Create Your Own Magazine
submitted by Kendra Olsen, Media Education Foundation
(posted here by permission)

You will need to:

·         Choose a Subject/Audience (are you going to create a Sports magazine?  a Fashion magazine?  a Parenting magazine?  etc.?)

·         Give your magazine a Name – be original and creative! Take your audience into consideration.

·         Identify the Messages that you want to send about gender.  (i.e. Many current fashion magazines send the message that being female involves striving for ‘ideal’ physical beauty.  What message(s) do you want to send about beauty? Strength? Success? etc.?)

·         Identity the Assumptions that underlie the messages you want to send.  Create visual images and articles that accurately work off these assumptions.

·         Design Advertisements. Are your advertisements going to be consistent or inconsistent with the messages in the articles? Why?  (Your ads should be completely original creations.  You will need to take all photographs or create drawings that are used in the visual image.  You will also need to create slogans and develop the idea behind the advertisement on your own.  ***Do not copy already existing advertisements.***)  You may, however, devise advertisements for already existing products and brands.  But, I encourage you to make up your own brands.

·         Write Articles, Columns, and/or Editorals that convey messages about gender, either directly or indirectly.  (i.e. an article about males and eating disorders addresses gender directly while an article about the CEO of a Fortune 500 company who happens to be a woman addresses it indirectly.)

After creating your magazine, write a reflection that answers:

·         What were your intentions for the articles you wrote?  What choices did you make about language, point of view and content?  Why did you make these choices? How well did you accomplish your intentions?

·         What were your intentions for the advertisements you created? What choices did you make about visual images, style and language? How well did you accomplish your intentions?

·         What did you learn through the creation of this magazine?

·         Would you consider your magazine mainstream or alternative (or neither)? Why? Given the current corporate structure of the media system, do you believe your magazine could be financially successful? Why or why not?

·         Discuss the social role of your magazine? (What messages, direct or indirect, does it send about public health issues, politics, etc.?)

·         How does your magazine represent what you understand about media?