COME out with a good cover, a captivating layout and exciting feature articles. Combine all these and you have the ingredients for a hit magazine.
This was the advice given by Taylor’s School of Communications lecturer Natasha Mohd Hishamudin at a Mag Inc 2009 workshop held at Taylor’s University College in Subang Jaya on Thursday.
“First impressions are important,” Natasha said to more than 300 students and teachers who were there to get pointers on how to produce a good mini magazine for the Mag Inc contest.
“Good magazines have captivating elements. Also, a good feature will educate and entertain readers at the same time,” she added.
The theme for this year’s Pizza Hut and The Star Newspaper-in-Education (NiE) contest is ‘Teenage Angst’, and participants will have to come out with their own three-page magazine on issues concerning that. Students at the workshop were asked to come out with their own mini magazine layout within 20 minutes. Ideas were thrown around as they incorporated catchy headings and fancy artwork in their attempts.
The Star executive editor Leanne Goh praised the SMK Kota Kemuning students for using the heading, ‘Web of Addiction’, to depict Internet addiction, as well as their good artwork. Students from SMK Desa Perdana stood out for incorporating a comic strip and chat boxes in their mini magazine.
Students can only register for Mag Inc through their schools. Templates for the competition will be available on April 1 and April 22.
For more information, check out StarEducation on Sunday. Thursday’s workshop, titled ‘Creating a great magazine,’ will be available for viewing on TheStarOnline.tv after March 10. Online registration for schools opens on April 1 and the deadline for submission of entries is on June 20.
Mag Inc is co-organised by The Star and Pizza Hut, in collaboration with the Education Ministry.
Who can participate? Mag Inc 2009 is open to all primary 4 to 6 and secondary school students in Malaysia. Hence, three levels – Primary (P), Lower Secondary (LS) and Upper Secondary (US). Participation is through schools only.
What are participants required to do?
Under the supervision of their English language teacher, students work in teams of four/five to produce a 3-page mini magazine of their own title that investigates, probes and addresses an issue of teen angst.
Teams may focus on an issue/topic listed in the following (or a teenage angst issue of their choice):
1. Dealing with a jealous friend
2. Bullying
3. My parents, my friends?
4. Cliques in school
5. Favouritism at home and at school
6. Handling examination pressure
7. Internet addiction
8. Substance abuse
9. Teen dating versus studying
10. Smoking
11. Self-harming behaviours
12. Teens and body image
13. Teen suicide
14. Runaway teens
Projection of the chosen issue/topic in the mini magazine must be in the form of a feature article. Include three other elements which can be found in a magazine (eg.interviews, short stories, poems, advice columns/agony aunt pages, comic strips, anecdotes, advertisements, polls, surveys).
Format/content of magazine
Each team must use the original blank magazine template published in the Star-NiE pullouts on Apr 1 and Apr 22 to create their self-titled mini magazine for the contest.
The 3-page magazine must be based on the theme of teenage angst.
The content of the magazine must be written to include (but is not limited to):
• A feature article (which is compulsory)
• AND at least three elements of the following:
Interviews, short stories, poems, advice columns/agony aunt pages, comic strips, anecdotes, advertisements, pictures, photographs, polls, surveys, dialogue boxes, etc.
The front page of the magazine (tabloid size A3) has space for a self-titled masthead for the mini magazine, followed by pages two and three on a broadsheet/centrespread.
Feature article
It is compulsory for each team to write a feature article on the topic selected. With all other elements being equal, the strength of the feature article will carry the most weight in the awarding of prizes.
The feature article must include at least one illustration, picture or photograph.
Length of the feature article:
• Primary – 500 words
• Lower secondary – 800 words
• Upper secondary – 1,000 words and above
Marks will be allocated for layout, creativity, content and use of language.
Qualification for prizes
Each student can only be the member of one team.
Participants must be in teams of four or five.
Each participating team must submit a self-titled mini magazine that is designed on three A3 pages of Star-NiE’s original template.
Teams that submit a 3-minute video clip may stand a chance to win exciting prizes in the video clip category.
The video clip should be formatted on MPEG files that are supported by Windows Media Player, and must be downloaded into a Compact Disc only. The disc must be clearly labelled with the team’s name and school.
Each team may submit more than one entry, but only one entry per team shall be eligible to compete in the Grand Prize level, i.e. the Merit Awards and Grand Prizes.
Students may conduct research from books, articles and the Internet but materials must not be plagiarised. Plagiarism will result in the disqualification of an entry.
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