Brief History
As a media form, magazines are a part of print media; a medium that is considered one of the earliest forms of media as we know it today.
We usually associate journalism, writing, and photography with print media, and each of these are of course evident in magazines.
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Types of Magazines
Magazines can typically be sorted into three purposes;
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Magazine 'genres'
Magazines fit into certain genres, or forms which have similar traits. Can you think of some possible magazine genres?
Your list might include some of the following;
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CODES AND CONVENTIONS These are two key terms that will guide our analysis of not only magazine, but also film and other media forms later in the semester.
Codes and conventions are a set of guidelines that media products follow, to ensure that the audience can easily identify and understand what type of media product it is. So, what are the codes and conventions of a magazine?
Your list should include; front and back cover, text, fonts, barcode ... |
Now try the same process, but choose a magazine genre to focus on.
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CREATING YOUR MAGAZINEWe will be using a combination of Photoshop and inDesign to create our magazine. Photoshop will be used to edit the photos and inDesign will be used to add text and put the magazine together. See this video tutorial from Solent Screencasts on how to use both of these programs.
When creating your magazine cover, you are encouraged to take your own cover photo. But you may find the need for a certain background, or a few filler images on your contents page. If you absolutely cannot take this photos yourself, you may be able to make use of free stock images. These are photos that have been taken by freelance photographers and are usually licensed for specific purposes. But in some cases, the photographer will allow users to download their photographs free for personal use. |
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Your choice and use of font and text colour is highly important for the overall aesthetic of your magazine. Word has some lovely fonts to choose from, but you can also experiment a little and try to find some other fonts that might work well with your magazine's style. Check out the links below, but be sure to read the information with each font to check whether it is copyright / loyalty free for your use.
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