Analysing Magazine Articles

Use these questions to help you to analyse at least 2 magazine articles:


1) What does the choice of artist featured in the article suggest who the target audience will be?
2) What type of language is used in the article? Is the language used informal or does it have a more academic quality? How does this language appeal to the audience? Give examples of words or phrases which are specific to the style of the magazine.
3) What tone does the magazine use to address the reader (as a close friend, a member of an 'in' crowd or an informed intelligent fan?) - provide evidence
4) What style of text is used? Is it similar to any other pages? What does it say about the image of the magazine and the audience? How is the text arranged? How is the interview laid out? Are various entry points used and why?
5) How are the pages laid out? How much of the pages are taken up by images and how much by text? How does this reflect the audience? What do they value?
6) What tone is the magazine using when addressing the reader (as a close friend, a member of an 'in' crowd or an informed intelligent fan?) - provide evidence
7) How is the artist/band presented to the audience through the images? How is meaning achored through the caption? You may wish to carry out a textual analysis.
8) How does the style of the article match the style of the front cover? Is a house style being developed across all the pages you have analysed?
9) Does the article demand any prior knowledge? Give examples.

Mojo Feature Article Part 2

Mojo Feature Article Part 1

Q Cheryl Cole Feature Part 3

Q Cheryl Cole Feature Part 2

Q Cheryl Cole Feature Part 1

NME Feature Article Part 2

NME Feature Article Part 1

Kerrang Feature Article Part 3

Kerrang Feature Article Part 2

Kerrang Feature Article Part 1

Q Magazine Contents Pages

Task 9: Analysing Contents Pages

You should analyse a magazine contents page that relates to one of your front cover analysis e.g. NME cover and contents page:

1) Does the magazine use images? How have these image been constructed? How do they support your initial findings about the style of the magazine and its intended audience? How many images are there?

2) What colours and fonts are used? Does this support the style of the front cover? Is a house style being developed?

3) How is the information organised so that it is accessible to the audience? What are the different sections? What does this tell you about the magazine?

4) Are there any promotional features?

5) Is the magazine logo placed anywhere on the page? How dominant is it?
Does the brand have any other franchises? Are these promoted on the contents page?

Kerrang - Contents Page

MOJO - Contents Page

NME - Contents Page

HALF TERM DEADLINE...

All the work posted to this blog so far has to be completed by 3pm on Friday 12th February.
Any work posted after this date will not receive detailed feedback.
Please see me immediately if there is any reason you cannot meet this deadline (English trip is not a reason!).

Task 8: Choosing a Title Block

Now you have your results and have made some decisions about your magazine, you need to design the title block. Firstly you need to decide on a name for your magazine. You could set up a poll and invite the group to vote.
Then you need to design your font. 1001fonts.com is a really great website for this.
You will need to edit the image in Photoshop.
You could post a range of possible logos on your blog and ask people to vote again.

Good luck!

Task 7: Analysing Questionnaire Results

You should by now have handed out your questionnaire to at least 10 members of your target audience.

Now you need to present your findings. As many of your questions were closed questions you should find it quite easy to convert your results into a bar or pie chart. You can do this in Excel and then post them onto your blog.

Once you have noted all your results you need to write up your findings and conclusions. This should form a strong basis for your production ideas.