Research Notes

To understand the different target areas of different magazines, their front covers and what is included in the magazines.

Magazines and Newspapers difference in quite a lot of ways:
- Magazines come in a wide range of sub genres
- Magazine coverage is often more detailed but with less timely information
- More likely to find features than hard news in magazines
- Newspapers cover the day to day story
- Magazines are weekly, fortnightly or monthly whilst newspapers are daily
- Newspapers cover topics of general interest for a specific geographical area
- Newspapers are ephemeral, but magazines are more permanent
- Magazines are more specialised and focused on a target market
- Magazine consumers appreciate information which is specifically aimed at their needs and interests

Analysing a magazine cover:
- The magazines title, are there any hidden meanings?
- The strap line or tag line can be linked to brand identity
- The fonts and colours used, what do they suggest about the titles brand identity and target audience?
- The main image, we need to recognise how this appeals to a specific target audience
- The anchorage and cover lines, these will reveal a great deal about the titles ideologies and target audience

Analysing a magazine: between the covers:
- The contents pages usually offer an overview of the features
- The editors letter which is usually part of the magazines brand identity
- The two page spreads are still the primary unit of design.
- The advertisements are usually precisely targeted

The magazine industry:
-IPC- American owned and part of the biggest media conglomerate in the world.
-EMAP- previously a major played in the industry, but sold its magazine business to Bauer in December 2007
-Bauer- A German company whose titles include FHM, New Woman, Empire, Closer etc..
-Conde Nast- in the UK, Conde Nast titles include vogue, Easy Living, Glamour, Talter, GQ and House and Garden
- The National Magazine Company- Owned by Hearst
- BBC magazines- A good example of commercial intertextuality or synergy.

Textual Analysis!

Front Cover 1

I am going to compare 3 front covers, 2 contents pages and 2 double page spreads! I am going to talk about each of these and compare them, what they have the same and what they have that is different.

The first front cover that I will be analysing is NME. NME stands for new musical express and it has been published weekly since march 1952. The background of the front cover is a mid close up shot of Amy Winehouse which tells the reader that there will be a section or a bit about Amy Wine House in the magazine. As you can see there is a banner which says "World Exclusive NEW ALBUM STORY, AMY INSIDE HER SECRET STUDIO SESSIONS" which backs up the fact that there is going to be a section about Amy Winehouse, the word exclusive means that the information is only available at NME. Also they only use Amy in the banner which suggest that readers will be familiar with her. Also there a different colours used in this banner, white and red are used as they compliment each other and make the banner stand out to attract the readers attention to it! The cover line that says "free Amy posters" may also attract new customers to the magazine due to them being interested or showing their respect to Amy Winehouse, The price of the magazine is £2.40, which is quite a reasonable price, the price is placed underneath the masthead so we can see exactly how much it is as when we look at a magazine we look at the masthead first and then we see the price straight away! There is a strap line at the top of the page which says "Kasabian Vs Bombay Vs Noel Vs Monkeys Vs Vaccines!" this tells the reader that all of these bands/artists will be included in the magazine and spoken about. So if fans of these bands/artists see this strap line this might attract them to buy the magazine. The use of the word your is directly involving the audience to have their say in the NME awards.  Lure is used to make the reader want to read some of the stories. NME compete with Kerrang the most out of all the other magazines due to also being weekly as well.

Front Cover 2

Q is a popular music magazine that is published monthly. Q was first published in October 1986, was founded by Mark Ellen and David Hepworth, Q is now edited by Paul Rees and published by Bauer Media Group. Q usually features main stream music that is in the charts who everyone knows. As you can see the back ground of Q is Cheryl Cole who most people know. Her music is very mainstream, pop, chart music! The banner says "3Words, CHERYL COLE, ROCKS" and this tells the reader that Q will be saying that Cheryl Cole is good and maybe an article on what she is doing. The colours that are used are red and white, these colours complement each other and make the words stand out from each other, the word "ROCKS" stands out a lot due to the words "CHERYL COLE" above it in white. The Strap line at the top says "THE UK'S BIGGEST MUSIC MAGAZINE" which stands out when the magazine is covered by others due to the black background and the white writing, also the strap line attracts the readers due to it being the biggest music magazine which may make the reader want to buy it because they may think that it is the best due to it being the biggest. We can see in the top left corner that the Q has a red background and a white writing, as the colours are complementary so it makes the magazine stand out and everyone knows that it is Q. Also the masthead of Q is very well known and is always in the same position which is creating brand identity. There is a graphic in a sticker shape which suggests to the reader that there is more in the magazine. We can see from a banner that U2, Paul Weller and White Stripes that will be included in the magazine, which once again is very main stream music.

NME and Q both have the same colour scheme, white red and black, maybe because these colours complement each other and go well together. Also the back grounds of Q and NME are both mainstream female artists who are looking straight at the camera however the picture of Cheryl on Q has had more attention on the Mise en Scene due to the rain in the back ground and her makeup and hair however the picture of Amy on NME is more natural and just trying to capture her face. Both Q and NME are both successful magazine who cover mainstream music, they are the both in competition with one another but are both the most successful magazines. People may buy both due to Q being monthly and NME being weekly!

Front Cover 3

This magazine looks like that its targets market is DJ's. Also the Banner underneath the masthead says "living and breathing dance music" so we can gather that the magazine will be for people who are into dance music or fall under the category of a dance music magazine! The front cover of the magazine is used to attract possible customers/readers to the magazine using bold and vibrant colours and a interesting picture that will interest them into what the magazine is about. The colours of the magazine front cover are possibly to do with the colour scheme of the mask! Along the top of the magazine you will notice it says "*FREE SANTOS MULTIMEDIA CD! MUSIC AND DATA GALORE*" , this is something that will help sell this magazine as obviously the thought of paying for the magazine (what they may have purchased anyway) and getting free music with it,(that the viewer will most likely be interested in as it is bound to match the magazine genre, which is of course the base reason why the viewer is buying the magazine in the first place) sounds like a very good deal. the price of the magazine is set down in the right corner a long with the number issue of the month along with the number of tunes that they have reviewed which to some of the readers may make up their mind whether they buy the magazine or not. The price of the magazine is £3.95 which some people may think is a reasonable for a monthly magazine which includes a free CD.

Contents Page's Analysis!


Uncut Magazine, Contents Page 1

 The first thing that comes to the readers attention would be the large picture which takes up most of the page. We can see on the top of this picture there is writing which says "64 DAVE DAVIES" which tells the reader that the article on Dave Davies is on page 64 and also from the way that the picture takes up most of the page we can assume that Dave Davies may be quite important in the magazine! We can also see that the colours used are white and red which contrast each other which could add a bit of class to the magazine but it also makes the magazine look good. We can see that there are 3 different sections to the page numbers, we can see that the bigger page numbers would be the main features of the magazine which would interest the reader to purchase the magazine. Then we can see what the magazine would call the "Regulars" which we can learn from this title that feature in every magazine that they release, this means that the customer/reader Can always expects these articles to be in the magazine. Then we can see that there is a title saying "Reviews", we can gather that this is where the magazine has reviews about different things that readers of this magazine would be interested in.



NME, Contents page 2

    The first thing that comes to the readers attention is the title that is placed at the top of the page which says "INSIDE THIS WEEK" so we can assume that these articles are only going to be inside this magazine. The next thing that comes to the readers attention is the big picture in the centre of the page which has "46" int the corner which tells us that the article on that specific person or band is on page 46. We can see that there are a number of different pictures all over the page which could represent what the articles are about in the magazine. In the bottom right hand corner we can see that there is a red patch which is standing out from quite a dull contents page. The red patch is advertisement for subscription to NME magazine!



Double Page Spread Analysis

Mojo Magazine

 This double page spread is from the magazine called
Mojo. On the right hand side of the double page spread there are a number of different pictures of a female solo artist, which we can assume that the feature is about. We can assume from how there are a number of different pictures of the female solo artist that the readers of the magazine will not know who she is as the producers could be trying to promote her or introduce her to the magazines readers. In the top right hand side of the large picture there is a white piece of writing saying "mojo promotion" so we know that the magazine producers of mojo are trying to promote this solo artist. We can see in the top hand corner of the left hand side that there is a black patch which stands out from the white background so it is meant to attract the readers attention, there is in big bold gold writing which says "NEW YEAR, NEW VOICE" which is suggesting to the readers that this solo artist is going to be the voice of the new year which maybe gives the readers something to look forward too. We can see that there is a large bit of text on the left hand side which the reader can assume is introducing this new solo act to maybe her target audience as she has been featured in Mojo magazine.

NME double page spread

This double page spread comes from NME, we can see three large pictures spread across the right side of the page, large titles in red and black writing on a white background so they stand out and attract the readers attention and large piece of text which the describes and tells the reader what the pictures are about.

Using InDesign

I  have used InDesign to practise making a double page spread. Before i used publisher to make my contents page and did not find InDesign much harder than publisher. I am going to use InDesign to make my double page spread as it is easy to import the pictures and simple to create a double page spread quickly and efficiently. We will be using harder programmes to make different things after Christmas!

Comparison of Magazines!

Here I have looked at 4 different magazines to see how different music genres range in difference of prices and length. I was interested in Q, NME and DJ as these are the type of genres that I would be interested in doing because they include music that I am interested in! I am going to have a further look into these magazines to give me some more ideas that I could use in my own magazine.

Action Plan

Action Plan

Weeks                           Activity

5.12.11                          Write action plan
                                      Compare magazines
                                      Textual analysis (3 front covers, 2 contents, 2 DPS)

12.12.11                        Textual analysis (3 front covers, 2 contents, 2 DPS)
                                   
Christmas Holidays

2.1.12                           Audience re-search (Poll, questionnaire, theory)
                                     Internet re-search (Institutions, readership figures)

9.1.12                           Plan photo shoot
                                     Take photos
                                     Layout designs

16.1.12                        Masthead designs



23.1.12                       Drafting/making pages

30.1.12                       Drafting/making pages

6.2.12                         Drafting/making pages

20.2.12                      Audience feedback

27.2.12                       Evaluation

DEADLINE                 2.3.12

Music Magazine

This is my first post about my music magazine which I have just started after completing my preliminary task which was the student magazine!

Evaluation

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forums and conventions of real media products?
The key conventions that i used for my student magazine was all about what is going on at the moment that students are interested in and what they talk about quite a lot. i included a picture of a student on the front cover so that the students knew it would be a student magazine because there was someone that they knew on the front. A typical contents page would include a letter from the editor, the page numbers of what is included on the magazine and also pictures of what the key conventions to the magazine are. I have included these in my own magazine by including pictures of towie and I'm a celebrity get me out of here, the page numbers that all of my stories will be on and a letter from me to the reader of the magazine. As this was my first go at making a magazine i did not do anything differently really, i thought that it would be safer to stick to what i knew and getting that right before i started to experiment.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My student magazine represents the social group of teenage girls! I have represented them to like shopping and make up and to watch all of the reality TV shows, I have used a image of a boy on the front cover so hopefully this will catch their attention and then they will read what the magazine has in it or what it is about. I have used teenage language, I have not used slang but I also have not used big complicated words that some teenagers might read and not have a clue what it means. The ratio of text to pictures is more text than pictures, but I have only done 2 page and if I was to do more then I would have included a lot more pictures further on in the magazine. I believe that i have represented them quite stereotypically.

What kind of media instituion might distribute your media product and why?

a lot of schools or colleges already publish magazines like mine, because they are student magazines, but if a company invested in my magazine and started to distribute it, this could make the companies reputation a lot better as it would look like that they are helping out a school and giving something back to the community. My magazine could be distributed to any female teenage students who wish to read it, that is another reason how it could benefit a company if they decide to sponsor my magazine because they could be able to make a profit out of it.

Who would be the audience for your media product?
The audience of my magazine are teenage girls. My magazine kind of fits the profile of the girls who like shopping, makeup and boys, the girls who watch the reality TV programmes and the girls who like the gossip. These are the girls that my magazine would suit, i believe that those kind of girls would really enjoy my magazine and would find out things that they didn't already know and things they would be able to discuss with their friends.


How did you attract/adress your audience?

I have included all the topics that the girls are talking about on my front cover, they are all cover lines that are contrasting with the background colour to make them stand out from other magazines so that teenage girls will see my cover lines instead of a different magazines. The background of my magazine is a boy, so that girls may see this boy and he may catch their eye or their attention straight away to make them pick the magazine up for a closer look. The colours that i have used on my magazine are yellow for the background, blue for the masthead and red for the cover lines because all these colours contrast against each other and makes the front cover eye catching and stand out. My magazine talks to the audience by telling them what it is about, catching their eye and shocking them making them wanting to buy it! Someone would want to buy my magazine because it would catch their eye straight away, it would include things that they would want to read about and stories on the front cover that would make them want to read on even more!

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

I have learnt a number of different technologies, I have learnt how to use Indesign which I found quite hard and I have also learnt how to use photoshop, which was hard to get to learn all the different tools and how they work. I mainly used photoshop on my front cover to edit it so that the bits that i wanted from the photo that i took where on there, i could choose my own colour background and my own colour masthead and bylines!!  i have also learnt how to use blogger, which i found fairly easy once it had been explained. I also learned how to use the digital camera and how to get my pictures onto the blog.

Contents Page!

In my contents page I have included a number of different colours and pictures in order to make it interesting for the reader. My contents page title i decided to use a blue colour with yellow outlining, just because these are the colours that i decided to use on my front cover as they are clashing colours and will make the mast head stand out. The pictures that I included were the themes that I put on my front cover which I thought that girls my age would be interested in as I know that is what they talk about. The texts that I have used have a red background with black font for the title and white font for the text, I think that these three colours are a really good blend and look good together as they go with each other quite well and look nice.

Final Front Cover

I have used the draft that I made, I added a banner which said "student Magazine" I have included different banners to tell the reader what the magazine will include. I used the colour red as it also clashes with the blue and the yellow, I did not want to use too many colours so I decided to put all of my banners in red, however I did not want the banners to be the same colour as the mast head as i think that the front cover will look too plain.

Draft of Front Cover

This is my first stage of making my magazine, I had to cut round the picture of james using the pen tool which I had to keep quite a steady hand for, I copy and pasted the picture of my title and then filled it in, I had to zoom in to make sure that I did not fill the back ground, when I wanted to fill the background I had to go onto layer one to make sure that I kept james on the front cover! As you can see the colour of the Mast head and the background are clashing colours so that they both stand out and catch the readers attention.

Photos that i've Taken so far

First

I have taken lots of photos and i have narrowed it down to these 3 to be on my front cover. As the first two pictures are landscape this would make it very hard to get them to fill the page as the page is going to be A4 portrait. i would have to ,aybe crop the pictures to make them more sqaure so i could free transform them, however i should be careful not to free transform too much as the picture would look un-natural and very stretched out.



Second



Third

i think that the second picture is the best picture to put on the front of a student magazine, however i think that the third picture is pretty much the same however James is actually looking at the camera so it does not look like he is working.

if you could comment on this post saying which one you think is most suitable for the font cover of my student magazine then it would be much appreciated.

Organisation of Photo-shoot

As I am producing a student magazine I have decided that my photo for my front cover will be of a student working. I will need to think about the following:

• locations
• people
• customes
• lighting
• angles

I have decided that im going to take a photo of James working with his head down in the lesson of our Media Studies class. He shall be wearing his usual school uniform. The lighting will be as usuall in the lessons and i think that i am going to take the picture from a high angle as if the reader had a birds eye view on him.

The photos for the contents page will be off the girls in my Media Studies class, maybe by the chapel or just walking down the corridors. They will be wearing their usual school uniform and the lighting of the shots will be just usual how the lighting is around the school and angles of the shots may be at a low angle or just a normal angle.  Also some of the photos that I might include in my contents page may be of the chapel and what is in the chapel, I also my include a photo of Father Pinot.

Fonts Of Titles

I have chosen eight different fonts that would be suitable for my magazine. my favourite one is the top one, but you can comment which one you like, if you just want to comment 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 or 8 as they are in order from 1-8. As you can see i have decided that the title off my magazine will be "what you want" as i think that the magazine should be about what the students want to know. also the title what you want was the most popular on my poll.

photo shop

i have produced this image on photo shop for the first time. i was given a image at the start and i had to make this out of all the different layers. i used the laso tool to select my crab from the original image when i needed to post it as a new layer, i used the elliptical marque tool when i needed to select the lemons a new layer. i found using these skills quite hard at first but as i had more practice i got a lot better at it.

Results of Questionnare

  the results of my questionnaire tell me that 5 out of the 8 people said yes to reading a student magazine and 3 said no to reading a student magazine. 2 people said they would buy a student magazine and 6 said they wouldn't pay for a magazine. 2 people said they would pay £1-£1.50 and 6 people said they would pay £0, 6 people said that the magazine should be designed for all years and 2 people said years 9&10, 6 people said that it should be made for both males and females whereas 2 people said that it should be made for just females.

Layout Designs

Contents page 2



Contents Page 1

I have looked threw a number of different magazines and have seen that there are a number of different layouts and the ones that i have designed are quite similar to the most popular ones. I have decided to choose contents page 1 because i prefer the layout and i think that the pictures look better straight, also the contents page is a lot more organised and the reader can see clearly what they want and they do not have to read threw a lot of different things just to get a bit of certain information. I prefer the front cover page 1 also as there is less on the front cover and i can leave the picture that i but as my front cover to make an impact on the reader, however i have included a number of different of cover lines where i can include the most important and most interesting things of what are included in the magazine, these can also attract the reader!


PLEASE COMMENT ON WHICH ONES YOU THINK!!!!! 





Front page 2





Front page 1



Questionnaire

Would you read a student magazine?
- Yes
- No


Would you buy a student magazine?
- Yes
- No


How much would you pay for a student magazine?
- £0-£0.50
- £0.50- £1
- £1-£1.50
- £1.50-£2
-£2-£2.50


Who should it be designed for?
- Year 7&8
- Year 9&10
- Year 11, 12&13


Who should it be made for?
- Males
- Females


Any additional comments?

Textual Analysis

Contents page

Front Cover

Common Sense was published by Luton Sixth Form College on the 9th of march 2005. It falls into the category of a college magazine, so there would not really be any competition if it was just for the college that it was produced by, but if it was on the market for all colleges then there may be some competition that tries to sell to them as well. On the front cover of this the background is a striking photo of Green day, the photo is not all too appealing but it makes the reader pick the magazine up and read whats on the front cover. Also on the front cover we are told what is in the magazine, we can see that there is "student sex appeal, chill out, real life stories, universities and good grub" these are all things that students are interested in, they may not be interested in green day but they could read the subtitles and then pick it up. There is a blue banner that says "American Idiots!" we can associate this with green day and as green day are on the front cover we can assume that there is going to be something about them in the magazine. all of the colours that are used on the front cover all seem to clash, these may be used so that everything stands out to the reader and this may appeal to the reader more. On the contents page we can see different pictures that associated with different pages, for people who don't like to read this can be good because they are still able to look through a magazine. Also in the contents page we can see all the different titles to all the different pages, this is good for people who are only interested in certain bits of the magazine, they can read through all the different titles and then decide which ones they are going to read. Also in the contents page we can see a letter has a introductory bit of writing to the magazine and what it is about, then we can see a little bit about what the next magazine is about encouraging the reader to by the next magazine.

Analysis of Student Magazines.

I have looked through two student magazines, comparing whats the same and whats different, and finding out what both of them have to offer for the students that are reading it.

Common Sense:

- front page is very colourful
- tells the reader whats on offer on the front cover
- picture is the background
- different colours
-contents page holds:

• celebrity stories
• technology stories
• student news
• student stories
• visiting universities
• whole magazine is about 30 pages in total

Student ID:

- colourful front cover
- number of different pictures
- different titles
- contents page holds:

• horoscopes
• love and hate of big brother
• competition!
• Bash Pictures
• whole magazine is 26 pages long

The Action Plan of Preliminary Task

Week 7.11.11
- Set up Blog
- Write action plan
- Analyses 2 magazines
- Create Questionnaire

Week 14.11.11
- Analyse Results
-  Design Draft Layouts
- Organise Photo Shoot

Week 21.11.11
- Take Photos
- Design + draft pages

Week 28.11.11
- Test pages
- Evaluate final pages

First Blog

My name is Charlie Roberts.

I have made this blog so I can use it for my Media coursework. The first task that i have been asked to complete is the Preliminary task, in this task i have to produce a front page of a new school/college magazine, featuring a photograph of a student in medium close-up plus some appropriately laid-out text and masthead.