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.