Many conventions of Magazines in general are just how each magazine uses and adapts certain examples of Media Language to suit the needs of the particular magazine.
For example, one main magazine convention is the masthead. The masthead is the main banner/logo, normally placed at the top left of the front cover (so that when placed in a magazine rack, it can easily be spotted and recognised). The masthead helps portray many aspects of LIIAR: for example, it helps show the institution (i.e. the NME Magazine masthead lets you know, by use of the logo, that the magazine has been made by NME.) It can also be used to attract certain members of the target audience, (e.g. if a magazine is aimed at female audience they may want to give the masthead a conventionally feminine feel to it to attract the chosen target audience.)
Another convention of magazines are cover lines. A cover line is a small heading which outlines the content of a particular article. They are normally very catchy, snappy, short; often get straight to the point and are used to attract members of the chosen audience as well as being able to portray certain aspects of the magazine's ideology (they briefly display what a magazine is about.) The Main Cover Line is the largest, boldest cover line which stands out above the rest of the normal ones. This is normally centering on the main article of feature of the magazine, so in a music magazine it would feature, for example, the most famous musical act featuring in the article. It also displays an article which would be of major interest to most of its target audience therefore attracting more people to buy the magazine. The main cover line normally relates to the main image on the front cover.
The Main Image is the largest image which takes up the majority of space on the front cover. This mostly relates to the main cover line and conventionally, contains the most famous person/musical act to appear in the magazine. In the main image, the person contained is normally represented as being very attractive and confident. This is because they want to put across the idea that the person who makes up this magazine is confident/successful/attractive/powerful, therefore boosting the magazines credentials.
As well as the single main image, throughout most magazines are many Secondary (or sometimes just normal) Images. These images are not as important as the main image, but still hold importance in the context in which they are placed. For example, if a secondary image on the front cover is placed next to a cover line, then chances are it will relate to that cover line. Similarly, images placed on the same double page spread as certain articles, will most probably be related to that specific article.
When regarding Colours used in a magazine, it is clear that colours are used to appeal to their Target Audiences. For example, a 'Gothic' music magazine, will most likely have a much darker colour scheme when compared with a popular music magazine. However, a colour scheme used a lot in magazines (such as NME Magazine,) due to the colours complimenting each other very well, is red, black and white. I will consider how the colours (such as the three aforementioned ones,) I use on my magazine will compliment each other and appeal to my target market, and also how they reflect the ideology of the magazine.
The Bar code is only important to the magazine when regarding the more 'behind-the-scenes' aspects of making/distributing/selling it. While not important to the consumer, the bar code shows that the magazine itself is a commercial item and is only really important to the people and companies who make, supply, buy and sell the magazines (i.e. it is used in the shops to scan the price).
As stated above, a magazine is a commercial item. This means that it is made to be sold to the consumers and make money, meaning that the magazine has to have a Cover Price. The cover price is always priced depending on the size of the target market (and in some cases can dictate the exclusiveness of a magazine's target audience). For example 'Kerrang!' Magazine, is a lot cheaper than 'Vogue' Magazine, meaning that 'Vogue' has a much smaller target market, and although the market of 'Kerrang!' is smaller than that a lot of other magazines, due to the content in 'Vogue' being a lot less mainstream that that of 'Kerrang!', (therefore it is sold to a much more exclusive audience,) it is a lot more expensive than 'Kerrang!'. This shows how Cover price is dictated by and can dictate many aspects of the Target Audience (such as the size of the audience).
Tag-Line's are short, snappy, catchy and positively-themed slogans normally placed near (i.e. just under,) the masthead in most magazines. They are normally relevant to the ideology and content of the magazine, and sometimes incorporate literary techniques such as alliteration and assonance (repetition of the vowel sound,) to make them sound catchy and have an appealing rhythm to them.
Practically all magazines contain Articles. The content of the articles can reflect/influence many aspects of LIIAR, (for example the bands featured can appeal to certain audiences, represent people in certain ways, and also give hints as to the magazine's ideology. The articles themselves has many of their own smaller conventions, such as headlines, quotes from the article, images and smaller headlines or sub-headings, even.
The Contents List of a magazine is found after the front cover and contains a list of articles in the magazine and several images to go with them. They are normally divided in to two sections (and will be in my magazine,) labelled 'Features' (featuring the regular features of the magazine) and 'Specials' featuring one-off features of the magazine (such as a one-off interview with an upcoming band).
All of these conventions can be applied to Music Magazines (as has been mentioned) just by relating the finer content of them to music (such as having articles about a musical act and not just anything.)
I will consider all of these points and conventions when making my magazine.
Friday, 13 November 2009
Friday, 6 November 2009
LIIAR
- L - Language - The different aspects of the Media text, which combine as a whole to make the text what it is, and put across different aspects, such as Ideology, Institution, Representation and can also be used to attract the target Audience.
- I - Institution - The industries and companies/agencies who create the media texts (i.e. Kerrang is an institution which makes a music magazine.) All other aspects of LIIAR will be based on the stance of the Institution.
- I - Ideology - The beliefs and views held by the Institution and more often than not, the target audience which they try to communicate to the consumer. The Ideology will be conveyed through the Language of the Text, (for example, a magazine made my an institution in support of independent bands/musicians, would only feature independent bands/musicians.)
- A - Audience - The target audience at whom the media text is aimed. Each magazine would adapt other aspects and conventions (or even break them sometimes) to try and appeal to the desired audience.
- R - Representation - How the Media texts represents different aspects (normally the ideology,) and how they are put across by the text itself. For example, if a magazine wanted to represent a certain individual in a negative way, they would have a photo which makes them appear bad (drunk, for example,) and then have a derogatory headline coupled with the photo.
Main Task
- Main Task:
- The front page, contents page and double page spread of a new music magazine.
- All images and text used must be original, produced by you - minimum of four images.
Friday, 23 October 2009
College Magazine Project Evaluation
For this project, I have been asked to research the conventions of College Magazines and how College Magazines use and adapt these conventions to suit their own needs (i.e. attract their desired audiences) and then to make a front cover of a College Magazine and a mock-up of a contents page. Using the knowledge I have gained during the aforementioned research. I have been presenting my research, planning and designing in the form of an online blog which can be found at http://www.adam-amini-media.blogspot.com/ and which I have been adding to and actively updating throughout the course of the project.
I will now be writing about how I approached each stage of the project and how I feel it went and how I feel the final college magazine has turned out. I will then evaluate the project as a whole, stating what I feel went well and what I would change were I given the chance to undergo the project again.
I initially approached the task by listing the conventions of a College Magazine and how College Magazines use these conventions to serve their purpose (for example, evoke interest in their target audience). This was very useful as it allowed me to recognise the conventions even easier when it came down to analysing magazines, so when I finally began to make it, I could adapt them even easier to suit my own needs.
I then began to conduct research. I did this by looking at existing college magazine covers and contents pages and analysing them and how they use and adapt conventions to suit their own needs. I didn’t just looked at College Magazines, however and I also looked at magazines which were modern and which broke conventions to suit their needs (i.e. the Kerrang contents page which ordered the list of articles by category not page number. This made the contents page seem more interesting and dynamic and had I made a full contents page (and not just the mock-up) I would have used a similar method to this in my own article list.
By looking at other magazines aimed at people aged 16-19 years old, I was able to get an idea of how to use certain conventions (such as the masthead) in an advantageous manner. The reason I looked at magazines aimed at this age range is because they are the ages of most people who attend college and therefore the people who will consume the magazine, so it makes sense for research to be conducted on magazines aimed at the age group.
After research I made decisions on certain aspects of my magazine (such as the layout, content of the photographs and stories featured). A lot of these decisions were made to appeal to a young, gender-neutral audience (so both males and females). I then hand-drew draughts of the cover and contents page so that I could get a basic idea of what they will be like. These draughts were then the basis for my first IT draughts and finally, the finished Cover and Contents Page.
I took my own Medium Close-Up photographs (and more for the contents page (i.e. the photograph of books and a person using the laptop) and I then edited them as appropriate using the easy to use and accessible programme, Paint Shop Pro 9. When regarding editing, I mainly cropped the photographs to suit the needs of the magazine lay-out, but in the case of the picture of the laptop user, I also created feelings (in this case, the implication of stress) by using the Paint Shop Pro features of a ‘Zoom Blur’ and the ‘Hue’ of the image.
I used Paint Shop Pro 9 to make the final copies of the magazine as the software is both easy to use and the functions suited my purpose (i.e. editing photos, text placement, different fonts and text colours to name a few). I also could save the files as a .PSPImage so that I could resume editing at a later date, and then finally save the file as a .Jpeg which allowed it to be uploaded to the blog.
I am very please with the outcome of the Front Cover, as I believe I adapted conventions (such as the masthead, main photograph and cover lines,) to appeal to the target audience and put across the ideology of the magazine (‘Wyke Lyfe’ about the social life of students at Wyke College.) I am very pleased with the Masthead and I like the way that the text (red and black) and the font combine to give the masthead a strikingly appealing and modern appearance. I also believe that the breaks in the font which allow for some of the yellow background to be seen, give it the appearance of graffiti, which even further reflects the younger audience (and how they like to do things such as make graffiti to be ‘rebellious’.) I am also pleased with how the Main Cover Line appeals to the younger audience as whole, as many people in the age range of the magazine go to Nightclubs and the fact that it is about an ‘Under-18’s’ night allows even the people who are too young to go to nightclubs to be interested.
The contents page, while dynamic in terms of layout (if fully made the articles would be listed in a similar, non-ordered way as seen in the Kerrang Magazine,) in my opinion was too conventional in terms of layout. This is because it was very similar to most other normal, plain and boring magazines in the way that it has the normal title and a very conventional layout. If I were to undergo the project again I would most certainly make the contents page more dynamic and appropriate for a younger, more exciting audience.
Overall, I believe that the project went well; I managed to perform sufficient research and apply conventions to my magazine and adapt them in such a manner as to appeal to my target audience (moder styling and colours for example) and I also adapted them to suit the ideology of my magazine (the ‘Social Saviour’ as the selling line stated). I believe that I utilized different software (e.g. the Blogger software and Paint Shop Pro 9) in an efficient manner and was quite successful in completing the required task.
If I were to change anything about my final project I would probably adapt the conventions used in the contents page in a more modern and interesting manner (to appeal to my target audience) as I believe the contents page I produced is quite bland and not particularly appealing to people in the 16-18 age range.
I will now be writing about how I approached each stage of the project and how I feel it went and how I feel the final college magazine has turned out. I will then evaluate the project as a whole, stating what I feel went well and what I would change were I given the chance to undergo the project again.
I initially approached the task by listing the conventions of a College Magazine and how College Magazines use these conventions to serve their purpose (for example, evoke interest in their target audience). This was very useful as it allowed me to recognise the conventions even easier when it came down to analysing magazines, so when I finally began to make it, I could adapt them even easier to suit my own needs.
I then began to conduct research. I did this by looking at existing college magazine covers and contents pages and analysing them and how they use and adapt conventions to suit their own needs. I didn’t just looked at College Magazines, however and I also looked at magazines which were modern and which broke conventions to suit their needs (i.e. the Kerrang contents page which ordered the list of articles by category not page number. This made the contents page seem more interesting and dynamic and had I made a full contents page (and not just the mock-up) I would have used a similar method to this in my own article list.
By looking at other magazines aimed at people aged 16-19 years old, I was able to get an idea of how to use certain conventions (such as the masthead) in an advantageous manner. The reason I looked at magazines aimed at this age range is because they are the ages of most people who attend college and therefore the people who will consume the magazine, so it makes sense for research to be conducted on magazines aimed at the age group.
After research I made decisions on certain aspects of my magazine (such as the layout, content of the photographs and stories featured). A lot of these decisions were made to appeal to a young, gender-neutral audience (so both males and females). I then hand-drew draughts of the cover and contents page so that I could get a basic idea of what they will be like. These draughts were then the basis for my first IT draughts and finally, the finished Cover and Contents Page.
I took my own Medium Close-Up photographs (and more for the contents page (i.e. the photograph of books and a person using the laptop) and I then edited them as appropriate using the easy to use and accessible programme, Paint Shop Pro 9. When regarding editing, I mainly cropped the photographs to suit the needs of the magazine lay-out, but in the case of the picture of the laptop user, I also created feelings (in this case, the implication of stress) by using the Paint Shop Pro features of a ‘Zoom Blur’ and the ‘Hue’ of the image.
I used Paint Shop Pro 9 to make the final copies of the magazine as the software is both easy to use and the functions suited my purpose (i.e. editing photos, text placement, different fonts and text colours to name a few). I also could save the files as a .PSPImage so that I could resume editing at a later date, and then finally save the file as a .Jpeg which allowed it to be uploaded to the blog.
I am very please with the outcome of the Front Cover, as I believe I adapted conventions (such as the masthead, main photograph and cover lines,) to appeal to the target audience and put across the ideology of the magazine (‘Wyke Lyfe’ about the social life of students at Wyke College.) I am very pleased with the Masthead and I like the way that the text (red and black) and the font combine to give the masthead a strikingly appealing and modern appearance. I also believe that the breaks in the font which allow for some of the yellow background to be seen, give it the appearance of graffiti, which even further reflects the younger audience (and how they like to do things such as make graffiti to be ‘rebellious’.) I am also pleased with how the Main Cover Line appeals to the younger audience as whole, as many people in the age range of the magazine go to Nightclubs and the fact that it is about an ‘Under-18’s’ night allows even the people who are too young to go to nightclubs to be interested.
The contents page, while dynamic in terms of layout (if fully made the articles would be listed in a similar, non-ordered way as seen in the Kerrang Magazine,) in my opinion was too conventional in terms of layout. This is because it was very similar to most other normal, plain and boring magazines in the way that it has the normal title and a very conventional layout. If I were to undergo the project again I would most certainly make the contents page more dynamic and appropriate for a younger, more exciting audience.
Overall, I believe that the project went well; I managed to perform sufficient research and apply conventions to my magazine and adapt them in such a manner as to appeal to my target audience (moder styling and colours for example) and I also adapted them to suit the ideology of my magazine (the ‘Social Saviour’ as the selling line stated). I believe that I utilized different software (e.g. the Blogger software and Paint Shop Pro 9) in an efficient manner and was quite successful in completing the required task.
If I were to change anything about my final project I would probably adapt the conventions used in the contents page in a more modern and interesting manner (to appeal to my target audience) as I believe the contents page I produced is quite bland and not particularly appealing to people in the 16-18 age range.
Thursday, 22 October 2009
Wednesday, 21 October 2009
Contents Page Draught - 02 (Made in Paint Shop Pro 9)
This is the first ICT draught of my Contents Page. Though it is unfinished, the main purpose of it was to determine differnt ways I could present the layout of the magazine, determine the positives and negatives of it and then change it appropriately for my final draught.
On the one hand, I am pleased with how I have used conventions easily. For example, there are pictures relating to the articles with text undereath and the use of pictures will create interest ad engage the reader even further into the magazine.
It is conventional in the sense that there is a list of articles, which wouild be easily accessible and help the reader locate specific articles of interest.
On the other hand, I believe the fact that I have pretty much stuck to the conventions has made it boring and I would like to, in the final draught of the mock-up, create a more dynamic and interesting, less conventional contents page, which I believe would be of more interest to the younger audience (16-18/19 years old) at whom my magazine is aimed. An example of how I have stuck to conventions is the linear and even boring layout of the list of articles.
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