What kind of media institution might distribute your

media products and why?

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Question 3.

COMPARISON OF NME MAGAZINE AND MY MAGAZINE, UNPLUGGED

LIIAR ANALYSIS

I have compared my magazine to NME

throughout most of this analysis to show the

similarities and differences between the two

magazines in relation to language, institution,

ideology and audience.

Front Cover LIIAR AnalysisLanguage: The colours I have used throughout my magazine are red,

blue/purple, and black and white. I have used these colours not only because they complement each other, but they are bright, bold colours that stand out to the audience. The main image on the cover is a medium close up of ‘Shan’. This is conventional of a magazine front cover. Shan is looking directly at the camera, making eye contact with the audience, drawing them in and connecting with them, in an attempt to make them buy the magazine. On the contents page, the images I have used are all looking directly at the camera, again, trying to draw the audience in, almost saying “come and read our article”. The image used on the double page spread is a mid-shot of Shan. This is conventional of a double page spread, usually either a mid-shot or a long-shot is used. She is looking directly at the audience again, also in an attempt to draw the audience in, making them want to read the article. The masthead on the cover spreads across the whole of the page. It is very large and eye catching. Since the magazine is called Unplugged, I used a font that represents the prongs of a plug. This would make it an easily recognisable masthead and something that would stand out on a magazine rack in a shop. The magazine is informal so would attract an adolescent audience rather than an older audience. This is because an older audience would be more interested in the content of the magazine rather than what it looks like. My magazine has a lot of conventional elements such as a barcode, masthead, date, price, strap lines, a puff, main image and features down the left hand side (the left third). A lot of the text is in capital letters. This adds a sense of urgency and makes it noticeable and easy to read from far away, grabbing the attention of the audience. The cover is quite simple, only the most important things in the magazine are featured on the cover. This adds a sense of mystery and will make the audience want to buy the magazine so they can find out more about what’s inside.

Language: There is a large masthead at the top of the contents page, spreading across the page, so that readers can clearly see that this page is the contents page. The features are down the left hand side of the page and each feature has a page number so that readers can easily navigate themselves around the magazine.. The plug from the cover is continued onto the contents page so that readers know what page the details of the competition is on. There is a subscription part on the contents so that readers who constantly buy every issue of the magazine have an easier way to buy it, that way the magazine comes to them. It also offers a cheaper way to buy the magazine. All images on the contents page have artists looking directly at the readers, to draw the audience in, and make them read the articles. The date and issue number is also on the contents page so that readers know if the issue they are reading is the most up to date one.

Contents LIIAR Analysis

Language: On the double page spread, there is a large image of Shan, the featured artist, covering almost the entire left hand side of the page. It stands out and is the most dominant part of the page, letting you know exactly who the article will be about. It is eye catching and is useful because if a reader is flicking through the magazine, they don’t need to read the whole article to find out who the article is about, the picture lets them know who it’s about. The colours from the cover of the magazine is continued on the double page spread to create continuity.

Double Page Spread LIIAR Analysis

Institution‘NME is currently published by IPC Media, the UK’s leading publisher of consumer magazines and websites. Over 26 million adults read an IPC Media magazine and over 350 million copies are sold each year.’ (http://alevelmediastudies09-11.blogspot.co.uk/2009/11/magazine-research.html)

Because IPC media is such a huge and global company, they publish many magazines, everything from Look magazine to Nuts. They appeal to a huge target audience, because they own almost every genre of magazine. NME also own their own awards show, sponsored by Shock Waves hair gel. There is also a NME music channel, an NME radio station and an NME website. This proves how huge the NME institution is.

I think my magazine would be published by a similar institution as NME because I have based my magazine on NME. IPC also publishes a lot of other types of magazines, everything from music magazine to fashion magazines so almost every genre of magazine could be published by them. They are also a huge, global company so magazine that a published by them would be published on a huge scale and they would be sold world wide. NME are not just a magazine either, they are a brand. There is a NME music channel, NME radio station, NME website, NME awards show, that is sponsored by Shock Waves hair gel, among other things. It is a huge institution and I would like my magazine to be part of a huge institution too, so that many readers will be able to be part of it too.

NME promotes new indie music which is produced by mostly white male guitar bands or solo artists. It tries to be one step ahead of mainstream music by featuring artists that are yet to be considered commercially successful. NME often features artists whose lifestyle differ from the norm, who are known and loved for their musical talent and rebellious nature despite also being known for things such as drug abuse. NME’s audience is 74% male and 26% female and just under half of readers are students. This means the magazine must appeal to this audience, featuring artists they will like, doing articles and interviews about topics they are interested in. NME has a rebellious feel. They don’t like to be mainstream which is why they swear a lot in the magazine and they feature new, almost unknown bands rather than mainstream artists that make popular chart music. However, NME do also feature iconic bands/artists such as the Beatles and Oasis for obvious reasons. Although NME don’t like to be mainstream, they have also made themselves more commercially aware by having a well know TV channel, an awards ceremony, a radio station and it associates itself with Shockwave hair gel. It’s made itself into a brand that most people know.

I think my magazine would have a similar ideology as NME because I have based my magazine on NME. My magazine, Unplugged, would be a more 50% female and 50% male audience so that it appeals to everyone. It also has a cheap price so that it is affordable and anyone can buy it. My magazine has a rebellious feel to it which is why I have used the colours black and red a lot. It also features some swearing in some of the articles and, in some of the articles, it talks about some taboo subjects. Unplugged would feature mostly indie artists with some mainstream artists occasionally and some that are indie but borderline mainstream. As my magazine is called Unplugged it would feature artists that do a lot of acoustic sets and that are very open about things in their lives, they don’t hide behind anything, they are unplugged. Unplugged is all about the music and the artists and bands behind the music. It tries to deliver the stories that readers want to read, information that the readers want to know about the artists. My magazine promotes the artists and believes in the artists that it features in the magazine.

Ideology

NME is a indie/rock magazine and so appeals to people who like indie/rock music. The target audience is teenagers aged between 16-24. This is because these are the type of people who are more likely to go to gigs and festivals so they want to read up on the bands or artists that they are going to see. Also, that age range are more likely to recognise the artist/bands featured in the magazine than older people. Since a lot of the readers are young, student types, and the magazine is a weekly magazine, the price would have to be quite low for the target audience to be able to afford it because, stereotypically, the readers may not have jobs or may just have minimum wage jobs and NME must be aware of this when deciding the price for the magazine.

I think my magazine would appeal to a similar audience as NME as they are similar magazines. It features artists of a similar musical genre and targets an audience of a similar age. This audience is likely to go to gigs and festivals and the artists featured will play gigs and festivals. The majority of the audience would be students, and may stereotypically not have a job, and so would not be able to afford an expensive magazine which is why mine only costs £2 and is a monthly magazine so the readers are very likely to be able to afford it. I had to consider this when creating my magazine. I chose to target this audience because I wanted to appeal to an audience similar to myself and similar to the type of people who read NME. I thought it may be easier to appeal to this audience as all I’d have to do is feature things in my magazine that I would personally read myself and feature things that appeal to me such as the competition to win gig tickets and articles on bands that I like.

Audience