Research

To what extent should magazines be held responsible for the social ramifications of the representations they offer? Magazines aimed at young women can be seen to give positive and negative representations. The positives on this magazine cover is that the target audience (young teenaged girls) gives them someone to aspire to by putting a picture of someone seen to be as very pretty. This gives off an aspirational image. But on the other hand it s seen to be negative because it shows a model that doesn’t represent the target audience and stereotype a 'normal young girl’. Because this magazine front cover could influence young teenaged girls to want to look like that and in my opinion young teenaged girls should not want to look like someone else and feel they have to if they want to be liked and feel special. At that age I feel they should be happy with who they are and not be influenced by a magazine front cover picture. Magazines aimed at young women can be seen to give a positive and negative view. For example adding to what I stated above I find that most magazine front covers produced these days are portrayed with a picture perfect image. Which could make teenagers feel insecure and not perfect but on the other hand it could make them want to aspire to the picture on the magazine.  Pop magazines include bright colours (blue and pink) and a picture of a young pretty girl. They have used direct address, they have used this in a way in which the image shot is looking right into anyone that picks up or looks at the magazine, they have used this to capture peoples attention. The image that they have used may attract lots of girls as it is a very perfect picture, it also states 476 ways to be ‘irresistible’ many girls would pick this up due to that statement and the picture because they may think buying this magazine is going to give them tips to be perfect and be liked. I think the way in which they have laid out the magazine front cover it is hinting that you may end up looking like the main picture on the front cover (perfect). In the image they have also done a wind swept effect hair which makes it look more natural I think this is a good idea within a young girls magazine as young girls should not be considering wanting to look different and maybe fake, so including an image as such on this magazine it will give a good clear influence for girls to look natural. Magazines aimed at young women can be seen to give a positive and negative view. On this particular magazine front cover it has more of a positive view to it as they have put a very natural picture on it, also a very happy picture that would attract a wide audience. I think by magazines including short snappy headlines makes people want to read more and also including lot of colour and detail on the front page. The body language of this girl shows a very relaxed scene and makes you think as a reader that the magazine will be enjoyable to read. On the negative side of this magazine it states “make up trends” I think for what age group this magazine is based on this is not very suitable as young girls should not be worrying about having perfection make up and what you should and shouldn't do whilst being a young girl. Magazines aimed at young women can be seen to give a positive and negative view. In a negative response to magazines aimed at young women being inappropriate is that I do find with most magazines are boy or sex related which is wrong because some magazine companies base there magazine around girls as young as 11. I think magazines like this are wrong in other ways in which they are trying to make teenage girls grow up way to quickly. This magazine front cover is not all bad as it does give fashion tips which is what a teenage girl likes to know, especially if they are as young as 11 because it could make them feel grown up and special. So when magazines portray being older in this way it is seen on a positive note as it is making them feel grown up but not so grown up they want to change everything about them to fit in. To conclude I feel that most magazines produced our days are appropriate in a lot of ways. I think its just all about as long as teenaged girls are not reading it every day and parents are monitoring there young girls behavior and how much she reads it magazines like the ones above are suitable for young girls. But in other ways being skinny and perfect and what a boy wants is becoming such a big thing that it can come beyond parents control and can become a serious issue because most teenagers have access to internet and money to go to a news agents to buy a magazine without there parents knowing.

Why my title is suitable?

'I feel my title is suitable for a few reasons such as it includes bright bold and bubbly colours that stand out to readers. I felt the name of my magazine is very important so when it came to deciding on it I thought it through a lot. I wanted my title to be suitable for teenagers and make sure it stood out to any other magazine.'

Why I choose my Cover lines?

'When choosing my cover lines I looked at over similar magazines to mine to see what type of things they talk talk about on theres. From my research I found that the most popular pop artists that are talked about are 'One Direction' and 'Adele'. I also found from research that most front covers of pop magazines included a cover line talking about competitions, album reviews or concert dates. As my main aim is for my magazine to be a success I found this would be ideal. When producing my front cover I also looked at the latest celebrity news and what teenagers were finding interesting at this point of time the two stories that came back were 'Russell and Katie's break up' and 'Adele being so ill but finally coming back'So I felt by including story's about this it would boost up my chance of my magazine becoming a success.'

Evaluation

Front Cover

Contents Page

Double Page Spread for Music Magazine.

First Stage of double page spread

I have started producing my magazine article for my famous star. To get a few ideas on what to include within my article and how to lay it out I looked at the MTV website using an interview with Pixie Lott to get an idea.

http://www.mtv.co.uk/news/pixie-lott/122558-pixie-lott-interview

Within the next week I will also be taking pictures of my model Emily Bonnar, I will be using Pixie Lott as my stimulus. 

Justin Bieber double page spread 3

Justin Bieber double page spread 2

Justin Bieber double page spread 1

Here is my first double page spread of Justin Bieber, to start with I had to add a new page so it became a double page spread, secondly I had to adjust the document and add colums and changing the spacing between each colum.

NME Research

NME is a weekly magazine that's a must for right–thinking music fans. They have the best access to people’s favorite bands. They have the greatest music writing and photography. They are the ultimate source for discovering the best new music first. They also give to charity.

In there pages recently they have included information about Klaxons meeting God via drugs, Bombay Bicycle Club unsuccessfully busking in Ibiza, Jack White's war on the internet, Arcade Fire's financial woes, Liam Gallagher revealing his Beady Eye. In a world drowning in musical disinformation we're shit–shoveling Vikings, clearing the path for your festivals of wine and song.

NME comes out every Wednesday and it's priceless. It's £2.40, it attracts audience’s aged 16-19. NME do magazines, they have a website, NME TV, hold tours, there is a club NME, and there is a NME awards

NME is published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles chart, in the 14 November 1952 edition. In the 1970s it became the best-selling British music newspaper. During the period 1972 to 1976 it was particularly associated with gonzo journalism, then became closely associated with punk rock through the writing of Tony Parsons and Julie Burchill.

An online version of NME, NME.COM, was launched in 1996. Today NME.COM has 5 million users per month. Krissi Murison was named the magazine's eleventh editor on 29 July 2009. She took over as the first female editor in September 2009. Luke Lewis currently edits NME.COM.

NME has an Internet link so it becomes more popular and well known and gets a larger audience buying it. Also these days Internet is used so much for everything that it brings up new latest things and it is where most people get information.

http://www.nme.com/about  

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NME

Music Magazine Annotation.

This is one of NME's recent magazines featuring Rihanna a well known famous celebrity. The image above includes the specific magazine I will be talking about and a simple annotation of what NME have include within the front cover. I think the target audience for this magazine would be anyone who looks up to Rihanna around the age of 16 -19 years of age. 

WHY THE MAGAZINE LOOKS LIKE THIS? THE PURPOSE?

Analysis of Closer Magazine.

For this particular magazine cover I feel that the target audience is set around many teenagers and young adults as it has a lot of celebrity gossip that people around this age are interested in, mainly girls enjoy reading and finding out about this. I think the cover of this magazine has attempted to base it around this particular age/gender category that I stated above earlier and it has done this really well. For example it appeals to a lot of teenagers just by looking at a few of the stories on the front as it has two different celebrities about different things and it also has news about people we do not know as a celebrity.This shows the variation within the magazine and what ‘Closer’ like to focus there magazine on. Although most magazines do just generally focus on celebrity news for articles this one doesn't just set its stories on it, this also has news from different people for example this has a women who has lost at lot of weight recently. This article could attract people wanting to lose weight or people that have just gone through it themselves, it also influences people to want to look healthy. Where ‘Closer’ have put lots of different stories on the front page whether it be about celebrities or general public, it shows the variation within the magazine which makes it more popular and appeal to a lot more women/girls. Also where the magazine has used big bold writing and pictures related to the stories that are included within the magazine, it immediately strikes to people when they see it and want them to buy it and read on. In my opinion the way that in which the magazine ‘Closer’ has been laid out strikes me as being very appealing to anyone interested in the world wide celebrity news. As the front cover of this particular front cover I have chosen has lots of bold colors for example a bit of the background color is pink so this color is associated with girls, teenagers and women, by having this color as such it shows the magazine is a real girly magazine. Where as if the magazine front cover was quite dull or blue for example we could almost guarantee it would be based for a teenaged boy or mans magazine. The magazine front cover also shows clearly what is included in the magazine which is convenient for the the women looking at the magazine because then they know straight away if they are going to buy it or not and enjoy reading it. On this front cover we can see that there are going to be lots of stories within the whole magazine which could lower the age group that the articles are based around. I think where ‘Closer’ include real life stories and competitions in the magazines which we can see from the front pages especially the one I have chosen makes the magazine all together apply to a more varied age group of women and girls. Also the colours used on this front cover stand out as there are various colours used within the page but a bright colour for example yellow standing out as a main event within the magazine which will make readers want to buy the magazine. They have also made the pictures very natural but very noticeable at the same time I think this is a good idea as it makes the magazine realistic but interesting. All the colours on this page stand out and are bold bright colours which attract readers when looking for magazine as by having a colourful front cover makes it appealing to read and cheerful for example. The words on the front page are always important when trying to attract readers for example this magazine has used words such as ‘Terrified’ and ‘Distraught’, this attracts audience’s as it makes it so much more dramatic and serious then maybe than what it is. It also makes you feel as a viewer that you want to know what happened and why it was such a serious matter and you want to be the first to know has happened. By not just mentioning the celebrities but specifically adding pictures of them tells us a lot more about what the stories are about for example on this front cover they have chosen they have included a picture of ‘Dannii’ pregnant but look depressed and with ‘Cheryl’ they have included a picture of her upset which adds to what the stories are about within the magazine. 

Magazine Cover Draft 1

Flat Plan for Contents

This is my flat plan of my contents page for my college magazine.

Flat Plan for Front Page

This is my flat plan for my college magazine front cover.

Proposal.

I will be aiming my magazine specifically at college students I felt this was most appropriate as the topics that I am hoping to include will be of some relevance to this particular age group.

My magazine will be about various topics, mainly based on Southdown’s College such as upcoming events, courses run at the college, trips they run, competitions, student union and enrichment activities.

I have a few initial ideas for the cover lines on my magazine, my ideas being: ‘something new every week’, ‘battle of the bands’, ‘Win trip away to Spain’.

I put a lot of thought in to my title name as in my opinion I think it is very important but my final decision was to call it ‘College Life’ I decided for it to be this because I thought it will be eye catching and grab students attention and make them want to read it. My other ideas for my tittle that I did not carry out were ‘SDC Times’/’SDC Life’/’Student Life’ I rejected all of these as I felt SDC wasn’t suitable as not everyone would know what it stands for and it wouldn’t stand out as much, I also did not want the word College in the title as it didn’t sound very specific.

The font I am planning to use is ‘Cambria (body)’ which I have wrote this text in. I choose to use this font as it is original and is clear to read and everyone will understand it.

I have not yet come up with a tag line but I am hoping to include one that is suitable for the magazine.

I am hoping to publish my magazine around Christmas time, so I will be including Christmas topics.

I am hoping to include a ‘happy’ picture of a pretty girl aged around college students. Within the magazine I will include other pictures such as images of previous trips, map of Southdown’s and pictures of concerts etc… I will take all of these pictures by myself with a digital camera, I will make sure all of these images are very eye catching and grab peoples attention.

My magazine will be published weekly to give all college students weekly news.

The dimensions of the cover will be A4.

The images and colours that I would use on my contents page would be, images that relate to the information and topics that I am including within my magazine, I will also include colours that stand out and grab peoples attention.

My First Page

This is the first time I have uploaded a image on to blogger. I have created this image by taking a picture of the surroundings within Southdowns college and then editing it and creating a full document using a particular software called indesign. I uploaded my images on to the Mac PC via a sd memory card. I did discover problems whilst carrying out this task as when i first placed the picture in to the document it was to big but I managed to use a tool known as the photo frame tool which fitted the picture to scale. Overall I am very pleased with my final piece.