Magazine mood board

 

Analysing contents pages

	NME	Marie Claire	OK	Scratch
Target audience	Teenagers and onwards. Male and female	Female – Middle aged	Male and female. Teenagers and onwards.	Females. Middle aged.
Price/frequency	£2.40/ Weekly	£3.70/monthly	£1/weekly	£3.99/monthly
Number of pictures	8	8	4	5
Analysis of pictures	Musician – what they are doing/what they are up to.	Preview of article. Pictures of public and reality.	The pictures are to show who the articles are involving.	Picture sizes differ, every picture to do with the tittle and what it’s about.
Picture captions/labels	Quotes from the articles.	Insight of articles.	Who they’re about.	None.
Language used	Quotes used.	Persuasive language used.	Plain language used, information	There are play on words and information under main heading.
Number of pages in the magazine/number of articles mentioned	7 articles mentioned	44 articles mentioned 258 pages in the magazine.	3 articles are mentioned, 146 pages in the magazine.	136 pages.
Use of colour	Black and white page, coloured pictures and adverts.	Black and white page with coloured pictures.	White tittle, mixture of colour throughout in text and pictures.	Black and white article with brightly coloured pictures.
Use of font	The tittle used black and bold. The font differs throughout.	Black, bold text fonts and the size differ.	Font differs so does the colour of font and styles.	Font differs throughout but always written in black. Text  size differs, font the same throughout.
Any other information	Layout is simple, neatly laid out. Adverts used special deals.	Relates to audience and audience lives.	It is set out in a very messy with writing everywhere and isn’t very neat.	Layout is simple with lots of pictures and not as much writing.

Woman&Home magazine cover analysed

The picture takes up most of the front page with writing all around it. The tittle of the magazine is the biggest writing on the page with lots of sub headings around it. There is only one picture which shows it is a magazine for older people. The writing is big and bold in either white and pick against a white back ground. Plain writing is used as the magazine is for older people who would not want lots of different styles of font. There is only one picture as it is more of a glossy magazine and there is not as much going on on purpose. There is only one big photo used specifically to show what the main article in the magazine is about. Without reading it or looking inside the magazine you know what you would find if you brought the magazine. It also draws the readers attention because the picture is so big so if you see it and you like the person or are interested in the person on the front of the magazine it may make you look inside it and buy it.
The cover lines are smaller then the tittle of the magazine because the name of the magazine is the most important thing so the reader knows what they are buying. The key words used are "Age less", "Love at last", "eat yourself younger", "time to indulge" and these are used to make you buy the magazine. The one picture has the caption "Real me" to make you want to find out about the real her and more about her life, which is interesting if you like celebrity gossip.
The name of the magazine is Woman&Home, it is a monthly magazine and its more on advice and the good and interesting things about celebrities rather then gossip. It is a magazine that has more things in it as it is not published every week. The only other graphic on the front cover is the barcode. The colours used throughout are pink, black and white. Plain and simple colours are used, they are feminine and stand out against each other. This is to show it is more of a woman's magazine and is classy, so for older people rather than loud and bright colours which would be used for more of a teenage magazine. The front cover is quite boring as it is for older people and I am younger but the front covers colours and the way it is set out is attractive, especially for an older audience.

Ruislip eye cover analysed

The two pictures take up most of the space to get the readers attention, and there is a large tittle with large text. The font is plain to not draw too much attention away from the articles. The colour of the font is the school colours so it promotes the school's image. White writing against blue back ground stands out so view the tittle of the magazine easily. Two big photos take up most of the page, there is also one little photo for another article, but the pictures are poor quality and are not cropped to fit properly. The santa picture relates to the stories because it was Christmas time and they were saying goodbye  and thank you to the students. The pictures of the children demonstrating the trash clothes relates to the main story and the title. This allows the reader to know more about the story because they the pictures show examples. Someone might not fully understand what the article is about so the pictures help to explain. They also make the magazine look more interesting as the reader may not buy the magazine if it was all just writing.

The cover lines are smaller then the headline of the magazine. Trashion is used a lot and therefore becomes a key word. The picture caption "trashion" makes it interesting as it is a play on words and makes you want to read about it.

The name of the magazine "ruislip eye", is funny and a good play on words with the school name Ruislip High.  It makes the magazine seem less serious and more amusing. This would attract the reader especially as the audience would be younger school children. The holly on the magazine was used as a logo because it was the Christmas edition. The colours used throughout are blue and white, reflecting the school colours.  White stands out against the blue background and gets the attention of the reader because of the contrast.

Although the front cover may be boring and quite plain the use of the colours, writing and the pictures including how they are placed are good. Also the play of words used throughout the front cover of the magazine is planned well because it is amusing and attracts the reader, keeping their attention. 

Signs and Signifiers

Different colours are used to communicate different moods and messages.

Colour                                                  What it signifies to an audience
BLUE - Blue signifies a calm feeling; it can also signify sadness and depression therefore this is often seen on the film posters for tear jerker films. Blue can also be linked to nature and the sea.

BLACK - Black signifies a dull feeling and can be liked to death, sadness, despression and fear. This colour would be seen on horror movie posters.

RED - Red can signify love, anger, hatred, blood, the devil and romance. Red can be used in thrillier films and romantic films.

WHITE - White signifies peace, purity, heaven, silence, dullness, love and ghosts. White can be used in romantic and thriller films.

YELLOW - Yellow signifies happiness, brightness, purity. Yellow can be used in family and children s films.

GREEN - Green signifies nature, envy, spring, vomit, new life, nature. Green can be used in nature or children's films.

GOLD - Gold signifies winning, strength, power, royalty. Gold can be used in adventure and reality films.

SILVER - Silver signifies money, second place, royalty, wealth. Silver can be used in adventure films.

Objects and symbols can also signify different messages and meanings to audiences.


           Hearts traditionally signify love and feelings. They are often used on posters for romantic films.

Cross may signify religion, God, Jesus, death, love, safety, Christianity. Often used in Horror movies.










A gun may signify death, murder, protection, fear, strength and power. You may find it in action, horror and comedy movies.

 A hoodie may signify gangs, fear, teenagers and stereotyping. You may find it in teenage, horror and gang movies.

    A sun may signify happiness, brightness, warmth and welcome. This may be found in children's movies and romantic movies.

A Knife may signify fear, death, food and violence. You may find it in horror movies.

Different fonts can signify different things to the audience

 

Decoding

• Signifies - Shows something or means something.
• Encoding - Putting meaning into something
• Decoding - Working out the meaning of something
• Connotation - Meanings assosiated with something.

All meanings are dependent on the reader/audience.

What you would find on a magazine cover:

• Pictures - One big one - Links to main article, Smaller ones on side
• Big font, different sizes and types
• Barcode
• Title
• Date and issue number
• Price
• Free Gift
• Bright colours

Magazine cover analysed (closer)

This Magazine used lots of different approaches to make the reader interested in buying it:
The white "Closer" stands out well against the purple back ground so you can clearly see the name of the magazine. It is also large so if you are purposely looking for Closer you will be able to see it well.
There are three big, main pictures taking up most of the page. You automatically then know what the stories are going to be about in the magazine.  This also helps the reader easily identify the person if they don't recognise  faces very well. The pictures also show the facial expressions of the celebrity very well, allowing the reader to know the type of story before they read it. Victoria Beckham's picture is especially important as they didn't crop out her baby girl which adds effect and makes the story seem worse by involving children.  This makes the reader feel more sympathy towards her family but not her.
There is the use of alliteration in the titles of the stories - 3D's, Delirious, defiant and devastated  This is also emotive language using very different words that would make the reader feel contrasting emotions. This technique is used to keep the reader interested as 3 stories that are very similar would be boring and wouldn't encourage the reader to buy that magazine.
The front cover is full of celebrity gossip as well as personal stories. Personal stories are important because readers may find them more interesting as they can connect with people and may have gone through similar experiences. A lot of people are inquisitive and especially want to know what is going on in other peoples lives that are not celebrities.
In addition there is an offer on the front cover "25% off at matalan", that is important because it may attract new readers who may buy the magazine for the first time if there is a good offer that they may want or need, for example, clothes or make up.
Also on the front cover is the barcode, issue number, price and date.

Magazines

Magazines are for:

1. Adevertising
2. News
3. Entertainment
4. Pictures
5. Making money

People buy them for:

1. Product information
2. News about celebrities
3. Pictures
4. General News
5. Personal stories
6. Quizs & Games
7. Horoscopes
8. Competetions
9. Interviews

Some names of Magazines are:

1. Heat
2. OK!
3. Kerrang
4. Fabulous
5. Star
6. Hello
7. Men's Health