School Magazines - Warning!!!!

School magazine research: Watch out!

You might be finding it difficult to lay your hands on examples of existing school magazines. This, in itself is an interesting media issue for consideration:

• Why is this?
• What impact has new technology had on print editions of school magazines?
• What other technologies are schools using to communicate with their students?

There also seems to be a trend for producing annual, rather than more regular magazines. In that case, are they magazines in the usual sense of the word? What will the frequency of your publication be?

It seems to be easier to find examples of magazines for Independent Schools. Should you, therefore, follow the conventions of these examples regardless of your audience? Or, if you're going to subvert them - Which ones? How? Why?

However, a consideration of these issues won't help you with your actual textual analysis - an essential step if you are going to produce an effective school magazine that follows the generic conventions!

Take care when using the internet to source examples - they are likely to be magazines produced by AS Media Students just like yourselves, rather than live school magazines!

Here are some links to online school magazines which tend to follow the conventions and layouts of print editions:

http://www.hamptonschool.org.uk/The-School/School-Magazines-new.aspx (Check out the regular publications, rather than the annual ones. Notice how they have identified specific target audiences within the school, rather than producing one publication for all students.

http://www.oratory.co.uk/downloads/School%20Magazine/Oratory%20Magazine%20Iss_169%20(Low-res).pdf (An annual magazine)

http://www.nunthorpe.co.uk/our-school/school-magazine (Links to termly magazines produced by this school up to 2009)

http://www.toorakcollege.vic.edu.au/Portals/0/magazine/TheElephant_S01_2012_web%20version.pdf (A magazine produced by an Australian school)

http://www.uhs.org.uk/for-students/school-magazine/ (A regular publication for Uxbridge High School - but like many regular magazines, it feels rather more like a newsletter than a magazine. This might be something you think about during your preliminary)