How does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues?
The main image on the cover is a student working on their computer, representing my target audience as students in sixth form. Though it is not glaringly obvious from the image that the student is a sixth former, the lack of people around her indicates that she is not in a crowded classroom but rather working independently somewhere else, which is mainly a convention of students in sixth form.
How does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text?
My product engages my audience using the dark colours and serif font to look more professional, as this is a magazine intented for sixth formers who have to focus on things such as work experience, exams, and universities, which are important topics. These are also what the sell lines on the cover consist of. If this were to be distributed, I would make a digital copy as almost all students are on social media and would likely prefer an online format. The physical printed copies would likely be sold at bookstores or maybe higher-end supermarkets, as this is where my target audience would likely have access to.
How did you integrate technologies – software, hardware and online – in this project?
I used a professional camera to take the picture so that the focus and colours would be better than if I had taken the photo on my phone. Then, I used Photoshop to edit the brightness, levels, and contrast of the picture before adding the text on the picture to make the cover. I also had to edit the picture to fill in some gaps so that it was a more solid background and the text could be read more easily.
How did your production skills develop throughout this project?
I think my production skills developed in terms of understanding of layout, as I had to change a few of my plans for the magazine to turn out the way it did and to work around my picture, which I didn't have beforehand when planning my layout. My skills also improved in terms of editing as I had to edit the picture to make it draker and for the contrast to increase and the colours to pop out.