Target Audience- The primary target
audience for the Bodmin College magazine is students that are aged 11-19 as
these are the ranges of ages within the college. Although there is also a
secondary target audience aimed at the students parents/guardians who are of an
older age than the students. The majority of people reading this magazine will
fall into the audience demographic at band C1 down to E.
Masthead- The masthead is not fit for
purpose as it doesn’t stand out because the colours aren’t clear against the
busy background and it is also too small which means it doesn’t jump out at the
reader. Whereas in conventional magazines the masthead would take up an 1/8 of
the cover making it stand out more as it should do to serve it’s correct
purpose. Also the text used to create the masthead is outdated which doesn’t
fit in with the target audience of students as the overall masthead isn’t what
you would expect a typical student aged 11-19 to like.
Layout- The overall layout doesn’t fit the
general layout you should see on a magazine cover as it has three images that
are all poorly taken long shots making the cover look too busy. The layout
should have one main image with text overlayed and maybe a couple of smaller
images, this layout looks far more professional and doesn’t look too heavy for
the reader. The cover should also have little teasers that get the audience’s
attention so that they want to read the magazine, whereas this is lacking here with
just a jumble of images it doesn’t make anyone really want to read it. This
also goes against the target audience as students want something to look good
and professional with something interesting on the cover that gets their
attention with something they care about reading.
Colour- This cover has generally too many
colours used together that make it almost sickly for the reader to look at, as
well as taking away any professional aspect to it. A typical magazine cover
would have a colour scheme to it that makes it look professional whilst
remaining appealing to the reader. Whereas this magazine cover uses colours
that don’t fit well together, with the colour of the writing not even showing
up against the contrasting colours of the picture behind it. This makes the
whole display of the cover unclear for the reader with everything blending
together and nothing standing out. These busy colours go against the
conventions of magazines that usually only use 3-5 colours at the most. This
again doesn’t cater for the target audience as these different colours create
an old fashioned yet young feel that all age ranges aren’t going to be appealed
by.
Images- The images used go against the
usual conventions of a magazine as there are three images just thrown together
on the front whereas a usual magazine would have just one main image with maybe
a few smaller ones. Also the long shots of these go against the usual main
image being either a close-up or medium shot, as well as this the quality of
the images is low with them being blurred and making the people in the images
look strange colours. Also the content of the images with mainly girls being
shown in them supports Laura Mulvey’s theory of the male gaze and shows that
this might be showing them as an erotic desire for the reader. Also the content
of the images is all about dancers which shows that it doesn’t appeal to all of
the audience with only catering to the needs of dancers or those that have seen
these dancers, therefore not bringing in all of the target audience.
Typography- A big thing that takes away the
professional aspect to this is that lots of different types of text are used
whereas this wouldn’t have been done in a usual magazine. It also doesn’t have
any teasers which mean the reader doesn’t get any information about what is
going to be included in the magazine. As well it doesn’t have an issue number
which means the reader doesn’t know how many have come before this one, so they
don’t have any extra information on the magazine which they are likely to want
to know.
Conclusion- Overall I think this magazine
is not fit for purpose as none of the aspects fit the common conventions of a
magazine. As it goes against these conventions it doesn’t appeal to a reader
because it isn’t interesting and doesn’t capture their attention. Also from
these features looking too busy and not professional enough I can connote that
the target audience would not find it appealing enough to read. As it doesn’t
look like anything they would read away from the College they wouldn’t like the
difference and would most likely find it tacky. Also without the lack of a big
story jumping out on the cover they wouldn’t even be interested in anything
that the magazine has to offer, as they would assume the content is as bad as
the cover.
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