First I will analyse the three covers;
This is a bad example of a rock magazine as it doesn’t follow the general conventions for a magazine, which I will explain in more detail.
Language –
The magazine cover contains a Masthead which has been conventionally placed at the top left corner on the page. The Masthead is in large font in order to make it stand out; this is important as the Masthead is what is used to create uniqueness to the magazine and give the magazine an identity. The font used for the Masthead evokes the genre of rock (which has been chosen to represent the magazine) as the producers have used big, bold font which doesn’t have much pattern or fanciness and this is stereotypical of rock fonts, as the effect of them is to stand out in an effective but simple way. The negative side to this magazine cover is that the Masthead is very simple and by using white as the colour, it does not stand out very well against the background image therefore the magazine doesn’t look as professional and the Masthead is not the first thing that you notice.
Underneath the Masthead is a sell line which can be used like a slogan in order to ‘sell’ the magazine; a common example for a sell line would be ‘the best sports mag in the UK!’ The sell line will usually tell the reader briefly what the magazine is about; this magazine follows that convention as it says “high voltage rock ‘n’ roll”. The sell line follows conventions by being in a much smaller font compared to the Masthead. The sell line has been produced using the same font as the masthead; this is effective as it makes the magazine look professional and it links the mast head and the sell line together.
The splash is very eye catching with the many colours and designs thus the magazine cover does draw attention to the audience, which is a good thing (when I searching for examples, this magazine cover caught my eye first). However, it also draws notice to the fact that there are other conventions on the magazine such as sub lines or article headings. This is not good as the audience will not know what the magazine is about; therefore they will not be motivated to buy it. The design on the splash doesn’t really relate to the genre of the magazine (rock) as it contains many bright colours and the designs don’t have anything to do with rock because they use images such as butterflies and planes. Another problem with the images on the front cover is that they aren’t any images to do with music or no images of rock bands, therefore this doesn’t promote the magazine in the way it should be promoted.
Also, because of the many images, there is a lack of a distinguishable colour scheme, which is vital to use when it comes to creating magazines as they can be used to link certain articles and images together, and also they make the magazine look professional. Too many colours can be overwhelming and can ruin the magazine cover.
The magazine contains a barcode at the bottom which all magazines have, and it fits conventions by being small and placed in a discreet place.
The magazine doesn’t create a clear separation between the left third of the page and the rest of the page – this isn’t good as, when the magazine is placed in stores, they will be no articles on the left third to advertise the magazine, thus nobody will be interested in buying it.
The magazine also does not create a date line which is important to have as it shows the order of the magazines (the date can also relate to band news inside) however the magazine does say that it is a ‘special edition’ so the fact that it does not contain an issue number can be overlooked.
Because of the lack of article headings, they are consequently no tellers or kickers; these are important to use as they direct the audience to a certain page, so they are used as an anchor device.
Due to the lack of article headings, colour schemes, and many other conventions, the magazine has come out boring and un-professional; it does not interest the reader or direct them to any page or article within the magazine – it is not effective at all when it comes to anchoring in the audience.
Institution –
This in an example of a cover from the “Classic Rock” music magazine; this is a British music magazine that is published monthly. The editor of Classic Rock magazine is Scott Rowley. The music magazine focuses on the genre of rock bands, primarily those from the 1960’s – 1990’s. It also includes reviews of more modern bands. The first issue of Classic Rock was published in 1998 by Dennis Publishing (company) by the previous editor Jerry Ewing. Classic Rock became increasingly popular (now more popular than NME magazine) and now publishes 13 issues a year. The magazine mainly focuses on the genre of classic rock; however they also discuss and review bands/songs from other genres such as heavy metal, grunge, blues, sleaze, and prog rock. Classic Rock magazine also, rarely, produces special edition magazines.
Ideology –
The main concept of this magazine is rock as that is the genre that has been chosen to be represented; however I don’t think they have used ideology in a clever way to represent the rock aspects of the magazine. For example I don’t think they have used colours in a particularly good way to represent rock; I would expect the colours of grey, red and black to be chosen, however they have used colours such as bright green and pink. I also don’t think they have chosen images in a way that would promote the rock genre – I would expect to see pictures of bands or rock artists (perhaps a gig or arena as the background) however they have chosen many clip art images such as stars, swirls and brightly coloured dots. On the other hand, they have used a few images of people (a woman and a man with a moustache have been used several times) and seeing as these images are in black and white, they do promote the idea of rock in a way. The producers also could have used headlines to create a stronger ideology of rock (for example, “The biggest mosh pits in England!”) however they did not. The way in which the masthead has been produced (Fonts and colours) have been used cleverly as rock ideology however as the font style it typically what you would expect to see on the front cover of a rock magazine (huge, bold, block letters – not much pattern).
Audience – I would say that due to the bright colours and huge range of patterns (for example butterflies and stars), this edition of the magazine would be aimed at younger people, perhaps ages 13-16. Also because the magazine doesn’t contain any cover lines, I would also say this represents how it is aimed at younger teens, as it is more likely that a teenager would buy a magazine without any cover lines than an adult would. Because the masthead of the magazine is ‘classic rock’ this shows that the magazine is aimed at people who listen and enjoy rock music/ the rock genre.
Representation –
The main thing that strikes me is that the producers are trying to represent the magazine and rock in a fun way by using bright colours and random pictures on the front cover – it almost reminds me of the stereotypes of Emo’s and Scene people who, stereotypically, are viewed as liking to use bright neon colours and tend to be quite random and fun-loving. The colours signify that the magazine is trying to represent rock in a positive way as bright colours and generally any colours other than black and red are seen as positive and fun; the opposite effect of this would be using lots of black, which is seen as representing doom, death and depression. In terms of trying to sell the magazine, I do not think that the producers carry that off very well due to the lack of certain conventions (Cover lines, Sell lines, Tellers, Flash’s and photography images); If I saw this in a shop, I would not be tempted to buy it. Again, although the magazine does create a masthead that effectively evokes the genre of rock, overall I do not think that it represents rock as much as it could have, due to missing conventions that have been aforementioned. Classic Rock is a British magazine based in the UK which is published monthly. The magazine mainly focuses on rock bands which were formed in 1960’s-1990 however they do feature reviews on more contemporary bands/songs.
This magazine is a lot more conventional compared to the last one.
Language –
The magazine contains a Masthead which has been conventionally placed at the top left corner of the page; the producers have used eye catching font (which is also big and bold) and the effects used on it look very professional (the black drop shadow underneath.) The problem with the mast head it that the singer on the front is blocking part of the heading, so we cannot see what the full name is; this is not good as it doesn’t really promote the magazine very well. However, above the masthead is a link to the website, which does show what the magazine is called. The magazine also fits in with the colour scheme as it matches the colour of the lines which separate the different article headings. Another clever effect that has been used is that the colour of the Masthead matches the colour of the ‘exclusive’ headline, which automatically draws the audience to exclusive article.
The magazine cover demonstrates good use of cover lines as they are plenty of eye-catching cover lines used to promote articles inside the magazine. All the cover lines follow the same pattern of being in big, bold white font; some cover lines are larger than others, demonstrating which articles are the most important (an example of this would be the cover line about kid rock). Every cover line is conventionally followed by a teller which is in smaller font.
The main image on the front of the splash is of the person who is featured in the main article – “Kid rock talks trash” – this is demonstrated by placing the cover line close to the picture, using the biggest, most eye-catching font, and also by linking the article and the picture together; “talks trash” and Kid Rock is wearing a shirt made out of can tops. Kid Rock also appears to be looking very confrontational on this picture, which would link to the cover line as it has a negative effect on the audience.
The producers have used a clear consistent house style colour scheme of orange and white; this is effective as it links all of the cover lines together, and also links the masthead of the magazine with the ‘exclusive’ heading. They have also used a second colour scheme which would be the use of red, white and blue to represent America and also how (p word) Kid Rock is.
The magazine has stuck to the rule of left third, however they have not demonstrated clearly the left third as they have placed only one more cover line on the left third than on the right side of the page.
The magazine does not follow the typical convention of a sell line; this is a disadvantage as it is important for the promotion of your magazine to use a sell line, it will make the magazine a lot more unique and memorable. Sell lines on the magazine are exactly like the slogan of a company – for example, a popular slogan is “every little helps” by the Tesco Company. As you can see, by using the slogan the company has consequently become very popular and memorable – the same rules apply to the sell line of a magazine.
The producers of the magazine have also failed to produce a date line or issue number, which according to conventions should be placed directly underneath the masthead. The date line is important not so much to the audience however it is useful for the producers to have as they know which date the publication was issued. The issue number however is important to the audience as equally as it is to the producers as people may collect the magazine and therefore the issue number is needed in order to organize the magazines.
The producers have used an example of anchorage as they have used a picture of Kid Rock as the main image, and then they have used a cover line to ‘give the picture meaning’ which is basically the definition of anchorage.
This magazine is a good example of the use of the convention ‘screamers’; this basically means where a headline ‘screams’ at the audience. There are many screamers on this magazine as all the headlines are very prominent and take up all the attention on the page; this has been created by using really large, bold and simple font. Relating to the image, the headlines scream towards the audience more as Kid Rock is pointing at the reader, which gives the effect that the headlines are reaching out towards you.
Institution –
This is an example of a cover from the Rolling Stone music magazine which is based in the US and discusses music, liberal politics and popular culture; it is published every two weeks. The first ever issue of Rolling Stone was published in 1967 by founders Jann Wenner and Ralph Gleason. Rolling Stone magazine changed its appearance in the 1990’s in order to appeal to a younger audience. The magazine mainly focuses on pop/rap music.
Ideology –
Although the magazine does feature music, the ideology is not focused on one thing in particular; it also features sports and politics. For example, two people featured on the front specialize in sports; Serena Williams in a professional American tennis player and Derek Jeter in an American baseball player. Kid Rock represents the music side of the magazine. Paul Allen (another main article featured on the front) is one of the richest men in the world, and helped co-found Microsoft, so as you can see, the magazine isn’t based on a strict ideology as Paul Allen doesn’t really fit into any category.
Audience –
I would say the audience of this magazine would be aimed at teenagers, perhaps more aged 14-16. Kid Rock is the main artist featured on the cover, and his name suggests that he himself is a ‘kid’ which would imply that he is trying to relate to kids through his music. Kid Rock also uses quite offensive lyrics (“So bitch better watch your back”) and raps in a way which would represent how , stereotypically, teenagers would speak (slammin bottles of tussin) so this again can be used to represent how the audience is aimed at teenagers as the artist featured – Kid Rock – tries to appeal to the same age range. Other artists mentioned on the magazine again fit in with the whole ‘singer trying to get down with the teenagers’ theme such as Don Henley (I said, "I don't see nothin"). Another thing which would suggest the magazine is aimed at teenagers would be the fact that Kid Rock is dressed how you would expect a teenager lad to dress; Boxers over jeans, ‘bling’ on fingers etc. The magazine is definitely more patriarchal as it mainly features male artists – only one female artist is mentioned on the cover. The main image is also of a male and the styles of text used seem to appeal more towards the male audience; if the magazine was more female orientated, you would expect to see more colours and perhaps more of a design on the font. The main colours used, orange and blue, are also stereotypically linked towards the male population.
Representation –
I think that main thing the producers are trying to represent here is that heavy metal music is ‘hardcore’ or rough as they show an image of Kid Rock looking rather confrontational and they have chosen to use words such as ‘talks trash’ which would represent somebody having a heated argument. Perhaps they are also trying to represent their magazine as cool and legendary, as they have a headline stating people’s names in the ‘hall of fame’ and they also use the cover line ‘exclusive’ to make it seem as though their magazine is good quality.
Language -
The Masthead of the magazine has been conventionally placed at the top left hand corner of the page; this is important as the Masthead starts on the left third, which is the section of magazine that will be shown in the shops. The Masthead has its own unique font; the text is slightly curved giving it a sophisticated look. The producers have also given the Masthead an archetypical look by using large, bold font in a simple colour.
There is a clear distinction between the left third of the page and all over sections; this has been created by placing most of the cover lines on the left third section and leaving blank spaces on other sections - such as the right side of the page. The left third follows conventions by keeping all cover lines in a vertical column, one below the other.
There are several cover lines that have been used in order to attract that audience’s attention and get them to read on into the magazine.
The magazine doesn’t use a sell line; it is important for a magazine to use one as it creates a sense uniqueness about the magazine and it gives the magazine its own identity. The sell line on the magazine is also a good way for the audience to see what features are inside the magazine before they decide to buy it. As the name suggests, the sell line is good for ‘selling’ the magazine.
The magazine doesn’t use a barcode on the front cover – it will be probably be placed on the back – which doesn’t follow the usual conventions for a magazine cover.
The magazine doesn’t contain a dateline which makes the magazine seem a lot less professional and realistic. The dateline would normally be found below the Masthead at the furthest right-hand side. Typically along with the dateline – underneath the dateline – would be an issue number, which is also missing from the magazine. The issue number and dateline is important as it helps keep shop owners, producers, and readers aware of which magazine they are reading and the order of magazines.
The magazine uses tellers along with the cover lines in order to explain briefly what each featured article is about; tellers are primarily used as a tease device to anchor the readers in. The tellers, however, do not follow conventions as the text is not smaller than or less attention grabbing than the cover lines. The confusing mix of different text sizes makes the layout look confusing and unprofessional.
Above the Masthead is a heading for ‘free downloads’ which is then followed by a kicker; a kicker is used to ‘kick’ the reader to a certain page. Typically kickers are placed below the heading or cover line, not after it, however it cannot fit below the heading as the Masthead is there.
The magazine doesn’t use a skyline; this is a disadvantage as a skyline helps to tell the audience what the magazine is about and it helps to attract the audience towards the magazine and get them to read on/buy the magazine.
The magazine uses an example of anchorage, which basically means giving the picture a meaning. The main image on the magazine is of Katy Perry, and next to the image of her is the largest cover line; this is linking the cover line and the image of Katy together in order to instantly draw the reader to the story of Katy; in other words, effectively anchoring the readers.
The image of Katy Perry has been used as the main image; this is conventional as normally magazines only use one image on the front cover, and maybe one or two smaller ones.
The magazine uses a clear house-consistent colour scheme of black, white and pink. The colour scheme not only links the Masthead with all the cover lines/tellers, but also links with the image of Katy Perry as her outfit contains black and pink. It is important to use the same colours as the audience will see the masthead (which is black) and then automatically notice other black items on the page; this leads them towards the cover lines, thus effectively selling the magazine.
Institution –
Blender is an American music magazine that is published 10 times a year by Alpha Media Group. The current editor of Blender magazine is Joe Levy. The magazine writes about pop and chart music, but also contains other features such as steamy pictorials of celebs, lists of albums, songs and artists and each issue contains a full review of an artist’s discography. The first issue of Blender was published in 1994, and later on in 1997 it was launched onto the web. In 2009 Alpha Media Group closed down the magazine and made it into an online only format.
Ideology –
I think the magazine focuses mainly on pop culture and glamour. For example, they have decided to use an image of Katy Perry to represent their ideology; Katy Perry is looking rather glamorous due to her facial expression and clothing choices and she is typically associated with pop music. Her pose also suggests that the magazine focuses around glamour as she is sticking out her bum/chest and curving her fingers at her thighs. We can also assume that the ideology of the magazine is mainly pop music as they mention ‘T-pain’ and ‘Rap’ music, which can also be associated along with pop/chart music. However, the magazine also features different types of music; for example on the cover they mention ‘Metallica’ which is a rock/metal band.
Audience –
I think that audience of this magazine is based at teens who listen/enjoy pop music and perhaps celebrity gossip. I get this impression because Katy Perry’s music is aimed at teenagers (for example, one of her songs is called “teenage dream”) and also, if we were going to generalise, it is mainly teenagers who would listen to rap music. However, to contradict this, there is a cover line stating that T-Pain has some marriage advice to give; this doesn’t fit in with the concept of the audience being for teenagers as the average age for people to get married in the UK is 29 for men and 31 for women. On the other hand, another thing that would suggest the magazine is for teens would be the offer for 10 ‘”free downloads” as it is typically a common thing to do for teenagers to download music tracks. The colours used on the splash would suggest that the magazine is aimed more at teenage girls than boys seeing we are socialised to believe that pink is the colour for girls (just like blue is the colour for boys).
Representation –
As aforementioned, I think the magazine is trying to represent pop music in a glamorous way; this is shown by the provocative pose Katy Perry is using.
Next I will analyse the three contents pages;
The magazine contents page typically follows conventions as the text is set into columns; one at the left side of the page, and one across the bottom.
There is also one huge main image with relates to an article (see the number 38 on the image of The Courteeners) which is almost always used on the contents page of a magazine. There is also another smaller image used to show another article/review; this follows conventions as when you open a magazine to the contents page you would expect to see one large image and several other small images.
In the columns there are several articles which are within the magazine, and all of these articles are listed (which is another convention) with a page reference - this is used to anchor the reader towards that page. Normally theses articles are the main/ most interesting stories featured.
At the top of the page it is conventional to follow the same fashion of the cover by placing the magazine name, date, and issue number together, starting from the left hand side. It also states at the top of the page next to the magazine name that the current page is the contents page. The date and issue number are in smaller font as they are not as relevant compared to the title and heading ‘contents page’.
Underneath the date and issue number is an email address for contact information; this is regularly used on the contents page of a magazine.
All articles are divided into categories and each category has it’s own subheading, for example ‘every month’ and ‘oasis special’. This is used to help separate the different articles to make it easier for the audience to view which stories they want to in a much quicker fashion.
There is a noticeable colour scheme used that consists of three main colours; red, black and white. This is very conventional and makes the magazine look very professional. The colour scheme has also been made to look very simple as not to draw attention away from the articles.
All the articles have been written in the same way; they first have the page number, then the heading of the article (in bold font to stand out) and then underneath is smaller, less extravagant font is a brief description of what the articles about. This is a consistent house style, meaning it has been used for every article.
The text underneath the article headings are called sub lines; these have been conventionally used to explain very briefly the article heading; the font is always very small.
It is hard to notice, but at the very bottom of the page there is a page number; this is obviously used so that the reader knows which page they are on
The last convention that I will mention is that there is only one page for the contents page; this follows conventions as typically there are 1-2 pages used for the contents page and no more.
Audience -
I would say the audience for this contents page would firstly be aimed at people who listen to rock music, due to the colours (red and black) that have been used. Also, the band featured are wearing typical rock attire such as the ‘cool’ sunglasses and the print t-shirts. The fact that there is an ‘oasis special’ article inside the magazine would also suggest it is for people who enjoy rock music. I think this would be aimed at teenagers as the band featured are relatively young and are a new band, whereas you would expect a magazine for the older generation to feature older rock bands, such as AC/DC.
Institution -
This is a front cover from ‘Q’ magazine, which was first published in 1986 by founders Mark Ellen and David Hepworth. Q magazines are published by Bauer Media Group (publishing house) monthly in the UK each year. Q magazine was originally called “The modern guide to music and more” however later names included “cue” which was then changed to “Q” so that it didn’t get mixed up for a pool magazine. The magazine mainly covers pop/rock music and includes features such as a review section, new releases (of songs), reissues (of songs), music compilations, and other reviews such as live concert, television, and film reviews. Q often has pages or smaller magazines inside their issues describing the ‘100 greatest songs of all time’ or ‘50 greatest rock albums’ .
Ideology -
The ideology of the contents page is that it is based on the music genre rock; we know this because the images, articles, and colour scheme all represent rock. The main image is a band that’s genre is indie rock, which again shows how all the other article ideas are based on this image of rock. The magazine doesn’t just focus solely on music though, as it has interviews with bands which, in a celebrity magazine, would be like the ‘gossip’ of the magazine.
Representation -
The obvious representation of this magazine would be rock; the producers have tried to make the magazine contents page be representative of the rock genre. I think the contents page also represents youth as the band featured are young. The contents page obviously represents the rock genre in a positive way as they have chosen to write about rock music and have decided to interview a rock band; this makes the audience think they must like rock themselves.
The first thing that I will mention is that this magazine is a lot more conventional in the sense that it has more images than the first and magazine contents pages tend to use a lot of images rather than just two. Each image has the number of the page at the bottom, this then relates the fact that the article heading has the page reference next to it as well; this is effective as, if the reader becomes interested in either the image or the article heading, they can then check the image or what it’s about, thus guiding the audience quickly towards a page within the magazine. Following conventions, there is one image larger than the other which would connotate that that specific article is more important than the rest; the main article. There are a few images at the top of the page which don’t really follow conventions as they are typically placed at the side of the page or next to the article, however there are some images that have been placed in a conventional fashion. The images at the top of the page work well with the headline ‘contents’ as the colours match, thus drawing your attention from the heading straight to one of the pictures, which will consequently take the reader straight to a page number. All pictures are interesting and varied.
The articles in the magazine aren’t really placed in columns (just one list for each page) however when looked at both pages together it would appear that there are two columns. However, the contents are listed vertically which is conventional; it also makes the articles easy to differentiate and read.
The articles are again divided into several different categories using subheadings; the categories this time are a lot easy to notice than the last magazine. Each article in each category has again the same style of writing; a page reference followed by an article heading, then ending with a brief synopsis about the article.
Although the article headings are in a bold font, they do not really follow conventions as they are almost the same size as the sub lines; this makes it more difficult for the audience to read the articles, and none of the articles stand out; consequently making the page look a little bland.
As you will see, this magazine has two pages consisting of contents; I feel this approach isn’t as conventional as the previous magazine, however it is still commonly used.
There are a few errors with this contents page - for example it is missing vital conventions such as the magazine name, issue number, and the date. Consequently this makes the magazine look a lot less professional. The page number at the bottom is also missing.
Audience -
I think the audience for this target audience I would say would be adults, perhaps people aged 20-40. The reasons for this is that the magazine looks a lot more sophisticated as it doesn’t use complicated colour schemes or layouts. The images of people on the contents page are all adults or middle aged, so this again would suggest this magazine is aimed at older viewers. One of the images is in black and white (of a woman) which represents the era of black and white films, which were produced in the 1960’s. Other images include a middle aged man who appears to be a professor doing work at a university perhaps, which again represents an older audience.
Institution -
There isn’t much to write for institution seeing as the publisher of this magazine has not mentioned which magazine (the masthead) on the contents page, therefore it will be too difficult for me to try and write about the company. However I can suggest that perhaps, due to the academically based contents page - that this magazine has been produced by a small scale university or college.
Ideology -
The ideology of this magazine contents page I think is based around academics; at the top of the page there are two images of awards, and at the bottom right a picture on a middle aged man doing revision of some sort. The magazine layout is also something very simple; you would expect to see something like this for a university magazine (the decoration at the side of either page is also conventional of college/university magazines as they have all the important work, then use a random image to make the magazine more interesting - they don’t have time to make it look really professional.) The two images of the man and woman at the bottom of the first page look as though they could possible be famous figures, which would again support the fact that the magazine’s ideology is academics.
Representation -
This contents page, as aforementioned, represents academics and learning; this is because the contents page has many images of people awards and people studying. The magazine represents academics in a positive way as they use images of awards (which is known as a huge achievement) which connotates the feeling of pride. Because the magazine appears to be academically based, it represents intellectual people.
This magazine contents page is the most conventional out of them all as it contains most of the conventions, and the producers have used them generously.
All articles and information have been divided into two columns, one at each side of the page. On the right hand side, there are all the articles and news stories, on the left is a band index. All articles and news stories are divided into clear categories and there is a consistent house style as to how the article headings have been written; each starts with a page reference, followed by a heading, then ending with a brief description of what the article is about. All the categories have been created in a conventional manner; they are in capital letters, bold font, and colours have been used to make the categories stand out. The article subheadings are all in a slightly bigger font (also bold) than the sub lines, which have been created using small, simple font. There is a use of features and regulars; the ‘plus’ category and the features category count as feature articles, whereas the rest are just normal articles - or regulars.
The band index again has a house style of writing; the band is named first in bold font, followed by a page reference. You can clearly distinguish the category and it’s features from other categories/articles.
Both columns (with the articles) and other stories have a clear colour scheme; this is red, white and black. This helps represent the genre of the music magazine as NME writes about rock music, and rock often denotates the colours of red and black.
At the top of the page is the magazine name and date; this is again another popular convention. The magazine name has been made to contrast with the date by being created with strong colours and bold fonts; it is also in full capitals.
The downside to this contents page is that there are not many small images, however there is a big image which relates to a main article featured within the magazine. We know that the image is related to an article as there is a page reference, article heading, and sub line on the picture.
Another convention which has been used (which the other two magazine contents pages didn’t have) is that the magazine have featured an advertisement; these are commonly used and you will normally find at least one on the contents page; a popular example of an advertisement used would be one for a holiday. The advertisement fit’s the colour scheme, yet uses one other colour to make it stand out from everything else on the contents page.
Audience -
I would say the audience for this magazine is aimed again at teenagers, perhaps aged 15-19. My reason for this is that the magazine has a very cramped contents page; if it were aimed at older viewers, you would expect it to be a lot less complicated. The genre this contents page is trying to promote is rock as they have used conventional rock colours such as black and red. I think this magazine may be aimed at the older teenagers as, instead of showing any pictures of bands, they have shown a picture of a gig venue, so we assume that the people reading this magazine are old enough to attend venues (most will be 18+). The music magazine I would say is solely based on music because of the huge music index on the left hand side - this magazine is obviously for people who are big on their bands, and possible people who know a lot of different bands. Because of the advertisement at the bottom, that would also suggest that, yes the magazine is still aimed at teenagers (it is showing another teen magazine), however it is aimed at the older teens as younger teens wouldn’t be interested in advertisements as much, and the advertisement claims you can save £45, which younger people probably wouldn’t have.
Institution -
NME is the name of the magazine above, which actually stands for New Musical Express. NME magazine was first published in in 1952, and since then has been published weekly in the UK. In 1996 they launched an online website for NME magazine which currently has over 5 million used monthly. NME’s current editor (and editor since 2009) is Krissi Murison. NME magazine is often associated with punk rock music, however it also contains other features such as special editions and a charts list of the best bands. NME magazine originally started as a plain music newspaper, however over the years it has greatly improved and is now a glossy magazine.
Ideology -
The ideology of this magazine I think is based completely on music - there does not appear to be any interviews with the bands. The band index suggests that the magazine is based on loads of little subgenres of rock which is focusing on music. There is also a reviews page which would suggest that people can write about different songs/types of music and share their views.
Representation -
Again this magazine contents page represents rock music and the rock genre. Seeing as the page is so based on rock music (reference to the band index on the page) it would suggest that the producers like rock music, therefore representing it in a positive way. The contents page also advertises another rock magazine which would again suggest that they are representing rock in a positive manner.
Language;
The first convention is that the double page spread has a main image which relates to an article; here it would be the image of the band ‘The Teenagers’ and the title next to it, stating that NME loves the band. The image relates to the title as the pose of the band is typically what you would expect of three teenage boys on a weekend - lounging around, appearing to be watching TV, with the posters, particularly of women in the background.
The main text - in this case the title ‘NME loves The Teenagers’ - is bigger than all over text, which is conventional as NME wants to draw most of the attention to their main article, so making that article the largest on the page they are achieving this. The heading is also longer in length (physically) than all other articles, which is another conventionally way of making the main article stand out.
The double page spread has been split up into columns which is done to make the page layout easier to read and decipher. It also helps separate different types/sections of articles and news.
One side of the DBS (Double page spread) is full with a whole image; this is typically of DBS’s. This helps to draw more attention to the main article, makes the magazine a lot more aesthetically attractive, and also helps to fill space.
The DBS uses a fairly simple colour scheme - white, black and blue. DBS’s tend to have a lot less colour than compared to the front cover as producers want to keep the pages simple and easy to read. Using less colour also makes articles stand out a lot more.
Quotations have been used in some of the featured articles in order to break up the text and make the DBS seem more interesting.
It is also common for some of the text/ pictures to drag over onto the other side of the page, here we can see that the text ‘The Teenagers’ drags over both pages, connecting to two.
Institution;
NME is the name of the magazine above, which actually stands for New Musical Express. NME magazine was first published in in 1952, and since then has been published weekly in the UK. In 1996 they launched an online website for NME magazine which currently has over 5 million used monthly. NME’s current editor (and editor since 2009) is Krissi Murison. NME magazine is often associated with punk rock music, however it also contains other features such as special editions and a charts list of the best bands. NME magazine originally started as a plain music newspaper, however over the years it has greatly improved and is now a glossy magazine.
Ideology;
The ideology for this double page spread is that it focuses on one main article/ band which is The Teenagers. The publishers then write the biggest article based on The Teenagers, and then fill out the double page spread with smaller articles which are to be used as fillers.
Audience ;
The audience for this double page spread I would say is obviously teenagers as they feature a band called ‘The Teenagers’ and they use words such as “Young, dumb..” which are commonly associated with teenagers. The pose of the band also suggests that it is aimed at teenagers because you have your stereotypical lads lazing about with all the images of girls in the background etc. I think the audience is aimed more at boys seeing as the colour scheme is predominantly black and blue, and the band contains only men.
Representation;
I think the publishers have tried to represent teenage boys in a very stereotypical way by using aforementioned elements such as the lazy slouch, the images in the background, the clothing (baggy jeans and a t-shirt) etc. However I’m not convinced that they have represented teenage boys in a positive way as they mention them being “dumb” and the image would suggest that all boys do is slouch around and be lazy all day.
Language;
The page title of the article is normally placed at the top left of the double page spread, however as we can see there isn’t a title here for this article, just a quotation by Lily Allen, which does kind of reference what the article is about, but cannot be classed as a title.
As you can see, some of the text also drags along over to the next page, this is another typical convention.
There is a continuous colour scheme used over the two pages which is red, white and black. The colour scheme for the writing is kept very simple (predominantly black and white) so that the text is easy to read/understand. The writing ‘Lily Allen’ has been put in red to match with the picture of Lily on the next page.
Normally several articles are published on a double page spread - most of them being extra information columns - however only one article has been used, so it’s hard to comment on the fact that the main article has been produced using large, bold, stand out font seeing as there are no other articles.
Double page spreads often use quotations to break up the article - the publishers haven’t used quotations in the conventional sense, however they have still been used.
There is an introduction to the article just below the quotation, which is commonly used so that the readers understand briefly what the story is going to be about- think of it as the blurb at the back of a book.
The article is written in columns because it is much easier to read; our eyes prefer to look at something directly in front of us, so less movement is required, thus making the article easier to read.
Institution;
Again the magazine is NME which stands for New Musical Express. NME magazine was first published in in 1952, and since then has been published weekly in the UK. In 1996 they launched an online website for NME magazine which currently has over 5 million used monthly. NME’s current editor (and editor since 2009) is Krissi Murison. NME magazine is often associated with punk rock music, however it also contains other features such as special editions and a charts list of the best bands. NME magazine originally started as a plain music newspaper, however over the years it has greatly improved and is now a glossy magazine.
Ideology;
I think the ideology for this magazine is based around Lily Allen’s story, but also about how what people say can be misinterpreted. A secondary element could also be that it is based around gossip, as that is what Lily is defending herself against. Magazines often focus around gossip, and this article isa prime example.
Audience;
I think the audience is aimed at teenage girls for several reasons; most of Lily Allen’s fans are female (teenagers) and also it is young girls that get blamed for being attention seekers, and it is often young girls that like to gossip (which fits in with the ideology of this magazine). You wouldn’t really expect a guy to read this article as guys aren’t stereotypically associated with gossiping, so they wouldn’t be interested in this article.
Representation;
Although I can’t read the text, it would appear that the publishers are representing Lily Allen in a positive way as the quotation they have used suggests that she is ‘honest’ - however, seeing as the article is about gossip, it is most likely to mention the bad things about Lily Allen too.
The name of the artist - “The Chapman Family” - is very conventional as it has been produced using bold, large fonts to stand out from all other articles/text on the page; this is because the publishers want to keep the focus on this article.
There is a quotation about the story - these are often used in order to break the article up and to bring attention to key information.
There is a brief introduction to the article at the top of the second page - this is conventional and it lets the reader understand a bit about the story before they read it.
There is a page reference on the second page of the double page spread; this is again another conventional method used when it comes to double page spreads.It is important to let the readers know which page they are on as it helps them get to other articles via the use of kickers.
There is an image of the people featured in the main article which takes up a whole page of the double page spread; this is commonly used as it makes the double page spread more interesting and divides the text.
The writing has been produced in columns in order to make it much easier to read as it provokes minimum effort. Clear font has been used so that the article is easy and simple to read.
It appears as though at the bottom of the second page, there is a journalists name - this is often used.
A simple colour scheme of black and white again has been used in order to make the article easy to read; besides most of the colour is used in the photograph, so there is no need for any fancy colour schemes.
Institution;
I’m not sure which company this magazine is from, however we can tell it’s from a professional magazine as the layout looks very conventional of a magazine as certain conventions such as columns and a full page image has been used.
Ideology;
I would probably say that this article has been based around stereotypes and how it can affect people - for example they article mentions about how the people featured have “been shot at” for the way that they look, and looking at the image next to the article, it is rather dark and the people in the image (especially around the table) seem quite gothic.
Audience;
I think the audience is probably based around stereotypes such as emos, moshers, goths etc. that feel as though they are different from the rest of society seeing as, like aforementioned in the ideology of the double page spread, The Chapman family are getting “shot at” for the way that they look. Seeing as all the people in the picture are males, I would probably say the article is aimed more at the male population.
Representation;
I think the magazine tries to represent The Chapman family as strong seeing as they mention that getting shot at is “no big thing” and the image of them shows many of them, as though they are coming together. The publishers are trying to get the audience to feel sorry for them in a way, however they are also trying to show how The Chapman family is strong willed and how stereotypes shouldn’t matter; that we should be who we are. They are trying to represent the family in a positive way, and the bullies in a negative way.
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