Blog Task 1,2,3- Genre Conventions, Audience and semiotics

The genre is a category that a media product is placed in, for example music genres include rock, indie, pop country etc. A convention is an element that it repeated in the products of the same genre. Audiences will have particular expectations of media products in a genre because of the conventions it uses.

The genre of my magazine will officially be a sub genre, as it’s not a ‘big’ genre, for example a genre would be gossip or music in a music based magazine, the print product I will produce will be factual and formal therefor it will be a sub genre. This will influence the design of my print product as the images will be a medium shot of school students linking in with the formal sub genre.

 The school magazine that I will create will be based on a factual genre. It will inform the audience on vital information such as school holidays, student achievements etc. The readers of the magazine that I will create with be C1DE, the primary readers of the magazine will be 13-18 year old students of Biddulph High School as the magazine will be directly produced for them. However, the secondary readers of my school magazine will be parents, teachers and the local community who gain a copy.

The overall tone that the audience will expect to se in my magazine will be formal and informal, formal for information about the school, for example, specific dates, achievements and memorandums for the students. However, informal tone to be used for articles from students and other informal and relaxed articles. The images that the audience should expect to see are photos of students, events that have occurred inside school and images that are relevant to the school. The audience will engage in my print product as the information will be relevant to the school and will be factual to the students. Overall, my print product will inform students about what’s going on in and around school; also it will be engaging to the secondary audience so they will understand the current events that are going on.

Semiotics is the study of signs and symbols. A way of understanding the literal and the possible meanings of images and words, there are two types of semiotics, denotations and connotations. A denotation is the obvious meaning of an image or word. A connotation is the suggested or deeper meaning to the image or word.

The image I will use for the cover of my magazine will have a medium shot, showing students in a class room, at a table. The background will be the classroom; also the table will be a prop. The students will be wearing the school uniform as it’s a school magazine and relevant images will be used. They will be interacting will each other in the image to show their having fun and are happy.

Semiotics can also be used in words, a word has to reflect the theme of the publication well and be suitable for the content. For example ‘vogue’ is obviously a magazine about fashion and style as vogue means the prevailing fashion or style at a particular time: "the vogue is realism". Therefore the publication is not about golf. When thinking about the title for my print product it will reflect the genre of the magazine well. I have come up with various titles for my magazine such as; Bright Spark, Schoolin’ Life, Grades Matter! Also Aim high. Each name has a denotation and a connotation, for ‘Bright Spark’ the denotation is clearly, a clever pupil or student, the connotation could mean that ‘bright’ represents cheerful, happy or intelligent and ‘spark’ meaning excitement or thrilling. This could symbolise that the school is a happy and thrilling place to be. The next title suggestion is ‘Schoolin’ Life’ the way ‘Schoolin’’ is abbreviated could show informality to the magazine, and ‘life’ meaning general life.