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.