LIIAR - Music magazine

As this this is the beginning of the main task I looked at how the media key concepts could be applied to produce a college magazine using the acronym LIIAR, Language, Institution, Ideology, Audience, Representation.

Language - I will use a bright colourful interesting masthead and headline to attract the readers. I want my magazine to look very simple yet effective to do this I will use a simple picture that doesn't look busy and bold colourful headlines.

Institution - NME magazine is published by IPC, NME is the longest published most respected weekly music magazine, in May 2008 it was redesigned to be aimed at an older readership with a less 'poppy' more authoritative tone. IPC would be suitable publishers for my music magazine because I am going to aim it at 16-19 year olds however it will have more of a pop/fashion theme to it, this is the opposite to NME magazine and there are no other magazines on sale like this, if IPC published a magazine like this they would appeal to a different audience to NME so will have a different range of people buying the magazine.

Ideology – The music magazine which I am going to create will appeal to an audience which most music magazines don’t already appeal to. I am going to aim my music magazine at 16-19 year old females, with the interests of music and the fashions in music. There are not already any well known music magazines in the shop so when creating my magazine I will be creating something different.

Audience – My magazine will be aimed at 16-19 year old females with an interest in music as well as fashion and celebrities.

Representation – My music magazine will represent bands and artists in a positive way with interviews with them rather than ‘celebrity gossip’ found in most female magazines.

Contents Page

Above are examples of contents pages which I would use in my college magazine. I wanted the contents page to be quite plain and simple but easy to use. I also wanted to keep the same colours of the magazine cover in the contents page.

Foundation Portfolio Evaluation

Media Studies Foundation portfolio evaluation My media product is based on fashion magazine Vogue. Vogue is a fashion and lifestyle magazine published in eighteen countries by Condé Nast Publications. Each month, Vogue publishes a magazine addressing topics of fashion, life and design. I wanted to create a fashion college magazine in the style of Vogue because Vogue magazine attracts the audience which I am aiming my magazine at.

My college magazine is aimed at students interested in fashion however it features things happening in the college and subjects at the college related to fashion. I think that fashion is a main part of most students life’s and a college fashion magazine would be very popular as most fashion magazines are expensive.

The population of Wyke college is mainly female so my magazine is aimed at female students although it is suitable for males who are interested in fashion. Most people at Wyke college are interested in fashion and the way they look, the magazine also offers discounts, things happening in the college and trips and visits available, this is how my media products attracts its audience. Students like discounts and to do different things e.g. go on college trips to different places. If I advertise these things on the magazine cover then students will buy the magazine for the discounts inside.

I chose the name of my magazine as 'FUSION' because its meaning is to bring people together. I wanted my magazine to be about students coming together, different activities in the college and opportunities for students all linked with fashion. The name Fusion sounds exciting and interesting and will make people want to read the magazine. I chose to do a sub masthead 'the college fashion magazine' to show readers what the magazine is all about.

When first planning my media product I wanted to make it different from other college magazines and more like a magazine which you could buy in a shop rather than a college magazine about education however I still wanted to include information on education and courses at the college. I think that I have achieved that in my media product, the main picture on the front cover shows a student from the college with the topic being Textiles or Fashion?

After I analysed the 3 magazines I chose certain parts of the magazines which I thought were effective and decided to use in my magazine. I like the way Vogue magazine was very simple with just one picture of a model on the front, a bold title and inside contents on the side of the magazine. I also liked how Vogue magazine had a theme to each cover. This helped when creating my magazine and inside contents stand out I decided to do the main picture in black and white and keep the colour theme to pinks. If I was to create another version of this magazine I would change the colour scheme however I would still choose to have a black and white picture as it looks very effective and stops the cover looking too full and busy.

During the preliminary task I have learnt new skills for example how to edit pictures. This will hopefully help me to create the next media project.

Final Magazine Cover

This is the final product for my magazine cover. I changed the inside contents to the opposite side of the magazine as they were covering the picture too much. I also added the headline 'Is textiles becoming fashion' I kept the colouring of the headline pink so the magazine is all 3 colours. The pink writing and pictures stand out from the black and white picture and make eveything on the page noticable.

My college Magazine

This is The edited picture which I am going to use for my magazine cover. I edited the picture by changing the effect to black and white. I also cropped, re sized and rotated the picture.

This is the second step of my magazine cover, I chose to do the font pink so the masthead stands out from the black and white picture.

I chose to put inside contents of the magazine on the side of the cover, I kept the pink black and white theme on all of the pictures to make them look more effective.

Draft of a College magazine

I had several ideas for the masthead of my college magazine, the ideas I came up with were ‘boom’ because its attention grabbing and exciting. College life was another idea, it explains what the magazine is about in the title however I thought that it was too long and didn’t sound as fun and exciting as the other magazines. Another name I thought would be suitable for a college magazine was ‘Link’ the magazine would be the link with news education and students. The final idea I had for the title was ‘Fusion’ I am going to use this name for my college magazine as its meaning is bringing people together, connecting people and it’s a short, fun exciting name for a college magazine.

College magazines are often seen as boring and not many students read them so I want to make the cover of my magazine very alike to popular magazines which students read.

The main idea of my magazine is to create a college fashion magazine. The population of Wyke college is more female than male and lots of the females in college are interested in fashion. I am going to create a ‘VOGUE’ style magazine for the college. My main picture will be of a textiles student and information about the course. I will also include student discounts and ‘wyke clothing range’ in my magazine.

The main headline of my magazine will be Textiles or Fashion? the main topic of the magazine will be what students want. To make the magazine more educational I am going to talk to textiles students and see the reasons why they chose textiles and if its because they are interested in fashion as Wyke dont offer a fashion course.

Textual analysis of NME magazine

The New Musical Express (better known as the NME) is a popular music magazine in the United Kingdom which has been published weekly since March 1952. It was the first British paper to include a singles chart which first appeared in the 14 November 1952 edition. The magazine's commercial heyday was during the 1970s when it became the best-selling British music magazine. 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.

The cover of this copy of NME magazine has a picture of Arctic Monkeys on the front, the picture is photographed in black and white this makes the picture different from all of the colourful writing and also makes the headlines, advertisements and masthead stand out. The photograph on the magazine cover isn’t a paparazzi shot unlike heat magazine it looks like it’s been taken by a photographer to fit in with the theme. There are a lot of puffs on the front of NME magazine advertising inside contents, these puffs have pictures next to them which attract the buyer because they don’t have to read the writing to no who the story is about or who the interview is with.

Unlike Vogue magazine NME magazine has a relevant picture to the main story of the issue. In the Vogue magazine below Kate Moss is pictured on the front however it doesn’t advertise a story or an interview on Kate Moss and it doesn’t say her name on the cover whereas the main story or interview in the issue of NME magazine is about the Arctic Monkeys, picturing them on the front of the magazine is going to attract Arctic Monkeys fans this way they will buy the magazine.

Textual Analysis of Heat magazine

Heat is a British entertainment magazine first launched in February 1999 published by Bauer Consumer Media. As of 2004 it is one of the biggest selling magazines in the UK, with a regular circulation over half a million. Its mix of celebrity news, gossip and fashion is primarily aimed at women, although not as directly as in other women's magazines. It also features movie and music reviews, TV listings and major celebrity interviews.

This issue of Heat advertises the main story on the cover and the picture of the person involved in the story, the picture used on this cover is a paparazzi shot, not a picture from a professional photo shoot however the front cover of an issue of Vogue normally has a picture of a famous supermodel on it and has been taken by a professional photographer in a photo shoot the model on the front cover isn’t always relevant to a story inside of the magazine however in Heat or a gossip magazine it normally is to attract readers.

Heat magazine has a very ‘busy’ front cover with lots of advertisements and inside stories in different colours and sizes whereas Vogue magazine sticks to one or too colours making it look more classy rather than loud. The different colours and sizes of the texts grabs your attention. Heat magazine use words such as ‘scandal’ and ‘doctors chilling prediction’ which makes the story sound exciting and interesting and makes people want to read more.

Heat magazine writes about ‘typical gossip’ for example ‘Gav spends night with Charlottes friend’ it’s a typical gossip story about relationships and the stories in Heat and other gossip magazine are often made up and just wrote to attract readers and sell more copies. A gossip magazine such as Heat only has a few interviews in each copy, this is because its cheaper for them to make up their own stories rather than pay someone else for the truth or an interview.

Textual Analysis of Vogue magazine

In this blog entry I am going to look at what key concepts magazines aimed at 16-19 year olds use. Vogue is a fashion and lifestyle magazine published in eighteen countries by Conde Nast Publications. Each month, Vogue publishes a magazine addressing topics of fashion, life and design.

Kate Moss is pictured on the front cover of this issue of Vogue, this tells the reader that the magazine is about fashion from looking at it. The magazine cover doesn’t have the full title written across the magazine, this is because the masthead of the magazine is so famous they don’t need to put the full name.

The inside contents of the magazine advertise ‘Girl Style’ this is advertising the audience and ‘the international collections special’ shows that the magazine is published in more than one country.

Vogue has Kate Moss on the front cover of the magazine, photographing a supermodel on the front cover of a magazine attracts people, fans of the model, people who want to be like the model and people interested in her fashion. The model isn’t named on the magazine and there isn’t a story about her advertised.

The difference between Vogue magazine and a weekly magazine such as star is the celebrities on the front of star are normally relevant to the story in the magazine and are often just pictured by press however Vogue magazine use top models to put on the front cover of there magazine and their own photographers photograph and edit the pictures to how they want them. This shows that Vogue is a magazine of more quality and costs more money to produce whereas weekly magazines buy pictures off other people and often make up their own stories.

Secondary Magazine

In this blog entry I will look at how the key concepts are used in Secondary teachers magazine. “Teachers magazine is for the teaching professional. It aims to be balanced, inspiring and useful, with practical solutions and the inside track on Government education policy” The main topic of the issue I’m going to look at is 'Do boys and girls learn differently?

This magazine uses an unusual layout as the front cover. The 2 page layout is effective as it fits in well with the main story and attracts people because it looks different. The two children on the front cover are deliberately wearing identical uniforms this is done to involve the pictures with the main story and to show the two children could go to the same school wear the same uniform be taught by the same teacher but still learn differently. The two sides to the cover have the same advertisements and same layout making the picture the main focus.

The cover of the magazine advertises its audience which shows that it’s a specialist magazine and not a lot of people know about it, if the front cover didn’t say its main audience then it could attract school children or parents also.

The children are dressed in school uniforms on the picture to make it fit in with the story, if they were dressed in everyday clothes then it would have no connection with the main story of the magazine.

The magazine cover addresses the reader ’do boys and girls learn differently and can your teaching redress the balance’ this attracts the reader because it makes them involved with the magazine.

Foundation Portfolio -Preliminary Task

Foundation Portfolio Preliminary Task
As this this is the beginning of the Foundation Portfolio Preliminary task I looked at how the media key concepts could be applied to produce a college magazine using the acronym LIIAR, Language, Institution, Ideology, Audience, Representation.

Language - Whats in the layout? The print layout of the cover. The type of text used in headlines and main stories. Angles and effects used on photographs.

Institution - Wyke college is a academically based college.

Ideology - The message that the magazine is trying to get across, theres not already a Wyke college magazine so it is unique. The message the magazine is trying to get across is opportunity, equal treatment, respect and education.

Audience - The audience which will be reading the magazine are aged 16-20years. There is a higher percentage of females at Wyke college and the students at the college are from Hull and the surrounding areas. 70% of students that go to Wyke college go to university afterwards.

Representation - What does the person in the picture represent? Is the picture suitable for the story. Does the story appeal to the audience and make people want to read the magazine.