Tuesday 10 January 2012
Linking My Questionnaire on Various Sites
I used Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr to post my questionnaire on to, as I know that the friends and followers I have are of around my age and older which is who my magazine will be targeted at. I found this a useful way of gaining responses as it gave a true idea of how people felt about certain things.
Analysis of Magazine Front Cover
How do magazine front covers use denotation and connotation to attract their intended audience?
The magazine front cover that I’m analysing is The Official Xbox 360 Magazine. The intended audience are people who like to play Xbox games and most likely male, although females do read the magazine. The colour of the magazine front cover is dark grey/black which connotes to us that the intended audience of the magazine is male because the colours are seen as bold, dominant and powerful.
The mast head font is large, bold and white, which stands out against the dark background. The style of font is quite basic, it shows that the intended audience that buy this magazine aren’t drawn in by the title, but instead the large image that covers the majority of the front cover of the magazine. The sell line below the mast head is also quite minimalistic, which just states that this certain magazine is official, bringing in a wider audience because the sources of are seen as more trustworthy than other gaming magazines. The font that is more or less centred is large and has a slight medieval style, which represents the game that the headline is about “The Elder Scrolls V Skyrim”. The rest of the font on the page is just like the masthead font, very basic. They have made it so that the “world exclusive” story catches our eye the most as it is different to the rest of the font.
The layout has been centred around the image, which makes the image the main feature of the front cover, making other items on the page less important. Features on the front cover and been put where they can fit, making it a messy style of layout. The messy layout appeals to a younger audience of male teenagers because they’re stereotyped as unorganised and careless, e.g. having a messy room and not caring about personal hygiene. At the very top of the page, there is a banner which says that there’s a free disc that comes with the magazine if you buy it. “7 PLAYABLE GAME DEMOS” would drag a gamer’s attention towards the magazine because a gamer would want to play demos of a game to test it out before they considered buying it for a much more expensive price. The colour of the banner is in bright green to ensure that it’s one of the first things that someone will spot when looking at the magazine.
The image is quite brutal, angry and in your face. The man looks extremely angry and vicious, which goes side by side with his muscly physique and armour that he’s wearing, this appearance is very masculine. The pose that the character is in looks like he’s about to murder someone, making him look quite intimidating. It appeals to a male audience as games make you feel like you’re in a different world, if they use a bold and extremely powerful and macho image, it makes men feel as if they could be like this, or feel as if they are that character when they’re playing the game.
The typical type of intended audience for the Official Xbox Magazine could be a group of people that still live with their parents, with an age range of 15-19. There is actually an age rating for the magazine which is 15, as it shows on the bottom of the magazine. Hobbies would most likely include gaming because if they’re buying a magazine that’s about 6 pound, it must be very interesting for them to read about game reviews, and for the magazine to suggest games that might appeal to the audience. They most likely wouldn’t have a job, because they’d be too busy at their job to have time to play games on an Xbox. They would most likely be in college or no education at all, depending on how interested in gaming they are, would be how much they would play it.
My Version of a Newspaper Front Cover
My front cover is based off of the Guardian newspaper with an audience of people that are middle class adults interested in politics, informational topics such as the economy and are logical thinkers. It’s easy to see that it is aimed at a different class of people compared to readers of a tabloid newspaper like The sun or The Daily Star because the language, layout and images are vastly different to those of a newspaper like The Times or The Guardian. The language of The Guardian is formal with a complex use of vocabulary.
I haven’t directly represented the rioters. “The rioters aren’t the only people to blame” shows that there are people or groups that also hold responsibility over what had happened during the riots. Although the rioters aren’t directly represented, the image still shows all of the damage and chaos that was caused by them rampaging through the streets like wild buffalo. The image shows no appearances which isn’t putting anyone on the spot on a largely read newspaper. I feel that this is a fitting representation because the guardian have also showed that it isn’t just the rioters faults, other things could have been put in place to protect the streets of London, especially as it carried on for almost a week.
The police are the main focus of the image on my front page. The riot gear that they are wearing shows that they are defending the area from rioters. “The rioters aren’t the only people to blame” suggests that they or the government could have done more to put high ordered measurements in place to ensure that there would be less damage ruining the streets of London. Also, the copycat riots that happened in places such as Liverpool could have been held under more control as it was inevitable that riots would take place else where other than London because of the ideology behind the riots. I don’t feel like I have represented any group particularly negatively, maybe a little suggestive as to other people being to blame.
I chose not to directly represent any group of people as a whole because the other newspaper articles that I have seen from the guardian aren’t directly blaming anyone, but they are hinting towards who could have done more about the situations and how we can handle things differently to than how it was handled. My front page layout is quite neat and precise like the Guardian to make it appear more formal and readable by the audiences of middle aged adults. I chose only to have one picture so that the front page wasn’t busy or over loaded with unnecessary images or advertisements, which would otherwise be seen in newspapers like the Daily Star. I have made it clean cut by lining up where the text would be with separation lines making it easier to read which would have a cut to the chase story displayed. A text box on the image shows what is happening within it, and again gives another insight to the story. I feel that the front cover that I have designed is similar to the Guardian and holds the same type of qualities that the Guardian does, obviously not to such a high standard because I’m no journalist.
I know that the Guardian have an audience of middle aged adults that like to read about stories that are important in our society like what’s happening with the government, or the goings on in other countries like Libya. They layout is neat and well though about in order to get a middle aged adult audience to read it. So the layout isn’t all over the place and busy, it’s just straight forward and gets right into the story. This affected the way in which I designed mine because I wanted to get a similar sort of layout in order to create a similar front page.
Preliminary Task Front Cover
I have designed the front cover of my version of a school newsletter. I have chosen this certain layout for different reasons, and also the images, font style and motto.
I chose the name “Negus Express” because the news that is shown in the newsletter is fresh and quick, it would also be of interest to the students because the stories involve them. Also the newsletter being handed out at a designated time regularly is like a small service within school, and it involves people working on the newsletter to get it ready for students to read. The font I chose it to be in looks like it’s been written, maybe by a student, which represents the students that study at the school, and how they write a lot in class.
Below the masthead, I put the date and issue number. I put the issue number on the left, and the date on the right, it has been neatly aligned. The reason I have aligned these neatly is to represent the students at school, being organised and ready to work and do well. I have also designed a motto and placed it within a banner, the motto being “Happy to Help”, which would be seen as quite friendly and welcoming, like the students of the school can go up to someone and ask for help with something and not feel intimidated by students or teachers.
I have then featured two main stories on the front of the newsletter. The first story “Plans prepared for Wickham” and the second story “Friday is treat day!” The first story being more important and informing the school about changes that are going to happen, which would make them happier and have a better environment to work in. The second story is just something to entertain the students and encourage them to eat in the canteen, which could mean students are eating less junk outside of school at lunch times, making food in school more exciting and likeable. I made the title of each story bold, underlined and black, with large font size. This makes the headlines stand out to the intended audience. The article font is smaller and purple, which ties in with the colour scheme of the newsletter, as the colour scheme is pastel green, pastel purple and white, with the headlines being in black. I have chosen this colour scheme as it’s quite relaxing, as the students are hard worked a lot of the time, from pressure of exams and course work.
I used an image of the school student room for the first article to display where the students go at the moment to do work, and the article was saying how it’s going to be improved. The second image is a medium shot of the school dinner lady looking quite happy. The article is about the food and how it’s changing which has a lot to do with the dinner ladies as they’re the ones who prepare all of the food for the students.
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