Unit 14: Learning Aim ATask 1

1. Select a range of different magazines from your chosen genre, which use both print and digital production techniques

Genre is a phrase used to categorise a style of a product. There are a variety of ways magazines are categorised into genres. To begin, I analyse 6 magazines which are all different genres.

The first genre is film. This is a magazine created by Empire. One purpose of this magazine is to entertain the viewer who watches this. It does this by aiming the magazine at the target audience. I believe this magazine would hold quite a large age range to interest. This is predominantly aimed at males as it is a male selected film. It also holds information about related films or new films that are on release or being speculated, endorsing the audience more there is more that will interest them to come. This would be aimed towards 10-35-year olds. This magazines holds film news and information about a selected topic film and character giving further background information into the film about the recent movie selected for the magazine. In this case Thor Ragnarok. This entertains the audience of what this film is based around and gives

deeper meanings to information of in the film, making this more interesting. The red background associates with war, blood, showing this film is based around action. The character makes this film look like a fantasy with superheroes in this film.

This magazine is specific on men’s health. This fits into a genre of fitness and is categorised as bodybuilding also. This magazine is created and sold out to males who have an interest in fitness and bodybuilding, also helping them physically with information. This magazine is sold to entertain and provide vital information about fitness and health towards males wanting to get in shape. As you can see the image has lack of colour and is in black and white. This helps the muscles of Arnold look bigger, more rounded and defined, so the image looks better than what it actually may be. The darkness of the black will make the muscles look bigger and more defined.

This magazine is particularly based around singing. The purpose of a signing magazine is to inform and update people on the world of music and what their favourite artists or bands are currently doing or have created. This obviously shows they are more than one genre magazine on music, like this one is a charts, R&B, pop magazines. This one focuses fully on UK chart artists and bands. Another purpose of music magazines can also help promote concerts or gigs that may be coming up and where the tickets are being sold within that genre.

https://issuu.com/tranhtreotuongdep.com/docs/tap-chi-vuvo-v this is a digital magazine that is on a website called ISSUE. Vogue is a fashion and lifestyle magazine that covers a variety of things like fashion, beauty, culture and living. We can see this magazine is more targeted for female audiences. This could age around 20-45 years of age for target audience. This magazine has many purposes mainly targeting and entertaining the audience with information on how they things or themselves look. This shows fashion for beauty and living. So, what females may find is the new fashion for women, or fashion of the new eating healthy trend, or even house plans that are

fashionable now.

https://issuu.com/presspad/docs/i17446 This is another digital magazine. This is heavily targeted towards a male audience and we get this from the title of the magazine and the model on the front. The age range I believe is around 20-40-year olds of males that will be endorsed to buy this. One purpose of this magazine is that they are interested in this magazine and that they’re entertained to read this. There is another purpose that this magazine is released regularly, holding new fashion for males to be endorsed by. This will present other company brands including in this fashion magazine, which

will be within the outfits.

https://issuu.com/codarecordsltd/docs/queen_digital_magazine

This is the third digital magazine that I found. This is a rock-based magazine, Largely for male audiences. This is a magazine called one vision, written for and about a band called Queen. One purpose is of this magazine is to entertain. This is done many ways. This magazine is based on the history of Queen, so this will hold history or untold stories about the band. Th e magazine holds Things like the dress rehearsals they performed, giving background and meaning to why they wore certain clothes, There is interviews taken with a member of the band. It also holds

Their albums giving detailed information of them albums. These things included in the magazine is crucial information, causing the viewer to be interested to buy and will be entertained on.

2. Identify the codes and conventions of the genre used on the magazine front cover, and in the magazine in general.

Codes and conventions are features used within a media product that is shown consistently all the time. In magazines, magazine companies will tend to use the trend of using the same features for the magazine to keep the process to endorse the audience in buying the magazine.

MASTHEAD: Firstly, on a magazine, there will always be a masthead. This essentially is the magazines name displayed in the way it’s designed, usually at the top of the magazine. This is done in a very familiar typeface, in which catches the audience’s eye to buy it. So, in this example the cover image is relevant to the masthead. This makes the masthead not only relevant but makes it stand out for what the magazine means or what it is.

Selling line: There will also be a selling line. This is a short/ sharp description of the main titles marketing point for the magazine. Like in this example, it uses the cover image to relate to something on the image the viewer might want, selling the magazine to the customer, endorsing them to buy it.

Main image: This is an image to present the title of what the magazine is trying to present. So here in this example, there is a celebrity star (which will help endorse this) posing for the magazine. This is a men’s health magazine, so this photo is taken from a medium shot to capture his figure in the frame. This is so muscles and his toned body is presented to the audience and they are endorsed to buy it to look like this celebrity.

Dateline: This is simply the month and year, potentially the day, the magazine is published. This is usually found at the top, just like this example here, normally sitting under the masthead. This example on has the month and year published but it is under the masthead, which is exactly one of the condes and conventions of a magazine

Main cover line: This tells the reader the main story about in this magazine and relates to the model on the front of the magazine. This cover line tends to stand out a lot more than any other cover line on the magazine; drawing the audience’s attention. It also is something really struggle to do or need to fix their issue, so the audience normally get endorsed from this. Likewise, to the example, flat belly fast is relating to Mark Wahlberg the model of the photo, but it’s also a struggle for people to achieve or be consistent too. So, people will become endorsed to buy this.

Cover line: This is another advertisement feature for the magazine which is telling the viewer other good features they’ll get if they buy to read this. Like in this example you can see they’re talking about igniting females sex drive. This will endorse the male straight away, as a male will always want to try and pleasure a female more. To add on, its objectifying the women in the message of if you’re fit and healthy you can use these tips on women and they’ll only want you for the sexual drive.

Cover line: This is another cover line in the magazine and as mentioned that these are other advertisement sources, meaning there’s more than one. Every male will be endorsed if they see they could boost their testosterone. This means more sex drive for them, but also if they have more it can also help with their fitness and aesthetics of their body. There isn’t just one way there is 24 according to the magazine, meaning the viewer will be fully endorsed to buy it and entertained.

There is also codes and conventions always not just on the front page of the magazine. Things inside the magazine can hold codes and conventions that are seen in all magazines. Just like a double page spread. A double page spread can hold many codes and conventions. A double page spread essentially is a poster covering two pages (more than likely selling a product), holding a lot of information about that trying to sell it to the viewer.

The headline is in a big bold font. This makes this article stand out to the audience. It draws the attention to the keywords that they were the audience to see, so it catches their eye. In some cases, the phrase can also be seen quite catchy also.

The main image is a wide shot of the owner of the car and him being with his son and his car. The background is quite dark, making the car look very bright and to stand out for the audience to see it. The fact he’s with his son, may suggest he loves both son and his Saxo, or it’s a father like son. This pieces the image together to make it look interesting for the viewer

The text is aligned just down the right-hand side. This is I one column meaning they are trying to make the writing look a little bigger than it actually is. If it was all clumped across the page, then viewers may be put off reading or even attempt to read it all just because it’s not concisely together where it is probably much easier to read. Another code and convention are the capital letter at the beginning. This makes it very clear where this article starts for the viewer.

The sub heading is used to hand more information about the article they’re presenting. This sub heading usually has the same font as the main title. However, it is always a smaller sized font than the main title, Even though that is the case, the sub heading uses the font to still remain to stand out.

This is a smaller image of the product, however at a different angle. This is just a visual piece of extra information of the product, usually shot from another angle.

Analyse how codes and conventions of design and layout are used to appeal to the target audience for a specific genre of magazine.

When magazines are written they are written to a specific genre. These genres hold different codes and conventions within them to enable the magazine to be sold to the audience (Endorsing the customers). These code and conventions are features within the magazines that are consistently shown through out that same genre. Here is an example. Men’s Muscle and Fitness. One code and convention of this is they will always have one built famous celebrity that will be known for maybe gym progress or many talents. In this case they have Dwayne (The Rock) Johnson covering this mag. Everyone knows who this celebrity is from his films and WWE. But also, he is very gym dedicated and very aspired by many people to train or even look like him. This will attract the audience in buying this magazine as they know it will hold information

inside about The Rock and how he trains or diets or how he got mass etc. Another code and convention are the masthead. This is the main heading for the front cover of the magazine. This indicates what the magazine is designated to. In this case it tells the audience that this is a muscle and fitness magazine. This is then hitting that area of target audience who are fans or take an interest on fitness. They also use a lot of catchy coverlines. These coverlines are the things on the side of the magazine storing extra information that will be included in the magazine. Essentially in this instance of the example, they tend to use cover lines that they know the audience really struggle with achieving. They use these as a cheat way or a rhetorical question for the audience to become endorsed with the magazine. Like ‘build the perfect body’ This coverline endorses the audience as people interested in fitness is always aiming to build themselves to a perfect body. Or the main coverline ‘Dwayne Johnson- Exclusive photos, total arm routine and his key to success’. Going back to what I said earlier this is a celebrity that everyone will aspire to be so this will endorse the audience to buy this.

Analyse the opportunities and limitations of print and digital magazine production platforms in addressing audiences.

Magazines can now be presented either in print form or digital form. Print is the hard paper copy of the magazine, or you’ve got digital which is on a device screen and accessed from a website. Between the two they hold their pros and cons for each one being presented to the audience. Digital magazines are far cheaper that print. This is because the digital magazine will be made once and put on the internet or an app so everyone can buy or see that copy. It also saves a load of paper this way as print will need to copy thousands to allow enough people get a copy, sot hey save money on digital through the amount of copies. You can bring the content to life. This can be done by including video and sound in the digital magazines or adding extra links for additional information. This making the magazine much more engaging for the audience to read and not only that, but now interact. This making things a whole lot more interesting and engaging for the user to read this magazine more. They are ideal for industry. This will be because as said before they’re cost effective but also, they’ll be covered with high brand exposure and more sponsors on the webpage and in the magazine will be more apparent. Equalling more money for the company of the magazine. Digital magazines also hold some cons. First off, they are very new into the world of technology, meaning they’re not very indexed or advertised for search or link to be found. Websites may not be very known either so they could be found with difficulty at first. They can be hard to read. With the digital magazines, the print

is very small, and the page size consists of so much information, that the print is small. This can cause the audience when they’re reading, to zoom in and out so they can see the information of images properly when reading.

With print copies (hard copy of the magazines), there are also pros and cons. One pro is that the magazine is very portable. One copy of a magazine is able to be very portable for the audience to take anywhere with them or place in a small area in a bag after been rolled up for smaller space consumed. You don’t have to wait for the magazine to be downloaded, you simply pick it up and buy and read, taking less time than what downloading the file would be. Then the pictures then need to load, this isn’t needed for the print copy. They are just hard printed onto the paper and no downloading is needed. However, there is some cons about print magazines. One con is that technology is growing, so fewer people invest in hard copies anymore. Magazines aim for one particular target audience, whereas the online they aim to hit all. Print magazines have been in the making for years, so each magazine hold their own specific target audience, whereas, digital magazines are seeing new branded magazines that maybe made for more than just one audience. Print copies can’t hold videos or added links of sponsors or other companies within their magazine like digital magazines can. If there is a web link its time consuming to insert that where digital is more accessible for that more efficiently.

Evaluate the effectiveness of codes and conventions used within magazines for a specific genre in appealing to the target audience and fulfilling the magazine’s purpose across print and digital platforms.

As mentioned previously codes and conventions are features within a media product that are consistent through out the specific genre. These codes and conventions are kept the same throughout the genre (print and digital) to ensure their customers/ audience are fulfilled with the magazine and continue to be endorse their customers that are interested in that genre. As you can see above there are some magazines from the same genre. This genre is film. The Empire magazine is a well-known magazine and if not the most popular for film. As you can see visually, all 4 hold consistent codes and conventions on the front page. One example of this is the main character on the front. They tend to use new released films main character for their celebrity on the front. This tends to be a very popular film, so everyone knows who this main character is. Another feature is that each one always has the title of the new released popular film written in big font on the front page. This is to catch the user’s eye by presenting information from a title about a new film released and will be starring that weeks Empire. Another is their masthead; they tend to keep this in the same area. Their main title is consistent with the same size and font. The colour may change due to the theme of the weeks character and film, but the audience will find the title familiar when trying to find one to buy. The coverlines are always surrounding the magazine front cover, these always hold information about the featured film in the magazine or hold information about other or upcoming films all the time. Likewise, with digital magazines. The masthead will always remain in the same font and the coverlines will always present extra information that will be inside the magazines. To

conclude, for both print

and digital magazines, these features are kept the same throughout the different genres. This keeps the magazines consistent with the codes and conventions enabling them to look similar to the audience but to also entice the customers to become interested to buy and read it weekly. As analysed film magazines will be completely different to male fashion magazines, as theirs is a completely different audience to endorsed and interest. Normally film magazine, their will be a celebrity dressed in his consume for the film, where with men’s fashion there will be some model with the latest fashion for men.