Report
Media AS Your
Production Report: Part One
This
report is in response to the production company ‘Splash’ requesting a new
magazine to be brought to the market. The new magazine is called Basis; it is a
fashion magazine for women 16-25. I came to this decision by carrying out primary
research in the form of a questionnaire to find out what magazine genre my audience (females16-25). The majority
of them preferred the fashion magazine as it was more interesting than the
other genres. A Focus groups of girls
16-25 proved to be interested in fashion and this helped me to decide to this
target audience for my magazine. The social group I will target is the B-C2 group of the socio-economic group. This covers management and a potential audience
with expendably cash.
In
the last few years magazine sales have been in decline. Current sales of
magazines are decreasing year by year. There are many reasons, however the main
reason behind the issue is the upgrade of technology (subscribing a magazine on
smartphones rather than buying is store). Another reason magazines are in
decline is because of the tough economic climate since 2008.
My
magazine will be multi-platform to resolve the issue of electronic sales.
Through my secondary research I found out that the recent twitter follower
figures for Vogue are 3,193,957. This shows that Vogue is a popular magazine
and my magazine has the potential to make it in the market. The uses and
gratification theory suggest that personal identity is a strong reason why
people choose media with Vogue, there is definitely a strong sense of brand,
personal identity and reflection of values. This is what Basis wants to create.
At an early stage of my
research I decided to analyse 3 magazines within the same genre of the magazine
I wanted to produce. I started off by analysing the Front cover pages of TeenVogue, Glamour and Seventeen. The colours used in TeenVogue magazine are
hot pink, white and purple which are colours that are relatable to females and
are eye catching. Feminine colours
are also shown in the magazine Seventeen which includes pink and yellow. Pink
is the number 1 iconic colour for
girls as it is a sign of femininity, softness and youth. This makes it clear
because the colour signifies who the
target audience is. However in the Glamour magazine, colours like blue, black
and white are portrayed to be more cool and sophisticated. This primary research helped me decide what
type of colours I have to use in my magazine to suit the target audience.
The
masthead in Glamour and TeenVogue has
bold writing which could have been done to identify the target audience because
of the way the typography style is
informal, anchoring that the
magazine is aimed at younger generation of teenagers. This is done by the use
of sans serif font. The main images
on the front cover on all 3 magazines include direct mode of address. This creates a relationship with the
magazine reader making it seem as if the articles in the magazine are directed
personally to the reader. Each cover picture also uses what Laura Mulvey called the male gaze; this
is an image of a woman that would appeal to a man, this may well be a
controversial issue but is also clearly a convention. The layout of the 3 magazines I analysed all include rule of 3 both vertically and
horizontally. However in the Seventeen magazines the subheadings at the bottom of the page collide in the centre 3rd
and the TeenVogue magazine does the same thing so overall this could be a key
feature to include when I produce my magazine. In the Seventeen magazines a barcode is used on the bottom left hand
corner.
My
secondary research was based on analysing the contents pages of 3 different
fashion magazines. The 3 magazines I analysed were Glamour, Vogue and
TeenVogue. In the Glamour magazine there is no clarity of the reader knowing
that the page is a contents page because there is not title. However in Vogue they
have used their magazine institutions
name in bold across the top of the page and small print of the contents above
so that the magazine shows continuity. They could have done this as it also gives
the reader a simple layout that it’s a contents page as they have used the half
page layout break. This is where on
one page, one half of the page includes page numbers and article titles and the
other half has a body shot image of a model. This is done in the Glamour Magazine.
However in the Vogue and TeenVogue magazine the writing is around the picture.
The
Mise-en-scene in the background of
the contents has been presented to connote
purity of the women and her power and presence by the way she is posed. In
Glamour the model is winking which could help to portray a quirky personality.
However in Vogue the facial expressions are more serious and confident which is
bringing out the model’s personality through the clothing. On the other hand the
Vibe contents page the models body language is sexy as well as the facial
expressions. The silver clothing could anchor
the demographics of the target
audience to be a sophisticated middle class or aspiring middle class audience.
References
