A2 MediaTextual analysis of an existing magazine
- 1. ‘The Moment’ TEXTUAL ANALYSIS OF AN EXISTING MAGAZINE In this PowerPoint I will be analysing ‘the moment’ which is a county magazine based in Peterborough. Although I will be creating a regional magazine I feel that the content in this example can be related quite heavily to the production I will be doing. I can get a few ideas from here and expand on them appropriately for a regional audience.
- 3. The front cover looks very busy and colourful. The house styles consists of white black and red and in the background the prominent colours are blue and green. The red coat on the horse matches the house style of the magazine which looks very effective. The target audience for this magazine appears to be 20+ which is a bit younger than my age group. I think this because the colour and the fun masthead appeal to a less sophisticated audience. My production needs to be more informative and slightly more sophisticated.
- 4. I do not like the minimal amount of cover lines in the bottom half of the magazine. I believe that the cover lines must be spread out to avoid the page looking cluttered and with this format the magazine cover looks heavy on the top with a lot going on. I also would not refer to social media on the cover as you can relate it to competitions further inside. I do really like the style of the headlines though, they stand out a lot and the extra colour does look effective. The rule of thirds shows that in each box that would be covered in the eye line, there is something intriguing to look at which makes it very effective.
- 6. This contents page does look very effective. It follows the conventions of black and white creating an informative tone and includes only a red circle at the top to bring in the third house colour. The images are also very effective because they are spread out on the page but not spread in terms of having to look at images all over the place which would look very untidy. They are the size of columns and the landscape images cover two columns. I like this idea, however from analysing Country File, I have decided what my contents page is going to look like. I really like
- 7. the line that separates the title and the writing from the content information, it is clear and minimises wasted space whilst also making the page look more sophisticated. The ‘contents’ font is very simple but does not follow the fonts from the front cover, I will be doing this in order to keep the magazine consistent. I also like the social media references at the bottom of the page as without it, the bottom of the page would look bare and it encourages readers to visit the sites. In my production, I want to include a competition box in the right hand corner as well as referencing social media.
- 9. This double page spread has a good ratio of pictures to text. Although it may look like the double page spread is full of pictures, when you look at the amount of text there is you can also see that the space has been used effectively. The headline links straight in with the topic of the article and combined with the bits of straw in the background, it looks very professional. Obviously this magazine is for an audience that like to read long articles about issues and places around them and this article has done just that.
- 10. The two pages follow the house style with a white background and black text and then use earthy tones to connote the topic of the article. The tone of the article is informative and gives an example of a different country having a celebration, this would most likely appeal to those who are interested in different cultures. These people would be very sophisticated.