IPC Media

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

To What Extent Should Magazines Be Held Responsible For The Social Ramifications Of The Representations They Offer?

"Our magazines are made for entertainment purposes, and shouldn't be taken as a guide to teenage girls living their lives" a quote from a spokesperson from a well known magazine, aimed at women. With these magazines there is always a catch line, for example 'Cosmo Girl' '50 WAYS TO GET SEXY HAIR', these kinds of statements give the target audience of this magazine a reason to buy it, instantly it interests a 'typical teenage girl' how to get 'Sexy Hair' or whatever the catch line may be, if it can draw the attention of the target audience then it is doing it's job, but how does this affect the people that read the magazines? are these magazines entertaining or bordering on becoming a guide for girls lives?

The way that these catch lines are written, even though they are someones opinion still suggests that they're the law, for example 'Sugar' with '63 thing you NEED to know about YOUR boobs' it is a command, you must know the information being offered, and the fact that it is made personal by talking about a physical asset women have and aren't very confident about. Another catchline example is again, from 'Cosmo Girl' - 'What he tells his friends after you hook up' this is suggesting two things, one is that you trust this magazine more than you are meant to trust your partner, and also it suggests that all of these celebrities and everyone else is 'hooking up' which twists the thoughts of the target audience to think that if they're not doing it it isn't right.

The main feature of all of these magazines is the celebrity on the front cover, who are all airbrushed, and lit up from the background to get the target audiences attention. The average age of the target audience for these magazines will be 11-16, and at the youngest age a girl is maybe at her most vulnerable and most influential, which is where in my opinion it is wrong for these magazines to advertise sex, and what is essentially being an adult to children.

All of these magazines are like peer pressure publications, because unlike another human being, you can judge their personality, and a trust is built, but with a book or a magazine there is a false sense of security, because it is seen as an authoritative figure, because it is all set out perfectly, for example in Sugar it says 'Your Summer Style...' as if to suggest if you don't dress like the way Sugar says, you won't look good this summer, which almost forces teenagers to g out and buy the latest clothes, makeup etc.

In conclusion I think that magazines of this nature should be held responsible for what they do, because even though they may defend their message it's clear a lot of young girls and teenage girls are affected by these magazines and other forms of media, but on the other hand it is also fair to say as a magazine publication it isn't the law, just like every other magazine, it is someones opinion on a fact, for example all of the style tips will be on what celebrities are wearing most, and someones opinion from the magazine.

Who Is The Target Audience For This Magazine Cover?

Who Is The Target Audience For This Magazine Cover? How Has The Cover Attempted To Appeal To Them? And What Conventions Of Cover Design Are Evident?


In this 'Ride Uk BMX' magazine front cover from September 2012 it is fairly clear that the magazine is aimed at young people who participate in the sport of BMX, this is shown by the complete disregard for anything but riding bikes as shown in the photo, of the young man jumping over the burining ramps and grind rails, and also the title in it's special font 'DISOBEY' to outline the rebelious attitude towards riding a BMX bike. Also small things like the outline of the photo has been singed to emphasise the rebelious attitude of the cover. everything around the photo is white like it is under the spotlight, like the photo is being used as evidence in the scrapbook of a long summer of riding 20" bikes, with the plain black and white Masthead and header of the magazine cover. And the footer of the cover featuring parts of what is in the magazine and as mentioned earlier the word 'Disobey' in a unique font to emphasise the message of the photograph featured.

This cover has attempted to reach it's target audience by enticing them in with the photo of a jam in Leeds, 'King For A Day Jam', the rememberance of a young BMXer who got stabbed, where every year his friends and fellow riders come together and celebrate his life, whether it be through the bonfire or the giving out of prizes, this photo sums up what BMX is about as far as the community, riding and the yearly spectacles BMX has to offer. This gives people the chance to relate to the cover of the magazine, which entices people ever more so to buy the magazine. It also features the smaller articles along the bottom, for example 'NASS' which is the biggest action sports festival in the UK, where some of the best riders in the world come to put on a show, this will be another thing that entices people that did or didn't go to read up on what happened and what there is to come next year, altogether the cover shows off and attempts to appeal to the people of BMX very well, providing images and text that they can relate to and using a recognizable heading which has been used for years.

In this edition of Ride UK BMX magazine they have used all of the main features that any other magazine would use such as a main image, a main coverline, and the contrast of colours to create a magazine cover that stands out to the target audience, where they can clearly see what is going on and what the magazine is about with a glance. Although this magazine cover doesn't feature the left hand third technique that other magazines use, the cover is still effective and leaves a lasting image on the target audience who may just glide by the magazine in a shop or online through the rideukbmx.mpora.com

Glossary Of Magazine Terminology

Below are all of the terms used in deconstructing and analysing Magazines:

• Texts - All forms of media are a text, including TV, radio, magazine article, film etc.
• Niche market - In terms of magazines where a magazine will be aimed towards a specific type of person, eg. a birdwatching magazine would be for a small minority of people
• Target Audience - the people that a magazine is aimed at
• Codes and Conventions - Guidelines that set out what a magazine cover should have in order to see what is expected from the magazine, the following are examples of Codes and conventions
• price
• bar-code
• issue number/date
• the main photograph directly relates to the main article
• a recognisable masthead (Title of Magazine)
• Recognisable fonts
• various plugs (small colourful tags) to draw in the target audience with offers etc.
• Links between colours of month, images and text

• Semeiotics - the reading and understanding of signs
• Signifier - the object, denotation
• Signified - the meaning behind the object, conotation
• Cultural psyche - your background, it is what determines your thoughts and your identity, the following are an example of things that determine your cultural psyche 
• Personality
• looks
• gender
• age
• family
• upbringing
• what you wear
• social status
• sexuality
• where you're from
• religion
• education
• ethnicity
• Plugs/Puffs - a feature/offer to entice the audience
• Main Image/Celebrity
• Pull quote from the main article as a coverline
• The left third - the left hand side of the cover, where when stacked you can see the main pieces of the article
• Main Coverline - main point of the magazine, usually a double page spread within the magazine

Why Use Blogger?

Things You Can Do With Blogger:

Blogger could be a great platform for blogging, whether it be photos or posts about random things it has  something that social networking doesn't, which is that you can go into more detail with things and it is a better platform for launching whatever you feel like, the list below give the things you can do with blogger:

- An alternative mix to posting photos, as you can post a photo with a lot of text, like telling a story
- The possibilities are endless, posting quotes, talking about day to day life, or posting about what you find interesting
- adding social media into your blog to make it more accessible for people and make it something people will go to time and time again
- It can be used as an interesting sales tool for companies, from a small clothing company to a large business trying to reach every potential customer

How Do I Think Blogger Will Be Useful For My Coursework?

Blogger will be a way that I can keep track of my coursework and push me to create new things and innovative ways of presenting my work, it will be easy to access from home, college or my phone to edit things, post random things and upload pieces of coursework, it also allows me to start a piece of coursework, and save it so I can then come back to it without having to start over again, overall I think it's a big improvement on having to print everything out