LIIAR Analysis of Audience Feedback for the College Magazine

Language
Overall the language used on the front cover and contents page of my magazine, seems to appeal to the audience as the layout seems to be better than the final piece I had originally chosen, which was stated in some feedback I received.

Front Cover

The imagery used on the front cover is seen to be “perfect” as it doesn’t take away too much attention from the informative text. Initially I had the front of the Oak building as my front cover, however due to the feedback I soon decided to change this because the audience said it was hard to read the text. The masthead of ‘Wyke’ stands out, as it is a bold colour and very large, using the colourful masthead and the black and white imagery creates a contrast, this way the audience will be drawn to the magazine. I decided to keep a continuous flow of the theme green, purple and white, and using the two different fonts on the actual pieces of writing such as headlines, and using a different font when stating the issue and price, to show that the magazine is worth reading and not something that’s been thrown together, this also shows that house style has been used.

Contents Page

On the contents page I decided to do a heading of the articles featured then have a small description or attraction underneath to draw the reader’s attention and to make them read on, I also used two different styles of the font and colours to separate the two from one another, such as italic and bold. I added a few small thumbnails to make the page look less boring, which has been stated in the feedback, also the thumbnails relate to an article being shown on the contents page.

Institution

The institution of this magazine would be Wyke College itself, the reason for me choosing the college as my institution is because the magazine is a Wyke magazine, therefore this is an appropriate option. Also, having the college as the institution instead of an actual production company, means all the information will be accurate and the college will be represented in a true light because it will be produced by the students and possibly include the staffs input. The college is also the institution because it lowers the cost on producing the magazine, if the institution was an actual production company then the magazine would have to charge the audience to buy the magazine to cover the cost of the production, posting and printing, however as the college is the institution the magazine can be free as the only cost would be the printing.

Ideology

The ideology of my magazine was that I focused on getting an eye-catching magazine out to the school/college students. I wanted the audience to know that the magazine was free, and that they wouldn’t have to spend probably their dinner money or bus fare on the magazine; the Wyke magazine allows the audience to read the magazine without feeling like they always hear or see about doing well at school/college and getting the best grades possible, therefore the magazine doesn’t feature anything to do with higher education or getting a job after school/college consequently the audience wouldn’t feel too pressured into anything they didn’t feel comfortable with. 

Audience 

The target audience for my magazine are 15-19 years, but if I use the figures from the gender and age, my target audience would be in the 15-24 years, obviously including both genders; using the demographics my audience would be from the E band, ‘casual labourers, unemployed, state pensions,’ as not many students from the college and schools are unemployed leading them to not have an income. The reason for me choosing this group for my target audience is because it’s mainly this age group which will be choosing to go to college, and which attend college already. In my magazine I have used bright colours which will attract the audience’s attention and isn’t to ‘serious’ like adult audience magazines, such as Pride, Home&Garden and the Photoshop Magazine, which could lead them astray from the magazine. My magazine appeals to all different groups of my target audience, considering the VALS (Value Life Styles) include many different categories of which the audience could fit into.

Representation

I wanted my magazine to represent the college accurately so the audience don’t feel like they have to live up to the standards which the magazine sets, which I believe is what it has done, by including articles which can help future students for their college life and what to expect, also including articles for the students which already attend Wyke such as how to raise money for upcoming trips. My magazine doesn’t just represent the college, it also represents each social group, as it appeals to all different audiences, for example boys are stereotyped to like the colour blue and girls pink, however in my magazine I didn’t use these colours as the audience could assume that those articles or the magazine itself is only for certain people, however using the college colours it shows that my magazine welcomes all different readers.

Promoting the launch of the College Magazine.

When promoting the launch of my Wyke magazine on the internet I would make sure that the magazine and magazine homepage is advertised on the Wyke homepage, and on Moodle, therefore the students at Wyke would see that there is a new magazine coming out soon. However for my school students’ audience I would ask schools in Hull if they could put a link onto their website which would direct school students to the Wyke Magazine homepage.

To make the audience choose the print version of my magazine over the internet version, I would include special items inside my magazine, such as vouchers, competitions, free gifts and the Wyke Prospectus which is included in the magazine I created. By engaging the audience via the internet, they will probably realise that if they pick up a copy of the free version, they can receive special items, therefore if the magazine soon has a price tag, then the audience will still get the magazine as they will realise it’s still better than looking at it online. However the benefits of the audience looking at the magazine online would mean that the college would save ink and paper therefore they’d have more money to spend on other resources for the college.

I did some research into existing magazines and their websites; I then created a mock of my own magazine website. The magazines I researched were, Company, Closer, Heat and More, these magazines each have their own website, all very different from each other, however mostly easy to understand and very different from the magazine as the audience can search the webpage to find directly what they are looking for. The mock I created is shown below. 

Final Product and Feedback for the College Magazine.

“The final product has the best layout from the drafts, as everything looks like it has been placed in the magazine properly. There is not too much information to process either; the picture is perfect for the front cover as it doesn’t take away too much attention from the text.” 

“The contents page is very clear, and bright. There is a continuous flow of theme, which was stated on the front cover as white, purple and green, which I believe are the colours of the Wyke website. Great idea putting what is featured in the article underneath the heading. Although the black doesn’t go too well, it stands out from the rest and the pictures that are included stop the page from looking boring.” 

Fourth Draft of College Magazine Review.

"It is good how the cover is really clear and the picture stands out, the purple colour for the writing is hard to see a bit. But is still a good piece of work."

Third Draft of College Magazine Review

"I like the way this draft looks, really creative with a background and a large picture, however because of the background, some of my attention was taken away from the text and I found it hard to see what the writing says."

Second Draft of College Magazine Review.

"I think there could be a few more smaller images on the this draft, but the writing stands out and explains it enough to understand."

First Draft of College Magazine Review.

"The draft is ok, however my eyes aren't drawn to the image being used. It's drawn to the bright colour in the cover name. Tone down the colours, but keep the font and boldness how it is."

Planning / Development of the College Magazine.

Planning / Development on Prezi

Digital Mock Ups of the College Magazine

I created this mock up using Microsoft Word, and not Microsoft Publisher because I do not own a copy of the program. After creating this mock up, I decided to create another one but with images used from Google.

Initial Ideas for the College Magazine

Initial Ideas on Prezi

Publishing & Pricing of the College Magazine

The Wyke College magazine will be published every month, but a month in advance, Octobers issue would be out in September and so on, this way the audience will know what’s happening in the upcoming month. However, this issue of my magazine would be published from September to December so the people wishing to attend Wyke the following year would receive a lot of information about the college. The magazine would be free as students don’t often have much money, and the money they do have is used on their transport to school/college, food, drinks and other items they may spend their money on. 

Target audience of college magazine

GoAnimate.com: Target audience of college magazine by s0013339

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Market Research of 3 College Magazines and Analysis using LIIAR

Grimsby College

Language
Front Cover

The Grimsby College magazine contains the following, a masthead of “GX Magazine” which stands out in a white and grey large bold font, contrasting on the blue background, with a reasonably good colour scheme of blue, white and grey; the use of imagery for the front cover is a cartoon image of what seem to be two students, this is different to the normal medium shot which is usually used on the front cover; also, there are smaller thumbnails which illustrate the articles featured within the magazine and on the cover, the way they’re positioned shows the creator of the magazine has thought about the layout and kept the thumbnails look neat and tidy. The footer “the word on the street…” has a continuous flow throughout the magazine, this could be the colleges’ slogan.

Contents Page

A new vibrant colour scheme is introduced, pink, black, white, blue, orange and green, which is continuous throughout the magazine, showing the creator has taken time and effort into getting the magazine to look reasonably good; there are also thumbnails on the contents page which relate to articles being featured, also underneath the article name there are little descriptions as to what the article is about so the audience has a good idea what article they’ll be interested in the most. 

Institution
The ‘GX Magazine’ is produced by the students or staff at Grimsby College. The reason for this will be because they want the students to have a better understanding of themselves, college life and what to do after college, so they’re prepared for the future.

Ideology
The ideology for Grimsby would be that the production team focus more on getting the information about jobs out to the students, than focusing on getting their students into university, which could lead to the students feeling pressured into going to university.

Audience
The magazine is aimed at the students which attend the college, genuinely aged 16-19. Also, the magazine targets its audience of college students by mentioning how the students can advance in life after college.

Representation: GX Magazine represents the students in a true light; I know this because in the contents it features articles which can relate to students, and help them within their own lifestyle, and educational lifestyle. Also the featured articles show that the college care about their students’ life now and after they do leave college.

East Riding College

Language
Front Cover

The East Riding College magazine, contains a very bland white masthead of “Student Life” however it stands out on the colour scheme of black and white but this isn’t very appealing to the audience as it doesn't shout out “read me!” like most magazines whether they’re college or gossip magazines do; a long shot of a group photo, with their backs to audience which isn’t great as on a magazine, the model or models need to be making eye contact with the audience; an issue and price are featured on the magazine; one main feature “Media students in Berlin. See page 12” which is illustrated by the front image; six very little features in the bottom left corner, however there isn’t any thumbnails to illustrate these articles, and the way they have been laid out look like they’ve just been dumped there with no thought go into the layout; a logo of the college in the bottom right corner, which looks to have been placed there to fill in the empty space left behind from not enough context on the front cover.

Contents Page                                                                                     

The contents page changes its colour scheme slightly by including green to their original scheme of black and white; five thumbnails which illustrate an article possibly featured in the contents box, however it’s hard to tell which thumbnail illustrates what feature as they’re just posted onto the page. The layout of this page does not appeal to the audience as it’s very bland and boring, there’s nothing that stands out to attract the audience’s attention.

Institution
 The East Riding College magazine is produced by students from the college itself; this is a great idea as the students will know what news has happened to feature in the magazine, and what events will be happening in the near future. However, looking at the layout of the magazine shows the students didn’t think too clearly about how they wanted to portray their college within a magazine.

Ideology
The ideology for the College is to inform students what’s going on within the college, life after college such as what to do during their gap year, and some things which will help them outside their college.

Audience
This magazine is aimed at the students within the East Riding College, as the articles seem to be about what the students within the college have done on their recent trips. The articles which have been featured may not appeal to people outside of the college as they won’t understand how the college works, and what the articles are about.

Representation
The way the students within the college have set the layout for the magazine, seems to have been lazily, the representation given by this is that the college are lazy, and don’t have much creativity within them, to make a simple magazine stand out at the audience. Whilst looking at the articles, the college is represented in accurately as the articles featured are all about what’s going on within the college environment, which will obviously state what the college students are like. 

Lewisham College

Language
Front Cover

The Lewisham College magazine contains, a clean bold white masthead of “The LC” and the issue stamp “Winter 2011” in a smaller font, but still bold and white; a long shot of a musician for the imagery; one large feature which is aimed at the imagery used for the front cover, this is bold and white, with a description of the article underneath in the same font, but not bold, also three smaller features but still stand out as they’re in a white bold font, but without any descriptions; a small college logo in the right hand corner, also in white. The colour scheme for this magazine would be white which contrasts on the image used.

Contents Page

The contents page adds more colours to first colour scheme introducing blue and pink used on the headings for three very small informative pieces, also the colour black has been used for the informative text. There are five small thumbnails which illustrate the little pieces of text on the contents page, and one close up of the principal above her piece of text. Underneath each of the article names there are little descriptions, and there is a small list of the writers which put together the magazine. All small text is in black, apart from the blue writing underneath the contents list which tells the students where they can go if their interested in becoming a part of the team.

Institution
The magazine has been produced by the students from the Lewisham College; this way the students which have produced the magazine will know what the audience will want to be included.


Ideology
The ideology for “The LC” is for the students to make the most of their college life; in the magazine, there seems to be no mention of higher education or life after college, everything seems to fit into the college life, so the students don’t feel as pressured to attend higher education or get a job as they may feel in other colleges.


Audience
The audience for “The LC” is the students which attend the college, but this magazine seems to be aimed at people who are more interested in art, music and what is happening within the college.


Representation
This magazine represents the students and the college positively, as the features show what the students did to make themselves look good, and the college look like a better place to be studying at. The articles which are featured show that the college staff as a whole are interested in what their students are doing, which maybe makes younger generations want to go to this college.

Featured College and Why

I have chosen Wyke College to feature in my Preliminary task, because it’s the college I attend, and using this college allows me to use the colour scheme and fonts which Wyke use already. For the features which will appear on the front cover and contents page, I can use real events taking place within the college, true articles, and information for future students which wish to attend Wyke next year. Also, I can ask students of Wyke what they'd like to have featured in a magazine, and I can think about what I was looking for when choosing a college to attend this time last year, this way I know what the target audience are looking for. 

LIIAR Analysis of the Brief

Language
The front cover of my magazine must have a short, memorable masthead and a leading icon to be noticed. My main image must be a medium close up, the face must be clearly seen and to be making eye contact with the audience. I will need a bright colour scheme with clear house-style of two or maybe three main colours, thumbnail images that will illustrate other articles. An anchorage, price, barcode and issue number. Also what’s needed will be teasing contents along the bottom, a main article/feature advertised that has to relate to the main image, and possibly competitions and free gifts.

Institution
I’ll be producing the magazine for Wyke College, but it will be a different edition as this magazine will mainly be for the secondary school students and people which wish to attend Wyke College in September 2012; there will still be articles in the magazine which will appeal to the current students at the college.

Ideology
The message I want my magazine to deliver about Wyke College and the students will be how successful the college is and has been in the past, also how the students make the college a better place, and what the current and future students will receive when they complete their studies.

Audience
The target audience for my college magazine will be the current students, secondary school students and others looking to start Wyke College. (15 - 19 years of age)

Representation
I’ll be representing the college and my target audience positively and accurately, to convince the target audience that Wyke is the best place to achieve the grades for a bright future, whether they want to carry on, onto higher education or go straight into a job, and that coming to Wyke College allows the students to have a better social life than any other college.