Analysis of College Magazine

Analysing college magazine 

I am going to analyse the Bodmin college magazine so I can get a better understanding of the genre.

The main target for the audience is based between 11-18, as that is the age of students at the college. Also its secondary target audience is for older people such as teachers, parents or gaudiens. The majority of people reading this magazine will fall into the audience of demographic of band C1 - D 

 The masthead doesn’t suit its purpose as it doesn’t stand out, as the colours aren’t clear against the background, it’s also to small for the magazine which means that it doesn’t jump out at the potential reader. Whereas in conventional magazines the masthead takes up 2/4 of the front cover making it jump out more to the reader, which is the purpose of the masthead anyway. The text that is used in the masthead is out-dated which doesn’t fit in with the target audience for this magazine. The overall masthead isn’t what you would expect in a conventional magazine

Layout – the layout doesn’t fit the average layout which magazines would normally see on the cover of magazines because it has three images which are all badly taken shots making the cover look to busy. The layout should have one main image with text over layer and maybe a couple of smaller images, this layout looks far more professional and doesn’t look too in you face for the reader too look at. The cover should also have little teasers that get the audience’s attention with a quick glance at the magazine, whereas this magazine has three main jumbled images that make the magazine look unprofessional and unworthy of reading. Students would like to read something that looks good and professional with something eye catching on the cover that gets their attention about something they care about. 

The cover overall had too many colours used together that make it horrible for the audience to look at, it also takes away an professional look it could of achieved. A conventional magazine cover would have a colour scheme to it that makes it look professional whilst remaining appealing to the reader. However this magazine cover uses colours that don’t go well together and the text does not show up as the colour and images clash with the text. This makes the whole front cover unclear for the reader as everything blending together and nothing standing out. These busy colours aren’t in the common conventions of magazines which usually only use to 3-5 colours at the most. This doesn’t cater for the target audience as these different colours create an old fashioned yet young feel that all age ranges aren’t going to be appealed by.

Images – The images that have been used for this magazine go against the usual conventions of a magazine as there are three images roughly placed together on the front whereas a usual magazine would have just one main image with maybe a few smaller ones. The long shots of these go against the usual type of main image being either a medium shot or close-up, as well as this the quality of the images are low with them being blurry and making the people who are in these images look are fuzzy and they are all in different colours. The content of the images mainly involve girls being shown in them which this supports Laura mulvey’s theory of the male gaze and shows that this might be showing them as an erotic desire for the reader. Also the content of the images are all about dancers showing that it doesn’t appeal to all the audience as this gives the magazine quite a girly feel which wouldn’t show interest in the male side of the audience.

Typography – a big thing that takes away the professional aspect to this is that lots of types of text are used whereas this wouldn’t have been done in a usual magazine. Also it doesn’t have any teasers, which mean the reader wouldn’t get any information about what is going to be included in the magazine. It also doesn’t have an issue number, which means the reader doesn’t know if there were any magazines before the one issued. They don’t have any extra information on the magazine, which they probably would like to know.

Conclusion – I think overall this magazine is not fit for purpose as none of the parts fit the common conventions of a magazine. It also goes against these conventions it doesn’t appeal to a reader as its not interesting and doesn’t capture their attention. The features in front look busy and not professional. I definitely know that the target audience wouldn’t find it appealing enough to read as it doesn’t compare to the type of things that teenagers would read (vogue, heat, etc.) It also lacks a big main story that jumps out at you at quick glance, also most of the students wouldn’t be interested in dancing so they would assume that the content in the magazine would be matching to the cover.

 I am now going to analyse a magazine cover that was created by teenagers at the college.

Target audience – the primary target audience range for the ‘skive’ magazine is 11-19 as this magazine is created by student and made for students. The majority of people who will read this magazine will fall into the audience demographic at band C1 down to E

Masthead – the masthead fits its purpose and stands out on the page, you can clearly tell what the title of the magazine is and it doesn’t merge into the background, it also fits into the common conventions of magazines as it fits 1/8 of the front cover of the magazine. The mast head fits in with the target audience (11-19) as its not plain and boring, it jumps out at you.

Layout – ­ the layout fits into the common convention of magazines and it has a main image in the middle and little but clear images scattered around, also as the images are good quality it makes the magazine look more professional and not to in your face for the reader to look at. It has teasers around the edges which give the reader an idea of what type of articles are inside the school magazine, and as the teasers are eye catching and interesting it would make you want to know the story behind it. The target audience would like to look at something which is eye catching as that is the type of thing that they would actually read (vogue, sports magazines etc.). However the magazine has got ‘Rebecca Stephens’ they could have used less space between the words as in professional magazines there wouldn’t be that amount of space between the two words. Also near the bottom of the page below the word ‘monogamy’ it has a short sentence where they have miss spelled the word ‘sixth form’ and instead wrote ‘sixth for’

Colour – the colour pallet on this cover will attract the young primary target audience because it fits with stereotypes proposed by theorist like S. Hall (1904). In other words, the dark blacks and greys connotes the magazine will represent the needs of the young target audience who are young, rebellious and prone to dark moods.

Images – the images used go with the usual conventions of a typical magazine cover as there is a main image that is a close up that takes up most of the page, and small medium long shot photos used. All the phots are high quality with makes the magazine look proffesion and link well with the colours used on the magazine. The images used will appeal to both genders of the target audience as there is a picture of a woman wearing clothes that are in style with the heading ‘tartan style is back’ which gets the readers attention. There’s also a photo of a boat which will stereotypically appeal to the male gender of the audience as they could be interesting in boating or whatever the story line is. The little photos are used so it will appeal to people who don’t take as much as an interest  as much as the other images. The main image is about stress so the magazine in targeted at most of its readers as it is aimed at people at school. The main image has been photoshopped which doesn’t normally happen on a magazine as there face is has been editing with an cracking effect, however I deffinitly think it would still appeal to the target audience.

Typography – the typography has used teasers and quotes so this connotes what the story is going to be about. The text used doesn’t connote to a specific gender as it isn’t girly or anything, it uses a simple text which would suit both genders, the typography keeps the crack effect theme to represent stress to link with the picture making it fit together and look more professional. However when they have wrote ‘Rebecca Stephens’ I think they have spaced they two words out to much which makes it look unprofessional a messy.

Conclusion – In conclusion, I believe the magazine overall fits the needs to the target audience as it includes a wide range of information and images that would appeal to both genders. It keeps to the theme of the crack and stress and links to the main image which is effective and the colour theme used would appeal to the primary target audience. The only thing that I would improve with it would be the spelling error and the spacing between some words but apart from that it is successful magazine cover.

Comparison – Comparing the Bodmin College and the skive magazine cover, the most successful one is the skive magazine, as the layout makes it easy to look at and includes lots of images all shapes and sizes to benefit the target audience however the bodmin college one doesn’t use any information  about the stories inside the magazine, it also uses poor quality photos that wouldn’t appeal to the majority of the audiences. They both include titles and are placed at the top where they should be but bodmin collge is hard to read as the background is to busy and blends with the background.