Personal Learning and Reflection

Front cover

I analysed 10 front covers for my front cover analysis, most of the covers followed the codes and conventions of magazines by having the masthead at the top of the page and the width of the page as well, this makes me inclined to use this layout on my magazine.

The covers all had a large main image that followed the colour scheme and graphics of the rest of the front cover which makes the cover seem professional. This makes me want to do the same by having a set colour scheme and graphic style for the cover of my magazine.

Most of the covers had a lure or buzz word on them, these words or phrases attract the readers eyes and make them want to turn to the pages that are around them, this means that I need to use words like ‘PLUS!’ or ‘Exclusive’ to draw the readers eye and lure them into reading the stories on the inside of the magazine.

Nearly all of the magazines have a barcode on them, this makes them seem professional

Contents page

I analysed 10 contents pages for my contents page analysis, most of the contents pages have a large photograph on them, this is the way that I am going to layout my contents page in my magazine.

The pages also have a lot of lures on them, like quotes or buzz words, these lure the reader into looking further into the magazine at the stories that are detailed in them, this is the kind of thing that I will use on my cover to lure in the readers.

Most of the pages also have subscription information on them, this lures the reader into purchasing more issues for a cheaper price, I am also going to put subscription information onto my contents page, to lure the readers.

Most of the main images on the contents pages have people looking right into the camera that they were photographed with, this makes the reader feel involved and builds a strong reader-writer relationship, this is what I will also do to build a relationship with the reader.

Double page spread

I analysed 10 double page spreads for my double page spread analysis, most of them followed the familiar convention of having one page of text and one page with a picture covering, the more text there was, the more intellectual the pages seemed, if there was more picture than text then it seemed more laid back and appealed to a young audience, this is the feel I am hoping to create as my audience will also be a young one.

The pages also have lures on them, such as quotes or interesting phrases, these draw the readers eye and make them want to read on to the rest of the stories that are detailed in the rest of the pages. I’m also going to use lures in my double page spread to this effect.

Most of the magazines that I analysed had simple colour schemes on the double page spreads, this reflected the young simpler audience that they are aimed at and is also the technique I am going to use on my double page spread to appeal to my audience.

Audience research

I used my audience research to find a suitable way to target my audience and to attract them into buying my magazine.

From the questionnaire I found that most younger people find the drum and bass or RnB or rap genre of music, no one went for the classical choice when I asked, ‘what is your favourite genre?’, this has given me an idea of what genres I need to focus on to please the target audience that I have chosen.

From the find your tribe research I found that the tribe that I found myself in was the ‘rah’ tribe, this social group have a tendency to be able to party hard and not worry about the cost or the consequences, if this audience were to be targeted then I would have to have advertisements for most of the new technology and recent releases of music would probably be a good idea as well as the group do like to be popular and in with the latest things, this therefore could include new music and artists.

So pulling these factors together I have deduced that I need to target my young audience by having a lot of recent technologies advertised and to feature a lot of up and coming artists, as well as well known established artists.