Almost there....

Hello! So this is one of my final blog postings (tear) and since I feel like you all (those who have taken the time to read my blog, thank you by the way) have a pretty good idea of how my magazine looks, I decided to finish typing my Critical Creative Reflection (CCR) script and share that with you. It is not completely done, but it is a very good representation of my ideas and what I hoped to accomplish with this project. Now what I have to do is time myself to see if I need to add or cut anything out.  I also have to record the podcast of me speaking to turn in to the final posting. My sample outline is down below.

Critical Creative  Reflection

I never realize when I started this project that I would enjoy it this much, the project is now coming to a close and I’m going to reflect on this process as a whole. This project was an amazing experience and I’m very glad to have gotten to do it.  Not only was it fun and enjoyable, but it elaborated and expanded the skills I have acquired over the year. Plus it taught me patience and time management, not just to go nuclear anytime something goes wrong, skills I will be grateful to have for the rest of my life.

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

1. My magazine Dancing Through Life both utilizes and challenges the conventions of typically dance magazines. Typically dance magazines appeal to an older audience, typically the 20-something year old struggling dancer. With the simplistic appearance of the cover, the articles included, as well as the models/dancers used Dance magazines are geared to an older, more mature audience. I wanted my magazine to not only appeal to that group, but expand it to a younger audience as well. Dance is one of America’s favorite past times, especially for young girls in a mid-high economic status, and to exclude them from the target audience of a dance magazine is hindering to the magazine’s success. So while my magazine does have a simple cover of a dancer showing great concentration and technique, the model is younger than most models pictured on the covers of dance magazines in order to appeal to that younger audience. The masthead has a fun, yet eloquent font style, instead of the plainly written mastheads of the typical Dance magazines. Also, the articles not only include important meaningful articles for dancers and choreographers, but also fun quizzes and trends to attract and appeal the younger audiences attention. Some of the pictures included in my magazine show girls ages (13-17) in revealing, tight clothing in order to emphasize the idea that dance is oversexualizing young girls, because this is a trend that is happening, but is going unnoticed and this is the best way (in my opinion) to draw attention to the issue.

Question: How does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text?

2. If I were to distribute this magazine in real life I think the best way would be to make it available digitally, as well as through subscription, but not in stores. Very rarely is a dance based magazine found in stores, either in bookstores or at the cash registers at the grocery stores. Since there is such a limited audience for a dance based magazine, selling it in stores would be a waste of money (printing excess copies and distributing across the country) since it would not catch the eyes of the general public since it is so specific. Through subscriptions only a certain amount of magazines would be made, and go to the avid and engaged readers of the magazine, giving them something to look forward to every month. Distributing it online not only allows for easier accessibility, especially in the fast paced world we live in, but it also appeals to the younger audiences I am trying to reach. Kids and tweens are basically attached to their phones and computers, and this way they can read the more kid-friendly articles and take the quizzes with more ease than flipping and skipping over parts of the magazine. I think what will engage my audience and keep them interested in reading my magazine is not only my use of photos and layouts, but the fact that my magazine talks about real world issues rather than just solely reviews and trends in the dance world.

Question: How did your production skills develop throughout the project?

3. I think that throughout the duration of my project my production skills improved enormously. I had never really worked with a site such as joomag or made my own magazine/layouts that needed to be both engaging and professional. The creation of my magazine pushed me out of my “yearbook-layout” comfort zone, in which the goal is to fit as many pictures as you can on the page (because let’s be real nobody actually reads the stories in a yearbook). I needed to find a way to place pictures that enforced what I was saying, but did not completely distracted from the contents of my articles. Although I did not use Photoshop much in my project, or any other photo manipulation tools for that matter, I did attempt to familiarize myself with the softwares, and feel if I need to use anything like that in the future I will be more ready. Even using a digital magazine site like joomag.com I think really helped me with not only my skills in with technology, design, layout, and everything, it also helped me with important life skills. Initially I was very frustrated and annoyed with joomag because It was not as easy as I thought it would be, it took days of trying to figure it out and a ton of mistakes made throughout the process, but this made me a more patient person, as shown by the fact that I did not smash my laptop into the wall out of frustration.

Question: How did you integrate technologies- software, hardware, and online- in this project?

4. For this project I used very few technologies. I used my mom’s amazing camera and tripod, joomag, blogger, and microsoft. I wanted to use software and technologies that I was comfortable with instead of messing up my images in attempts of using Photoshop or Google Nik. Do not get me wrong I tried to use both, it just did not work in my favor. Using all of these different technologies and sites did introduce to me to a whole new form of media. I used sites and programs that encompassed different areas of media. From a place to write, to a place for magazine layouts, to a place to express and reflect upon my learning and process. The use of all of these things together really brought my project to life, and I allowed for my voice and ideas to be heard. Had I not used all of these different online sources that were available to me, my project would definitely be lackluster and fall below where I would like it to be and know in my mind it could be.  

See Y'all Soon! Enjoy the Blog with short postings coming up soon. Thanks for sticking around so long. Unitl next time- Taylor Bsrton