Monday 28 November 2011

Student Contents Page (Rough)

Here is my draft student contents page although it's only a draft it highlights all the factors of a normal contents page and what I would be looking to include in my contents page the backround color and text resembles my front cover so certain themes can be seen throughout the magazine.

Music Magazine (analysis)

This magazine NME is one of the most recognisable music magazine out to date. They cover a wide range of music genres, they aren't like more unconventional music magazines that only focus on one genre of music, such as Kerrang. They cover a wide range of artists and bands so the target audience for this magazine is not specific but tailored to the needs of many different genres of music apart from the extremely unconventional such as Death Metal Rock for example.
The Conventions of this magazine include
The Title- The NME title is the same for every single magazine it is a running trate through all their magazines, however he way the name is displayed can change for special editions etc
Cover Lines-  Cover lines always relative to the issue and image on front cover the text size varies as dose the positioning .
Main Image- The main image on the front cover is usually a musician, singer or band member. The person displayed on the front will have a article inside the magazine. Eye contact with the reader is generic too, makes the reader feel like there looking at you.
Secondary Images- Displayed usually with a caption, they show key people or themes that are wrote about in this magazine.
Colors- NME magazines usually consist of Red, Yellow and Black colors. The title usually being red the  text yellow and borders black. However like the title, the colors can change for special editions etc.
Other- magazines such as this will use clever wording to draw the reader in also, for example "DAVE GROHL I'M NOT DEAD". This will make the reader more interested and want to read the article that the text on the front cover is talking about. Magazines such as this one also produce competitions allowing their readers to potentially win prizes another convention that attracts more readers. In my music magazine i will try to use all these conventions in my own style to produce a music magazine to the genre which I have chosen to use, which is basically the same genre as NME.

Student Magazine (Completed)

This is my finished magazine cover for a student magazine, it includes four cover lines a title a picture and a logo in the bottom left corner. The main colors used in this front cover were orange, purple and yellow this theme runs throughout my front cover so it does not look too busy with lots going on. The yellow glow around the text and picture were done in photo shop and so was the logo, this logo will be used in all of my pages for the magazine as a running theme. The magazine was finally put together using In Design. 

Monday 14 November 2011

Magazine cover (unfinished)

This is my front cover for the magazine it is not finished I still have to include cover lines etc but Its is almost completed.

Monday 10 October 2011

IPC Media Research


About the company
IPC produce over 60-consumer magazine covering two thirds of the female consumer and 42% of the male. This company focuses on three main audiences Men, Mass-market woman and Up-market woman. The magazines they offer for men focus on wealth and leisure these are Country life, Horse and Hound, Rugby world, Decanter, Zoo and NME. This part of their business is called (IPC inspire)
Mass market women magazines they offer focus on women’s weeklies and TV entertainment brands. The women’s weeklies are; Look, Now, Chat and Women. The TV entertainment magazines for women they offer are, What’s on TV, TV times, TV and satellite week and online they also have the Good to know network.  Their up-market women’s division called (IPC Southbank) compromises of luxury fashion brands and lifestyle brands. The luxury fashion magazines are Marie Claire and InStyle. Their lifestyle magazines are Women and Home, Essentials, ideal home, living etc. and house to home.
History
The international Publishing organization Ltd was formed in 1963 after the merge of the UK’s three leading magazines at the time these were; George Newns, Oldham’s Press and Fleetway Publications. These three companies came together with the Mirror Group to form the International Publishing organization, five years on IPC Publishing was then made.

Sunday 9 October 2011

To what extent should magazines be held responsible for the social ramifications of the representations they offer?

Cosmo Girl is a popular magazine aimed at teenage girls. This magazine is very generic and will conclude of articles about celebrities, information on clothes, makeup music and just general gossip around a teenage girl’s average day and lifestyle. I believe magazines aimed at teenage girls should be held partially responsible for the social ramifications caused by the information in their magazines. The ramifications by this magazine could affect teenage girl’s style choices, lifestyle choices and even taste in music act. For example the magazine Cosmo girl above with text saying ”Make up tricks" the tricks displayed in the magazine could decide the style of makeup a teenage girl would wear, therefore Cosmo Girl would have to take responsibility for the ramifications of the information displayed. Anything displayed in a magazine that is pushing something at the consumer should be responsible for the ramifications. In girls magazine you usually see this in the form of fashion most magazines for teenage girls will usually consist of suggesting clothing, styles and accessories generic to the target audience of the magazine for example Cosmo Girls clothing and styles would be allot more modern, high end fashion than a magazine like American Girl which has cheap affordable low end fashion. These type of magazines also include celebrity gossip this involves information about various popular celebrity's. The ramification of this could be an affect in lifestyle choice, if you have a teenage girl who celebrity role model is displayed in a magazine talking about her life and how she came to fame. This could affect teenage girl’s choices in life because she would want to follow i the footsteps of her Role model. On the other hand it is the choice of the consumer to use the information in the magazine in their everyday life so in this respect magazines should not be held responsible for the ramifications it’s the consumers fault and of course the fact they have chosen to buy the magazine. Even though the teenage girl could have been attracted to magazine due to the cover, using feminine colours and Interesting catch lines to draw the attention of the target audience. However these magazines can affect the male audience in some way too having articles on celebrity's or music actually of interest to the teenage boy although the magazine is generically targeted for teenage girls. For some magazine their influence over the teenage girl can be drastically larger, big magazine companies like Cosmo Girl can affect the decisions a teenage girl takes just simply because the information being supplied is coming from a well know Brand. If I was to choose anything to remove from this genre of magazine it would be the gossip sections, the reason for this is because it whether it is good or bad it is personal and should not be shown without consent It can also crush a consumers view on a certain celeb in seconds which can affect the consumers lifestyle. There is nothing I wish to add to the magazines for teenagers because I believe they consist of enough information.

Task 2: Magazines and Audiences

           
This is an analysis of the music magazine Vibe, in this analysis I will be reviewing some key factors of this magazine. These factors are, target audience, appeal of cover, conventions of cover design. The magazine is called Vibe and is aimed at people who have an interest in rap music, this is conveyed by the image of Eminem a very famous rapper on the front cover and the text in the top right corner in Bold black writing, saying "THE REAL RAP" there are also various famous rappers names and other references to Rap music displayed on this front cover.  This magazine I believe is aimed at the younger to middle aged generation because of the modern design of the cover and the fact that all the rappers named on the cover are either new or have only been around for 5-10 years. I would also say that this magazine is aimed at the male sex more than the female just because of the colours used such as Reds, Blacks, and Greys and Whites all very strong colours. Also more men like Rap than females just as more women like soul music or divas to men. The cover has attempted to appeal to the Rap music audience with a number of things. The most obvious one would be the image of Eminem on the cover of the magazine, people who like the music Eminem produces and are fans of his will see this image and want to buy the magazine; the caption, 'Eminem comes clean' will also attract people with an interest into the life of Eminem. Another way this magazine appeals to the audience is by asking questions, asking questions like 'who is the best rapper ever?', 'Are the roots to black for jimmy fallon ?' or 'Is 1998 raps last classic year?' make the consumer wish to read the magazine to find out the answers. There are many evident conventions for this magazine, one of the most obvious ones would be the fact the title of the magazine remains the same for every single issue. This is so that consumers who have an interest in rap music would be able to identify this magazine every single time. Another convention of this magazine is that there is always a famous rapper displayed on the front whether it is Eminem, Lil Wayne or Jay-Z there is always one and something about their life written inside the magazine. This story’s about their life can vary, whether it is drug addiction, family problems, how they came to fame there always something about their life. Another obvious convention would be the sub headings used to attract the reader in displaying various phrases with interest towards the consumer such as 'The 50 hottest rap blogs ranked' etc. etc. There are simple conventions also such as the font, the font used to display the name of the magazine 'Vibe' is the same font throughout every single issue of this magazine the only the thing that changes is the colour.

Monday 3 October 2011


This magazine is aimed towards the unconventional woman who has a interest in tattoos. This magazine is different to the others because it targets a more specific audience where as the others cover a more wider conventional audience because the majority of female readers are more likely to read a magazine about clothes, music and lifestyle than a magazine about tattoos. The colors used in this magazine are subtle and not to strong on the eyes. This magazine can also appeal to male readers who like to view images of tattooed females, where as the other magazines may not appeal to the male reader. 



 
 The magazine "American Girl" is aimed at the younger generation of females as shown by the young girl on the front. It shows a happy young girl and would appeal to a younger audience also because the title is "American Girl" it is targeted more at the young female living in America so the audience is more specific. The use of bright colors appeal to the eye and the text describing "The latest new hairstyles" attract women or young girls in who have a interest in their looks and fashion which is what this certain magazine is about. It is a more stereotypical magazine than inked because it appeals to a larger audience.



This magazine is a popular magazine for girls with a interest in fashion and appeals to a even larger audience than both of the two previous magazines because it has no specific audience such as tattoos or American Girls. All women like fashion so this magazine is more popular. The attractive image of a woman on the front appeals to women showing that this magazine is high fashion, you can also tell this from the dull and unorthodox colors used showing that is not generic.



 Vogue is one the biggest retailers in magazine it has a large audience and appeals to girls with a interest high fashion so it has some similarities with the magazine above "V". You can see this from the rather unorthodox colors used and the attractive female on the front wearing rather fashionable clothes. Woman will see this cover and want to know how to attain the same look as the woman depicted on the front. This is what aspires them to read the magazine. The sub text saying "Survival Mode" is different and slightly confusing it will make female readers wish to know what is meant by the phrase so it will encourage them to read the magazine to find out.


The magazine "GL" shows a celebrity on the front "Selena Gomes" which means that any major fans of this celebrity will wish to read this magazine. It is one of the more generic magazines rather than ink or the large fashion magazine such as Vogue or V. It has similarities with the magazine "American Girl" because it used the same bright colors and depicts a younger smiling teenager on the front. The  magazine has a sub text saying " 382 ways to look fab for all" the fact it says " for all " shows that this magazines target audience is much larger than the other four magazines. It also used the same bright colors as "American Girl" using pinks, purples,yellows and white to appeal to the consumers eye.