Friday, 20 January 2012

2. Focus Groups

Today we met three focus groups, which varied in age and gender. We ensured that they were different so that the information we gathered was unbiased and related to the target audience of the magazine.

The year 7's wanted:

  •  Celebrities on the cover and within the magazine (in particular one direction).
  • Information on events coming up within school.
  • Humorous pieces that involved making fun of teachers.
  • Students achievements within & outside of school.
  • 'Give aways' such as vouchers for the school canteen.
  • Information on new books in the library.
  • Information on Revision lesssons.
  • Horroscopes and games
  • An Agony Aunt
  • Information at the canteen
  • The colour scheme to be bright and vary monthly.
  • It to be released on a monthly basis.
The teachers wanted:
  • The focus to be on students & parents.
  • Involve students work.
  • Involve students opinions.
  • The front cover to have a particular interest in a person or event.
  • A colour scheme reflecting house/school colours.
  • How the school is effected by a change in laws.
  • Polls.
  • Vox pops.
  • Light hearted jokes.
  • An editors letter.
  • A cartoon comic strip
  • Lower/Upper school sections 
  • Adverts
  • It to be released on a termly basis.
The sixth form boys wanted:
  • More pictures than text.
  • Bright and bold colours.
  • Attractive people on the front cover.
  • Vouchers for the canteeen.
  • Information on the canteen.
  • Focus on Football academy and the Football scores.
  • Cartoon comic strips.
  • Reviews.
  • Events.
  • Discounts/ vouchers.

After analysing the information gathered, its obvious that ideas such as vouchers for the canteen, comic strips, events information and students achievments are popular. Where as there's disgreement with  how often it should be released, we will have to work out which is the best amount of time to realease a magazine in. Also there is conflict between colour schemes, the boys and year 7's wanted bright colours that had conotations of fun, whereas staff wanted a more contempory feel with school and house colours being a theme.



1. Analysing School Magazines

Today was our first coursework lesson for media. We found out that in order to develop a successful 'school magazine' we will have to analyse the good and bad aspects of magazines that have been previously released.
    
This is a clear example of a poor magazine cover.
  • Firstly, there is no clear colour scheme. Colours like black,red,blue and yellow clash, meaning that the cover is instantly unappealing to the eye.
  • Secondly the photo used as the background is unprofessional, it doesn't relate to the fact that the magazine is about school.
  • The logo in the top right hand corner connotes that the magazine would be aimed at young children whereas the girl in the background is in her late teens, the two images juxtapose each other.
  • Finally the font that is used is too hard to read and is placed awkwardly. It would have looked better they'd a simpler font, all of the same colour in other words it lacks consistency.



This is an example of a good magazine cover.

  • There is a clear colour scheme so that there is no clashing, points are easy to read and interpret, it gives the magazine an official feel and means that its appealing to a readers eye.
  • Although the image used as the background is still unprofessional, it is more attractive than the one above. The girl looks more like a student.
  • A bar code makes the magazine look more realistic
  • The use of 'bold' enables different words to be highlighted and draw in possible readers eyes.
  • The title is clear, as is the caption underneath it. 'Britain's insight into school life' shows the genre of the magazine easily.
  • The font is clear to read.
  • Freebies like the calender will entice people to buy it.
  • Captions on the cover give an insight into whats in the magazine, this will increase the interest surrounding it.