Preliminary task research

The preliminary task that we have been set for our AS Level Media is to create part of a school magazine. As a research exercise we had to look at some other school magazines , and think about the ideology of the magazine. I did so for the magazine 'fly'; a school magazine. My annotations can be seen below.

The magazine serves the interests of young people who are at school; presumably aged around 11 to 17. The magazine is not neccesarily specific to an individual school, and so it can cater for a relatively mass audience. It represents these young people, as it has advice and opportunities aimed specifically at them, and was created by school pupils. The magazine may also appeal to parents of children who are still at school, as it could help them with facing issues that their children may be facing at school. The magazine features school children, and possibly adults. It may also feature some other people who work in schools, but generally speaking it will only contain information on and written by the students, as this means that the audience will be able to identify well with them. The fact that it is written by students means that it will be using language that students understand, and will probably be quite colloquial and have slang terms. The magazine suggests that the school is successful, as it has technology which enables students to create a magazine cover of this standard. People who are older may not trust entirely what is written in the magazine, but the students may be writing about things from a different perspective to what others, for example teachers, may see at school. The magazine's general effect is to provide information and advice for fellow students, and to provide helpful hints to peers. It also gives details of various opportunities to win competitions, such as a 'free school magazine' and '£100 worth of revision books'. These materials will be useful in pupils' learning, and so the opportunities are educational and will benefit them. Other people may judge that the magazine is a state school, as the pupil pictured in the photograph is wearing a sweatshirt and, generally speaking, independent schools tend to have a blazer as part of the school uniform. Others may say that the magazine is boring, as it focuses solely on the topic of school; and a minority may describe the magazine as rebellious, as it advertises '10 ways to customise your boring uniform', and this may show a disobedience against authority. It raises the issues of stress for young people, one which is predominant during the summer period. This magazine was published in November, so it is probably aimed at students in the sixth form who have exams in January.