1. The target audience of NME is 20-35 year old males.
This is seen by the advertisements inside the
magazine. Although there is only 3 advertisements
in the entirety of the magazine which is obviously
minimalized because of the style of magazine being
mainly indie rock they don’t want to be seen as sell-
outs. The adverts are for products such as phones,
laptops and phone networks. Obviously these
products are gender neutral but they do target a
younger audience but people who will be able to
afford these products so this reinforces the targeted
age range. Aspects of the front cover which appeals
more to males than females is the main star on the front cover (Noel Gallagher). He
is more of a person who is a role model and idol to males and isn’t really on the
whole liked as much by females. Reasons for this could be because of his music or
personality or maybe just because it isn't a star that they find attractive.
2. The target audience for Empire is seen below with 77%
of their audience being male, 72.8% of their audience
being C1 upwards and the majority of 34.8% of their
audience is aged 15-24. This is reflected in the
advertisements which includes products that relate to
the magazine such as Blu-ray players and DVD’s which
are targeted at Empires target audience. There is also
other technology such as laptops advertised which will
also be targeted at the audience of Empire.
3. The text in NME is mainly formal but relaxed. I would
consider it informal but the text is still professional and
doesn’t use slang or abbreviations. The language is
relaxed because of the simple easy vocabulary there is
no words that would be difficult for the average person.
The majority of the text is bright red ad in blocky font
this is used because of the connotations behind red
being danger and love. Maybe aspects they are trying to
portray as exclusive to the indie music genre. The blocky
font is used to make the magazine look more
minimalistic and simplistic. Minimalism obviously being
a modern trait. There is also quote seen next to the star
which has been used in a font that makes it look like
handwriting to engage the audience more and make them feel connected to their idols.
The magazine also applies the Guttenberg design principle to its front cover for example
unimportant aspects such as the barcode is put in the weak fallow area and small so the
audience doesn’t pay attention to it and in the primary optical area they have the title
of the magazine and then on the axis of orientation they put the star so the audiences
eye is drawn to the important aspects.
4. There isn't much text on the front cover of this issue of
Empire and it is mainly focused on the main star. This is
done to advertise the movie because the movie is
named after the main character. The only text seen is
in the bottom left corner in the weak fallow area
further showing they want the majority of your
concentration on the star. The title is in gold and
connotes value. This is used to make the magazine be
seen as more prestigious. Empire applies the
Guttenberg design principle by putting unimportant
aspects such as the barcode in the weak fallow area
and putting the main star on the axis of orientation so
your attention stays on that. Also the layout of the magazine is very sparse and just
has a single image of the star and the title of the movie keeping the magazine
minimalistic and simplistic like NME but this magazine more to the extreme. Using
minimalism to make the magazine look more modern.
5. The genre of the magazine also effects the style/
language and the entire mis en scene of the magazine as
previously stated in the slideshow. Using codes and
convention themed to the genre. The magazine also
uses anchorage to draw the audience to the main star to
get more purchases for the magazine. For example in
this magazine the anchoring point is Noel Gallagher. He
is used because he is an icon of that genre and would
persuade people who like that genre to buy the
magazine.
6. Empire magazine also uses similar methods to draw
audiences in with iconic genre anchorage. Using a
modern western star that is featured in one of the
best directors in the world films. The iconic character
of ‘Django’ is used to anchor film fans just as the
music magazine used the iconic star of Noel Gallagher.
Even if you didn’t know about the character of
‘Django’ the outfit he is wearing is also iconic of films
in general Western films were one of the main genres
that was loved in start of cinema and everything about
Jamie Foxx in that picture screams classic western.
