AS Media Studies Coursework Pack

1. Little Heath AS Media Coursework: Print
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Start Date: 3rd September 2014 Submission Date: 1st May 2015
For this coursework assignment you will have 2 separate tasks to complete; a Preliminary
Task and a Main Task. Each of these will need to be completed to achieve a grade for this
assignment.
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During this unit you will cover:
1) The codes and conventions of a college and music magazine
2) The importance of research and planning when creating a product
3) How to use DTP software to create a magazine layout
4) How to use DTP software to create a FC, CP and DPS
5) How to reflect on and evaluate your own project
Further assistance for this coursework can be found on the blog:
http://heathenmedia.co.uk/asmediastudiescoursework/

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Preliminary Task:
For the preliminary task you will need to research, plan and create a Front Cover and
Contents page for a school magazine. In order to complete this you will need to complete
the following tasks:
Task 1: Analysis of Existing School Magazines
For this task you will produce:
 An analysis of 3 school magazine front covers
 An analysis of 3 school magazine contents pages
You will need to look at how they attract their audience and what conventions of a school
magazine are used.
Presentation Methods:
 Annotated paper Front Cover and Contents Page
OR
 Annotated Front Cover and Contents Page on SpiderScribe
o http://www.spiderscribe.net/
OR
 Annotated Front Cover and Contents Page on Prezi
o http://prezi.com/
These annotated FC’s and CP’s will need to be posted on your blog and titled c learly.
Task 2: Paper Plans
For this task you will produce:
 1 Draft/mock-up of layout for your own front cover
 1 Draft/mock-up of layout for your own contents page
o These mock-ups should clearly identify where you would put your:
 Masthead
 Pictures
 Coverlines
 Any additional features
Presentation Methods:
 You can produce these on paper then post the images in a blog post
 You will need to take a picture or scan these paper plans in order to post these on
your blog.

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Task 3: Photoshop Skills
You will be taught the basic skills of Photoshop in a number of lessons, each of these
lessons will need to be evidenced by a blog post showing:
 The skills you have learnt in this lesson
 Evidence of these skills (a before/after image)
 Explanation of how these might be beneficial to you when you make your own
magazine
Presentation Methods:
 The Photoshop tasks will need to be posted in a blog post
 You will need to convert the before and after images from .psd files into a JPEG
format in order to do this.
Task 4: Final School Magazine Front Cover and Contents Page
You will also need to create a:
Front Cover containing:
 A photograph of a student in medium close-up
 A masthead
 Appropriate laid-out text with considered font choice
 Barcode, issue number and date
Contents Page containing:
 Title
 Appropriate laid-out text with considered font choice
 Appropriate contents with page numbers
 Additional images to anchor contents
Presentation Methods:
 Each the final FC and CP will need to be posted in a blog post
 You will need to convert the .psd files into a JPEG format in order to do this.
Task 5: Voice Thread Evaluation
Your evaluation should answer the following questions:
 How does your school magazine compare to existing school magazines?
 How does your final school magazine compare to the drafts you have made?
 Who was your target audience for the school magazine?
 How did you try to attract your target audience?
 What have you learnt from the preliminary task?
Presentation methods:
 You should use Voice Thread to create your evaluation
o http://voicethread.com/

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Main Task:
For this task you will produce a front cover, contents page and double page spread for a
new music magazine. This magazine will be in a genre of your choosing and all of the
photography and editorial content will be produced by you.
To complete this task you will be required to conduct research, plan, produce and finally
evaluate your product. Marks for your coursework are awarded as follows:
 Research and Planning – 20 marks
 Construction (FC, CP, DPS) – 60 marks
 Evaluation – 20 marks
Research:
Deadline: Friday 12th December
In order to complete this task you will need to conduct a variety of different types of
research looking at different magazines, magazine companies and at your audience. This
research should inform your planning for your music magazine.
Presentation Methods for Research and Planning Section:
 The blog has a specific post listing all the useful pieces of technology
you can use for presenting your research and planning work.
 Try to select something that is suitable for your piece of research or
planning and be inventive and creative with what you use.
 Feel free to research other presentation programmes or websites independently,
using different presentation methods effectively can make your blog stand out and
help push you into a Level 4 mark.
Task 1: Music Magazine Institutions Research
For this task you will produce:
 An analysis of a minimum of 2 media companies, 1 large company [Bauer, IPC] and 1
small company [Future, BBC Worldwide]
 This analysis show contain the following information:
o Who are the company?
o What is their company history?
o What publications do they manage?
o A detailed look at 2 of these publications and their target audience. At least
1 of these publications should be a music magazine.

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Task 2: Uses and Gratifications
For this task you will produce:
 An explanation of Uses and Gratifications theory
 An application of Uses and Gratifications theory to a contents page of a music
magazine
Task 3: Music Magazine Analysis
For this task you will produce:
 An analysis of 3-5 Front Covers
 An analysis of 3-5 Contents Pages
 An analysis of 3-5 Double Page Spreads
 This analysis should look at different genres of music
 This analysis should contain the following information:
o What are the conventions found on this magazine?
o How is the cover band/artist being represented? (Denotation and
Connotation)
o How is the magazine representing itself? (Denotation and Connotation)
o Who is the audience for this magazine? (be specific)
o What genre is the magazine? How is this shown?
o What features of the magazine will you use/not use in your own music
magazine?
Task 4: Audience Questionnaire
For this task you will produce:
 An Online survey
o https://www.surveymonkey.com/
 AND a Paper survey
 These surveys can ask the same questions but should each be focused on getting
information about your potential audience.
 The questions should focus on finding out what your audience like, dislike and
expect from a music magazine as well as information about themselves that will
allow you to create a music magazine that will appeal to them.
You will also need to analyse your results from this questionnaire. This should include:
 Bar graphs and pie charts where appropriate
 You should also answer the following questions:
o How will these results affect how you plan your magazine?
o What will you include/not include based on these results?
o Based on these results, who will be your target market?

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Task 5: Readership Profile
For this task you will need to produce:
 A readership profile of your audience looking, in detail, at who your target audience
are.
 This profile should provide the following information:
o What age range do they fit into?
o What gender are they?
o What brands do they like?
o What music do they like?
o What socio-economic group do they fit into?
 This profile should be engaging and inventive, try to think of innovative ways you
can show who your audience are.

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Planning:
Deadline: Friday 12th December
You will now start planning your magazine, allocating your time and deciding how your
music magazine will look. This will involve planning and creating the images you will use, as
well as carefully considering the fonts and colour schemes for each of your pages.
Your planning should reference the research you have already completed, making sure your
decisions are informed by both your audience research and your research into existing
products. This is vital if you want to achieve top marks for your coursework.
Presentation Methods for Research and Planning Section:
 Don’t forget to use this blog posts to help you find interesting and
innovative ways to present your planning tasks.
 Try to use a variety of interesting presentation methods and don’t forget you can
always research your own presentation methods too.
Task 1: Calendar/Timeline
For this task you will produce:
 A Calendar or Timeline
 This should include:
o When tasks will start and finish
o Photo-shoots
o Deadlines
o Class work and work outside of class
Task 2: Mood Board
For this task you will produce:
 A mood board illustrating your initial ideas and inspirations for your magazine
 This could include:
o Potential colours
o Potential fonts
o Inspirational front covers, contents pages or double page spreads
o Inspirational images
 Each of these should be accompanied by a brief explanation illustrating why these
images/fonts/colours may be suitable for your magazine

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Task 3: Models
For this task you will need to produce:
 Proof of contacting your models
o This can take the form of a screenshot of an email or text message
 Remember to remove personal data (emails/phone numbers etc..)
from these screenshots before you post them on the blog
 A final list of the models you are using
 This should contain:
o Photographs of each model
o Information about each model
o An explanation illustrating why you have chosen these models
o An explanation illustrating why these models are suitable for your genre and
audience?
Task 4: Props/Costume List
For this task you will need to produce:
 A list of potential props you may use in your photo-shoot
 A list of potential costume items you may use in your photo-shoot
 You should:
o Include images of the props and costume items
o Explain why these props and costume items are suitable for your genre and
audience.
Task 5: Photo-shoot Planning
For this task you need to produce:
 6-8 storyboard style images planning your images and poses for your photo-shoot
 You should:
o Label each image, indicating the type of shot and lighting to be used
o Explain why these planned images are appropriate for your genre and
audience
Task 6: Location Recces
For this task you will:
 Analyse the pros and cons of a minimum of 3 different locations for your photo-shoot
 This analysis should include:
o Photographs of the location
o An explanation illustrating why these locations are appropriate/not
appropriate for your genre and audience
o Your final decisions on locations for your photo-shoot

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Task 7: Contact Sheet
For this task you will produce:
 A contact sheet of ALL of your photo-shoot images
o Create a contact sheet using Adobe Bridge
 An analysis of this contact sheet highlighting:
o Which images are appropriate for your magazine
o Which you will use
o What pages you will use these images on
o What you like/dislike about specific images
Task 8: Fonts
For this task you will produce:
 6-8 examples of potential fonts for your magazine
 Each font must be analysed looking at:
o The pros and cons of each font
o Why this font is appropriate for your genre and audience
o Your final decisions
 You should also produce 3 drafted Masthead examples looking at:
o Pros and cons of each design
o Why this Masthead is appropriate for your genre and audience
o Your final decisions
Task 9: Mock Ups
For this task you will produce:
 3 Front Cover Mock Ups
 3 Contents Page Mock Ups
 3 Double Page Spread Mock Ups
 These designs should be analysed looking at:
o Pros and cons of each design
o Why this is appropriate for your genre/audience
o You final decisions

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Production and Post-Production:
Deadline: Friday 13th March
Task 1: Front Cover, Contents Page and Double Page Spread Development
 Throughout your production process you must keep a record of
developments you make to you magazine. This could include:
o Screenshots of major decisions
o Different drafts of your FC, CP and DPS
o Experimentations with different design elements
o Drafts of your DPS article etc…
 These will form part of the development of your final product and show evidence of
planning and developing ideas throughout your project.
 You should have 3 development posts, one for each your FC, CP and DPS, these
should:
o Chart the chronological progress of your project
o Illustrate key decisions
o Explain why changes have been made
 This could include any audience feedback you have received for your
designs
o Link to your research and planning posts
o Explain why these developments have made your magazine suitable for your
genre and audience.
Task 2: Final Front Cover, Contents Page and Double Page Spread
 Your final images of your FC, CP and DPS will need to be uploaded to your blog
o Don’t forget they need to be in JPEG format
 These should be accompanied by an analysis including:
o Why these are your final designs
o How they are appropriate to your audience and genre
Level 4 Examples of Final Products:

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Evaluation:
Deadline: Friday 1st May
You must now produce an evaluation answering the seven key questions listed below. This
evaluation should be inventive and creative using a wide range of the digital technologies
you have come across so far in your coursework project.
Each of the evaluation questions should be answered in a different blog post and use
different forms of presentation, don’t just produce 7 different Prezi’s. Be creative and
inventive with your presentation for each question.
Evaluation Questions:
1. In what ways does your music magazine use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real music magazines?
2. How does your music magazine represent particular social groups?
3. What kind of media institution might distribute your music magazine and why?
4. Who would be the audience for your music magazine?
5. How did you attract/address your audience?
6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this
product?
7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the
progression from it to the full product?