Textual analysis - Music magazines

Mojo
This magazine first appears sinister, with the image of a band dominating the front cover. It has huge impact as the eye contact with the people in the image is intense, attracting the public to the magazine. The image of the band stands in front of the magazine name 'Mojo', this tells the audience that music comes first, that it is not about image, but about music content. The band also covers up half the name 'Mojo' suggesting the power of the band and that the magazine is aimed at people that are serious about music, the seriousness is also elaborated in the band's eye contact. The image is of a band called Oasis, because the band is of the genre rock. The band is represented as moody and challenging which fits in with the persona of the band Oasis. The eye contact is direct and striking blending in with the bold font and mod theme colour.
From the magazines appearance, it shows that it represents the rock/mod genre of music and the magazines contents will contain information relevant to this music.

Q

Simple blocks of primary colours are used in an eye catching way to attract the reader. The clear red, white and black font contrasts with the animated images and gives a simple direct message. The main figure is looking directly at the reader and pointing, as if it is say to the reader that they are personally involved. The bands are in the largest print to show the reader what to expect. The language is persuasive, using the selling point of FREE music and the COMPLETE U2 story.

This magazine is aimed at someone interested in a wide range of music, as inside you can get information on people as diverse as Lily Allen to Kylie. It is for someone who is quite sophisticated as there is an article by Tony Blair. This magazine is trying, successfully, to sell itself as a stylish magazine, building on already known quantities, such as GQ and James Bond.

Contents page:

Front cover for student magazine:

This was my initial design for my school magazine, however I feel that it needs adapting and changing to be made more suitable to be a student magazine. The image I chose to use of a girl smiling will relate to the students that my magazine is aimed at, but there is no eye contact with the reader, which is the convention of many magazines. The title of my magazine is called 'Whatever!' This language can be harsh on students and the word is a negative one. The images that I incorparated of a top and skirt are quite bland and do not suit the fashion trend that college students aspire to. The highlighted font is far to garish and the positioning of text and images needs to be re-thought. My final school magazine front cover...

3 flat plans

Title ideas for school magazine

These are the ideas for the title of my Sixth Form magazine. I brainstormed through a lot of different ideas to get the right mood and feel for my magazine. I decided that my title needed to be informal and chatty to appeal to my target audience and to contain some colour that was both pink and blue for both male and female students.

• S.O.S


• Teen Brief


• The Universal


• Academy


• What's new?


• The Reporter


• Showtime


• S.O.S Now
  

My final choice for the title of my magazine is 'Teen brief'

Textual analysis for target audience school magazine

Dave - South East Essex College

This magazine is aimed at my target audience, year 12 students. The magazine title is Dave, which is very masculine for a college magazine. The image that is also presented on the cover is of a male singer in Essex, the features of the magazine are aimed at teenagers and the colors, images and title suggest a male audience. The title is a male name and is presented in bold yellow letters against a black background to make it stand out. The colors chosen are also masculine even though it is more likely for this magazine to appeal to both male and female students. A colour scheme is very important in determining who will read the magazine, this student magazine however can appeal to my target audience although the images, title and colour scheme limits the readers.

Next
Next magazine is aimed at year 12 students that helps guide them through the year. It contains knowledge about life after school and gives students useful advice that will help shape the career that they wish to have when they leave school. It gives students ideas about what they want as a career and the path they should take to get there. This gives students an idea of what they will encounter in the following years as students, which I think is a useful feature for a school student magazine. The title is suited appropriately to the content of the school magazine and what information it offers students about the ‘next’ stage in life. The image featured on the magazine is friendly and inviting and I think it would be a successful magazine to appeal to both male and female. The people in the image look like they are having fun and also they look popular and happy, which appeals to my target audience.

Questionnaire graph results

What are your hobbies and interests?
The results for this show the different hobbies that students enjoy when i asked a range of people in 6 form what their interests are. The results conclude that most people enjoy shopping and seeing friends, therfore this is what is most important to them, which makes it a vital part of my magazine content.

Do you read your current school magazine?

Most people do not read their current school magazine because it does not appeal to them. This helps me learn of the design and content of current school magazines that it is not appealing to my target audience.

What subject do you enjoy most at school?

Most people I asked enjoy the subjects such as politics and english. In my magazine I can include information about subjects and information such as school trips that relate to 6 form subjects.

Are you interested in fashion?

Many people I asked were interested in fashion. I want to include a fashion part in my magazine which could relate to the sort of clothes 6 form students can wear to school.

Do you read magazines outside school?

Most of the people I asked did read magazines outside school, this includes the male audience that I asked aswell.

If so, which magazines?
This question that follows then helped me determine what magazines the students were interested in. This included many fashion and real life magazines and contents.

What attracts you to a magazine?

I feel this is a important question to ask, as this will draw students into reading my magazine. I found that images and stories were the most important feature to a successful magazine and what my magazine should contain.

Mood board for my school magazine

This my mood board created for my preliminary task for the student school magazine. I was able to adapt the images and logos on the mood board to suit the students expectations of a successful and readable school magazine. The mood board fits in with the answers I got from my questionnaire that I asked a range of 10 students. This mainly includes the interests of students and their entertainment. There is also an example of what I found was the most popular girls magazine, 'Look' and what was the most popular boys magazine 'Nuts', even though that was to graphic to display on my mood board. I created a mood board that relates too students, including the fashion style and shops they like to go to. A lot of people learn to drive in 6 form and it is when getting a job starts to become important because students want money for going out. Creating this mood board helped me to investigate into what music, hobbies the students are interested in. As the consumers, the students ideas and interests is what would be most important to contribute to my magazine. The social networking sites like Myspace and Facebook and even communicating by mobile phones are important in students lives.

Questionnaire:

This is a questionnaire that I created to research into what a selection of 10 students are interested in so that I can develop my magazine and its content on the front cover. The 10 students that I asked were all very different and were both male and female, so that I could get a different view on students ideas, hobbies and interests that will make my magazine an all rounder. My questionnaire is very plain because the 6 form is mixed and will have to appeal to a wide range of students. I have made it formal so that students will take it seriously and fill out the correct information. The questionnaire will help develop my ideas on what my magazine front cover should contain and I am able to get views and develop on students ideas and comments. I kept the questions brief and mainly to yes or no answers so that i am able to extend on the ideas given to me.

What are your hobbies and interests?

I chose to ask this question because it will give me an idea of what the students are interested in, which will appeal to them in a magazine. the interests and hobbies that they enjoy doing , they will also enjoy reading about and a magazine that contains information and articles on this would make it more of a student friendly magazine.

Do you read your current school magazine?

I wanted to ask this question to get an idea if students read the magazine at their school and if they were interested in it. I wanted to know how many students were currently reading their school magazine.

What subjects do you enjoy?

This is relevant to the information that the magazine should contain as I want to know what subjects students enjoy so that I can create articles and sections of the magazine that are relevant to what subjects the students want to read about.

Are you interested in fashion?

A lot of magazines are fashion ones and these are most read by teenagers 15+. I cannot use fashion in a school magazine, but I have an idea of creating a section of my magazine that will show 6 form students appropriate but stylish clothes they can wear in the 6 form and where to get them from.

Do you read magazines outside school?

It is less likely for a student to pick up a school magazine if they do not read them outside school, this links onto my next question...If so, which ones? Knowing what students read, i can develop my ideas onto producing my magazine roughly based around these magazines such as Look, Vogue, Glamour etc.

What attracts you to a magazine?

Colour images stories headlines

This question tells me what attracts the reader to a magazine. This includes the front cover of the magazine that is the most vital part to gripping a reader into buying the magazine. The images, colour, stories and headlines are all a big part of drawing in a reader, but I wanted to know, which one was most appealing.

Focus group:

Hannah merry: 16
Hannah has a unique style, very different in style and interests of the other members of my focus group. Her style and fashion is influenced by the music she listens too, which is mainly acoustic. She enjoys art and English, which could influence my magazine to be more artistic and cultural, but this would not necessarily suit all 6 form students. I need to create an all round magazine that suits the hobbies and interests of all 6 form students, not just the individuals in my focus group. I can do this by choosing three different individuals that do not share the same interests. Hannah enjoys watching films, so a film section in my magazine that could also relate to the subjects may be an idea. She also likes to go shopping, as clothes is not a part of a school curriculum it would be hard to work in this interest, but because 6 form students do not wear uniform and have a dress code of trousers and skirts below the knee and tops that cover mid drifts and shoulders. A clothes section in my magazine of where to by clothes like this that are also trendy would relate to the uniform at 6 form. Hannah’s opinions of what she would like to see in a student magazine have given be ideas in what to include in my magazine, such as a clothes section and film section that will interest the readers and can be expanded to suit the 6 form students. Hannah is very individual, she a big film buff and a film section could be incorporated into my magazine.
Ellie Kent: 16
Ellie has a very different style, fashion and interests compared to Hannah. She prefers loud upbeat music and is an outgoing individual that enjoys sport especially netball. She has a different aspect of interests to offer my ideas as I cannot just focus my magazine on an individual in particular, but my focus group helps me to expand the interests into a magazine that will appeal to the whole of the 6 form. A sport section in the magazine would appeal to an audience like Ellie. I could mention the upcoming matches and about the gym that 6 form students are allowed to use in free periods and lunch times, which is free and has been a big benefit for the students that enjoy using the equipment. Ellie is also interested in school trips that take place for the subjects, this is relevant to the 6 form and information regarding the trips could be a positive piece of information to contain in my magazine. Focusing on Ellie and her interests has given me ideas that I have adapted on which I feel will make my magazine more student friendly. Ellie enjoys listening to music such as RnB and she very rarely is not listening to her ipod.
Daniel Cassidy: 16
It is vital to my focus group that to get a fair view of what students want to see in a magazine, as it is for the 6 form students which would be both male and female. I wanted a boys opinion on what a student magazine should look like. Daniel is interested in law and sport. Although he is more interested in the lads mags such as 'Nuts' and 'Zoo' and I could not incorporate this type of magazine into my student magazine. I could however include a sports section in my magazine as a lot of boys are interested in football. Dan uses the internet daily as he enjoys communicating with friends over instant messenger and the social networking site, Myspace.

Target audience:

For my target audience I have decided to aim my magazine at a mixed year 12. Before attempting to design my magazine or to think about what my front cover will contain I have to decide what my target audience will want to see in a student magazine. This will all be based on what my focus group want, my focus group will contain members that have different characteristics so that I can get a diverse view. I also have to think about the students as individuals and create a magazine that will satisfy everyone in that year. This would include the different interests such as sport or music and even how they dress and what they wish to achieve. The most important thing is to make the magazine a success and asking for a selection of students outlook on what will draw them into reading a student magazine. I will need to make my magazine original, from my research on school magazines I have discovered that school magazines are not often read and spend most the time in between a pile of books unread. I want to create a magazine that the students will look forward to reading and that would have articles and information that is relevant to them, having a magazine that students can relate to would boost the potential for it to be successful. 

Year 12 students are very keen to read magazines about celebrities, fashion and real life dramas. Even though I cannot work this into a student school magazine, I can make the format very much like this, just because it is a school magazine does not mean that it has to impress academically or to appeal to parents or potential students. I want to design a magazine that students can sit and read in spare time, that will give an insight into the school and activities with the twist or relating to their style and interests.  This will be hard as their are so many individual styles that it would be difficult to make a magazine to relate to all of these.

Textual analysis of GQ magazine:

GQ

This is a front cover for GQ magazine. The title of the magazine stands out in a bold black and white print, the black and white makes the title look classy compared to other men’s magazine covers such as Nuts and Zoo. The title stands for Gentlemen’s quarterly because when the magazine was first produced it came out every quarter of a year (3 months). Now it comes out every month but the original title of the magazine was kept because of the amount of consumers that it attracted, risking a change in name could make it less known. The title only consists of two small letters, but they can have a big impact as it is easy to remember and rolls of the tongue. The magazine has a lot of male consumers and the word gentleman suggests it is not a young boys trashy magazine or even for boys at all. The word gentleman is very strong, they do not use the word male or man but this word to specify to type of person it is aimed for and the type of customers they want to attract which would most probably be businessmen or high-class men, not boys. The title is set out on the left hand side of the page in strong bold capitals, the edges of the letters are very defined giving it a classy look that will draw in customers of middle class, it is very unlike the trashy title like Nuts which uses a bright red tone and even the title of that magazine is very suggestive.

Conde Nast is the publisher of GQ, it is one of the biggest publishers and has carved itself a reputation for being among the very best. The Interactive division launched ahead of the pack in 1995, with daily-updated websites for GQ. Conde Nast publishes other very popular high fashion magazines such as Vogue, Glamour and Vanity Fair, which are also very classy magazines. This type of publisher and the other magazines that have been published are also for large well known chic design and content. They all have the same kind of style as GQ as being very fashionable. Conde Nast also is very wide online recognized for its high-quality, beautifully designed and well targeted websites, earning it lots of press attention, a fantastic relationship with advertisers and many awards along the way. It has also led the vanguard in mobile/WAP services in the new millennium and has some of the best selling magazines.

The magazine attracts hundreds of customers every month and people can go online to its website that has a lot of information about the publishers and upcoming issues. The website is a lot like a magazine but with not as much information and brief in what will be in the up coming magazine content. The website contains information that men will find interesting, like bars, restaurants, clubs and the newest pictures of the best girls. The website is set out in a very classy way using plain colors in a chic way to attract the right male audience. It has a brilliant navigation system and would appeal to a wide range of men. It has the history of the magazine. The Conde Nast with links to the GQ magazine has 2.6 million unique users with 46 million pages viewed each month; 250,000 people have requested to receive emails from Conde Nast on a daily and weekly basis; and over 200,000 unique users currently access the content on mobile phones, generating more than 3.7 million page impressions per month.

The image on the cover of most GQ magazines is of a woman, either being a celebrity of a GQ girl. They do not wear much clothing but have a very natural and classy way of presenting themselves, reflecting the content of the magazine. There is not a lot of writing on the front page of the magazine as not to make it look crowded and tacky, the contents of the magazine is what holds the most information, the front cover only giving a brief insight. The target audience is for a man, or gentleman, this does narrow what kind of man would buy the magazine. It would most probably be a business man or an older man not a teenager. The magazine has a class about it and its subtle color use and the way it presents women makes it less in your face that other magazines that are more suggestive, such as ‘zoo’ and ‘nuts’. The contents of the magazine consist of advertisements for fashion and designer makes, also a lot of perfume is advertised. This helps identify what kind of man would be buying the magazine, not any man or boy.

Analysis of school magazine covers:

For my reasearch on my prelimary task I had to first look at 3 magazine covers for any school and any year and to analyse the front cover which will help me investigate into what year I want to aim my school magazine at.

Denotation and connotation: 

Rainey Endowed School
This is a front cover of Rainey Endowed school magazine in 2006. By looking at the pictures I can tell that it is a senior school as the images on the front involve people in this age group aging from year 7 to year 11.
The target audience would be for both male and female which could involve the students or parents. The images on the magazine are very formal and posed; this probably wouldn’t appeal to students as it had more information about the activities at school and what is going on in the school. This would be aimed at parents or even teachers and visitors to the school, for people that want an idea about the school and its activities.
The colour of the magazine is very plain with no bright colours apart from the school logo this indicates what the school may be like. There is not much writing at all apart from the name of the school; the magazine is very simple with a plain black cover and only very basic professional pictures going down the right hand side. Even the text is very simple; there are no colours or fonts used only the posed pictures of the school and a plain white headline of the school. This would not stand out no anybody, but does have a professional look to it, that would appeal to more visitors and parents than the students at school, which defeats the point of having a school magazine.

KEHS

The magazine is for a 6 form called KEHS (King Edward High school for girls). The magazine is called HighProfile and by the images of the front I can tell that it is aimed towards a female audience. The girls on the front appear very happy and like they are enjoying themselves, even though the magazine is very posed, this can make the image come across fake even though they look generally cheerful. The background colour of the magazine is plain and grey, this makes the girls face paints and bright clothes along with their smiles makes them stand out in a positive way. The magazine is not so much academic but more aimed at the fun part of extra curricula services at their school, this suggests that it more at the students rather than the parents that would benefit in knowing what happens in school. The students of school also wrote the magazine which means that the structure would be set out differently to a person that was older for example a teacher that would have written it. Writing a school magazine always depends on who is the target audience, a front cover makes a significant difference to who will read it and who it is aimed at. The target audience for this magazine would be the female students of the school and the contents would contain information very much like the cover, fun and interesting stories that highlight to girls at that schools interests. The magazine has a more laid back approach compared the above school.

George Stephenson High School

Evolve is the Student magazine from George Stephenson High School. The front cover of this magazine first appears bold and colorful, but lost to its meaning. Looking closer we can see that the main image is very artistic, reflecting the type of school and the image to which they want to display to the outside. The image is made up of smaller pictures, including pencils, skulls, erasers, and historic people. The images do have a culture clash as well as the amount of different interests that it includes. It immediately draws our attention and is very unlike other school magazines. It does not have any students on the cover or any relation to the academic part of the school. It is very obscure and because of its lack of information or interest in the school academia or studies, it would most probably be a student magazine and not one aimed at parents or potential students to the school, even though it does fed off a good impression as an artistic interesting school. Though the magazine gives little impression of the students or school, the attention-grabbing image would give off quite an impression.

The magazines is called ‘evolve’ which is not the name of the school like most school magazines even though the name of the magazine is printed above the title. Being a ‘student magazine’ these are the people that the magazine is directed out and that the publishers of the magazine need to have in mind when producing this to suit the years 7-11 of both genders. The colour scheme and ideas would have to be suitable to suit both boys and girls. Colour choice will have to be chosen carefully and even the image I use on the front cover could determine the kind of person that wants to read my magazine. I have to keep all these things in mind when producing my school magazine. The name of the magazine is printed in thick bold black writing against a cloudy background, which makes this and the image stand out. The name ‘evolve’ means development, which is a positive name for a school as it shows the progress in what the school is different. It could also mean the evolvement in students in the school, both these meanings generate a positive attitude towards the school and students.