Textual Analysis Of College Magazine Front Cover (2).

On the front cover of this 'Secondary Teachers' magazine, it is being represented in a very formal way which we can tell by the use of the colour black which appears very dominant on the front of the page. The colour black connotes the idea of power, formality and work which accompanied by the purple colour of the main cover line also suggests elegance as well. The colour of the masthead is what is apparent on each cover of the 'Secondary Teachers' magazine and could be considered as iconic of the magazine due to the fact that we would recognise the magazine by the colour of the masthead.The colours of the other cover lines are all in bright and eye catching colours which attract customers and make the magazine look more interesting and friendly.

The student that is on this front cover is being represented in a sophisticated and formal way which we can tell by the costume that she is wearing. The suit like costume connotes business and power to the audience which they are then able to relate to the main cover line which reads 'Meet The New Inspectors - they're not from Ofsted'. The formality of he costume and the main cover line are very well related especially to the target audience of secondary teachers in which Ofsted are a major part of their career. Also, because the student is posing as an Ofsted inspector, this suggests that the students are now the ones that are inspecting schools and putting forward their opinions on what changes they believe are needed within the school and with the teachers.

The camera angle and shot that is used is the iconic one used for several magazine covers which is the basic straight on mid-shot. This shot has worked particularly well with this front cover due to the fact that the audience is able to see her full costume therefore making it easier to relate back to the main cover line of the magazine. Also, the fact that this student is looking directly at the camera allows the audience to feel more involved in the magazine making it more personal to them.

We are able to identify the target audience of this magazine by simply reading the name of the magazine. But other factors that make us realise this more is the fact that the headlines of the magazine are all to do with different aspects of school and school life. A good example of this on this certain magazine cover is one of the cover lines at the top band of the page reads 'Summer Ashes Fever: Knock Your Students For Six'. This cover line immediately tells us that this magazine is aimed at teachers rather than students which we may believe it could be due to the image of the student on the front cover.

Textual Analysis Of College Magazine Front Cover (1).

On the front cover of this 'Secondary Teachers' magazine, it is represented in a exciting manner due to the use of the colours on the image. The bright red and blue colours of the boxing gloves are suggestive of fun and excitement due to the simple fact that they are both very bright colours. The colour of the main headline is yellow which is connotational of happiness and is also a bright colour which is very eye catching and draws attention to the magazine. The colour of the masthead is also a very bright and cheery colour as well as the cover lines also being the same. The bright use of colours is good for this particular front cover as the main headline is all about excitement and sport.

The student on this front cover is being represented in a happy and active way. We can tell this due to the fact that he is smiling and also appears to be sweating, this accompanied by the fact he is wearing boxing gloves and also accompanied by the main cover line informs the audience that this particular student has been boxing. 'Hooked. How non-contact boxing is proving a big hit in schools' this main cover line is in bold and brightly coloured text which reflects the image of the student very well. The impression received from this main cover line is that this particular magazine is informing the target audience of a new form of activity that is beginning to be used in school.

The costume of the student is very minimal and due to the medium close up used, we can only see a minority of it. The t-shirt that the model is wearing is a maroon polo t-shirt which would suggest to the audience that he is wearing a sports kit of some form. This becomes more obvious when we look at the boxing gloves as boxing is obviously a sport.

The camera angle that has been used on this front cover is the usual one that is used on most magazine front covers. It is the conventional medium close-up shot in which we can the see model who is looking directly at the camera. The fact that he is looking straight at the camera gives the audience the idea that he is looking at them and makes it more personal involving the reader more into the magazine. The shot used allows the image to dominate the front cover which alongside the main cover line informs the audience about what the main story of the magazine is going to be about.

The intended target audience is fairly obvious on this front cover magazine as the masthead is the target audience, secondary teachers. You could also possibly tell this by the fact that what appears to be the main story is about different teaching methods which will be more interesting to teachers rather then a student.

Target Audience.

Target audience is one of the key concepts that magazine institutions have to take into consideration when creating their magazines. They would have to take into consideration the images used, the font type used, the stories within the magazine and also the name of the magazine. For example, if a magazine was created specifically for the male target audience and it had pictures of lipstick on the front cover as well as pink swirly writing, it would be guaranteed that no male would purchase the magazine. A good image to use for a magazine targeted at men would more than likely be a car or a picture of a female model on the front cover as these are stereotypical magazines for the male audience.

What Is Target Audience?In marketing and advertising, a target audience, or target group is the primary group of people that something, usually an advertising campaign, is aimed at appealing to. A target audience can be people of a certain age group, gender, marital status, etc. (ex: teenagers, females, single people, etc.) A certain combination, like men from twenty to thirty is often a target audience. Other groups, although not the main focus, may also be interested.

L.I.I.A.R.

Language: Media language refers to written, verbal, non verbal, aural and aesthetic communication and usually a combination of these.

Institution: Any company, organisation or studio that creates a media text.

Ideology: A dominant set of ideas presenting itself as a common sense or truth. Power relations are reinforced through ideology.

Audience: A collective group of people reading/watching/listening to any type of media. Every part of media also has a target audience that they have in mind which they appeal to by having certain themes or story lines that would attract the intended audience.

Representation: How the image, setting, text and themes are shown to the audience and how they see it. This is done by referring to the theme of the media text and having the images, setting and text relate back to it.

Magazine Types.

There is a large amount of magazines on the market today that vary from genres such as gossip magazines to health magazines to sport magazines. The following list are examples of magazines that are on the market today.

- Men's Health
- Heat
- Kerrang
- FHM
- New
- BBC Good Food
- The Big Issue
- Car Sport
- Vogue
- Cosmopolitan
- Star

This list is just a few of the hundreds of magazines that are out on the market today. Each magazine has its on convention which is its identity allowing the consumers to recognise the magazine. Apart from the actual name of the magazine, this could be the colours, cover lines and even the images used.

In magazines such as heat, they lure their target audience into purchasing the magazine by having a celebrity as the main image on the cover accompanied by a main cover line which is usually suggests that one of the star's secrets is going to be revealed or occasionally, they have 'embarassing' pictures of the celebrities to provide some humour for the consumer.

Every magazine has an intended target audience, for example 'Heat' would more than likely be targeted at the younger generation possible ranging from the ages 15 - 25 and the target audience would primarily be women due to the fact that it is a gossip magazine. Comparing this to a magazine such as Kerrang which is a music based magazine, the target audience would be completely different as it would target all ages and both male and female consumers as a range of people all ages and both genders like the type of music that is portrayed in Kerrang magazine.

Conventions Of A Contents Page.

Page Numbers: Page numbers are essential on a contents page as they allow the consumer to locate the article that he or she wishes to find. These are genetically located next to the article title or are sometimes located on images that are representing the articles.

Picture Linkage: This is where there images on the contents page have some link to either the articles or a summary of the magazine. Ones which link to articles feature bands or artist of which the article stipulates about. This gives a visual aid to the consumer so they can identify whether or not this said magazine covers whom they are looking for.

Cover Story: This is one of the more important parts of the contents page as this is one of the reasons the consumer has opened or purchased the magazine, so making a spectacle of the cover story is important. Highlighting it in some format helps the consumer easily identify the location of the article.

Regular: This is a section on some magazines which include the articles which are featured week in week out this allows easy identification of their location.

Images: These are generally linked to the pictures etc (see ‘picture linkage’ and ‘page numbers’).

Colours: The colours generally match that of the cover and generally set how the magazine colours are going to be represented. For example in Kerrang magazine, the colours tend to be black and darker colours which relates back to the music genre.

Conventions Of A Magazine.

Masthead: The name of the magazine displayed in the typeface in which it is designed. This is the visual branding of the title and is usually done in a unique typeface to be very recognisable. The Masthead can also suggest the intended target audience, for example to magazine 'Secondary Teachers' wouldn't attract a teenager who likes gossip magazines such as heat, instead it would attract a secondary school teacher.

Dateline: Month and year of publication, often with the price. Note that a monthly magazine usually hits the news-stands the month before the cover date.

Main Image: Main images often relate to the main headline or the 'Main Cover Line'. This draws attention to the magazine due to the size of the image and the colours that are used which are usually bold and boisterous.

Coverlines: Coverlines are primarily used to inform the purchaser what else has been included with in the magazine other than the main story. These coverlines are often accompanied by small images which allow the audience to get a vague idea about what the article is going to be about.

Main Cover Line: The main cover line accompanied by the main image is very dominant on the front cover of any magazine. It uses large, bold fonts as well as bright colours which tells the reader what the main story of the magazine is.The main coverline always relates to the main image informing the reader what the main story is about.

Left Third: In western countries, the left third of the cover is vital for selling the issue in shops. where the magazine is not shown full-montage. The title must be easily recognisable in a display of dozens of competitors. The start of the masthead is important here.

Bar code: Standard bar code used by retailers which contains a unique code for the magazine.

Selling Line: Selling lines are short, sharp descriptions of the title's main marketing point which are unique to each magazine.

The Brief.

Preliminary Exercise: Using DTP and an image manipulation program, produce the front page of a new school/college magazine, featuring a photograph of a student in medium close-up plus some appropriately laid-out text and a masthead. Additionally you must produce a mock-up of the layout of the contents page to demonstrate their grasp of DTP.

Main Task: The front page, contents and double page spread of a new music magazine. All images and text used must be original, produced by you - minimum of four images.