Textual Analysis Of My Own Magazine

Once I had constructed and completed my own music magazine 'VOLUME' which will be released every month, I thought it would be a good idea to analyse my work just like I have been doing over the past few weeks when analysing actual magazines that are on the market.

M- The median of my product is print, in the form of a magazine.
I- Ideologies associated with my magazine are that it looks funky, cool and loud (which successfully links to the masthead of the magazine).
G- The genre of my media product is a music magazine, and the genre of music in which the magazine consists of is rock.
R- The representation of my magazine is bolshie and stylish to attract the target audience and many customers will be able to recognise this by the particular codes and conventions that it wittholds.
A- The audience in which my product is aimed at are 16-18 year olds- both males and females that are interested in the rock genre. I concluded this by producing a questionnaire for my audience and the feedback i retrieved from them matched these requirements.
I- The institution that would be of most benefit to my magazine if put on the market is Bauer. This is because they already own magazine companies such as KERRANG!, Q Magazine and MOJO Magazine and my magazine 'VOLUME' is very similar to these.
N- The narrative of my magazine is informal and chatty so that my target audience will be able to relate to it well and will hopefully be able to form a sort of friendship with the editor.

When analysing the front cover of my magazine 'VOLUME' the first thing that jumps out and attracts the audience's attention is the masthead. This is because it is written in bold, bright pink and bright yellow lettering and enlarged to an appropriate font size.
The tagline underneath the masthead reads 'Turn it up' to clearly signify the bond between the masthead and tagline- as rock music is generally played at a loud volume. It is also used to express some kind of emotion/humour to the audience to give them something to engage in.

The main image is a medium close up of a female rock chick who is looking directly into the camera to create that eye contact with the buyer. She is costumed in relation to the theme by emphasising the colour black which matches the background, however I used the colour red to define her lips and and similarly for the text on her top to contrast with the black. Other images are layed out around the main image also, to make the magazine appear more creative and interesting as opposed to maybe more formal magazines that will be aimed at an older generation.

The main cover line appears right in the centre, again written in a bright yellow font which is larger than most other text apart from the masthead 'I'd wake up do a line and get high'. This is to notify to the reader that this is the hottest news of the month. And just like most other magazines, underneath the main cover line is a brief introduction of what to expect inside. The other coverlines are written across the front cover in neon green text and selling lines such as 'Win a free backstage pass with BLOC PARTY' and 'FREE POSTERS INSIDE FEATURING YOUR FAVE BANDS!!' are used to persuade the reader to purchase the magazine.

An obvious colour scheme has been used on the cover of 'VOLUME' and this remains consistent throughout the whole magazine. These colours consist of bright pink, bright yellow, neon green, black and white so that the magazine is easy to recognise in the shops.
The price, edition, dateline and barcode are all included on the front cover also to make the magazine look more professional.

The contents page clearly carries on the house style with the use of the particular colour scheme and rock genre. In big, bold yellow font and placed inside a black text box is the main heading 'Contents' to inform the reader what page they are actually on. Underneath this, the issue number and coverdate are displayed in a smaller white font.

In the top left hand corner is an editor's letter, which is a key code and convention to most magazines. In every issue the letter begins with 'Hey guys!' to create a more personal response as opposed to some of the other text on the page. It then goes on to talk about what is on offer in this months magazine and is signed in a font which looks similar to handwriting to yet again make it look more personal and friendly.

Underneath the main heading, issue number & coverdate and a quote by one of the featured artists is a text box (reversing the colours from the main heading) saying 'THIS WEEK'. The articles in the magazine are shown underneath this text box in the form of a list; including subtitles such as 'NEWS' 'REVIEWS' 'FEATURES' 'GIGS' and 'HANGING WITH...' and the page numbers so that the reader can find the page they want to flick to straight away without any confusion. There are also other page numbers and articles that are illustrated by images scattered about the page to create a wild, busy stand out effect.



The double page spread is about my female rock chick model on the front cover 'Louise Norvell'- former Fall Out Girl member.

On the left hand page there is an enlarged long shot of the model yet again dressed in dark colours, but uses the white sunglasses, the white present in the scarf and whitey/grey background to contrast this. Down either side of the model's figure is her name 'LOUISE NORVELL' and the name of her album 'THE LAST ENCORE' in bold, black font- which is aligned vertically to match the vertical positioning of the image.
On the right hand page however is the actual article. It consists of an extremely eye-catching main heading reading 'FROM THE ASHES' -sticking to the colour scheme of black and white and using a fire/flame effect for a more bursting impact when the reader opens to the page. Underneath is an introductory paragraph explaining what the interview is going to be about and the use of the sentence 'She reveals her story...' automatically hooks the reader.
The interview is written in an Question & Answer style, the questions asked written in bold and the response written in size 9 font- the size most magazines use in their articles.
I have used a selection of images on this page also, as a portfolio of the model- showing a combination of different poses which will portray her emotion to the reader, making the article more fun.
I wanted to create this layout with the use of lots of images so that it intrigues the audience, plus I didn't want to bore them with too much text.

The language used here, is slightly more formal than that on the front cover and the contents page as the issue being discussed is more serious (overcoming a drug/alcohol addiction). The background spread over the two pages uses the idea of this seriousness by being very bland.
An enlargened quote is used in the article "I'd wake up do a line and get high. I WAS MESSED UP!"- picking up on the codes and conventions of magazines once again and to make it look more appealing to the reader. Page numbers are displayed across both pages as well as little text boxes reading "VOLUME magazine". All of which are also conventional to magazines.

In conclusion, I think it is safe to say that by using and developing the codes and conventions of real magazine products that my own magazine has been successful. Changes and implications have been made along the way due to audience feedback and that has helped improve my product greatly and increased its look in professionalism. I have successfully achieved the design/layout that I wanted and it appeals to the target audience that I aimed it at too.
Ellie