Self-Assessment

Self-assessment of Codes and Conventions Task

1.Have you justified your decisions on your blog? How could you enhance these blog entries?

To practice using codes and convention, I have created four fake magazine covers that use the Masthead and style of real magazines. This task helped me get used to adding the basic codes and conventions on magazines such as the date and bar code. This task also helped me gain knowledge on what conventions give off certain messages to the audience. For example a music magazine that is similar to Pitch would not have Justin Bieber or Nicki Minaj on the cover, it would have an artist like Marilyn Manson. Gaining this knowledge will help me when I am creating my own magazine and using the generic codes and conventions to send off the correct individual message to my audience. I feel like I justified my decisions on my blog effectively however my friend Katie has given me feedback on the Codes and Conventions task and gave me a broader view of my work and how it could be improved so that my final product can be done to the best of my ability. I was told that to improve my skills I should get rid of the negative space on the cover pages so that the magazine doesn't look so empty. I could have also discussed why I used secondary images for M with Drake on the cover. 

2. How do you plan to use these in the future?

Through the process of creating these music magazines, I have gathered skills that will stay with me and this knowledge about codes and conventions will help me make my final music magazine look more real. One of the feedbacks that I got from Katie about the Codes and Conventions task is that my magazines look only semi-real and are not completely persuasive as a magazine and this task certainly helped me get over that. I also plan to use this task in the future in my Research into Similar Products as I have learnt how to manage the photography, cover lines, bar code and other conventions to make effective use of the space and make the magazine look real. The knowledge gathered also showed me how to use fonts, photography and colours to send out the correct message to attract a specific Target Audience. In terms of Organisation, I now know how to position my cover star so that the artist shows off their attitude and successfully appeal to my chosen Target audience and