The National Union of Students (NUS) and Future plc, one of the largest magazine publishing companies in the UK

Assignment

This assignment is worth 100% of the module grade.

Client Brief

The National Union of Students (NUS) and Future plc, one of the largest magazine publishing companies in the UK, have invited you to research and mock up a print publication and online edition called ‘Students Survival Guide’ or a title of your choice on the theme of student lifestyle.  The aim of this online magazine is to create a national online student lifestyle magazine that utilises multimedia and social media channels to reinvent the print-based magazine to give it a currency and relevance to appeal to Generation Z and Alpha audiences. The target audience is UK university students either undergraduates or postgraduates, home or international. Your job is to research the market segmentation and consider appropriate business models, then create a memorable brand, including multimedia content, using the software package Adobe Indesign.

You have been asked to research magazine layouts by looking at a selection of print and online magazines aimed at a similar demographic from the UK and around the world accessing Libby on the online Library https://www.studynet.herts.ac.uk/studynet/ which lets you read digital magazines for free.

The aim of the assignment is to go beyond the boundaries of print and explore how magazines can be enhanced with the inclusion of digital content to create a student community that highlights their interests and concerns.  Your publication will consider how traditional print magazines can be moved online with the inclusion of videos, podcasts, social media links, user participation, influencers while exploring new opportunities to monetize content.

The assignment is a portfolio comprised of a report weighted 50% and a creative media sample weighted 50% the details are as follows:

1.Report (Weighted at 50%)

Research and identified a gap in the market for a monthly student publication that promotes topics such as: independent living, being part of a student community, health and well-being, support for international students, living on a budget, entertainment, cheap eat, money and part-time work, travel etc., along with associated products/services. This assignment will aim to re-invent the magazine format and become the successful publishing model for other UK publishing houses and even franchised to other countries. Use the template attached and complete the following sections. Each section must be completed, please note the word count for each section.

The report will include the following sections:

• Rationale
  The rationale for the publication should include a market analysis to determine the market niche, market segmentation and potential growth of the magazine. Do include a SWOT analysis (strength, weakness, opportunity, and threat) and a competitor analysis (500 words +/- 10%).
• Customer Analysis
  Identify the target audience e.g. the market segmentation e.g disposable income, age group, geographic location, psychographic and behavioural factors. Include descriptions of three ideal readers and identify what they are looking for in the magazine e.g. what kinds of articles, media content, products and services attract them? (250 words +/- 10%)
• Brand Identity
  Critically analyse the editorial decisions taken to develop the brand identity e.g. the magazine title, lead articles listed on the front cover, the editorial curation of the articles and the products and services that best represent your brand and/or influencers who would be part of the brand. Describe the visual look and feel for the magazine and why it would be attractive to your readership. You can include page spreads from your publication. (250 words +/- 10%)
• Business Model
  You must demonstrate an understanding of the commercial potential. How will the magazine generate income? Why will potential advertisers move their current adverts from existing magazines to your magazine? (500 words +/- 10%)
• A Social Media Campaign
  Provide three examples of social media posts targeting specific media channels identified in the customer analysis (100 words +/- 10%)

2. Media Sample for print and online (Weighting 50%)

Create a media sample of the publication using Adobe Indesign and associated Adobe software. You are permitted to use creative commons material, or Adobe Stock for photographs (including the water marks). A selection of articles have been included for you to use in your magazine. You are permitted to edit the articles e.g. change headlines, create pull out quotes. 

Curating and designing attractive pages with this material is the main focus of this assignment. We are not expecting you to compose large tracts of text, although you will have to re-write and edit some of the text to make it relevant and appropriate for your readership. Do not include adverts in the sample pages.  The content of the publication must be copyright free, you will reference all media including podcasts, videos, images and text, using the standard referencing protocol in a separate word document (we will provide the referencing template). Marks will be deducted if you fail to submit this document.

The media sample must use the Indesign template provided to create two publications, the first magazine is for print and the second is an online version.  The publications will include the following:

The Print Magazine should have 14 pages and include:

• A front cover;
• A contents page(s): this is a world building opportunity for you to give the reader an indication of the categories, stories and media content covered in the magazine;
• A letter from the editor;
• A minimum of one double page spread which includes at least one article of no less than 400 words;

In addition the online version of the magazine should make the following changes

• Remove the editor’s letter and include a short video introduction to the publication (30-40 seconds long). The video can be recorded on a mobile phone or camera booked from the Loan Store and also up-loaded separately to Canvas as an MP4;
• Include navigation;
• A minimum of one animated section of text or graphics;
• A minimum of one link to existing online videos or podcasts;
• A minimum of two links to existing social media channels.

Both versions of the magazine should show evidence of professional practice using copyright free creative commons text Please note you must follow the standard citation acknowledgement format on the document provided and uploaded to Canvas.

By submitting you are declaring that your submission is entirely your own work. If you have cited from other sources or in any way included material that was not produced by yourself, those sources must be acknowledged. Failure to acknowledge where work is not your own may result in an allegation of academic misconduct. For more information, see `Assessment Offences and Academic Misconduct` on Ask Herts, together with the following guidance from Library SkillUP:

`Referencing: Why do it? Introduction`

`Academic Integrity`

`Why bother to acknowledge the work of others?`

Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Proof Reading Tools

Generative AI tools: These may only be used in an assessment when you have been given explicit and specific permission in the assignment brief (see below).  If you have not been given such permission, you must not use generative AI tools - to do so will constitute academic misconduct.  Even where permission has been given, you must still reference clearly any use of generative AI in the development of your submitted work. If you do not reference any use of generative AI tools, this will also constitute academic misconduct. If in any doubt, you should ask your tutor for advice.

Proofreading tools: Increasingly, proofreading tools are being embedded into standard packages e.g. Word, Grammarly, and becoming more sophisticated. A proof-reader or proof-reading tool must only be used to identify and draw attention to possible changes which you can then choose to accept or reject. Neither a proof-reader nor a proof-reading tool (whether genAI or not) can ever be used to make changes to your work directly; this will ensure that you remain the author of your work. 

Full information on the University’s policy and guidance on use of generative AI and proofreading tools can be found here on Ask Herts. 

For this Assignment, the following applies:

• In this assessment you are expressly permitted to use AI tools in the creation of content for your work and also to proofread your work. Alternatively, you can use a proofreader or non-genAI proofreading service.
  How to acknowledge AI sources in your work  
  ChatGPT  allows users to generate a unique shared link to a ChatGPT conversation, which can be included in your reference. ChatGPT provide guidance on how to generate a shared linkLinks to an external site.. Please read this information carefully, especially the sections on how your conversation can be used by others. As your conversation will be available to anyone with the shared link you should not share sensitive or personal information.  
  A shared link is a snapshot of that entire conversation up to the point it is being shared. This means if there are many prompts/responses in the conversation, all of them will be included. Once a shared link is created for a specific conversation or message, it will not include any future messages added to the conversation after the link was generated. This means that if you continue the conversation after creating the shared link, those additional messages will not be visible through the shared link unless you delete the link and regenerate it.  
  If you delete the ChatGPT conversation, the shared link in your reference will no longer work.  You should use a shared link in your reference unless your conversation includes sensitive information see Reference List below.
  Reference List  
  Author. (Year of the version used.). Title (Version number) [Large language model]. Shared Link  
  OpenAI. (2023, October 23). ChatGPT (Sep 25, 2023 version) [Large language model]. https://chat.openai.com/share/568554f1-5198-4ee7-af86-8ef3f7d364dcLinks to an external site. 
  Please note the reference template will offer further guidance

Third-party assets 

No third-party assets included.

Ethics

The Ethics Committee must approve all coursework that involves ‘human participants’ (such as interviews, questionnaires or surveys, even where these are conducted among family/friends). Applications should be made to the committee at least two weeks before the start of a project.  Approved applications will receive a protocol number and this should be included as part of the module submission. If students undertake work that involves human subjects without the prior approval of the Ethics Committee they may incur an academic penalty. Guidance on how to make an application can be found on Ask Herts under More Information here.

Not applicable

Risk Assessment

A risk assessment is not required for this assignment.

How to Submit your work

Report (Weighted at 50%)

• The research report should be completed using the template and MS Word, and uploaded to Canvas using the extension .docx.
• Media Sample for print and online (Weighting 50%)
• The media sample should be saved and uploaded to canvas as twodifferent file types; an Indesign file, (note the extension for Indesign is .indd), and the URL from the version ‘Publish Online’ and copying the link onto a word document called `digital publication` . The last file type will ensure your multimedia content is included in the publication.     
• The reference template must be completed and saved as MSWord document with the extension .docx. It is essential to acknowledge all free, creative commons and AI sources for text, sound, images, video or animations used within your media sample.