2nd December 2011 - Student Magazine Evaluation

Overall, I considered the production of this magazine a good learning experience for myself. Although I did find InDesign quite frustrating to use at times, it is a very effective tool, which served a good purpose in my case. I am satisfied with the outcome of my magazine, since the designing of it was purely a learning exercise and I am now confident that I will be able to bring forward what I have learnt to the creation of my music magazine. During the production of the student magazine I used Adobe InDesign. Within this application, I used a variation of editing tools and effects to create the magazine's cover, including 'place', which allowed me to add the main image and resize it, enabling me to fit it professionally into the desired space.  

The main feature of a front cover, I think, is the image that goes with the headline article. That is why I started creating my magazine by taking the picture and then building everything else around it. I am happy with the way the image was captured, as it was taken against a white backdrop. I was very pleased with this, since the effect on the camera meant the backdrop wasn't completely white, and the effect gave the image a touch of atmosphere. However, on the flip side, I did find it challenging to think up cover lines for the issue. Along with that, I found additional features to add to my cover tough as I didn't have much knowledge of how the typical college student magazine would feature.

My first thoughts, while planning the front cover, were to make it look as simple as I could, as I consider simplicity to look more professional then if something is more complex. I believe that if something contains too much text and imagery, along with a hectic colour scheme, the overall product will just look messy and rushed.  

Main music Task: Brainstorm of Music genres - 2nd December 2011

Music Magazine Task: Target Audience - 2nd December 2011

Target Audience: A target audience is a set of people that producers aim to appeal to. For example, a company can aim to appeal to females between the ages of 18 and 24, that would be a target audience, as it is the specific audience of people that the company want to target.

Front Covers of magazines

Initial Ideas for Music Magazine

Task 3: To what extent should magazines be held responsible for the social ramifications of the representations they offer?

Teenagers, girls in particular, are becoming more and more preasured into being something they are not, this is because of what they are seeing in the media. As they are entering their teenage years, young girls feel the preasure of dressing and behaving in unacceptable ways. This 'preasure' is being generated from the media: young girls develop a taste for wanting to become just like their favourite popstars, this means watching them on TV and trying to copy what they see in terms of apperance and personality. Young girls may also have this preasure put upon them by their friends, they will then want to be like their firends in order to remain friends with that certain group of people. For example, a friend may dress a certain way, therefore a girl may feel preasured to do the same, in order to fit in. 


I have started by looking at 'Sugar' magazine - A glossy teenage mag, aimed at teenage girls. The issue I have chosen to study contains an image of, then 19 year old, Diana Vickers on the front cover. On one hand, this is a very good presentational device as it almost typifies the product's audience - a young girl aspiring to be a pop star. In addition, the colour scheme is ideal in attracting it's audience - the mixture of pink and white create both style and simplicity. But on the other hand, some Parents may see this magazine as 'too sexual' especially as their daughters are 13/14, they may see their daughters to be too young to be exposed to what is in this magazine. The 'sexual nature' of the magazine is then emphasized by the use of the phrases 'They groped my friends' and 'she's single'. Parents of young girls should take notice of this is realize that their daughters are too young to be reading about girls being groped. Along side this, another main feature of the magazine is titled 'Flirty fashion'. From reading this I believe that the younger, 13/14 year old, girls will see this as tips on becoming something they're not. Parents could also see what their daughters are reading and believe that is influencing them to literally change as a person.

In addition to that, I will be looking at Cosmo, Bliss, More and Seventeen. Continuing my research, I found that it is was more of the same: Cosmo featured a real life story titled "I caught him cheating" with a subheading reading 'what would you do' - the word 'you' being underlined. This, in my eyes, is unacceptable; I believe this should not be in a teenage girl's magazine because personally, I wouldn't want my young teenage (13/14) daughter reading about this type of material. That takes me onto Bliss. This magazine is similar to Cosmo in the way it 'advertises' sex. This magazine cover I have found has a 'Real life girl's drama' story titled "I overheard my boyfriend having sex". Along with that, I have also found I article in More magazine, titled "Just like Peter Crouch... we're young, hot and sleeping with prostitutes" Just like what I was saying about Cosmo, I believe this is also inappropriate, even more so then the last story - I think More's article is simply disgusting!  I strongly believe magazine companies, editors, etc, need to reconsider making their target audience's age higher if they are going to publish cover lines like this one because I don't feel it is safe for young teenage girls to be reading about sex in that sort of way. On the other hand, I believe Seventeen doesn't focus on sex as much, but focuses more on looking 'perfect'. The cover of Seventeen that I chose to study feature a caption in the bottom of the page that read 'look like a million bucks for next to nothing!' This cover line suggests to me that readers of that magazine are being put under pressure to look like something they're not. (That is why I believe girls that age complain about the way they look, because of what they see on TV!) 


To conclude, I believe that magazines should hold most, if not all, of responsibility for the harm that is caused to our young, teen sociality. This is because of girls admiring celebrities and wanting to be like them, then the magazine companies just take advantage of this and enhance the stars' look (airbrushing, photoshop, and so on) taking the reality out of the persons real look all for the purpose of money. I believe that magazine companies, and most companies for that matter, big things up too much, just for the purpose of sales - even if that means stepping out of reality. 

Task 4: IPC Case Study

In the 1800s, compositions played a vital part in promoting IPC's early titles, such as 'The Fledgling Magazine' which offered £1

IPC Media published 'The field' in 1853, and within a year became the largest newspaper in europe. Since then, the company has gone on to publish magazines such as Woman's Weekly in November of 1911, NME and TV Times in the 50s, Marie Claire in 1988 and LOOK in February 2007.

What types of magazine and target audiences has IPC been associated with other the years?

IPC's diverse print and digital portfolio others something for everyone, with a focus on three core audiences; men, mass market women and upmarket women. Their men's portfolio comprises a wealth of leisure brands including Country Life, Horse & Hound, Rugby World and Decanter, as well as the lifestyle brands such as Nuts, Mousebreaker and NME. Their mass market women division comprises famous women's weeklies such as Look, Now, Chat and Women; TV Entertainment such as TV & Satellite Week and What's On TV.Their upmarket women's division comprises luxury fashion brands including Marie Claire and InStyle, lifestyle brands including women&home and essentials and home interest brands including Ideal Home and housetohome.

Why might IPC be an appropriate publisher for a new music magazine?

IPC Media is the UK's leading consumer magazine publisher with a huge list of titles that include the music magazine NME. The target audience for music magazines would relate to the other magazines IPC have published so advertising wouldn't be a problem.

What sorts of genres of music/types of magazines might they be likely to publish?

I believe they are more likely to publish more popular or modern music genres such as rock to suit the target audiences. Or they may go for a different approach and publish less popular genres of music to try and attract the target audience in a different way.

Why might alternative publishers like Bauer be appropriate?

Bauer magazines may be more appealing to other audiences because of the price; it is cheaper than IPC magazines. For example NME from IPC Media is a weekly magazine at £2.30 where as on the other hand Bauer magazine's Empire costs less.

Task 2: Magazines & Audiences Part 2

The magazine I have chosen to look at is Four Four Two, and it's clear to see that the target audience for this magazine is males/ aged between 16 - 24. I also consider this product could be aimed at the working class of males, I believe this because of the idea behind the red masthead: Four Four Two's masthead is a great target audience attracting element as the title resembles the masthead of the Sun Newspaper, which is very popular newspaper, with a popular sports section - the audience recognize this and can identify with the similarities between the two different media products.

Another important part of the cover is the main image. The image shows an action shot of Fernando Torres as he looks to have just had a shot on goal. This picture, almost imitating a 3 dimensional capture, also has a huge impact on the audience as picture is shown in such a way that it seems to jump off the page. This is a very clever presentational technique as it gives the reader that extra sense of being on the pitch - with Torres - as they dive into the magazine. In addition, the colour of what Torres is wearing is significant as black represents power and authority, this could link to the importance of the product to the reader and how they see it as an item that makes you feel powerful, that the product gives them a sense of social rank as a football fan. Also, Torres is wearing black, and the background of the cover is white. The technique is used to show contrast between the two colours, therefore adding to the outstanding effect on the main image. 

One crucial part of the magazine front cover is the left third. In most stores, magazines are laid out on the selves so that the left third is the only half of the magazine that is visible to the audience, therefore it is very important that left third helps the magazine to be easily recognizable among loads of different football and sport magazines. Four Four Two uses its left third very effectively, using it's bold, simple typography to make the product easily recognizable to its target audience.

Along with the left third, the main cover line is also an outstanding feature on the front cover of the product. The editor has separated the two words 'THE' and 'ISSUE' for two reasons: As the word 'STRIKERS' is the largest printed word, other then the masthead, on the page, it stands out. It is then made to stand out even more but being separated from the first and last word of the cover line. This effect is used to focus all the attention of the reader to the word 'STRIKERS' so they know what this months magazine is about. To add to that, the separation of 'THE' and 'ISSUE' give the main story line added importance. This is achieved by the two words being given a red backing, the red is used to show energy and passion. This presentational device is used in connection with the fact that football also shows these elements.

Overall, I believe this is a successful front cover. I believe this because it's simplicity along with it's ability to combine fonts and colours to make it stand out.

Task 2: Magazines & Audiences

Word glossary 23rd September 2011

Masthead - The title of a print media product.

Barcode - A code, printed on the product, making it identifable.

Puff/Plug - Something that is advertised on the front of a print product to encourage the reader to buy it.

Main Cover Line - The title of the main article.

Cover Line - The title of an article within the magazine that is part of the left third.

Left third - The section on the front cover of a magazine that has the most information of contents, mainly fulled with text.

Date line - The part on the front cover of a magazine showing when the product was published.

Colour scheme - What predominant colours are used within the magazine.

Serif - A detail that is added to some strokes of letters.

Sans Serif - A type of writing font without serifs.

Gutter - Space between columns of text.

Pull quote - A quote that is enlarged then placed on the same page to highlight a key topic.

Emboss - A 3D effect given to certain text to make it stand out.

Selling line - A quick, snappy description of the Title's main marketing point.

Alignment - The arrangement of text or imagery (left, right, centred.)

Task 1: Getting to know Blogger - September 19th 2011

Things you can do with Blogger:
- Customize the design of your blog.
- Add photos and videos to your posts.
- Send information to particular audiences.
- Edit and Update post as regally as you like.
- Subscribe to different writers so you are notified when they update their blog or add a new post.
- You can post blogs from your Mobile Phone.

How I think Blogger will be useful for my coursework:
- Blogger is quick and easy to use.
- It's a great way of storing and viewing coursework - Storing coursework on Blogger keeps your work organized, this also saves paper.
- Storing coursework on a blog is simple as all the work is stored in one place and is easily accessible.
 - Blogger enables students to create their own personal writing spaces.
- Editing and updating your posts would be so many easier then constantly re-writing pages of work.
- It saves lots of space. as the work is stored on a computer and not in a folder full of sheets of paper.
- Work on a blog is easily accessible, whereas work in a folder could lost.