Make a Mockery of Magazines
Module 1, Activity 8.6 - Magazine Satire
Student Page
(teacher lesson for this lesson)

Introduction:

In previous lessons, you have been introduced to the different types of magazine articles, the purpose of advertising and the skills necessary for targeting a specific audience. Over the course of the next week, you will apply this information by creating a satire of a tabloid magazine.

Activities:

Task One - Where to Begin
Your purpose is to create a tabloid satire. To begin, you may want to look at a few tabloid examples and review the concept of satire.

The most recognizable tabloids are:
The National Enquirer
Star Magazine

Take a moment to look at the in-class examples that your teacher has provided or at the online examples above.

View examples of satirical magazines in class or look at the following Canadian, online examples:
The Daily Bull
The Toque

Task Two - Selling the Idea
For this assignment, you will be working in groups of 3-5 people. To begin you must make all pertinent decisions regarding your magazine:

1. Target audience (teens, business men)
2. List of potential topics
3. Types of articles you will include (feature stories, personal experience blurbs, horoscopes)
4. Possible products you would like to advertise
5. Title for your magazine

You need to present this information to your teacher as a sales package.

Imagine that you trying to entice corporations to advertise in your magazine. Create a one-two page sales package that highlights information about your magazine (the information above).

*Remember - advertisers try to appeal to a target audience. You will need to convince them that your magazine is the perfect forum for their product. Your pitch must be informative and eye-catching. You will be graded on your information and presentation.

Task Three - Getting Organized
Once you have presented your sales package to your teacher and received approval for your ideas you must begin creating your magazine.

The following are requirements for the assignment:

1. Your group must set and meet your own deadlines
2. You will have a minimum of two pages per group member
3. Each page will include at least one feature story, one filler story, two ads and one visual element.
4. You must designate an editor - this person will edit all rough drafts and therefore be responsible for only one page.
5. Pages must be laid out in formal journalistic style (columns, headlines, by-lines)
6. At the end of your class time, you will hand-in the finished copy of your magazine along with the edited rough copies and an evaluation sheet

Read over the sample deadline sheet on the right. Then look at the steps in publishing a student magazine, and decide on what you will accomplish by the end of each class. You will have nine class days to work on this project. By the end of this class, you must hand-in your deadline sheet and begin working on your sales package.

Resources:

- examples of tabloids and satirical magazines
- access to computers
- sales package template
- evaluation sheet
- peer evaluation sheet

Task Four - The Daily Grind
While you are working on the magazine, you may want to review information on the following skills:

1. Writing the feature article
2. Types of magazine articles
3. Advertising techniques
4. Writing effective advertising copy

Be sure to double check your deadline sheet at the beginning of each class to ensure that you are meeting your deadlines. Most of this time you will be working as individuals to write your articles and create your ads.

Task Five - Teamwork
In the last few class days, you will be working as a group to design your magazine pages. You will be using a word processing or publishing program to create the pages for your magazine.

By using a template for the inside pages, each member of the group can be working on a different page while still creating a magazine that looks polished and consistent.