2. COMMON CONVENTIONS
Masthead - A successful music magazine has the masthead of
the magazine portrayed as a logo by using iconic texts and
colour schemes that stick in the mind and are easily
recognisable to the public.
‘Kerrang’ uses text that looks like it’s smashed to
give it a rugged feel as the music involved in these
magazines are quite heavy genres.
‘Q’ is an iconic image as it’s a short title and the
coloured background makes it easier for the public to remember.
3. COMMON CONVENTIONS
Barcode – One of the common conventions used for
magazines, a barcode on the front cover informs the audience
general information such as the price and issue release date.
Main image – Most music magazines have a main image of a
singer or band which takes up the majority of the page. This
makes it the main focal point of the magazine.
4. M A I N I M AG E DE C ON ST RUC TION
The clothes worn here are
natural and colourful giving the
model a friendly natural feel. The
proxemics of her facial expressions
show her to be warm and
welcoming. You’d see this type of
photo on a positive teenage
magazine.
The red and black colours show
lust and give the picture a sexual
feel. Her facial expressions
portray her to be threatening and
fierce. This kind of picture would
be on a male magazine as it
contorts the true female image.
By using photographic skills you can create an
atmosphere and emotion in a photo which can best
represent a magazine’s genre.
These 4 images are of the same person all por trayed
i n d i f f e r e n t w a y s . To g i v e d i f f e r e n t f e e l s .
This type of photo would be used
on the front of a fashion magazine.
The model is slim and her outfit
accentuates her figure showing the
stereotypical ‘skinny’ desirable figure.
This sells clothing more to the target
audience.
The use of shadows in this picture
creates a stand off-ish feel. The
way she blends into the
background makes her look
mysterious. Her stance shows her
to be threatening
and stating authority; shown by
her having her hand up.
5. COMMON CONVENTIONS
Plug – Advertisement to encourage customers to buy the
product, this could be a free supplement or of fer which is
enclosed. Eg, ‘FREE TOPSHOP VOUCHER’, ’10 HUGE POSTERS
INCLUDED!’.
6. COMMON CONVENTIONS - COLOUR
Colour schemes are ver y impor tant in magazines, using the right colour
scheme to represent the genre and make the magazine stand out from
other s helps a magazine to sell.
If you used bland dull colours such as grey and black and browns, it
wouldn’t look ef fective and make the target audience want to read it.
An ef fective thing to do is use colours that contrast ef fectively on the
back ground and masthead as it will make the title stand out.
Use colours that are bright and vibrant to make the magazine look
positive as music is something that makes you feel good, but
contrasted with a dark colour such as black to create contrast.
If I was to create a heavy metal genre magazine, I would use darker
colours like black and red as the music is more hard -core and these
colours represent that.
7. AUDIENCE
O n c e yo u h av e a t t r a c te d t h e a u d i e n c e w i t h a g o o d , a t t r a c t i ve f r o n t c o v e r u s i n g
c o l o ur s , yo u h av e to a d d r e s s t h e a u d i e n c e w i t h t h i n g s s u c h a s v i s u a l a n d w r i t te n
language.
T h e l a n g u a g e I w o u l d u s e i s i n f o r m a l to i n c i s e t h e yo u n g t a r g et a u d i e n c e w i t h s l a n g
a n d v a r i o us i d i o l ec t o f t h e yo u n g e r g e n e r a t i o n .
T h e a u d i e n c e f o r a s p e c i fi c g e n r e m u s i c m a g a z i n e w o u l d b e a n i c h e a u d i e n c e
b e c a u s e i t ’ s a i m e d a t a s p e c i fi c t h i n g , to m a ke i t a m a s s a u d i e n c e t h e m a g a z i n e
w o u l d h av e to b e m o r e g e n e r a l .
T h e m a g a z i n e I w i l l c r e a te w i l l b e a n i c h e m a g a z i n e a s i t w i l l b e a m u s i c m a g a z i n e
for a certain genre.
8. TARGET AUDIENCE
T h e r e a r e d i f fe r e n t g r o u p s o f p e o p l e i n d i f fe r e n t s o c i a l c l a s s e s m e d i a p i e c e s a r e
aimed at.
T h e A B C D E m et h o d s p l i t s p e o p l e i n to d i f fe r e n t s o c i a l c l a s s e s a n d m e d i a tex t s a r e
a i m e d a t t h e s e s p e c i fi c g r o u p s .
A – h i g h l y p a i d p r o f e s s i o n al s i e . D o c to r s , L aw ye r s
B – p e o p l e i n m e d i um p r o f e s s i o n s , h i g h l y p a i d i e . Te a c h e r s
C 1 – ( w h i te c o l l a r w o r ke r s ) i e . N u r s e s
C 2 – P r a c t i ca l p r o f e s s i o n s ( b l u e c o l l a r w o r ke r s ) i e . e l e c t r i c ia n s , p l u m b e r s
D – u n s k i l l e d w o r ke r s i e f a c to r y w o r ke r s
E – S t u d e n t s , U n e m p l oye d , Pe n s i o n e r s .
My magazine will be aimed at mostly group E as I plan to
make a magazine teenagers would be interested in.
