This is my annotated example of a music magazine front cover for my research and planning

First Draft In Content Page

This is my first draft for my contents page for my college magazine.

College Magazine Final Front Cover

This is my final draft for my college magazine front cover, since my last draft I have done much more editing to make the page look more professional. I have also added different sized fonts to make the writing more interesting. I think overall the cover looks like eye catching but could improve in a lot of things, for example the background picture is a bit bland, dull and its not really the best proportions for a front cover of a magazine. So when I do my music magazine i'm going to try and get a better picture.

COLLEGE LIFE

This is my second draft of my magazine, I have included cover lines, a main title, date, sloan and an image.

I have a few things to improve for example I need to move the text away from the face in the image. But I hope to finish the front cover by next as i'm nearly done.

                                                                                                          This is my first attempt on Indesign and the picture to my left is my first draft of my college magazine, I have experimented with fonts and colors. 

IPC Case Study

IPC Media

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

This is an extract from the IPC website it explains that they have a diverse selection on magazines and have a main focus on the three main core audiences which are men, mass-market women and upmarket women.

‘’IPC Media produces over 60 iconic media brands, with print alone reaching almost two thirds of UK women and 42% of UK men – almost 26 million UK adults – while our websites collectively reach over 20 million users every month.

IPC's diverse print and digital portfolio offers something for everyone, with a focus on three core audiences: men, mass-market women and upmarket women.’’

They have provided magazines for NME which is a very popular magazine for teenagers, Amateur Gardening which is obviously for people interested in gardening and even world soccer which are targeted for men who are interested in a football, this proves that IPC publish a huge variety of magazines and don’t have a particular target audience just lots of different ones.

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

As IPC is the publisher of NME magazine who are extremely successful and popular it might have a good recognition if they’re the same publishers as NME magazine. It will also widen the target audience of IPC current target audience’s.  IPC is also very successful and creditable so it will have a good name behind the magazine and be very professional.

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

On the website IPC say all there main target audiences this includes; Mass Market Mums, Young Women, Young Men, Upmarket Women, Upmarket Men and Adults 35+. So I think it would be appropriate if these new music magazines fitted into the target audiences of those people such as for appealing to young women they could create a magazine which is about ‘Pop music’ that is extremely general and popular which would be successful to sell in a magazine. They could also create a magazine about older/classic more rock favourites that would appeal to the adults 35+ group as there aren’t a lot of magazines like it and this target audience might find this kind of magazine more appealing as they can relate to it more.

Why might alternative publishers like Bauer be appropriate?

Bauer publishing would also be appropriate because they have already published successful and popular magazines, which will give a positive recognition towards the magazine.

Preliminary Task: Brief

The preliminary exercise we have been set is to produce a front cover 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. So the people I will be aiming my magazine is obviously going to be college students, male or female and doing any subject, The magazine will be quite vibrant and eye-catching so its appealing for students, but still making sure that the colors and font both appeal to males and females.

My magazine will be about college life, talking about general college information, it will contain articles that students have written about various subjects like for example "tips on keeping your coursework sorted and not to fall behind on deadlines", there will also be reviews on trips, clubs and lots more.
The typical content would be about life at college, new facilities and keeping people up to date with whats going on around college. I have a few ideas for the cover lines, such as quoting things from inside the magazine like - "Taking media was the best decision I have ever made in my life!" which could appeal to people as they will want to read more and encourage more people to buy the magazine.
Some more cover line ideas are things such as:-
                                              Second years- freshers advice of how to survive around South Downs
                                              New facilities at The Coffee House
                                              Travel & Tourism - "Thorpe Park was amazing!"
and more things like this.

The title I have decided for my magazine is - College Life, I think its simple and effective as its very self explanatory on what is included in the magazine itself. I had some other ideas such as "South Downs Life" and "SDC Weekly" but I don't think those ideas I had were so interesting, the name ''college life'' could give people a feeling that the magazine is quite general instead of particularly talking about South Downs College.

With the font, Its very hard to pick something that is appealing for both sexes and for the college age group. I think the color im going to use will either be red or white with a black outline. I think these colors are unisex and makes it more of general teenage magazine instead of targeting individual target audiences. For the main masthead I think i'm going to use a front called 'Stencil' Its very bold and eye catching and suits a younger audience. I haven't chosen what I want to use for the cover lines yet but I want them to be bold but quite a simple font too.

Im not sure wether I want to use a tagline yet, so I will decide if it looks good when the magazine cover is coming together. But a few ideas I had for a tagline is - ''Everything you need to know about South Downs'' or ''Life at college has just become a whole lot easier" but I will make my decision further on in the process of making my magazine.

As the magazine is a college magazine it will only be published throughout the academic year and it will be released weekly so the information is up to date and current. The cover will change through seasonal changes for example in december the color theme might change to christmas like colors like reds, greens and golds and the image on the front will relate to a christmas or december, Also there will be a change in the genre of cover lines for example in december as cover line might be - " How to dress up warm for winter and still look great".

The kind of image I will put on the magazine will vary each week, but mainly will be students around South Downs using the facilities or sitting in the campus, The students will either be on there own or in groups again it will vary throughout the weeks. I will get my image in the college day, ask one of my friends (students) to pose for the photo or do a natural photo of the surroundings.
The magazine dimensions of the cover will be 8x11 which is the standard size for a magazine.

Withe the content page I want to keep it quite simple and not to busy, There wont be that many images on the content page but the images that are included will be subject specific towards the college life magazine, the color scheme will be a variation of colors, there will be a mixture of reds, grey and blacks.

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

Magazines are extremely popular for teenage girls and all the teen magazines out there are extremely similar the content usually consists of make-up, clothes, boys and celebrities. I don't think the age range varies at all for this kind of genre of magazine, its purely 13-17 year olds (depending on the magazine type) and has very similar codes and conventions.

The first magazine i'm going to analyze is Seventeen magazine this is a very stereotypical teen magazine, the colors a very vibrant and mainly consists of lots of pinks.
The main image is Beyonce who is a very good role model for teenage girls, her facial expressions is showing she's happy which suggests this magazine is fun and entertaining to read.

The typical conventions of this genre of magazine is very big bold sub-titles, very eye catching and appealing. Its very busy compared to magazines like Vogue which are more plain, simple and professional.

The teenage magazines also consists of lots of Puffs which stand out and make the magazine cover more fun, another typical convention is the amount of content on the magazine cover it has a lot of text which appeals to teenage girls such as 'How to get the perfect hair!' and similar stuff which make the readers want to read the magazine and figure out how to get 'the perfect hair', this is a good advantage as the magazine will be popular as lots of girl will buy the magazine as they want to read whats inside.













Another typical convention of a magazine is theres a lot of titles which advertise boys, the magazine usually contain posters and interviews with 'teenage heartthrobs' for example on the magazine cover to the right 'Bliss' has articles about Robert Paterson and JLS - These current popular young men have an attraction to teenage girls so this can be another typical convention because girls will always buy the magazine if it has something there interested in. This could be a negative thing, the essay question is saying about social ramifications and sexualizing young girls, the 'advertisement' of men could suggest that teenage girls think they have to be interested in boys at a young age and it becomes more of a pressure for girls to impress boys, this introduces the use of make-up and grown up clothes and it almost may seem that they feel like they have to look like the cover girl which is clearly a lot older than they are. This can start some debates about teenage magazines giving the wrong message to young girls that they have to be something there not, buy putting a lot of make up on, buying the latest clothes and accessorizing which could have a very negative effect for the parents and elder people in our society and could almost be a danger as men may think they are older than they already are.
But then you could argue that magazines wouldn't sell if they didn't have current and new information in it and wouldn't be appealing for young girls.

Another social ramifications that could occur from Teenage magazines is the use of wording on magazines like  'Cosmo Girl!' magazine to my left says ''50 Ways to get sexy hair!'' most parents or guardians wouldn't want there children to have the image of being 'sexy' and most people will say this is a wrong way to appeal to girls in a magazine I agree with this to some extent but I think its good for girls to be introduced to more mature things in a good and fun way instead of finding out about these stuff in any other way.










I think these types of magazines are very successful with there target audiences but they have caused some social ramifications which could in future effect there sales in the magazine, depending on the age group and how old they are thinking 'teenagers' are I think its good to introduce mature and grown up themes into teenagers life but with moderation, I think with most of these magazines say a lot about 'ex-boyfriends' and having a 'hot body' when this could not be good for such young people to be learning about. So I think there should be a balance of what is appropriate to teenagers and a clear difference between adult magazines and teenage magazines. The cover image should always be a respectable women who are successful, have had experience in life or good role models for teenage girls.

Magazines & Audiences (Part 1) - Terminology

Masthead:  It says the name of the magazine that is displayed on the front cover. The Masthead it usually big and bold and always the same for every magazine published.

Dateline:  The dateline displays the month and year that magazine was published, also near the date is the price of the magazine. Its displayed very clearly so its easy for the reader to find this information.

Main Image:  The main image is the picture that consists of the whole background of the magazine, the main image is very important for the magazine as it’s the first thing people see when they view it on the shelves so it important that the image is professional and eye-catching.

Main Cover Line: The main cover line is extremely big, usually in bold font, also with an eye catching colour which is important as it should be the next thing the readers eye is drawn to after seeing the main picture and Masthead of the magazine. A

of a main image.

Barcode: which is used in retail shops to scan products and identify their price and the type of product.

Selling Line: A short description that describes the magazine and is a unique selling point for most magazine business as it’s the line that convinces the magazine is either ‘’the best magazine in the world’’ so it really puts confidence in the buyer as they think they are going to buy the best magazine in the world. Its much more reliable if the magazines put something like ‘voted best magazine in the UK in 2008’’ it makes it much more reliable and trustworthy if there’s facts and figures.

Plug: Information about the contents of a magazine or newspaper given on the front cover.

Banner: Text that will normally be on a colorful background so it stands out this would normally be a banner across the top or bottom of the magazine cover.

Motto: A phrase that can be linked to the magazine so it is recognizable.

Caption: A description of a main image.

Sell lines: Text on the front cover to sell the magazine to audiences.

House Style: A magazine with its own style so it stands out from other magazines. You can usually recognize a magazine by its set out as it will be the same almost every time.

Buzz Words: "Exclusive", "Wow" ‘’amazing!’’ examples of Buzz Words. Buzzwords attract readers and make the magazine sound more exciting

Strap Line: A slogan

Anchorage Text: The way text helps to pin down a meaning on an image and vice versa.

Magazine & Audiences (Part 2)

The target audaince for the Rolling Stones magazine is from about the age of 17 to 40, usally male and who have a strong in intrest in rock music.

Looking at the magazine the main picture is of Jay-Z who theres an article about inside the rolling stones magazine, althought he is a rap artist he has made alot of music collaborating with bands such as Coldplay and Linkin Park who are rock bands, Jay-z is also a very respectable artist and some may argue he is a 'Ledgend' this can make the magazine very appealing as he is very famous and people will be intrested to read his interview as he has such a wide range of music that crosses lots of genres and he is a good role model for people who are striving to achive or become famous.

The title of the magazine 'Rolling Stone' has the main image covering part of the text this could suggest that the magazine is very big and people will reconise the magazine by not just the title, but the font and size of the text.

The font of the text on the left side of the magazine is black and red and in quite bold letters this suggests that the magazine appeals to men as its quite a dark sort of rock and roll colour, when it says 'JAY-Z addicted to the game' could suggest quite a indepth article and a title that doesent suggest much but makes the reader want to read more about his life as it is very sercret and personal.

All the titles are something to do with music so this makes it obvious that people who like music (more of rock music) will be drawn to this magazine. Its a slick and proffesional magazine and can be very appealing as people.

All the typical conventions of a typical magazine are featured on the front cover of this magazine, theres a main title, sub headings, main image, price, date and the typical layout of a magazine.

The way Jay-Z is dressed also gives a sense of smartness and proffesional life and many men may look at up to him as a sucessful role model (this is evident as he is wearing a suit) and especially as the magazine genre is music maybe there hoping to be as popular music artist like his is. The sub headings give little information which makes the reader want to read whats inside the magazine which could be a good advantage as lots of people will buy the magazine, its new, current music, proffesional so appealing for most age ranges. It also has that quite old school rock feel about it, so this appeals to the older generation of the rolling stone readers, its clearly not a magazine for children as it has no bright colours, competions and its quite plain but then that it effective as it attracts the older people as they know its a serious and proffesional magazine.

How I think Blogger will be useful for my coursework.

I think Blogger will be extremely useful for my coursework as its one place to share all your thoughts, all your work and almost a diary of the process of creating your coursework.
Its easily accessible for your teachers to view and other people taking media, this means i can also look at other media students blogs and see how there coping with the coursework and read there ideas and thoughts so then maybe getting inspiration from others. Its also a nice way of presenting coursework as you can personalize your page by getting different fonts, colors and pictures to make it more interesting for other people to read and view.

Things you can do with Blogger

Blogger is very useful for sharing your ideas, opinions and work to other people by displaying in a page that you can edit with your own pictures, fonts, colors and lots more things to make it more personal for you. Its also easy to access other peoples blogger pages so you can get inspiration and ideas from blogs, see what there doing, how there feeling- People portray there bloggers in lots of diffrent ways, People use it as a diary or maybe updating stuff about daily life or sharing work and pictures.

Blogger is also a fantastic way to share coursework as its easy for your friends and teachers to view your work in more of an interactive way.