Evaluation  (College magazine)

The feedback that got on my front cover/contents page was varied between the people I spoke to. It was said that my front cover/contents page was “reasonable”. This was probably due to my limited use of colour and aesthetics to make the pages appeal to the audience. However, some stated that it was good and appealing due to the fact that “the text was well-spaced, and maintained consistency”. Although the text didn't really stand out, it was said to be “colourful”, this shows that the use of colour may not have been eye-catching but visually appealing.

In terms of the imagery used for the front cover/contents page, some felt that the front page wasn’t really engaging as the coverstar isn't looking directly at the audience, this makes the link between the coverstar and audience appear weak. Though this is true, some said that “the image has good quality, the text on the contents page is clear and there is quite a bit of text”. They felt that even without a convincing coverstar, that these factors were enough to make the front and contents page engaging.

All feedback on the effectiveness of the cover lines and pull-quotes used was positive. People stated that the text was; “Interesting and engaging to the audience”,” Interesting and refers to college life”. This shows that I was able to successfully use texts and phrases that I felt would interest my target audience (that being people roughly around my age) which is 16-18 year olds.

As for the use of colour, feedback was varied. Some said that it was effective because “it was colourful”. This shows I was able to use colours that I knew would visually attract the target audience, however, some felt that the colours were only “kind of noticeable” and that I could've used two darker colours rather than one dark one light to make the cover lines “stand out more”. This shows that colours can have more than one effective which can vary between being positive or negative, it mainly depends on the audience and how they see things.

I also received many different views on how well my magazine does as a whole in terms of representing a college magazine. I was told by some that my front cover represents college magazine well although the contents page could have been “better developed”. Some said however that the magazine does so due to a clear layout but it would've been better if I had added more text.

Evaluation  (Journalism task)

This is an evaluation on the journalism task that I have produced. I believe my research skills strongly helped my article as I was able to effectively pick out important and intriguing information for the target audience. This made my magazine more able to draw the reader in and more interesting as it contained various statistics. Although my article had a lot of information, my research wasn't really varied in terms of content as it was mainly to do with money and promotion advantages/disadvantages.

 My journalistic and writing skills also helped my article due to my use of words, formal language and statistics. I was able to write in a style which I knew would appeal to my audience and be easy for them to understand and just get caught up in reading. As it is targeted at 18 year olds to late 30 year olds, I probably should have added more humour within the article as older people don’t tend to be easily impressed so maybe one or two jokes would've made sure they’re more likely to retain interest in the article.

InDesign is a programme I had only just recently found out about which we used to create the actual magazine article itself. With that in mind, I think my skills were fairly good as I was able to complete my article with only a bit of help which I had at the start. There were times when I was confused or stuck but I was able to get past that within a short period of time. I wouldn't say I have any weaknesses within InDesign that is unless I'm asked to do something complex.

 As for audience feedback, I was told that my magazine article was well laid out and there was a good, clear amount of information but it could've been more colourful and contained more images. I purposely laid it out so that it was easy to read and the images to link specific text and stand out easily. I wouldn't say I displayed any weaknesses here as I knew what I wanted to do and was able to do it independently.

Considering these weaknesses I displayed at various points, I've decided that in the future I will vary my information rather than focusing on one or two topics. Also, I will attempt to try different things to try and reach out at my target audience more effectively. As for future articles, I will display more creativity as visuals are vital in terms of capturing the attention of the reader

Contents page

Front cover