My exprience of creating a magazine

1. CREATIVE CRITICAL
REFLECTION
WANJIRA KARUNDITU (0764) NAIROBI INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL (KE045)

2. HOW DOES YOUR PRODUCT USE OR CHALLENGE CONVENTIONS
AND HOW DOES IT REPRESENT SOCIAL GROUPS OR ISSUES?
This magazine represents how girls of different ethnic
backgrounds face insecurities because of how society expects
you to look.
The magazine looks at how girls face the challenge of having
light skin you are considered more attractive. Having been a
certain body size you determines who you are and if you are
mixed race there is a certain way you are supposed to look.
For example, for my cover page , my model is short, she isn’t
the average model, she is no size zero. With this I am just
expressing to girls that you need to be proud and confident
and also I am breaking the norm of magazine cover girls
having to be the cliché tall and skinny.

3. Even models in the magazines are of different
ethnic backgrounds and are of different body
shapes and sizes.
This magazine challenges the idea of that being
a size zero is beautiful. The magazine just
encourages girls to be comfortable in their own
skin.

4. When it comes to the conventions that my product follows on the cover page, is where the
barcode is located at the bottom whereby the reader can focus on the cover image, the
position of the date, is just inform the reader that it is a monthly magazine. Another way in
which I followed the conventions, would be by giving little insights of what is inside of the
magazine through the cover lines and the fact that is to just to get their attention.
Looking at the font and colours such as pink, green, yellow and purple, give a very summer
feel to the magazine and also very simple. I have left the masthead in the largest text and also
a different colour and font type to ensure that it is noticeable.
Another convention followed on the cover page is the direct mode of address, the model is
directly looking into the camera.

5. HOW DOES YOUR PRODUCT ENGAGE WITH AUDIENCES AND HOW
WOULD IT BE DISTRIBUTED AS A REAL MEDIA TEXT?
How this product engages with its audience is through, the content on the
cover page, the contents page, and the double page spread. As a teenage girl I
know what us young girls are interested in but I also asked students in my
school within the age group of 13-17.
When it comes to the cover page, the content looks at the interests of young
teenage girls are into fashion, beauty and summer. Looking at colour scheme,
I chose bright colours but not too bright because I wanted to go with the
theme of summer and keep it subtle. The different kinds of font is to show the
various topics in the magazine and the fact that there are some words
underlined is to just to get people’s attention. For example, the puffs such as,
‘double issue’, the freebies and ‘the swimsuit issue’.
For the contents page, I chose different colours to bring up a certain ‘pop’
which brings in an element of fun. The font for the editor’s note looks like
handwriting, which brings an element of scrapbooking which teenagers are
into, this just emphasizes on how I brought out what most teenagers like to do
and incorporated it into my magazine by how I place my pictures and also the
font used.

6. The double-page spread, for this, I chose to have
an article, just giving advice to girls encouraging
them to embrace themselves, I used quotes. This
was just to let girls know that they are perfect no
matter what skin colour, body shape and size.
For the other page, I decided to show the questions
I asked different three girls that represent different
ethnic backgrounds and different body types. This
was so that my audience can relate to these girls
and also understand that they are not the only ones
facing insecurities.
Why I called the article ‘ LOVE YOURSELF
UNCONDITIONALLY’ is to send out the message
that you are beautiful and that you should feel
comfortable in your own skin.
The use of a selfie ( the black & white picture) just
shows how I interact with audience by
incorporating the things that they are into.
The language of the article is simple, just get the
message out there and also for them to understand
that they are not alone when it comes to feeling
insecure.

7. When it comes to distribution, if it were a real media text, I would like to get an
application created for my magazine, this to show the impact of digital
technology on distribution, another way I would like my product is that one can
order for one online and it will be posted to them. And finally salons, schools,
retail stores e.g. Woolworths, Mr. Price etc. and bookstores.

8. HOW DID YOUR PRODUCTION SKILLS DEVELOP THROUGHOUT
THIS PROJECT?
With this project, I realised that every media product has stages; pre-production, production
and post-production.
During pre-production, I got the idea of basing my product’s idea on insecurities and with
the up-coming Dove adverts I decided that my article will be of advice to young girls. I used
blogs, websites and my personal experience to get data for my project. This teaching me to
broaden my research skills, I also used primary research, open – ended questionnaires this
would bring up the up how people ended up feeling insecure. For the magazine layout, I did
my research on magazines just to help me come up with an idea with my layout for my whole
magazine especially for my target audience.
For the production stage, when it came to taking pictures, I learnt more about lighting
especially on the fact that I was relying on natural lighting. When it came to creating the
magazine I used, Ms Publisher, through using this software I learnt more about how I should
do my layout and also that I have to correct grammar and spelling teaching this is because I
was my own editor and writer.

9. • Throughout this project, I blogged about my product. This helped in teaching
me how new media plays a big role, hence even putting in the position of
being a blogger giving me an experience, so all in all I know how to create a
blog and also make use of it.

10. HOW DID YOU INTEGRATE TECHNOLOGIES- SOFTWARE, HARDWARE
AND ONLINE - IN THIS PROJECT?
1. Software
For this project, the software I used was Ms publisher to create my magazine, this software helped
me in the layout, especially when it comes to positioning the images and texts. I used this software
to create a magazine that is appealing to my audience, just look at the colour scheme, fonts and
images.
2. Hardware
I used a Sony camera and my phone( Samsung Galaxy S3 mini) to take good quality pictures, just
to bring out an element of fashion and beauty of my models. This was to add vibrance to my
project and give it a sense if colour. My laptop played an important role in this project because
without it I wouldn’t have been able to create my magazine, it was used for different purposes;
• To blog
• To surf the net- to collect information
• To create the magazine
• To keep my photos

11. 3. Online
I blogged about the all stages for this project to show the process it took to come up
with the final project. This would bring the element of new media and how it has
made such an impact.
http://wanjirakarunditu.blogspot.com/

12. THE PROBLEMS I EXPERIENCED
Sometimes my laptop would hang, this would take up a lot time, meaning it took
longer for me to finish coming up with my project.
Another problem was that when taking the photos, I was relying on natural lighting
and the weather that day was dull, so finding the a reasonable place with good
lighting was difficult.