Preliminary Task - Audience Research

The subject matter I have planned for my magazine idea will be on student life in general, and cover all aspects of a typical student from music and film, to university placements and revision. This means my magazine can encompass a wide range of readers, but particularly ones with musical interest but also dedication to their studies. The readers will be aged 16-19, the age of an average college student, and would rank from C1-A on the Jicnars scale. The magazine's content would psychographically appeal to achievers and also individualists.

The audience would be the sort of people who:
- listen to alternative music, rather than the mainstream hits
- revise with intention to do well
- be creative in their subject choices
- aspire for a university degree
- want a successful and well paid job
- would revise to music

So, to target my audience effectively, I need to:
- use a model at a similar age to my targeted audience (16-19)
- use bold colours
- colloquial language
- atricles that would appeal to the targeted audience's interests
- freebies and offers
- sociable
- individualist

Preliminary Task - Research

Looking further into the subject of magazine front covers, I searched the internet for three coveres which target a student audience to get inspiration for my own magazine front cover. Choosing three different magazines which covered different subtopics within student interest, it was still clear to see the similarities between the three magazines. All three shared similar subject matters, from choice of music, to the lives of young people in general. Each used bold, stylized fonts, with varying point size and colours relevant to the theme. On the subject of colour, all use bold colours, contrasting with blacks or whites, such as red, a theme prevalent in all three of the magazines I studied. Targeting the audience, the magazines all used models close to the ages of the students and also used articles relative to their interests, particularly music. They also included offers such as the opportunity to win a phone, ideal for the technological generation.

Preliminary Task

Moving on, I now have to complete a preliminary task: creating a student magazine front cover and contents page. I began by analysing some examples of the previous year's work to get an idea of what I would eventually have to do myself, in particular the cover of a magazine called "Squash". It stood out as a magazine front cover due to the stereotypical masthead and strapline, as well as advertising its range of articles and offers. The audience was for academic students aged 16-19 who took their studies seriously and planned to go to university. The audience is successfully targeted through many of the magazine's conventions. The masthead is colourful and bright, in an informal and stylized sans serif font, and the person photographed is of the same age as the targeted reader, and also is pulling a face, both this and the informality of the masthead removing some of the seriousness abotu the magazine's subject and making it more fun and approachable, thus appealing to a wider student audience. The articles are student related, for example "How 2 apply for student finances" and "Top Ten Revision Techniques", and also abbreviated text-messaging style language is used (e.g. "How 2 get...").

Initial Analysis

Having learnt the basics of magazine conventions, we then had to apply our knowledge in analysing our front covers, pointing out their features and their effects and their connotations by labelling each one on Photoshop.

Magazine Front Cover: Key Conventions

Starting off my course, our first task of the year was to understand the key conventions of magazines, from mastheads to the barcode. I began with finding a magazine front cover, Kerrang being the magazine of my choice, and labelled it up with the conventions we'd been taught to recognise.

Introduction

Hi, I'm Jess.
Now I've set up this blog for my AS Media Studies, I'm going to be regularly posting my research, planning and work towards it on here from now on.