Analysing Double Page Spreads

Double Page Spread

            The two magazines that I have chosen to analyse for their double page spread are Q magazine and We Love Pop. There are many difference between these two magazines in general, for example genre and target audience and this is shown throughout the magazine in things like their double spread pages.

            The target audience for the ‘We love pop’ magazine is obviously young/teenage girls that are most probably more interested in the person as opposed to the music; this is shown through the layout, the images and the language used. First of all, the language used reflects the target audience of the magazine as it uses simple language for the questions, but picks out the most interesting words to draw attention to the article, for example, the second biggest writing on the page says “There was nothing creepy about Harry and Caroline at all.”. The word ‘creepy’ will attract attention, and make the readers want to know what was creepy. This quote also mentions two other celebrities, which means that readers who are a fan of those celebrities might be more inclined to read the article. A lot of the double page spread is also about Tulisa’s career on ‘X Factor’, which means there might be a lot of gossip in the article and maybe not so much about her music career. The layout and pictures used for this article also reflect what their target audience is. The first page of the article, has two quotes are the top, to show what might be included in the article, but it also has a picture in the middle and writing around the edges. With their target audience being teenage girls, they might acknowledge that they might be more interested in the pictures than the article itself, this could be why although it looks like there is a lot of writing, and the main points from most of the questions have been pointed out so the reader can just skip to the next page. This is also shown by the next few pages, as the second page is just a big picture of Tulisa, and the next two pages have picture taking up a majority of the page and a few questions down the sides, showing that the pictures are the main focus of the page. The pictures used in this article clearly show that their main target audience is young/teenage girls as all of the pictures show Tulisa is bright colours, smiling and usually with one or more other celebrities that will attract the readers’ attention even more.

            However the target audience for the ‘Q’ double page spread is very different and is also shown through the layout, pictures and language used. The target audience for the ‘Q’ magazine article might been either sex aged between 16-30 who are interested in rock music, or people who are particularly interested in the band ‘Biffy Clyro’. There is only one picture used in this double page spread, which takes up one whole page. The picture shows the band, topless, drinking and sat at a messy table, filled with beer cans; this picture reflects the nature of the interview and implies that the band like to party. The caption for this picture says “Biffy Clyro: another quiet night in front of The X Factor” and it is obvious from the picture and the genre of the magazine that this is mocking the TV show and probably people who watch it. The picture links to the article, as the first line of the article reads “It’s Q’s round? What are you having?” After which the band continue to order alcoholic drinks. This shows that they obviously have an older target audience. This article contains random questions such as ‘which board game are you best at’ which shows that this is very laid back interview, but also has nothing to do with their music, just the personality of the band.

The layout also reflects the target audience/genre of the magazine, as on the page with the article itself, there are no pictures and only two different colours in writing, showing that their readers are more likely to read and pay attention to the questions and answers in the interview.

As I am making an indie/rock magazine, I will be using features from the ‘Q’ double page spread to help when creating my magazine. For my double page spread, I will have one picture taking up a whole page, and then the article on the next page, with maybe one or two picture on the page. I will include questions and answers about their career, but from the two articles, I can tell that readers of most genres of music like to read about the musician’s lives away from their music too.

Signs & Signifiers

Front Covers of Magazines

Compare the front covers of two music magazines

 

                ‘Total Guitar’ magazine is a magazine aimed at teenagers/young adults, who mostly listen to rock/alternative music. ‘Classic Pop’ is a magazine aimed at adults over 30 years old.

                On the cover of ‘Total Guitar’ magazine, the background colours are dull, either black or grey, which links to the genre of magazine, however use bright colours, like pink or yellow to draw your eye to the main parts of the magazine, like the cover story. ‘Classic Pop’ also uses a similar technique, that the main colours are black and white. However the main picture on the cover (which links to the main article) is in colour, to show you what the main article will be about. Both magazine cover use yellow to draw your eye to that point. In ‘Total Guitar’ the guitar is yellow, which links to the masthead. In ‘Classic Pop’ the background for the words ‘New Magazine!’ are in yellow, to attracts new readers and to advertise the magazine.

                Another similarity that the covers share is the way that the pictures are used. On both covers, the main focus is the picture. On the cover for ‘Total guitar’, the picture is of someone from Greenday (main article), in the centre of the magazine, in black and white, however with bright pink lettering over and he is holding the yellow guitar. On the cover of ‘Classic Pop’ the picture is in colour compared to the plain background so it stands out. On both covers, there are also at least two other pictures of musicians, both are smaller to show they are sub-articles, and are both either down the sides or in the corners, and in colour. These pictures are different to the main pictures because they are mostly either taken of the band/musician in action, and are smaller. Both covers also have little pictures/icons. On the ‘Total Guitar’ magazine, there is a small picture of a guitar, down the right hand side, about halfway up the magazine, this links to the genre and masthead of the magazine. On the cover for ‘classic pop’, there are two little badges which might link to eighties bands, which is what the magazine is based upon.

 

                However, the magazine covers differ in many ways also. On the cover for ‘Total Guitar’ the main picture is placed over the title of the magazine. This may be because the magazine is already recognisable to the public, however it could make it unrecognisable to a consumer that has not brought it before. On the cover of ‘Classic Pop’, the masthead is clear and is in white against either a red or black background which makes it easy to read and instantly recognisable as that magazine.

 

                Both magazines use a cluster of three. The ‘total guitar’ cover uses band names as their cluster of three, which says “Mumford and sons, The Guess Who, Artic Monkeys”. The cluster of three is used a persuasive technique to show that there is a lot in the magazine, also the band names might appeal to their target audience. ‘Classis Pop’ also used the cluster of thee. “Eighties, electronic, electric”. Alliteration is also used. This could be so that the reader understands that the magazine is about eighties/electric music, and it could also be their slogan which could be easy to remember.

 

From looking at the magazine covers, I have picked out the main features of a music magazine cover and decided what appeals to me as a consumer, and what I will include in my music magazine cover. I like the idea that the colours used link to the genre of music, for example, dull colours link to rock music, and bright colours might link to a pop magazine. I will include this in my magazine to reflect the type of music that will be discussed in the magazine. I also think that the cluster of three is a good way to get your magazine recognised and remembers, and I will try to include this in my cover. I will also put the main story/picture in the centre of the magazine (almost as the background for the cover) and have sub-articles around the sides. When creating my cover however, I will not have the main picture covering the masthead of the magazine, as shown on the cover for ‘Total Guitar’.

Questionnaire Results

Here are some results from the questionnaires that I asked 35 people to complete.
These will help me with making my music magazine as it will allow me to see what genre of music magazine most people would be interested in, in this case, 'Indie'. It will also allow me to see what people would or would not like to be included in a music magazine that they would buy. In this case, most people would not like to read sections about things such as fashion, Therefore  I will not included a fashion section in my music magazine.

Contents Pages

The four magazine covers that we analysed were mixmag, we love pop, NME and Q. Looking at these contents pages in detail, you can clearly tell that the types of pictures, fonts and colours used change according to the genre of music magazine.

For each magazine, there is a clear difference between their target audiences. For example mixmag, is probably aimed at people who are interested in dance music/clubbing, both genders probably between the ages 18-28. NME and Q probably have similar target audiences, being male or female, who are interested mainly in rock music and maybe between the ages 16-30. The most obvious being ‘We Love Pop’ it is obvious that their target audience will primarily be girls between the ages of maybe 7-15 +/- 2 years. This is clearly reflected through things such as colour schemes, pictures and the way that the articles are named. For example, the colour scheme is mainly black and pink, which would appeal to young girls and then other bright colours like blue and yellow. The pictures are all of celebrities within the POP genre, and they are all smiling or posing, majority of the pictures are of boys, again, appealing to younger girls. There are also more pictures than writing on the contents page for this magazine.  And finally, all of the articles mentioned contain a celebrity’s name, implying that the target audience are more interested in the artist than the music they produce.

            The genre and target audience for the magazines are also clear through the layout of each magazine. On both the NME and the Q magazine contents pages, they have the title at the top, in the biggest writing on the page and in a different font to the rest of the writing. They then each have about 6-8 pictures, and all with the appropriate numbers for their articles. They also both have some writing on each picture explaining what each article is about of a quote from the article. Whereas mixmag magazine have a completely different layout, with the pictures being the centre of the magazine. On both pages for it, there are two big pictures and then either 1 or two smaller pictures. On each picture for mixmag magazine, there is also a corresponding page number for the article but instead of a sentence or two, there is a caption of maybe a word or two, making it obvious that the main focus of the page is the picture, which could relate to the target audience/genre of the magazine.

            Looking at the difference between the contents pages for the different genres, I am making a magazine most similar to the NME and Q magazines. I will do a similar thing with the pictures, like using maybe 7 pictures and then either have a quote or a few sentences explain the article it links to.

Questionnaire

As research for our music magazine, we have been asked to create and carry out a questionnaire. Here is my questionnaire:

I have chosen to have 13 questions in total. I think that over 15 questions in a questionnaire is too many, people will not want to answer them and you probably have gone off topic of what you are trying to research. I have kept my questions relevant to music magazines, and what people want/expect from music magazines. I have tried to have a mix of open and closed questions, as although open questions are very helpful and can give more detail, I feel that closed questions are more helpful as you can collect quantitative data and therefore be more decisive when creating my magazine.

Music Magazine Mood Board

This is a mood board of the first ideas that I had for my Music Magazine. From this mood board, with the bands/musicians included, it will be obvious that I haven't gone for a pop magazine aged at teenage girls, but an indie sort of music magazine aimed specifically at people who enjoy that genre of music. My target audience will be both males and females, between the age range 16-26. They should be a fan of mostly indie music, enjoy going to concerts/gigs/festivals (Reading, V Festival, Glastonbury) and should probably be more interested in the music rather than the musician.

Finished Preliminary Task

Here are the print screens of my finished preliminary task:

Front Cover for the School Magazine

Whilst I was completing the front cover, I decided to change little bits from my first draft. I decided to make the masthead bigger, and I decided to change the name of the school. I also decided to add a school logo in the corner, to further show that it was a school newspaper and to add some more colour to the cover.

Contents Page for the School Magazine

Whilst I was completing the contents page, I decided I would have 3 big pictures which linked to the articles instead of maybe 4 or 5 little pictures. I also decided that I would carry the colours scheme of different shades of blue throughout, to add more colour and to reinforce the idea that it is a school based newspaper.


Since starting this preliminary task, I have learnt a lot about maiing a music magazine and the programmes that I used to make it. I have learnt how to create a magazine using Indesign. I have also learnt how to place elemts of the magazine togehter so that it looks like a magazine, such as putting the page number over the picture so that it looks realistic. I have also picked out features of magazines and applied them to my preliminary taks, such as having an explanation of the articles, and having the title bigger than the rest of the text on the page.

I have also learnt a lot about the programmes used. I used photoshop to edit my pictures, where i used the eraser tool, and the magic eraser tool. I changed the colouring and contrast of the pictures. I also learnt a lot about using Indesign like how to place pictures, resize them, and how to change fonts, and colours and placements of texts, all to make it more realisitc as a magazine.

Main Magazine Publishers

Bauer Media
Bauer Media produces many popular magazines such as:

• Closer
• FHM
• Grazia
• Heat
• KERRANG!
• Q
• Take a Break

Bauer Media is quite a large company that is very diverse. It publishes big rock music magazines to gossip/real life magazines like 'Closer' and 'Take a Break'.
 They are very a successful company with many big magazines to their name.

National Magazine Company
National Magazine Company publishes magazines like:

• Elle
• Cosmopolitan
• Reveal
• Company
• Good Housekeeping
• Real People
• Inside Soap

National Magazine Company sells popular magazines that are higly priced and a lot of them are fashion magazines like, 'Elle' and 'Cosmoplitan'. However they do have some smaller magazines that would get brought on a regular basis like 'Inside Soap'.

Conde Nast
Conde Nast produces magazines such as:

• Vanity Fair
• Vogue
• Glamour
• GQ
• Brides
• WIRED
• Easy Living

These magazine are mostly high fashion magazines that mostly come out on a monthly basis and are highly priced. These are all very famous magazines that are sold worldwide.

BBC Worldwide
BBC Worldwide produces magazines like:

• Radio Times
• Easy Cook
• CBeebibes
• Lonely Planet
• Good Food

These magazines all seem to be quite specific genres, such as cooking, or travelling. they also all seem to be family magazines (either aimed at older people, or young children)

Pictures Picked!

I have chosen the pictures that I am going to use for my preliminary task of creating a school newspaper cover and contents page. I have used Prezi to present these pictures:


I have chosen to use some of these pictures because they all either show, work that students have done, musical instruments that we have in school (which will link to the cover story about arts evening) or students working.

Front Cover
I am going to use the picture of 'Ella playing the drums' on the front page because it links to the story on the cover.When editing the picture using Photoshop, I will cut out everything behind her (on the right side) and everything in front of the drum kit (on the left side). I will keep the background of the rest of the picture because it shows work on notice boards that students have done and it also shows more instruments.

I am going to use the picture of 'Brendon' on the front cover as it is one of the requirements to show a student in mid-shot. This is a good picture to use because it shows a sixth form students working with lower school students in the background. When editing, I will not crop any other picture out, because it does show different years however as the picture is quite dark, I will change edit it to be lighter and easier to see.

Also on the front cover I will use the picture of 'A students artwork' because it links to the cover story and I also think it is an interesting piece of artwork that will appeal to students of all ages. I will edit all of the background out so it is just the black background of the picture.



In the contents page, I am going to use maybe two or three more pictures that will link to the stories/pages mentioned on the contents page.
Contents Page
The first picture I will use in the contents page is a picture of two students working together, called 'Ella and Brendon'. It will have the page number that links to the article, which will be about sixth form

The next picture I will include will be pictures that link with the article about the year 11's recent art trip to the zoo. The picture I will use for this is 'Penguins'. When editing I will cut out the top of the picture.

The third picture I will use in the contents page is 'Prom' as it corresponds with the article about last year's prom/recruiting current year 11s to join the prom committee. I will not change this picture.

Stories

So, I have finally decided on the basis of my magazine!

My school magazine will be based around the idea of community in school. It will be all about celebrating the achievements of the students and trying to get students involved in school life as much as possible. I have decided that the main article in the school newspaper will be about arts evening, showcasing the talents of the students (from all years, including sixth form). The other articles in the newspaper will be about extra-curricular activities that students can get involved in, there will also be an article about prom last year, and ask for students to join the new prom committee. There will also be articles about exam results, and a 'Student's Comedy Corner' where students can have a page to include any little stories, or jokes or maybe drawing that they want in the newspaper. There will also be an article about year 11's recent art trip to the zoo.

School Magazine Layout

This is my first ROUGH plan for my preliminary task. I have tried to add as much detail as I can, so when I come to make it it will be easier. I have included what informations will be included in the articles, I have specified what pictures will go where and I have chosen the layout for my magazine too.

My School Magazine Layout

 

In class today we have been working on a draft for our school magazine layout. This is the basic layout for mine. I have chosen to have the masthead in capitals and to be in a blue font. this is so that it is recognisable as the masthead and stays within the school colours of blue and green. I have chosen to put the main article on the front of the magazine (which will carry on inside), so that it is clear that it is still a school magazine and it links in with the pictures on the front of the magazine.

 

The next thing i will do to improve this draft is to add a background colours and add the text that will be in the article. I will also add the pictures, which will be of some artwork by students, some students in a music class and a medium close up of a student (which will be linked to a drama lesson).

 



Photos

Based on the articles that will be included in the school newspaper, I have decided to take pictures of student artwork, and from drama classes. I will also have some pictures of extra-curricular activities going on around school, like sports clubs, art clubs, maths clubs. I will also include some pictures of last year's prom, mainly inside the venue, and maybe a couple of little drawings done by some students.

Contents Page/School Magazine

In class on Monday, we were analysing contents pages. We started off by identifying different conventions of contents pages, such as page numbers, of the articles and pictures that will be included in the article. Once we had done that, were given four different contents pages. They were from the magazines, NME, Marie Claire, OK and Scratch. When analysing them, I found out that there is a lot of thought that goes into the different contents pages to make them recognisable as part of their magazine. For example, the contents of NME magazine, used a lot of plain and dark colours. also the pictures included were mostly of males. However, the pictures included in the Marie Claire contents page, they were ALL of women, and were all very bright colours and patterns. The main similarity that I found between all the contents pages, was that the main articles all had bigger pictures compared to smaller articles, and they also had the page numbers linked to these articles next to the picture. I hadn't really thought about or looked at a contents page in this much detail before, but now that I have, I realise that there is a lot of detail needed to make the contents page individual to the magazine.


Then we found out the preliminary task for our coursework. We will be asked to make a cover and a contents page for a school magazine. to help us with this, we made mood boards with pictures and words that will inspire our school magazines. 


Because i want to base my school magazine mainly on the achievments of students and the idea of community within school, i chose pictures to go on my mood board that represent that. I chose a picture of someone with a certificate, that looks happy to show that he is proud of what he has achieved. I chose a picture of some children looking happy and smining towards the camera and looking like they're all happy to show a sense of community. this is also shown through the fact that they're all wearing the same colours/uniform. I chose pictures of our school because my magzine will be abour Ruislip high.This is my finished mood board:

Homework

For my homework this week, I have been using the 'McMahon and Quinn' method to analyse the cover of one of the Ruislip High newspaper covers. I have discussed the colours used, the quality of pictures (which were very blurry) and the symbols that they put on the cover to indicate that it was a christmas issue. The main difference between the magazine cover I analysed in class and the Ruislip High newspaper was that there was more writing on the cover of the Ruislip High cover which makes it obvious it is a newspaper, and for school!

My First Blog!

Today in media studies, we looked at magazine covers. We analysed the different features of a magazine cover, using the 'McMahon and Quinn'. The magazine i got was 'Closer'. I analysed things such as the cropping of photographs, the masthead and the layout of the page. While analysing this magazine cover, i found that the magazine cover showed a lot of variety in the way that the writing on it was presented and the colours used. I found out that reason the three pictures were used was because it showed the peron's whole body, this related to the stories and the fact that it was a positive story and that the people featured in the story were happy and comfortable.