4/20/16: Creative Criticial Reflection for the 'South Florida EXCURSION' Magazine Project: On PREZI

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4/18/2016: Final Product

4/13/16: Revised Table of Contents in Accordance to Flatplan

          In addition to revising the table of contents to match our flatplan, when it came to my table of contents, I moved the pictures further down and enlarged them as well to make them more visually pleasing.

4/12/16: Magazine Flatplan

Using a popular online software known as Blinkplan, I was able to easily draft my very first flatplan. Because a magazine is typically 30-40 pages in length, I am now forced to manipulate my table of contents so that it will be compatible with my flatplan.

I also had to change my feature article to 'One-of-a-kind Culture' as oppose to the Q&A featured in the magazine project because after conducting additional research, I realized that the featured articles are typically in the middle of the magazine and not the beginning as I had set the Q&A article to be.

3/09/16: Question 4 (Creative Critical Reflection)

We integrated technologies---software, hardware, and online for this magazine project.
   Software included the newest version of  'Publisher' from Mircosoft Office. We utilized this program in order to construct our individual magazine issues. In it, we added and edited photos, inserted text to our pages, etc.
   Hardware includes our computer and our cameras. The computers, I used either at school or at home to do work. The camera I used, happened to be from my own cell phone. My partner might have used a professional camera, but I cannot be sure at this time.
   Online technologies includes 'Blogger' by Google and any search engine on the web. The 'Blogger' allowed us to create our blog for this project and exam. It surely took some getting used to, but overall, it has been quite user friendly and my partner and I both feel it is a great way by which we could broadcast our progress to Cambridge exam graders. Best of all, there is also an app for it on my phone. Finally, Google searches online, allowed me and my partner to conduct independent research. Our research covered anything from how a magazine ought to look, to tailoring our marketing/distribution strategies to meet both the needs of a target audience and profit, while staying true to our mission of authenticity for our readers.
 

3/09/16: Question 3 (Creative Critical Reflection)

My production skills have definitely improved as this project wore on. For instance, by choosing to make a magazine, I was forced to acclimate to the newest software version of 'Publisher' from Mircosoft Office. This is because I volunteered to set up the house style of our magazine due to the fact that my partner is not tech savvy.
I also had to undertake independent and class research into various marketing/distribution tactics concerning magazines and print media along with looking at other conventional magazines to determine how my partner and I would want to produce our product. Many stylistic magazine conventions I was well aware of, being a consumer. Looking at that, I was able to produce something conventional and realize what I was doing that may be unconventional. Realizing what is unconventional and how to use it to our advantage was yet another magazine production strategy my partner and I had to grasp.
 Finally, presenting our project to the class allowed us to better present our magazine to the public due to the constructive criticism we had received from our classmates and our professor, thereby enhancing our production skills. (Such constructive criticism has been mentioned in prior blog posts and attended to the best we could.)

3/8/16: Product After All Revisions Thus Far (For 3rd Quarter Grade)

**Please be aware that clicking on these magazine page photos will make the text smaller and harder to read! If the magazine happens to be life-size or presented in this x-large format, there should be little issue with deciphering the font that is meant to resemble that of an average person for the sake of authenticity.

3/01/16: Question 2 (Creative Critical Reflection)

Our product engages with audiences who desire to travel and may want to go to south Florida. For any travelers that haven't thought about traveling to south Florida, they could possibly be persuaded to do so. The information is meant to be presented in a unconventional format to look like a traveler's journal. This format engages readers with its authentic appeal. However, conventional approaches are also utilized. Large title at the top, a photo on the cover in the background, same house font, bolded subtitles are examples. The decision to make our featured articles into interviews comprised of tourists and locals found in each of our designated locations...Sarasota, FL and Sanibel Island, FL was also an additional effort to showcase this air of authenticity to readers while keeping them engaged by offering them further insight into each tourist destination with primary, rather than secondary sources.
    As for getting the word out, my strategies were explicitly stated in the 12/19 marketing/distribution blog post and remain the same. 

    In order to get the word out, we would use the social media website, Facebook. (The only social media outlet to be utilized in developed as well as in some developing countries by persons of all ages) We would also reach out to many local newspapers such as, but not limited to, The Herald Tribune and The Tampa Times. Common sense tells us that you have to start small. Sales would be garnered by advertisements who would support us based on the views we would receive for the online magazine publication. Like certain apps intended for online/streaming purposes such as Pandora and Netflix, readers can pay a monthly fee to temporarily rid themselves of the ads.

We would charge $5.00 and as the magazine grows more popular, gradually raising this amount for new patrons. Any fees allotted to readers would be subject to contract. If fees were left unpaid by the time the next issue came around, they would be subject to ads for an additional three months (or three issues) as an incentive to pay.
          For distribution purposes: Considering what I know and what my partner knows from living and vacationing in the south Florida region, we are well aware how the most frequent and agile leisure travelers range between 40 and 65 years old.
They typically, thanks to the years on their lives, have the financial means in which they need for leisure travel and the physical ability to do it.
Also, while this group of people are on the older to middle aged side of the age spectrum, generally, they are no stranger to computers. Furthermore, while digital is difficult, as I previously stated in my 11/16 blog post, it allows access to this magazine on a much broader scope.
Armed with this reasoning, my partner and I both decided to make our magazine an 'online-only' publication. Issues would be monthly and a print copy for a $7.99 (plus $5.99 shipping and handling fee) will also be available upon request.

Research:
I did some research, aside from our own reasoning:

1) http://www.cnbc.com/id/44375222
~Online magazines draw the attention of celebrities and are exclusively funded by advertisements

2) Newsroom sitcom
~vividly depicted the need for viewers, which are directly linked to funds from advertising corporations

3) Further Marketing/Distribution Notes from (2/16/16 blog post)

2/23/16: Question 1 (Creative Critical Reflection)

1. How does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues?

           Our media product titled, "South Florida EXCURSION" is a magazine that challenges and utilizes conventions concerning the world of print media. In one sense, the conventional sense, we use a uniform font and a traditional magazine-like graphic using wordle.net. which is positioned at the top of our cover. Our chosen magazine title is also fairly conventional and it did not come from research my partner and I had conducted. 

We simply put our heads together and cane up with it independently. In an alternate sense, the non-conventional sense, the whole layout is not geared to resemble any periodical. Rather, it is meant to simulate a traveler's log with its 'rings' bordering the pages and its dull brown background. The font (other than what is on the magazine's cover page) is meant to mimic handwriting and the photos are enveloped in a white border to mimic old fashioned polaroid pictures that any tourist or local could take single-handedly without having to use a professional's camera. There is even 'tape' placed on two corners of every picture to simulate someone taping these photos by hand into a travel log or journal. All of these non-conventional techniques are geared towards broadcasting an authentic meaning to our readers because in order to persuade potential travelers to journey to a place they may have not visited before, they must feel that the information they are being presented with is valid. This authentic-looking format helps fulfill this purpose since it doesn't look like a "business" type layout that screams profit over consumers.
          It represents and caters to the social group of middle-upper class adults with the means and willingness to travel to South Florida. The issue (as well as the intended meaning for this travel magazine) itself happens to be that of authenticity. This is because this magazine's articles are meant to inform readers about south Florida travel. This information has to be authentic, valid so that people can trust it. If they don't, they won't be persuaded to vacation there.

2/19/16: Further Revision

More revisions:

Added page numbers to our article pages! A new, original photograph was also added to page four in order to cover up any blank space. Pictures have been widened and shifted in order to additionally satisfy this demand.

2/16/16: Further Distribution and Marketing Research- For a Digital Age

These are notes I took after watching a documentary in class titled, "New York Times Transitioning to a Digital Age." I used these notes so that I could better understand how recent advances in technology has affected media (other than what is digital) in terms of marketing and distribution. This will help me on the AICE exam and as well as allow me to see whether my marketing/distribution blog post needs further revisions.

2/10/16: American Super Bowl Commercials for Advertising Techniques

Recently in class, we watched commercials from the annual American Super bowl in an effort to take a look at the advertising techniques used to attract consumers.

This way, we could see which advertising techniques could potentially work well in terms of marketing our product, which in our case, happens to be a magazine.

Here are three examples of commercials and their advertising techniques:

1) Mountain Dew Soda (Product)
     Ages 16-34  (Target Audience)
     Techniques: hashtags, humour, repetition of the number three to emphasize the three elements of their new soda variety: dew, juice, caffeine)

2) Doritos (Product)
     Ages 30-50 (Target Audience)
     Techniques: real life scenario to be relatable, people aged as old as 50, humour

3) Audi R8 (Product)
    Ages 45-75 (Target Audience)
    Techniques: Aged music for an aged man who used to be an astronaut, no price mentioned- only maximum mph, no humour
     

2/1/16: Revision Post

On the 25th of this month, my partner and I were asked to present our individual magazine issues and the blogs that accomanied them. 

The following is the constructive criticism we recieved from our instructor and our classmates:

• Needs to change article headings on cover so that the white outline is not visible, making text harder to read.
• Also needs to make pictures more featured, enlarge them.
• Page numbers must be added to articles

Before Revisons:

After Revision:

 

Removed the white outline of the subheadings

Featured our pictures more prominently on the table and contents and on the articles.

Spread out the text on the final two pages consisting of the article.

01/04/16: Mid-Term Draft

 ( Title Page: Left

*Table of Contents and Page 1 of Article Content: Right

Page 2 of Article Content: Bottom)

*Table of Contents-All articles are running pieces