Creative Critical Reflection Question 2

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

My product includes a featured, two page science article that focuses on the current issue of desalination, or removing salt from water. Also, it includes a table of contents with a list of other articles that would potentially be in the magazine, if ever actually produced in reality. This product will engage kids, students, and even teachers as they read and discuss in their classes. The more interested the students are in the articles/product, the more there will be to talk about and discuss. My product also engages with audiences as I have included "Letters to the Editor" as one of the pieces in the table of contents. Letters to the Editor is meant to be an interactive method to write with my readers, answer any questions, and receive feedback on the product. I believe if I am interacting with readers, I can help promote their interest and thus generate continuous revenue on the magazine edition. This way, the audience is engaged with their peers and teachers regarding the product, along with myself.

As a real media text, this product would be distributed to science teachers in schools. The school would be charged a subscription fee of $5.99 per student, similar to that of Upfront Magazine by The New York Times. Also, a digital form would be available to subscribing teachers that they could access in the classroom. Younger students also find technology interesting and are beginning to use such devices on a daily basis. Then, the teachers can provide their students with the pdf version for use on devices such as a tablet. The school would pay a recurring fee for each issue, which would appear in the school's hands approximately every three months. This aspect of distributing is important due to the rapidly increasing role that technology is playing in journalism and in society. Therefore, providing a technological source is essential. As for advertising the magazine, the plan would be to set up a social media account, preferably Twitter, which would have updates and informational posts on Teen Scientists and its magazines. Since many people use social media today, this would be a great way to advertise the magazine. The ultimate goal would be upgrading this to a full-blown website, including all the magazine issues that Teen Scientists have produced. A website would be highly beneficial as it would aid in advertising for the magazine due to the fact that today's generation is constantly discovering companies, ideas, and events on the Internet.

Creative Critical Reflection Question 1

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

Instead of challenging, my product utilizes conventions that are normally used throughout various types of kids magazines. I chose to use conventions due to the fact that they have had the ability to produce interest in readers. Following this creation of interest in the reader, a profit would thus be able to be made as many would be intrigued and want to purchase the magazine issue. Junior Scholastic, ScienceWorld, as well as an Upfront magazine were examined during the research process. In this process of researching different science kids magazines, I observed several different conventions that were common throughout each issue. I realized that these should then be integrated into my magazine in order to develop a product that was authentic, yet unique to grab the students' attention. These conventions include the large text size, bright colors throughout the entire magazine, and a large, "fun" front cover image. The large text was chosen to stand out to readers, bright colors to attract the readers, and the large front cover image to appeal to the students' interests.


This product represents social groups and social issues. As previously stated in prior posts, the magazine is aimed to interest kids/students' in the science field, therefore making them more likely to pursue a career in the field of science. This is my main goal as everything revolves around science. Not only this, but science is extremely essential to the world, and it can simply be fun to learn about and experiment with. Connected to this is the representation of the social issue of desalination portrayed in the magazine. Water scarcity is a major problem in many third world countries. Although there are several techniques to remove salt from water, they all use ample amounts of energy and are highly expensive. My two page article focuses on an innovative method for desalination, which could potentially cure the costly methodology that occurs today. 

Magazine Revisions: Two Page Article Draft #2

Revisions to the two page article have been made. First, the spacing in the beginning of the article has been fixed to decrease the gap between the first and second sentence. Also, the pictures on the second page have been arranged to look more symmetrical and the last two contain captions, now describing Skyler's actions. Lastly, page numbers have been added to each page, following the table of contents. This way, I believe this article portrays much more realism and authenticity regarding modern science magazines today.

Magazine Revisions: Title Page Draft #2

Revisions were continued to my magazine today, on the cover page and the table of contents. For the cover page, the color of the titled and the phrase "Chemistry Edition" was changed to white with a green outline to, again, fit the house style. Also, the page number for the description of the featured article was changed from page 3 to page 13. This was changed in order to portray the featured article in the middle of the magazine, making the product as realistic as possible. Some more of the table of contents was revised including the page number attached to the photo of Skyler, and one of the articles listed (Page 5) was changed to "Chemistry Conundrum". This was added in order to include ethics of science, specifically chemistry, within the magazine. Below are both the revised cover page and table of contents.

Magazine Revisions: Table of Contents Draft #2

I have started revisions on the table of contents for my magazine. In order to make the product as authentic as possible, I want to upload only my own pictures that I have taken to the magazine. Thus, I have deleted all the ones that were retrieved from google images for the other articles. So far, only the picture of Skyler remains in the table of contents. I will be taking more pictures soon to upload so the white space can be filled and the magazine includes only my own pictures. Due to the fact that I had to delete the other pictures, some of the article titles may have to be changed in order to correspond with the future pictures taken. Also, the font of the articles, the "Chemistry edition", the title, and the phrase "features" was changed as well as the color in order to keep the house style the same for both issues. Here is the first draft of the revision.

Super Bowl Advertisements

Every year, numerous Super Bowl advertisements are used to persuade consumers to buy the products and to create emotional appeals within the viewer. One ad that does this is a skittles ad. To create an emotional appeal, a celebrity, (Steven Tyler), starred in this ad. Also, the ad created a sense of humor which makes the product more convincing to buy as well. The target audience for this ad is around 40-60 year olds as the presence of Steven Tyler engages an older generation/audience. A second ad from this year's Super Bowl is promoting a Hyundai with an app called Car Finder that can track the car at all times. This ad creates an emotional appeal as the celebrity starred in it is comedian and actor Kevin Hart. Kevin Hart brings about humor to this ad as well and at one take during the ad, a helicopter is shown with army print hovering in the sky. These all create emotional appeals in the viewer, making it more convincing to buy the Hyundai. The target audience for this ad is around 18-40 year olds as Kevin Hart is widely known in the younger generation as well as the older one. The third ad promoted a Honda Ridgeline truck with an audio system built in to the bed of the truck. This ad incorporated humor, singing sheep, outside work, music by Queen, and appeal to nostalgia. A lot of emotions are conveyed while watching this ad which creates a persuasive effect to purchase the new truck. Due to the fact that the music playing is by Queen and the product is a vehicle, the target audience is older generation, around people aged 30-50. After analyzing these ads, I can use this to market my media product by using the emotional appeal of humor. Many kids and students could become interested in my magazine issue if they see a humorous title for the articles. By incorporating humor into the science magazine, not only is it educational, it is persuasive for the students to read it.

Media Project Feedback

After presenting my magazine to the class, I received some kind observations and some helpful comments in revising my product. Some things that the class thought I did well on include the eye-catching colors, the table of contents layout, and the font size. Some things that the class thought I could make some changes to include the same house style as Dylan's edition for the table of contents, include page numbers on the two page article, format the pictures to make them more symmetrical in the two page article, and move the featured article from the beginning of the magazine to the middle, and either add captions to the pictures in the two page article or make sure to describe the actions that are taking place in those photos. An additional revision that Dylan and I have discussed is replacing one of the articles in the table of contents to include an "Ethics of Science" to create more meaning and to convince schools to purchase the magazine. This would also allow student to become more informed in scientific issues and further progress their interest in the science field. In order to make these revisions for the magazine, all of the changes will take place in Publisher. Dylan and I will agree on the same house style for the table of contents and that will be fixed, the page numbers will be added to the bottom right hand corners of the two page article, the pictures in the two page article will be played around with/formatted until they are symmetrical in the article pages along with a caption or more description in the article referring to the photos, the featured article will be moved from the beginning of the magazine to the middle using Publisher, and the new "Ethics of Science" will be added in the table of contents using Publisher as well.