1. Magazine Analysis Grace Corriette

2. My Artists and my audience. My magazine : i-mage is aimed at young teens from 14-18 years old. Although i think that my magazine would appeal to boys i feel that i have aimed it more at young girls. I have used very inclusive language so that i am not excluding any potential member of my audience. The subculture of my magazine is Pop and i have conveyed this through it’s colloquial, chatty, bright presentation. In this image (that features in my double page spread) I have styles and position my model to look appealing and appropriate for my target audience. However i have posited her, so that she is looking over her shoulder at the reader. I have done this to add a sense of sexiness to her character and also to give the impression of a someone fairly confident and a little secretive. I believe that this image works well in my magazine as my target audience are at the age where they are very impressionable and i think that by seeing images of a confident young girl with an air of sexuality, will not only encourage them to be confident but will also prompt them to buy my magazine and ready the following article. You can see from this extract from my article that I have used simple lexis and compound sentences to make sure I am appealing to my target audience. In addition I have abbreviated some words, again to stay in keeping with my audience and the genre of my Pop Magazine. “Mr Music is my boyfriend! ( Laughs) No I don’t have a boyfriend, but I’m only young so who knows what may happen.”

3. Target Audience My aim was to make a Pop magazine that would sell in a major distributor such as a supermarket of off licence. My magazine had a target audience of young teens aged 14-18, I geared my magazine toward girls, however I didn't not discard the idea that it would also appeal to males. Wanting to make i-mage accessible to people of all ethnicities i included some slang/abbreviated words such as “Cos”. This use of lexis is something which all teens can relate to no matter their ethnicity or social class. Furthermore, it was my intention to make my magazine suitable to teens who are still reliant on their parents for money, i have factored this in when i priced my magazine. When taking my photographs i wanted to ensure that i was not sending out an image of,drugs or a lifestyle that is not suitable for the age of my readers. However i did want some of my images to have connotations of someone who was slightly more wild, exciting, independent and with an air of sexual confidence. This is one of the images i used of my Main solo Phoebe Summers. This close up shot and the black and white colour gives the connotations of a more mature, confident artist. The models facial expression, alludes to her having a secret, her straight eyed gaze into the camera, also shows a level of connection with the reader.

4. Semiology I wanted to enter a personal and friendly relationship with the reader of my magazine, i think that i managed t successfully do this by my use of language. I felt that i used an appropriate register and my Lexis was colloquial, this will have helped to make the reader feel that what they were reading was geared for their age group and it would have help to make the magazine feel more inclusive. I also feel that I used signs in a manner in which my target audience would be able to decode them for example: I have used the images of my main artist playing the guitar with their head down. This has the connotations of shyness, coyness and I think that my audience will interpret this as her being very girly and giggly.

5. Conventions Of Layout, font, colour, layout, language, style and pose in i-mage I followed the classic layout pattern, by laying out my work in columns. I wanted to follow this convention, when writing my interview, because I felt that it was the most effective way of displaying work and it would leave me the space to insert pictures and extracts from the interview. Through out my magazine I have used Bright vibrant colours, which have connotations of Pop and therefore suit the genre of my magazine. However I have been careful not to use to many bright colours as I think that too many bright Colours give the impression of a magazine geared to a younger audience then I intended to appeal to. When creating my magazine together, I was aware that I had to use language that would be appropriate to my audience, and also to use language that would not segregate one member of my audience- but language that would be inclusive. Furthermore, I believe that I have struck a good balance between using colloquial language and mainstream language. I think that I have been successful in keeping to the conventions of language used in magazines for young teens. In addition, I wanted to make sure that the style of my magazine conformed enough to the previous conventions that have been set in order to make it able to easily fit into the current magazine market. Therefore I dressed my main solo artist in clothes that are very high fashion and yet affordable for my reader to be able to re-create. On the other hand, I have differed from the style conventions in my contents page as I have made it very symmetrical, not something that is often seen in Music magazines. I chose to do this as I felt that it would look very effective in my magazine and it would differ from the standard style. I think I have used fairly typical fonts of a Music magazine. I have a used a Bold font for my heading-in order for it to stand out and to create emphasis. With regards to the main front of my magazine, I have aimed to keep it simple so that it does not dominate too much over the rest of the page. The main photo of my double page spread, is a classic mid to long, over the shoulder shot. I think that this works so well on the page because it is such a classic image and it carried with it the connotations of the Marylyn Monroe look. I think this a pose that the reader will be able to relate to and will see the connections to my artist and an image of a sexy, confident young woman.

6. Cameras, computers and the programs used.. Whilst constructing my Magazine, i have learnt a lot about how using cameras, computers and programs has an effect on your end product. I used many programs on the computer such as Paint shop-pro and Microsoft Image fixer, to manipulate an image, into one which i felt would look better in my magazine and that would be more attractive to a potential reader. I think that with the advanced technology that we have today there are very little limitations as to how much we can adjust an mage we have take. Having had to choose between the many variations of how to make one image look i can argue that these programs offer to much choice. I had to come to a point with my images where i needed to decide on one particular aspect of editing and leave it, otherwise it would have resulted in me having images that conflicted to much with ones another, because i wanted to incorporate all of the available editing tools.

7. What have I learnt since doing my Preliminary Task? Since doing my preliminary task of a School Magazine, i have learnt a vast amount. In my School magazine I don’t feel that i researched the conventions of a top selling magazine, therefore i ended up producing something that had no conventions that contribute to a magazine going from some ideas to a best selling Magazine. On the other hand I have also learnt that it is also okay to break the boundaries that have been set for magazines, it is good to make your product have a unique selling point. In the process of producing a media text, my decision making has become more sophisticated and precise. In addition, I have gained a better understanding of the importance of a Demographic, and the how you must shape your Magazine in order to be accessible to your target audience.