task 3
The front cover of sugar, quite an un organised front cover, a hint of red to attract attention of the reader, exaggerated story in the cover line, “Made to sale my dogs to pay for mums funeral.” A story to grip a young girl’s attention in love with animals and be furious as it is something they neglect and have to read on to understand the persons devastation, it is something many young girls are able to relate to.
“Dumped because of my hairy body,” something that could cause fear as a girl could be afraid of having that, a boy might also read this as he may not be mature enough to understand that all humans’ even females grow body hair so finds something so unusual something he needs to read. Taylor swift, a young girls perfect role model, a young woman doing very well for herself singing songs the target audience would listen to, her perception of why she prefers being single could catch a boy and girls eye. The boys want to know what’s going on in the minds of a woman. Why they’d rather not have a boyfriend and try and improve himself to try and eliminate the reasons for why a girl would rather be single and not be with him. And girls to almost role model her self to be like Taylor
The magazine Cosmo girl’s front cover comes across very glamorous at first thought. The hints of red grip the attention of your eye and the neat layout of the magazine almost creates a sense of class to the young teenage magazine. The font of the title, girl written as if it has been done by lipstick hammers down that this is a girl’s magazine, finished with the very feminine lipstick pink kiss on the right column of the magazine. In the left Colum, the column seen by most eyes in the shop, very simply it says in black font FASHION, HAIR, MAKEUP, GIFTS, LOVE, everything a girl is interested in. the use of Christina Aguilera, a mature successful woman many teenage girls would aspire to be. She is a very good role model to use and it says on the cover “from stripped to strong,” showing that there could be a very personal story inside regarding herself. But almost creating a possible false hope for the reading audience, girls not as pretty or talented vocally will not have these opportunities Christina Aguilera has. Christina may have had a struggle to get where she is today, but she has had a real talent ninety nine percent of the readers don’t have. Even though girls want to be Christina or like her, the harsh reality is they are probably never going to be.
M is a very messy front cover; jam packed with every bit of information and celebrity face you can find, this I believe would target the younger teenagers. So much there almost giving the young girls the impression as there are more celebrities and stories on the front its defiantly the best magazine. the use of Justin Bieber right next to the title would be to really engage with a younger teenage audience, a young man who is at an age where anything is possible for these young girls, he’s young enough to maybe give them a chance, complimented with the comment, “im shy around girls,” girls would be very eager to find out why, and so would boys. Boys would think why is he shy, he as everything? And girls would be thinking exactly the same. The use of pink and purple, with the title smothered in love hearts creates a real femininity about the magazine showing the target audience is young girl.
Teen vogue, the woman’s biggest fashion magazine made into a teenage version, the bright yellow eye catching use of the word teen as their brand name already tells us the target audience of the magazine. It also tells the teenagers this is a magazine for you, a lot of older teenagers will start reading the main vogue as they just want to be adults, but for young teenagers it is just perfect in their eyes. With Zac Efron, the main character in the successful teenage hit high school musical, it will catch any teenage girls eye. Their dream boy, the movie displaying their youth in the way only every teenage girl could dream for it to be. The left column very neat and tidy, unlike a lot of teenage magazines, giving it an adult theme to it, “the boys of 90210, Selena Gomez, Kate Maria, Leighton Meester, Elle Fanning’s,” simply listed but telling the audience exactly what they’ll be getting in the issue of teen vogue, giving young girls with the simple approach almost the adult feeling that they are grown up reading a fashion magazine, giving them false hope that they are mature and beyond the intelligence of their peers.
Bliss is the combination of dark and bright colours in one front cover, a luminous yellow striking anyone’s eye that may come across it in a shop or in someone’s house if it has already been purchased. In the left columns, in the striking yellow, in small print it says, “Sexy texts,” then in smaller writing “don’t press send till you read our shocking report.” For a young teenage girl or boy, that’s big news, a report on sexy texting. Something young teenagers do for fun and through young flirtation and the feeling they are rebelling against rules, a boys perspective that they may have an insight on a girls point of view in texting and if they can find any of the hidden mysteries about woman. For girls it is also big news. Its pure and simple, a shocking story on sexy texts. Vanessa Ann Hudgins, the girlfriend of female heartthrob Zac Efron in high school musical, any story, hint or tip from this girl that could give the female audience any slight insight on how to get him they would try and exploit and take full advantage of. Unfortunately this does give young girls false hope and belief that they could be as lucky as Vanessa when really the majority of the audience will not have the same talents that she has. The story “did she really split with Zac?” the young females would be preying she has, the man they all dream of is on theb market again!From analysing the five front covers targeted at young girls I have concluded, the magazines try to give off the impression reading them will make girls mature, smarter and so much wiser when it comes to men. Although this unfortunately is false hope being given to them. By using props and stories of successful people with talents that are so rare which the majority of the audiences will never be able to have.
FRIDAY, 30 SEPTEMBER 2011
research for essay
The five magazines ill be using aimed at teenage girls are: bliss, Cosmo girl, teen vogue, M magazine, sugar magazine.
Very jam packed, sometimes more than one celebrity on the front, sometimes very young celebrities.
glossary
Genre - The classification of any media text into a category or type.
Representation - The process by which an image etc may be used to represent/stand for someone or something.
Hypodermic Needle Theory -
Discourse - The expression of ideologies or speech used to achieve social, personal or political power.
Media Institution – The operation of a large media corporation embracing production, distribution and consumption
Mis-en-scene – Everything that is put in a TV studio or film set
Narrative - The way in which a plot or story is told, by whom and in what order.
Form – The structure or skeleton of a text
Ideology - A system of beliefs/values, which can be identified in mass media products or texts.
Denotation - The common sense, obvious meaning of something.
Connotation - Associations triggered by eg. an image or an object.
Mast head - The title of a newspaper or periodical as it appears across the first page, front cover, or title page of each issue. Also called nameplate.
Dateline - a line at the beginning of a news article giving the date and place of origin of the news dispatch
target audience analysis
I have selected an issue of GQ for my magazine; it is a magazine that is issued monthly at £4.99. Within this ill be analysing who I believe the target audience is and why, talking about how the cover has been used to appeal to them and what conventions of cover design are evident. I believe this magazine is targeted at the audience of an upper class male, with the age range of maybe twenty five to fifty year old men. The magazine advertises youth but class all in one, with the benefits of a simple but effective layout. Firstly I believe it targets the upper class because of who it is on the front cover, prince harry. A young man of wealth, popularity and couldn’t be from a back ground of higher class. He is royalty, and royalty is the perfect way to grip the attention of the upper class. The reason I believe it targets a slightly older audience is firstly again the use of prince harry, however famous and important he is, the young man is not someone who is involved in a lifestyle that can grip the younger audiences attention. The main image is of him in black and white, very plain and very simple. Not something that is so outstanding that it can catch the eye of a youth browsing past in the shop. The mast head is the title GQ in a faded golden font, again the colour associated with wealth which is a main reason in why I believe it targets the upper class. There are few cover lines on the magazine, but one in outstanding white writing says is walking with the wounded, a metaphor of his journey through Afghanistan. This is not only a cover line but a cover line at the same time as it is underneath that faded golden font stating his name, prince harry. This attracts a political audience as the war in Afghanistan and Iraq is a very political situation and could give an insight from the experiences of a young man, deep in the middle of it all. The differences is the fact prince harry is royalty. He should not be there. There is no barcode on the front cover. This gives the front cover a purer image, unlike a lot of the modern fashion magazines which seem to try and cram everything on the front cover which do tend to attract a younger audience. The dateline is at the bottom of the magazine, not so large but in a white small font, May 2011. it doesn’t get in the way of anything, even though that would be hard to do in the well laid out front cover where everything is very apart from each other, it never looks in any part anything short of perfection for the eye of easy reading.
I have selected an issue of GQ for my magazine; it is a magazine that is issued monthly at £4.99. Within this ill be analysing who I believe the target audience is and why, talking about how the cover has been used to appeal to them and what conventions of cover design are evident. I believe this magazine is targeted at the audience of an upper class male, with the age range of maybe twenty five to fifty year old men. The magazine advertises youth but class all in one, with the benefits of a simple but effective layout. Firstly I believe it targets the upper class because of who it is on the front cover, prince harry. A young man of wealth, popularity and couldn’t be from a back ground of higher class. He is royalty, and royalty is the perfect way to grip the attention of the upper class. The reason I believe it targets a slightly older audience is firstly again the use of prince harry, however famous and important he is, the young man is not someone who is involved in a lifestyle that can grip the younger audiences attention. The main image is of him in black and white, very plain and very simple. Not something that is so outstanding that it can catch the eye of a youth browsing past in the shop. The mast head is the title GQ in a faded golden font, again the colour associated with wealth which is a main reason in why I believe it targets the upper class. There are few cover lines on the magazine, but one in outstanding white writing says is walking with the wounded, a metaphor of his journey through Afghanistan. This is not only a cover line but a cover line at the same time as it is underneath that faded golden font stating his name, prince harry. This attracts a political audience as the war in Afghanistan and Iraq is a very political situation and could give an insight from the experiences of a young man, deep in the middle of it all. The differences is the fact prince harry is royalty. He should not be there. There is no barcode on the front cover. This gives the front cover a purer image, unlike a lot of the modern fashion magazines which seem to try and cram everything on the front cover which do tend to attract a younger audience. The dateline is at the bottom of the magazine, not so large but in a white small font, May 2011. it doesn’t get in the way of anything, even though that would be hard to do in the well laid out front cover where everything is very apart from each other, it never looks in any part anything short of perfection for the eye of easy reading.
