summary of 'Varsity' newspaper

This is the second student university magazine/newspaper I looked at, Its based in cambridge and unlike the american magazine 'The Sheaf' its set out in a more formal manor, its set in a newspaper style way where as 'The Sheaf' was a magazine and had two sections one of which was set out in a similar way just not as structured.

This paper is a student paper which has been made since 1947, its a weekly paper meaning 21 issues per year are made and is put together by a group of upto 40 students.

It consists of New features, Opinions, Editorial content, Fashion, Reviews, An essential guide to whats on in Cambridge and Reference guides from job application deadlines to saturday night entertainment, this is very similar to 'The Sheaf' and offers things of the same sort.

Its a non-profit free newspaper/magazine and is there to encourage students intrested in journalism, its distributed from Mail rooms, Common rooms, Social area's, departments of extensive subscription lists and uni facilities, up to 10,000 copies are sent out to all 31 colleges in the Cambridge University.

Unlike 'The Sheaf' it hasn't stated any policies it runs by, although I think this is set out in a more interlectual and approachable manor I think for students 'The Sheaf' would be more appealing and draw attention to your eyes more so overall I think its produced excellently and is for a good cause, however personally i'd prefer to read 'The Sheaf'.

Wednesday 27th plan of a student magazine

In class today we were set the task of planning for a student magazine, We then got put into groups to discuss the Target audience;The content;The price; The Distribution;The Advertisements and The Censorship and Editorial issues.

The task will be an individual one where we shall work alone, however the group i was in shall all be using the same photograph took as their front cover image.

So far the the 'Audience' for this magazine would be sixth form students from St Marks, this is therefore the reason why i titled my magazine 'Marks Monthly' its a pun on words with the whole idea of it being aimed at St Marks students. The contents of my magazine includes Adverts of quality reason; Achievements and events for students in the school and out, lastly global issues will be looked at too. My magazine will be free and will only make profit through the advertisments, talking of 'Adverts' the types of adverts added into my magazine will be what events are going on in and out of school. Extra curriculum classes to help students, Jobs, Student discount offers and Local convenient store offers on food.

For the 'Censorship and Editorial issues' it will be the same students frequently writing for the magazine, however others will be offered the oppurtunity to have input regarding that their stories and input isn't putting others down, it gives everyone an equal right and is fully against Anti racism, Homophobic and sexist.

Summary 'The Sheaf' magazine

We looked at a university student magazine indepth and was then
set task to make a brief summary of it aswell as research our own choice of student university magazine.

We looked at an American student university newspaper called The Sheaf its a student newspaper that has been published since 1912. It consists of two sections one section called the A section and the other the B section. As you can see the A section is more formal and involves things such as news, peoples opinions, stories, letters and adverts, it looks as though its less formal judging from the front cover, however its stories are of more importance. Section B is informal, although you would'nt believe it from the way its set out it includes things such as social lives, band interviews,cd reviews, night scene and sports. Its main purpose is to mirror a students life and publicize events occuring on campus that will be important to the students. I think you can tell its a student magazine from section A because of the front cover image used looks as though its been took by a student and also includes two people in which im persuming are students.

Its a non profit organisation and offers a chance for students to write it, the profits made are generated through the adverts. Its a weekly pulished magazine and usually hits the stands on a wednesday evening, papers are distributed to colleges on campus.

The sheafs purpose and overall mission is to inform and entertain and to address relevant issues that will input on life in the campus. It also gives forum for a discussion a wide and various range of issues of concern to students and lastly it allows students to write to appeal to other students, It does have certain policies in which they include the right to veto(cut out) any submission they see as unfit for the newspaper, they also decide whether an article or artwork is beneficial and of intrest to the readers and lastly the policy ends with the right to not publish anything that may be racist, sexist, homophobic or libelous material in any form or manor.

Overall I think the sheaf magazine has a good purpose and it aim's to please students in everyway that they require, its not over the top and you can almost tell straight away from looking at it that its a student magazine.

Tuesday 19th

On tuesday's lesson we was given camera's to go out and be creative. We was asked to follow a specific task of taking one individual photo each. The image had to be the front cover of our nature magazines we would create, this was my shot before i edited it in photoshop.

Wednesday 20th

After given the task of taking a photograph of the image we would use as our front cover we got working on it straight away.



The types of things i done to my image was enhance the colour to make the greens brighter and more outstanding, I edited the hue and saturation of the image and overall this made it a bolder piece. Ontop of the editing i cut the image down so i could put in a masthead at the top with a green background so that the title of my magazine wouldn't get lost in the shot, the reason i chose the masthead background to be green was so it blended in with the whole theme 'nature' and gave it a fresh look. I used white text so that it would stand out amongst all the greens and natural earthy colours in my photo.



After adding a few stories onto my front cover i felt there needed to be something in the middle of the page so i then thought of a main story which was 'Saving the world by saving the trees' I made the words world and tree bold and used capitals to emphasize the words and on top of that instead of using original white text I used the colour red for both these words to show the importance and represent the love we should have towards both things.



Overall I think I done a good job at making a front cover because it was my first attempt and i feel as though I achieved the purpose of the task however I could still improve it by using a wider range of skills on photoshop.

Audience profile for nature magazine

My nature magazine is mostly aimed at people of the older age range, roughly 25- 45 years old. It would appeal to their intrests more than the younger generation due to the stories being world changing and impactive of Global issues in which older people understand the logic to. I'd say its an informal magazine, put down to the title 'Easy Nature' the more indepth meaning to this could mean its a more accesible way for everyone to be intrested in nature.

If I was to be stereotypical I would class my magazine as being aimed at males because its more than likely they'd buy nature magazines than woman would as its one of them things of importance to males where as woman care more for fashion etc. On the topic of Who its aimed at I Think it could be the working/middle class, this is because of the informal use of language; the easy educational way of understanding the natural enviornment and mostly its a easier way for the working/middle class people to understand the knowledge of how to make a difference and whats occuring in the nature.

I haven't put a price on it as of yet but I would price it between £1- £1.50, this is a cheap price for that type of magazine and very affordable, because of the magazine being such a low price freebies would be very rare and may only occur on a special occasion. it would be a monthly magazine making the reader more intrigued and involved so it would keep them waiting aswell as draw them back with the exciting new stories.

The image used on my magazine promotes the idea of nature through the natural colours and the way i've used photoshop to enhance it. The characteristics of the actual image offers tree's with a flowing water fall in the background.

If i was to improve my magazine i would put a price on it and possibly include things such as comepetions and freebies so it would attract more people as theres not much going on to keep the customer loyal.

Tutorial

On Monday the 18th I discovered how to use photoshop, I enhanced, Feathered and Edited an image of chocolate and added text, this was a trial method to help me get the flow of using photoshop.