Friday, 30 December 2011
Advertising my Ideal reader questionnaire
Wednesday, 7 December 2011
Wednesday, 23 November 2011
Monday, 24 October 2011
How do magazine front covers use denotation and connotation to attract their intended audience?
How do magazine front covers use denotation and connotation
to attract their intended audience?
The magazine front cover Vibe, is very bold, strong and eye-catching. First of all we can tell from the front cover that the magazine is mainly aimed at men, ranging from about the age of 15 to 25. The men would generally be interested in rap music, gangs, parties, drugs. The fact that it is rap music shows that it is mainly aimed at men because men are generally more interested in rap music than women. However some people may argue that women would want to buy this too. We can see that the men would be working class because the front cover looks fairly cheap and doesn’t look like the sort of magazine a rich person would buy. Also the language is very genre specific ‘Vicodim. Valium. Methadone.’ And ‘Swagga Jack.’ If you didn’t know anything about this genre of music then you may not necessarily understand it, therefore would not want to buy it because it would not appeal to you. Because of the fact that the headline is very bold, strong, confident and in your face, it represents how a man would want to be towards other people, therefore the title ‘Vibe’ would appeal to them.
The colour scheme of the front cover is red, black, white and grey. These colours represent danger, especially the colour red. The fact that the title is a very bold, graduated tone of black and red shows a kind of power. The men reading this would want to show that they have got power over other people therefore the title will really attract them. The font all over the magazine is in capital letters. Capital letters also give the readers a sense of power because capital letters are much more bold and strong compared to small letters. The most important or interesting words are the colour red. This is because red stands out and because it stands out this is most likely going to be the thing that the readers read first. The editor of this magazine wants the readers to see the most interesting bit before all the other writing. All around the edge of the image are little tasters of what’s inside the magazine, it gives hints of the different stories inside. The reader will be able to see what’s going to be included, therefore more likely to buy it.
The image on the Vibe front cover is an image of Eminem, which looks like a professional photograph taken for specifically for the magazine. This is the only image on the front cover and it is centred and the main focus. The image is the first thing the readers will see and because Eminem’s head is centred forward in front of the title, means that the readers will see the image even before they read the title. Eminem’s face is angry looking and very powerful looking, he is staring right at the reader as if he has complete control over them. Also because Eminem is folding his tattooed covered arms this represents the control he has over people. The tattoos on his arms will appeal to this genre of readers because the men viewing this will want to be like him and it is stereotyped that you are hard and can rule if you have got loads of tattoos. The readers of this will also want to feel as if they have complete control over people. Eminem has very strong body posture and this is like most rap artists and rap fans. Eminem is wearing a black vest top, the black vest top matches the colour scheme of the magazine and also the fact that it is a vest top represents a certain powerful status in society. Because generally you only see ‘strong, hard’ men in vest tops to show off their muscles and to show off their body.
The language used is very genre specific and because loads of artists are named on the front cover, this means that if you are not into this type of music then it will not relate to you and you will not want to buy it. Therefore it is directly aimed at male teens and early twenties. Also the fact that it says ‘Is 1998’s rap’s last classic year?’ shows that it is also aimed at those a bit older than teens because there’s a high chance that teenagers won’t necessarily know about rap back in the late 90’s. The editor also uses slang, for example instead of the word ‘and’ they use ‘&’. This creates and informal, friendly, conversational atmosphere for the readers and will make them feel as if they are part of the magazine and involved with it.
My School Magazine Contents Page Mock Up and Front Cover 1st Draft
Contents Page Mock Up
1st Draft of Front Cover
Newspaper front cover
Commentary about my Newspaper front cover
I chose to do a front cover for The Sun. The audience for The sun newspaper is a less educated, working class type. The less educated, working class would tend to go for the bright, colourful images that stand out and that will grab their attention. The Sun is a less political newspaper and the audience will buy it generally to hear all the latest gossip and the ‘big news’. Based on the fact that this is a very cheap tabloid paper costing only 30p, means that on average more people tend to buy it. This means that the paper must stand out and must be interesting and must use informal, easy to read language because a large range of people read it and it needs to be understandable.
First of all, the main image, which takes up most of the page, is a very dramatic, eye-catching, shocking image. It show’s a youth kicking a policeman and retaliating in a violent way with all the other youths behind him. The fact that the youth is being violent towards a police man can come across as very shocking to the reader; it’s something that wouldn’t usually happen. This will then grab the reader’s attention and make them want to read more about it to find out the details of what actually happened. I decided to make the image the main focus of the paper because it will easily grab attention.
The main heading, ‘Looters attack’ really stands out and has large, clear writing. I chose to give the paper this heading because it goes very well with what was going on in the riots; it also connects very well with the image because it shows the looters attacking the police. It is an easy to understand title and considering the fact that the language of the sun is aimed at children of around the age of 8, it needs to be understandable.
The sub-heading, with red, eye-catching font, placed just above the image says ‘Police struggle to keep yobs under control.’ I used the colour red because it fits in with the bright colour theme of The Sun. Red is also a symbol of danger so Red fits the story very well. I chose to use the word ‘yobs’ because it is an informal, slang term and will engage with many of the working class readers. The word ‘yobs’ gives everybody reading, an idea that it was just youths involved with the riots, however as a matter of fact statistics show that it was a large amount of twenties to middle aged people involved too. But I decided to use this particular word because I am representing most of the rioters as young people. People are more interested by the fact that it is young people because it seems much more horrifying and shocking as to what the youths of today can be like. Even though it is not a fully correct representation, that’s how I’ve chosen to present them.
‘The police struggle’ is a phrase I’ve used in the sub-heading. The use of the word ‘struggle’ is a negative thing towards the police and suggests that they didn’t have enough police out while the riots were happening. Even though the front page is mainly blaming the ‘yobs’ – youths of today, the fact that the police are struggling also could lead people to blame the police and become angry because more police could have been out there while all of this was happening. However it could also lead people to feel abit of empathy towards the police and be angry at the ‘yobs’ even more because the youths shouldn’t be doing what they are doing and the police are finding it very hard. The audience of The Sun, like to read news which gives them a boost, gets them angry and gives them something to talk about. The horrifying image, the word ‘attack’ in the main heading and the shocking sub heading all lead the reader’s to feel this.
On the right hand side of the image I have decided to put three main bullet points all focussing on the riots and an introduction to the whole story which can be read inside the paper if they buy it. I decided to include these on the front cover because people might want to read the first paragraph to see if the story is worth reading. Even though the eye-catching front cover should persuade them to buy it anyway, the extra paragraph and 3 main bullet points gives the reader more information. I used white font to make it stand out on the page because the image is very dark.
Overall the audience is a less educated, working class type. I’m representing the looters/rioters as violent ‘yobs’. The genre is a tabloid paper and the ideology is blaming the rioters – the youths.
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