Audience and Content

Audience

As the magazine is going to be a school magazine, its target audience will be the students and possibly the teachers of the school. Even parents may be interested in reading the magazine, as it will concern their children.

Content

In this magazine there should be basic information about the school, such as the address and contact details, including subscription details and a map of the inside of the actual school building. There should be important dates of the year included, such as parents' evenings, teacher training days, charity events, etc. as well as notices for clubs or exam timetables. 

Contents Page

On the left is a brief draft of a possible contents page, and on the right is a more developed version of it. However, I still need to make the font smaller and coordinate more with the house style of the magazine. 

Front Cover Possibilities

Front Cover Image Planning & Photoshoot

Ideas for front cover image:

- two students in discussion

- students outside at a bench, maybe laughing or talking

- close up of student smiling at camera (CU or MCU)

- outside for good lighting & background

- CU of a student in uniform against blank background of a corridor

- students at desk or table working

- a teacher at work in their office

- long shot of students or teachers walking down a corridor

Possibilities for Magazine Cover

I am quite pleased with how these photos turned out as some of them show eye contact with the audience and seem relatively natural. The outdoor lighting really helped, as did the green, grassy background, which contrasts with the subjects of the photographs, so more attention is drawn to their faces. There is also a CU of a student in uniform against a relatively blank and plain background, which helps the subject to stand out against it. There are several two shots that I think work well with the interaction of the target audience because of how natural they seem. 

Media Terminology

Media Text -  a specific media product produced by an institution or organisation.
Media Form - the type of media a text is using to communicate.
Media Language - communication. The meaning or connotations behind a certain type of media, imagery, or font. For example, on the poster of a science fiction film there may be pictures of spaceships or futuristic weaponry. The target audience will be able to identify the film as being science fiction because that is the connotation of the imagery.
Media Institutions - a media institution is the company or organisation who produces the media. Each media institution usually produces a specific category of media, aimed at a specific target audience. Examples of media institutions include The Times, Facebook, the Walt Disney Company and Endemol. 
Media Audiences - a media audience is a group of people who view or are the recipients of media. Specific examples of media audiences would be television viewers, those who read magazines and those who listen to the radio.
Media Representation - this is the portrayal and construction of specific aspects of media, such as types of people (usually stereotypes), locations and objects. It affects how media audiences view these different things.
Denotation - the description of something.
Connotation - what we associate with that description.
MCU - Media Close Up.
Media Conventions - the typical characteristics or aspects of a media form or product. These characteristics define the genre, and allow the audience to identify the genre.

Conventions of a Magazine Cover

Masthead

The masthead is the name or logo of the magazine, usually presented in the largest and clearest font on the magazine cover. This represents the magazine. From the examples above it seems that the masthead most commonly is presented as a square or title in the upper left hand corner of the cover, or across the top of the cover, almost like a banner.

Headlines

The headlines are in the second largest font on the magazine cover, after the masthead. They give the reader some information about what is going to be in this issue of the magazine. On the covers of music magazines, the headlines are usually the name of the artist or group being featured in the issue.

Coverlines

The coverlines are in the third largest font on the magazine cover, after the headlines. They give the reader further information about the other articles in the magazine, other than the main one, and often include pull quotes.

Pull Quotes

Pull quotes are used on magazine covers to capture the attention of those who are scanning over them. If the quote is from a target audience member's idol, favourite singer or artist, or involves a certain interest of theirs, they are more likely to be prompted by the quote to read the rest of the article within the magazine.

Font

The different fonts are Serif and Sans-Serif. Serif is the more traditional and conservative style of font, whereas the Sans-Serif font ('sans' meaning 'without' in French) has neither hooks nor brackets on its letters, so it is seen as being bold, modern and youthful.

Lure

The lure is something that stands out to capture the attention of the target audience on the magazine's front cover. It is usually a pull quote.

House Style

The house style is usually the colour scheme and layout of a magazine - how the magazine is presented and how the target audience recognises it. For instance, from the examples above we can see that Q Magazine's house style involves the masthead being a red square in the left hand upper corner of the cover with a Q on it in a Serif font in white to stand out against its background.

Visual Syntax

Visual syntax is the order in which the reader looks at each aspect of the magazine cover. For example, in the fifth magazine cover above the reader is first drawn to the masthead, then the subject's eyes, then the headlines and then the coverlines.

Gutter

The gutter is the space between the columns of text on the front cover. On some of the examples above the gutter is quite large, whereas on others it is virtually non-existent.

Straplines

The straplines are headlines in a smaller font that appear below the main headline. From the examples of magazine covers above we can see that many of the straplines are pull quotes concerning the band or artist that is part of the main article of the magazine.

Conventions of a Contents Page

- layout usually involves two or three columns

- has either a large image or several smaller ones related to the articles

- often has miniaturised version of the magazine's masthead

- titles of the main articles are bold

- same house style/ colour scheme as the front cover

- usually uses a doublespread (the example above only uses one page though)

- page number next to head article name

- interesting variety of photographs to grab attention

- includes contact details of magazine

- gives short description or summary of each article

- gives subscription details and credit to those involved in the magazine