Evaluation

Kieron's Media Magazine Evaluation

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Double Page Spread

Contents Page

My Front Cover

My Magazine Plan

Front Cover

Contents Page

Double Page Spread

How do magazine front covers use denotation and connotation to attract their intended audience?

The name of the magazine I have chosen is “ Four-Four-Two”. Four-Four-Two is a very popular football formation. using this as the title makes it easy for customers who have an interest in football to make the association between the magazine and football. The intended target audience of this magazine is people who have an interest in football.

There is a football player, (Sneijder) on the front of the cover posing as if he is striking a football. The picture is a long shot of him, so you can see his whole body. The picture has been taken at a low angle as we are meant to see him as a powerful individual, so it is like we are looking up to him. In this case as this is a football magazine we are meant to see him as a good footballer and will be influenced to read the magazine to become more like him on the football pitch. The back ground is very plain so the main focus is placed on the writing, but more importantly the image, which has been placed in the centre of the cover.

On the cover there is a colour scheme of red, black and white. All the subheadings on the cover are placed around the outside in red font to draw attention to them with a small sentence about them in black placed just underneath. The main heading still sticks with in the colour scheme, but to make it more appealing and different to the rest of the text the colour of the font is white with the red and black background to the text. This text is also bigger than the majority of the rest of the text, as the publishers wanted potential buyers to make sure they see this. As well as this the text has a special effect to make it look as if it has been kicked by the football player on the cover.

3 Double Page Spread Analysis

This is a double page spread from Vibe magazine. The magazine has lots of text and also has several images too. The over all colour scheme is quite plain, using only black white and blue on the text. These are all natural colours which makes it appeal to both sexes, which helps to increase the appeal to audience. Solange Knowles is wearing a short red dress with high heels. This image represents that body image is important within the R&B genre of music. Wearing the red dress makes the artist stand out and become the main focus of the article, also with her name being the only other thing in the article. With lots of text this shows vibe aims to educate readers not only entertain them.

NME is the best selling indie music magazine represents their audiences in my different. They used a well known face in the music industry here, who as a large fan base. This being Lilly Allen. Lilly Allen is closely linked with the indie genre of music. The writing used is very bold which represents the artist, Lilly Allen personality. Although this is a music magazine the article is not based around music, but just around the musician. The theme of the article mainly being about the artist is emphasised by the most of the article being in simple colours, e.g. white and black, where as the artists herself is dressed in mainly red to make her stand out.

NME is the best selling indie music magazine represents their audiences in my different. They used a well known face in the music industry here, who as a large fan base. This being Lilly Allen. Lilly Allen is closely linked with the indie genre of music. The writing used is very bold which represents the artist, Lilly Allen personality. Although this is a music magazine the article is not based around music, but just around the musician. The theme of the article mainly being about the artist is emphasised by the most of the article being in simple colours, e.g. white and black, where as the artists herself is dressed in mainly red to make her stand out.

My Indie Magazine

My Indie front cover features a big photo of a stereotypical indie boy. He is wearing a blazer, skinny jeans, scarf-tie and brogues with scruffy hair. The pose is also stereotypical and quite feminine which immediantly shows the readers the genre of this magazine. The spelling is correct and appears formal as there is no slang; this again informs the readers on the music genre, as Indie magazines are usually in full english. The headlines are in different colours to appeal to males and females and the content can also apply to both genders, for example men and women would both want to read '100 albums of the decade'. So therefor the target audience would be men and women with a wide age range. I chose the title 'newcomer' as the magazine is new and it seems as if listening to Indie music is the latest thing. The magazine also includes bands such as 'My Chemical Romance' and artists such as Rihanna; who is turning more Indie and rock, the latest news on them can attract more readers. In comparison to the r&b magazine there is more choice of colour in the Indie magazine. The r&b magazine colours; pink and black are simple and represent the laid back, more feminine and body image craze music genre. Overall I think this magazine appeals to the target audience, but if I had to do this again I would spend more time looking at other examples of Indie magazines- as they feature more colour, images and text and create my own closely using their layout to attract the right readers.

My Heavy Metal Magazine

My Heavy Metal Magazine has a colour scheme of black and red; which are stereotypical dark colours that mirror the music genre. The font is informal, bold and in capital letters to show the agressiveness of metal music. The font also seems quite gothic but not too childish. The colours can appeal to and attract male and female audiences, aged from about 16 onwards. The photo is very effective as its eyecatching, bold and dark which again is projecting the stereotypical image of metal music. I chose this photo because the guitar is important as it establishes the music genre and again its black which is a stereotypical colour of metal music. If I had the chance to do this magazine cover again I would look at other metal music magazines and use some of their ideas; as they already have existing customers and audience for that genre. So therefore it would be somewhat easier to create the metal music look. I also think if I had a better editing programme I could have developed more of a proffesional look.

My R&B Front Cover

My R&B magazine appears the most simple yet most sexual out of the three. The image is the main focus and attracts several readers through this; which is stereotypical for an r&b magazine. R&B music is very much associated with appearance and body image so I used this image of a famous woman with an amazing body and a confident striking pose. Men would love this photo but women could be very envious; so both genders could be readers. I think this photo would appeal to a target age of 16-24 as younger people are more interested in this music genre and body image. I also featured a smaller photo of a very popular artist Nicki Minaj and a headline for her; this would attract readers. The colour scheme is just black and white; very simple yet creates an effective sophisticated look. I chose the title 'Obsession' because it reflects the r&b music genre; again r&b plays an important part about an obsession with body image. I think the cover looks quite smooth and similar to an r&b magazine but I could have made it much better by adding more images and content and perhaps a different colour scheme. I think it would be much better if I could have used a proffessional program and if I had used more ideas from existing r&b magazines.

Media Cover 1st Draft

Reader Profile

My magazine readers are excited R&B music fans who wish to be kept up to date with all the latest music news and gossip.  Music is not the only interst of the readers in this magazine. body image and appearance is a major factor in the R&B culture and has had a big effect on the followers or R&B's fashion. from the questionnaire results i found out 88% of readers were aged between 14-23 so my intended audience are the younger generation of people. Also my results concluded that a large percentage of readers buy the magazine to find out about up and coming live gigs, and also look for special offers in these.
Their favourite artists are:

• Drake
• Rhianna
• Nikki Minaj
• Lil Wayne
• Usher 

3 Music Contents Pages

Vibe Magazine


The picture makes the page look really modern and interesting, the pose is unique so this contents page would stand out from others. I like the way the page is split into two different sections “Features” and “Fashion”, it makes it easier to read and find what you’re looking for in the magazine.


The colour theme that has been used is very good, because all the colours go well together, but everything still stands out individually. The picture is seen as the most important feature of the page, then the main heading. Although the picture is in bold the picture still stands out more to the audience on this page. The heading is also done very uniquely to make it different to other magazines. The target audience of vibe is predominately younger people who have interest in R&B and Hip Hop. It addresses its target audience by keeping things simple the places to find stuff can be found easily. The picture will also appeal to young girls who may aspire to look like this, and males who will find the woman attractive.


Q Magazine

Q magazine is catered for a variety of genres as suggested by the Q channel on television. The target audience for this magazine are the late teens and younger adults as the layout of the magazine is very sophisticated and fresh.

Featured down the left hand side of the splash are the content listings, telling the audience and letting them know what will be featured in the magazine that issue. The page numbers which, along with the feature heading, are in bold, standing out and showing the reader clearly what the feature is and where to find it.
Placed under each sub-title is an italicised description of what will feature in that certain article. The descriptions vary from long to short, still, in each case, not giving too much away about the content, pulling the reader in and urging them to read further.
Some of these images, however, do not link with the text to the left, some have been put there instead of text. This not only gives the page a good ratio between text and image but also leaves the reader intrigued as only an image and title is being revealed and no explanation as to what the feature will contain is included. This leaves the reader in suspense as to what the article is about, making them want to read on and discover more.
The Q logo is positioned on the top left-hand corner. The colours used are also the same; red, white and black which represents passion, innocence and darkness which links to music genre the magazine represents. The text is almost all in capitals which is masculine and eye catching to all readers. In addition some of the text on the contents page are in boxes like the box for the logo on the front cover which gives the magazine a more professional and neat look. Also the contents page is in 3 columns keeping it all tidy. The image used here is of a band standing on a hill which is natural which is quite calm and different to the conventional plain background. The image takes up a majority of the page making the image really important for the magazine. Also having a band that is popular amongst this genre of music will help to appeal the target audience.


MOJO Magazine

The contents page of 'MOJO' magazine features, at the top of the page, the word 'MOJO', instead of contents. However, the reader can tell that this is the contents page due to the typical attributes such as page numbers, feature headings in a bold text, information under the heading about that feature and also images relating to one, or more, of the features in the magazine. The title text ('MOJO') is bold, large and in a simple font, this makes it stand out and catches the reader’s eye.

Featured down the left hand side of the splash are the content listings, telling the audience and letting them know what will be featured in the magazine that issue. The page numbers which, along with the feature heading, are in bold, standing out and showing the reader clearly what the feature is and where to find it.

Placed under each sub-title is an italicised description of what will feature in that certain article. The descriptions vary from long to short, still, in each case, not giving too much away about the content, pulling the reader in and urging them to read further.

Some of these images, however, do not link with the text to the left, some have been put there instead of text. This not only gives the page a good ratio between text and image but also leaves the reader intrigued as only an image and title is being revealed and no explanation as to what the feature will contain is included. This leaves the reader in suspense as to what the article is about, making them want to read on and discover more.

Questionnaire