Preliminary Task – Research

Lauren Bainbridge

2 Front Covers

Masthead: Bright and in capitals to draw people to the magazine, it is okay for it to be covered by the main image as buyers will already know the title as they buy it so often.

Central Image: The main image is of a girl the same age range as target audience. As well as her t-shirt is the same colour as the Masthead which may be of importance to this particular edition of the magazine.

Plugs: Used to draw the reader in and give enough information for the reader to be interested enough to want to read more.

Skyline: Used in order for people to buy the magazine so they feel special and as if they're gaining more from this magazine.

Teasers: Gossip (especially for students) to read which will make them want to buy the magazine to find out more.

Slanting a story: Written so that people, especially those under stress (students), will find out advice. The story appeals to them in particular.

Issue Number: Something that is essential and readers can keep up-to-date.

Barcode and Price: Magazines must have these to notify readers of price.

Barcodes used in order to scan the magazine during purchase.

Main Image: Relates to target audience (sports fans and those that take part in sport, male students.)

Barcode and Price: Magazines must have these to notify readers of price. Barcodes used in order to scan the magazine during purchase.

Buzz Words: In order to make readers feel it is an exclusive and they won’t get the advice anywhere else.

Teasers: Main headline to draw in audience and then added information (Roy Helu – famous sportsman) in order to encourage the reader to purchase the magazine. Also helps readers to identify the main features of the edition.

Slanting a Story/ Plugs: They know that the audience will react to this story (famous sportsman) and will want to find out more. Smaller font showing it is a less important story that the main focus of the FC.

Masthead: Stands out from the dark background and in capitals to draw people to the magazine, it is okay for it to be covered by the main image as buyers will already know the title as they buy it so often. ‘Sporting News’ is written in red to stand out from both the background and main masthead so readers know exactly which genre it is.

Slogan: The readers feel that it is the best magazine around and they will get to know the magazine through things such as it’s slogan.

Header/Sell Line: Used to attract people to the magazine and includes ‘team reviews’ which appeal to the audience and the conventions of this genre.

2 Contents Pages

Graphic Features: Adds interest and certain examples to the features in the magazine. They also suit the target audience as the people in the photos are of the same age range (older students) and the places may be of interest or of a certain subject they are studying at college e.g. Geography.

Page Numbers: In order to indicate readers to certain stories so if they are not interested in one they don’t have to read through the whole magazine in order to find the story they want. It is quicker and easier for the readers as due to new technologies, younger generations are becoming quite impatient.

Flash: As readers we can tell that this is the small bits of information we need in order to be interested in the article. They are snippets of the most exiting parts of the feature and will pull the readers in.

Headers: Text is in capitals and stands proud from the background as these are the titles of the stories that attracted the reader into buying the magazine. They are the titles of the features and by reading the flash they can see what sort of content will go with which story.

Page Number for contents: In order to notify the readers of which page the contents is if they want to go back to read another story.

Graphic Features: Adds interest and certain examples to the features in the magazine. They also suit the target audience as the people in the photos are of the age range that the teachers will teach and the activities may be of interest or of a certain subject they are teaching e.g. environmental studies/science.

Frequency: ‘Regulars’ suggest that these are the topics that come up in each edition of the magazine.

Gutter: Includes things such as ‘Teachers TV’ and ‘Staffroom’ in the margin which links to the target audience in order to give advice. It is a play on words with ‘Staffroom’ as there is always one in a school.

Page Numbers: In order to indicate readers to certain stories so if they are not interested in one they don’t have to read through the whole magazine in order to find the story they want.

Symbolism: Is a symbol of the feature it is on about and the picture is shown along with the page number so readers will have an idea of what the story is about as well as the headline on the margin.

Puff: To add more stories/notifications to the target audience so that they can link with the magazine.

Header: As if what the readers are thinking is written on the page e.g. What’s Inside? will show that the magazine producers will know what they are thinking. - Intertextuality