Conventions of a Double Page Article

Conventions of a Double Page Article from MayaYeshitila

Double Page Spread Analysis (NME magazine)

 

The artist featured in the article is Angel Haze. This suggests that the target audience will be females but she would relate more to those who have a similar story as her own. As she has been sexually abused and been suicidal many times in her life and there are people in this world who have been through these things in their life and would be able to relate to her and look up to her as she is in the public eye.

The article is almost educating the reader as they are being told about the artist’s life and how she’s developed because of that. The reader has been told about her upbringing and how difficult that has been for her as no child should have to go through what she has been through.  However the language used doesn’t make the story negative but a positive as the artist has become a better person because of her life experiences.

A standard colour of black has been used, which allows the reader to not get distracted by many colours and allows them to concentrate on the article. However there are a few uses of red which contrasts the colour scheme and stand out. The red could connote passion, which is shown throughout the article.

A standard font has been used which makes the article readable and doesn’t cheapen the magazine with unnecessary styles of fonts. It also allows the reader to focus on the article and connect to what the artist is saying.

The first page of the double page spread has an image of the artist, and the second page has the actual article.

One page is taken up by an image of the artist and the other page is taken by the text from the article.

I feel the magazine addresses the reader as a member of an ‘in’ crowd. It’s as if they are inviting us to be a part of Angel Haze’s life as we go on this journey throughout the article from when she was young and lived within a religious cult and was a sexually abused, to her life on stage and the connection she has with her fans, to when she is helping those people who have gone through what she has been through or are going through it now. The magazine turns the artist’s life into a positive and she has come out better on the other side and can learn and grow from her life experiences and also used her experiences in her lyrics.

The one image that was used is a mid-shot of the artist accessorised with a Versace chain, glasses and a black hat. As the artist is wearing glasses, we don’t really know if she’s looking directly at the audience as we can’t see her eyes. As an artist, she has put on a character which is shown through the image but the background she has come from and the things that have happened her to have no link. It’s as if she’s giving some sort of hidden message that you can go through anything and still come out on top, which she is living proof of.

Both the heading in the article and the text on the front cover of the magazine are similar in the sense that the texts have both been written in bold and take up a good amount of the page.

The article gives a brief background of the artist and the life she lived when she was younger and before she hit the spotlight and so demand for any prior knowledge isn't necessary. However, the reader might need some knowledge on religious cults and how that affects people. By doing this they can understand what she says in the article but it's not a necessity.

Front Cover Analysis (NME magazine)

The magazine is a music magazine. The front cover tells me that there is going to be lots of information about artists and the latest information surrounding their musical career along with interviews with artists.

The target audience for the magazine would be those who are interested in the music industry and want to find out what’s going on with an artist. Are they releasing new music soon? Have they got a tour coming up? It would also be males due to the design of the title block and the layout of the front cover.

The central image is using direct mode of address, where the person in the image is looking straight at the reader. The direct gaze helps simulate interaction with each individual reader.

This tells me that the artist on the front cover wants a close relationship with the reader.

Franz Ferdinand is on the front cover and they have given their fans exclusive tracks on a CD which has come with the magazine along with a track-by-track guide.  

The anchorage text says ‘Back with a bang’. This implies that Franz Ferdinand (the band on the front cover) are re-entering the music industry with a big impact.

The overall message the band is giving is that they are trying to say that their music is going to be better than it has been and going to hit the industry hard.

‘Exclusive’ is a buzz word that was used on the front cover. This is telling the audience NME are the only magazine that's going to be covering the story and so will make the reader more interested to read it as they won’t be able to get the story from elsewhere. However, on top of an exclusive interview, NME have also given their readers ‘exclusive tracks and rarities’.

The title block is the largest text on the front cover which has been designed big and bold. The title block being designed like says that the magazine is quite masculine and is aimed at men.

NME stands for New Music Express which connotes that they have new news surrounding artists, be it information about music releases or tour information. As the M in NME stands for music, this means that their magazine isn't specific about the genre of music they include in their magazine which makes it variable to readers and attract a wider audience.

The main font colours used are white, red and yellow. The colour background of the magazine is white. Some of the texts have been written on top of blue and purple background colours. The use of many colours brightens up the magazine making it stand out in newsstands and not blend in with the other magazines. They brighten up the magazine as well so it doesn't look dull and also makes it more appealing to potential readers. Even though more than 3 colours have been used, it doesn't look tacky as the colours used haven’t c lashed with each other but instead complement each other. The colours used are neither feminine nor masculine. This tells me that based on the colours used on the magazine; it isn't specifically aimed at a particular gender even though it actually is aimed at men. The font used is a standard font which makes the text clear and readable. It also prevents the magazine from looking tacky. The magazine is eye-catching because of the big fonts used.

The strategy I think the magazine used to attract the audience was giving the reader of the magazine a free CD. This will give the reader an incentive to buy the magazine as they would be getting something extra alongside the magazine.

Contents Page Analysis (NME magazine)

The magazine uses images and the images used in the contents coincide with the articles that are mentioned. For example, there is a picture of the artist Angel Haze, which tells the reader the article is going to be about her which is clarified with the very brief summary of her article headline underneath her picture.

The images used coincide with the articles involved so it doesn't really say much about its style however due to there being more male images than female and the audience for this magazine is males and so it supports my initial findings.

The colour of the text is black but the number pages have been coloured red. This use of colour technique makes it easier for the reader to find what it is they are looking for. It supports style of the front cover as the colours used in the contents page are used on the front page.
Different types of font have been used. There is a use of bold and standard font text used which helps differs each article from the other.
The contents page differs from the front cover in the sense that the front cover is big and bold and colourful as it should be as it has to attract readers but the contents page is a bit standard which helps the reader find the article they want to read without getting distracted with anything in the page or finding it difficult to find.

The page has been organised in 3 columns. The articles haven’t written in chronological order but are jumbled around. However, the size, colour and boldness of the article pages allow the reader to find the page they want as it is viewable. The main articles have images so the reader can know without reading who the article is about.

¾ of the page is taken up by the big article features and the other ¼ includes a promotional feature and a smaller contents page which includes extra things for the reader to do such as crosswords, reviews and gig guides.  The sections that comes first on the contents page are those that are of most relevance to the magazine. The artists mentioned in the contents page also reinforce the genre of the magazine.
In the bottom right hand corner of the page, there is a red box that tells readers that they can ‘subscribe to NME today and save up to 38%’. 

Conventions of a magazine cover

Below is an analysis of the magazine VIBE. In the analysis I talked about the main conventions of a magazine front cover and explained how affective they were in terms of attracting the target audience.

Prelim: College magazine contents page

Below is the contents page of my college magazine. I thought carefully about what the readers would want within the content of the magazine and so put in things that I thought was key and was something that I thought the readers would be interested and would have found useful.

To create the contents page, I used Photoshop. I simply used an image that I had taken of a school playground and made it the background of the page. I thought it was best if the article names were placed down the middle of the page so it's in direct vision for the audience. I placed the other images and motivational words around the article names so it stands out.

Prelim: College magazine front cover

As my magazine was based around school, I thought it would be ideal to have a picture of a student as the central image of the magazine. Even though the picture doesn't fit a typical school themed magazine, I thought the image was the better option for the magazine so it doesn't put students of from buying it. I thought it would be better if the central image was something that would gain attention from readers and make them inclined to read the magazine.

To construct the front cover, I simply used the image which I had taken myself using a digital camera, and uploaded it onto the front cover which I was creating using Photoshop. Using Photoshop, allowed me to experiment with different filters, font sizes and styles. I decided to go with a standard font style as I thought if I was to go overboard with the different styles, it would cheapen my magazine and potential readers wouldn't want to read my magazine. 

The image on the front cover is a mid-shot picture of a student. The student in the picture goes to a sixth form which is shown through her smart dressing.

Introduction

My name is Maya Yeshitila. Aside from Media Studies, I do Economics, Maths and Philosophy & Ethics. The reason why I chose to do Media Studies as one of my A-Level subjects is because I knew the subject requires a lot of creativity, (especially with the coursework) and I wanted to step out of my comfort zone and try to become more creative in my work. With the coursework, I learn time-management, creativity, decision-making and precision.