Analysis of College Magazine

Analysing Bodmin College magazine cover.

I am going to first look at the Bodmin College magazine. I will also be going though the common conventions and key parts of the magazine. The magazine is targeted at students of Bodmin College aged 11 to 19. However there is a second target audience for the magazine which is the parents/guardian who are interested in the school and events going on in the school. The majority of people reading the Bodmin College magazine will fall into the social class of band C1 (middle class) down to E (Students and unemployed)

In the Bodmin College magazine the use of mise-en-scene  is very poor as the costumes are very dull and do not stand out to the public.       

I will first look at the masthead, which does not fit the purpose of the magazine. The magazine cover is very poor as it is not bold or does not stand out on the page like a magazine cover should. A example of a magazine cover with a bold clear masthead is Kerrang a magazine which also appeals to the same social class audience as the Bodmin College magazine. Typically the magazine should have a bold masthead as its one of the main things you see on a font cover however with the Bodmin College magazine the header does not appeal which is one of the main flaws of the magazine cover.

In the magazine they have not used a colour palate which means the colours do not appeal to the  target audience. One main problem is all magazines only use 3 to 5 colours. The Bodmin College magazine has used  5 colours which do not work well together. For example Kerrang only have 3 colours on some of their magazines, which appeal to people a lot more than the college magazine. On the  Bodmin College magazine it does  not jump out of the page so people do not get interested at a first glance.  Furthermore by using dull colours like green it puts people of the magazine. Most magazines do not use the colour  green because it is deemed boring.

The layout of the images is the next problem because they do  not appeal to the audience, this is due to the 3 images that have been  used are badly placed and do not give the reader a good understanding on the contents in the magazine. Also there is a image of corn at the top because it’s the autumn edition however this image is not needed and puts the reader off and gives them the wrong idea about the magazine.All the  images are based around dancing which puts of the male audiences. Although Laura Buldes theory applies to the magazine as females are only used in media as sexual objects. However in Kerrang the layout is simple but stands out, and the  text tells the reader about what is in the magazine unlike the Bodmin College magazine which is just too bland and does not appeal to the target audience.

The images used on the magazine are very poor and are long shots so they do not stand out for the reader. The college magazine is the opposite to Kerrang as the images are all either close up or extremely close which appeals more to the  target audience. The images on the Bodmin College magazine are blurred and give the reader the impression that the magazine is cheap which may put people of. They have used a small range of images with the use of iconography that suggests the idea that the magazine  is for the female audiences because of the dance themed  pictures. Also the use of semiotics is very simple  and the only type of symbols used is the Bodmin College logo which does not stand out or appeal to the public.

The use of lexis is very poor, as there is near to no text on the page. As a result the lack of text on the magazine totally fails, so the magazine cannot inform the reader and also puts the reader off reading the Bodmin College magazine. Also the use of denotation is poor as there is not much text and is not very easy to read which gives the idea of a poor magazine.

Analysing Skive magazine cover.

In this analysis I will analyse the Skive magazine. I will also be evaluating the common conventions as I did in the Bodmin College magazine analyses. The target audiences of the magazine Skive is people aged 11 to 19, which are the same target audiences as in the Bodmin College magazine.  However the magazine could also appeal to parents and guardians that are interested in the school and current issues within the school. Also the majority of people reading Skive magazine will fall into the social class of band C1 (middle class) down to E (Students and unemployed) which is the same as the Bodmin College magazine.

I am first going to look at the masthead which is opposite from Bodmin College magazine by this I mean it is a bright and vibrant masthead unlike the Bodmin magazine where the subhead does not fit on the page. The masthead on the Skive poster works well on the magazine because it fits into the colour pallet used on the page. The connotation on the magazine shows smoke coming out of the mast header showing that the magazine is hot.

In term of the colour the colour pallet on the Skive will attract the young primary target audiences because it associates with the stereotypes proposed by theorists like S.Hall (1904). In other words the black and grey connotes the magazine will represent the needs of the young target audiences who are young 11 to 19 year old, rebellious and prone to dark moods.

The images used in the Skive magazines are well thought of  and use the idea of iconography for example the close up image of the face that has been Photoshoped to show cracking on the faces links with the text below saying about stress which tells the reader that she is cracking under the pressure. There are then 3 minor photos of a life boat some one playing a guitar and people on a trip to Africa this tells the reader that its not all focused on one subject. It then has a cover photo to do with a fashion shoot which stereotyped to be aimed at females. In the magazine skive there is a good use of semiotics as they have put the pink lips behind the female which  symbolise fashion the main focus of the image.

The layout is smart unlike the Bodmin College magazine. The Skive magazine is smart because the little story’s are around the centre image to draw people into the main image however this could be a bad thing because it looks a little stressed and cluttered around the edges which makes the stories looked like they were thrown to the side. Also the space between the words are to spaced apart as normal magazines text is close together for example REBECCA STEPHENS is to far spaced out from each other which gives it a unprofessional magazine cover.

The language used in the magazine is a lot better than in the Bodmin magazine cover, well it’s not very hard because there was a lack of text on the Bodmin College magazine. The key part of text/language used in the cove is the word Skive which relates well to the target audiences as people can stereotype teenagers as being trouble and skiving school. However they have used words like monogamy which could confuse and put of the young ages of the target audiences which is one of the main down falls of the magazine. One more error of the Skive magazine is that they have a spelling error at the bottom of the magazine cover they meant to say form but forgot the "m" and put "for" which is one of the main errors of the magazine. However they have used the word Skive well as they have involved connotation what means giving a word a over meaning as Skive  normally means ditching a lesson but now it gives it a more formal meaning and less of a rebellious meaning to the word. The  use of denotation also shows of the word Skive as its seen as a word to describe trouble which teenagers are stereotyped  which appeals to the target audience. They have fallen though when it comes to lexis as they have not kept the same level of language as they use big words like monogamy which same readers will not know and then use the word Skive which is a slang term so they have not kept the same level of language.
 
The use of mise-en-scene in the cover page is very good also as they have used images from different settings to bring in different audiences  they have also used make up on the centre of the image to give her a pale faces.   

In conclusion the Skive magazine is considerably better than the Bodmin College magazine however I do think when it’s on a magazine stand the Skive magazine will stand out. They have used to dull colours therefore it will not stand out from the crowd. Although when you look closer at the magazine Skive it is  different than a normal magazine and has a professional look as in a high end magazine. But it is not my cup of tea because all the side stories look randomly placed on the page and illogical. So for that reason I as one of the target age group don’t find the Skive magazine appealing.