about the title, images and other features of magazines. This information will be very helpful in the near future as I begin to make my own magazine.

In every magazine there is always a main image that usually takes up all or a lot of the front cover, the camera angle for these images are predominantly close up or a mid-shot.

 

The camera angle for this particular example is a mid-shot, this is effectively used as the person, in this case David Beckham is looking straight at the reader which makes it look and seem like he’s talking directly to them which has an effect on them wanting to buy it, the image also stands out as Beckham is standing in a Red Tracksuit top in front of a plain light grey background which contrasts with the red making it stand out more.

The title, one of the most obvious things about the title is the font it is written in, the font has to be unique for a couple of reasons, the first one being that it is exclusively that magazines font, and secondly having a unique font will be easily recognisable to readers as they will remember the magazine title if it stands out from the rest. The title of magazines nowadays are usually only one or two words long, making it easy to remember and simple. The title always fills the width of the page, the title colour is also very important, as you can see on the magazine above the title is a bright orange colour which I think is effective as it works well with the image and stands out on the grey background. It is also only two words long meaning it’s easily recognisable and memorable.

 

A puff is something found on magazine front covers that offers something else to the magazine, an example of this is a gift giveaway, and this is effective as it gives the reader more encouragement to buy the magazine.

 

This magazine to the right is a good example of the use of buzzwords, these are short one word phrases that stand out on front cover, words such as ‘exclusive’  are used to make the magazine look more appealing and stand out more.  

Another common code and convention on Magazine front covers are coverlines, these coverlines are basically short phrases taken from the inside of the magazine, these are effective as it gives the reader an insight in to what is in the magazine. The main purpose for these coverlines are to entice the reader in to buying the magazine over others.

Coverlines tend to be taken from the main articles/stories of the magazine as that is more than likely what the majority readers will be interested in. On every magazine front cover there is always one main coverline, generally taken from the major talking point in the magazine.  As you can see in the magazine 'FourFourTwo' there are a couple of coverlines, for example near the bottom left corner there is a coverline taken from a story inside about the 'Greatest Club Goals'.

The final code and convention used on front covers of magazines are strips, these are used in almost every magazine and are basically just a simple list of what is in the magazine in terms of stories, gossip and news. Even though simple, if used correctly these can be one of the most effective codes and conventions as they can have a big impact on whether or not the reader ends up buying the magazine or not, for example if the list is full of boring stories etc. the reader won't see the point in buying the magazine to read things he/she don't really have an interest in.

Overall, codes and conventions are one of the main reasons magazines are so successful as the editor has the specific list of codes and conventions to stick to.

 

 

 

 

Course Introduction

Hello, my name is Tom and welcome to my Media Blog.

I am an AS Level student at Idsall Sixth Form and I’m currently studying I.T, BTEC Sport and Media Studies, for Media I had to create a blog, on which I will store and present all of my non-completed and finished work.

I chose Media alongside I.T and BTEC Sport as I think they will work well together but more importantly, I find it interesting as media is such an important part of the 21^st century and is used by most people nearly everyday.

Hopefully you enjoy reading my blog.

Tom