Preliminary Task : Research

My Preliminary Task is to create a School College magazine to start my research i will analyze two front covers from Secondary teachers.

Comparing the front covers of Secondary teachers July 2008 to Secondary teachers may 2008

In July's issue the main image has two boys with folders looking interested , above them are two Aresnal football shirts with the names of the subjects "Literacy" and "Numeracy". The image is split in the centre . used to seperate the subjects. The headline is "Playing to learn" and the subheading " how football can improve their maths and english skills, clarifying what the story is about.

The may issue's main image displays gender through food and shows that they are school students by a scool uniform inc. tie , collar ,skirt , school emblem.

Now i will look look at the conventions of a magazine.

Masthead - the identity of the magazine the title , usualy made with a bacic font to look modern and appeal to the teenage audience.
Headline - quick and gives an impression of what the story is about
Sub Heading - gives the reader more information about the story in clearer detail
Large Image - what grabs the expected age groups in to reading the magazine
Plugs - made to show what also is inside this issue
Date - the month its published or appears on sale
Font - the font is made to appeal to the target audinece by making it modern it will appeal to the reader it usualy reflects the magazine (e.g kerrang magazine has a scruffy font to resemble rock music)
Text - other pieces of text can be used to explain other stories or what is inside these are usualy in the plugs


Now I know the conventions i will now compare the magazines which students would read to explore the conventions and to realise what i need on my front cover.

FULL ON! magazine is a magazine aimed at students at college it gives information on subjects and studies as well as entertainment material such as music, films and tv.The Masthead is Directly at the top with the main image made to cover the whole of the cover with text of what is inside and the main headline is placed at the bottom is overlapping the image.It uses bold colours to attract the student.
[The following magazines are not specificaly college/school magazines but appeal to the same audinece of teenagers.]

EDGE is a popular Videogame Magazine aimed at Teenagers , It is made to look modern and "grown up" it does this by using a main image , The Masthead And Little text as Possible. To Made the font link to videogames they copy the style of the font for their headline and sub-heading.
Empire Magazine