Q Magazine Cover

Coverlines - the coverlines on this front cover are in red, black and white. This matches the masthead and i think adds consistancy to the front cover of the magazine.

Main Image - the main image take up most of the magazine cover and consists of a band. The band is making eye contact with the viewer of the cover in order to engage them and draw attention.

Masthead - the Q masthead is different to most magazine mastheads. Q is only in the top left corner of the magazine cover and takes up a small section of the cover. However because it is so different to other magazine covers it is unique. It makes Q magazine easily recognisable.

Selling line- 'Britains biggest music magazine', the selling line is to add a selling point to the magazine in this case it is telling us it is the biggest magazine in Britain, this will make people want to buy this magazine as it is trying to show us it is better than any other music magazine.

Main Cover Line- the main cover line on this cover is in two different colours, this is to make the cover line stand out as the institution see this as the main story and the one people want to read. The main cover line is usually linked to the main image and is usually what the institution believes will sell the magazine issue.

Barcode- standard barcode for retailers.

Price- the price of the magazine, this is important to the target audience.

Date- the month and year the publication is for.

Website Address- the institutions website address.

Colour- the colour scheme on this magazine is mainky black, red and white.

Graphic- there is a graphic behind one of the coverlines to make the cover look a little more interesting.

Kerrang! Magazine Cover

Masthead - the masthead contains the magazine title in font, size and colour which is unique to the institution. The masthead is in black and white which is a conventional colour scheme for music magazines.

The masthead is overlapped by the main image, as 'kerrang!' is very popular and the masthead so recognisable they can afford to have some of the masthead covered as it can is still so easily recognised because it is already established.

Main Image - the main image takes up over half the magazine cover and is overlapping the masthead. This is because the main image is to attract peoples attention and is probably the most important part of the cover as it sells the magazine.

Main coverline - the main coverline is layered above the main image however not covering the main images main focus point. It is white writing on a black strip this is effective because it stands out and makes it look exciting, and makes the audience excited about the story inside that the main coveline supports. The Main coverline is also linked to the main image.

Coverlines - the coverlines on this front cover are mainly located at the top and bottom of the magazine, again in black bars. There is only one other coverline other than the main cover line which is not located at the top or the bottom of the cover. All the coverlines on this magazine are on a solid background colour.

Small Images - the small images are linked with one of the coverlines. The images make the cover look like there is more going on. It makes it look more eye catching. The small images preview a story inside the magazine.

Barcode - a standard barcode for retailers.

Issue Number - the issue number is on each issue of Kerrang! magazine it is just a number in order that the magazines where published.

Date and price - the date is the week in which the magazine was published for and the price is the cost of the magazine.

Website Address - the web address is the institutions website.

Graphics- surrounding the small images and the coverlines to mahe them stand out and make them look a little more interesting.

Colour- the colours on this magazine are black, white, gold and grey.

NME Key Components

Magazine Header Bar - at the head of the magazine there is a red bar which which includes one of the main selling lines. This is located here because when the magazine is on the rack it will stand out and the institution has seen this cover line as one which will attract attention and make people want to buy the magazine.

Masthead - the masthead is the title of the magazine, it is a unique font in which is recognisably NME. This is also located at the top so people can see that it is NME when on a magazine rack.

Selling Line - the selling line on this magazine cover is saying what the magazine name NME stands for.

Main Image - the main image is very large and takes up most of the cover. This image is what catches the eye of potential customers as the person on the covers eyes are making eye contact with the camera.

Website - the name of the magazines web address.

Price - how much the magazine costs this is important as it has to cater for the target audience the institution has chosen to target.

Dateline - w/c, month and year that the magazine is published for.

Bar code - standard bar code for retailers.

Main Cover Line - this is the cover line which is linked to the main image and is usually the main story. It is very large and in 2 different layers with different font sizes and colours.

Footer Bar - at the foot of the magazine there is a bar containing another cover line.

Cover lines - there are many cover lines on this page, these tell us what is inside the magazine.

Small Images - these are small images which dont take too much attention away from the main image which are linked to some of the cover lines.

Colour- the colour scheme for this magazine consists of four colours, yellow, red, black and white. The contents other than the images are made up dominantly of these 4 colours.

Graphics- surrounding many of the coverlines and small images there are graphics to make them stand out.

Magazine Cover Language

Masthead - title of the magazine, usually located in the top left of the cover.

Issue Number- the tally of how many issues of the magazine there has been.

Price- the cost of the magazine.

Date- the date the magazine is published for, usually weekly or monthly, weekly usually saturday to friday, monthly usually a month aheaed.

Barcode- read electronically by retailers and decoded into useful information.

Main Cover Line- Main feature- summarises the main point of the main feature.

Subtitle- smaller headline that may summarise the feature.

Cover Lines- Smaller feature- features included in the magazine.

Images-
Main image- the large image usually taking up about 1/2 - 2-3 of the magazine cover.
Smaller images- small images located on the cover.
Images are to make the page and magazine look more interesting.

Font- style and size of type face.

Colour- themes/stylistic.

Graphics- shapes to highlight specific features on the magazine e.g the coverlines.

Teaser- attention grabber.

Offers/adverts blurb- features free products/promotions etc.

LIIAR

Language-
Media language is how the text is shown to the audience. In print production it is how the magazine is shown to us through its style and contents, e.g the use of image and captions to the image.

Institution-
The institution is the company and people responsible for the production process who create media texts, they control the language used within the magazine, the ideology of the magazine, what the magazine represents (issues, individuals, groups) and they also choose the audience that they would like to target, the institute of the magazine will use the target audience that they think they will make the most money by targeting. An institution can be part of a company who own many media institutions called a corporation.


Ideology-
Ideology is the values and beliefs which guide our lives which we do not even realise we are following. It is what a society believes to be true and important.

Audience-
The audience for a media text is who uses it, it is who the institution aims their text at. Target audiences are based commonly on age and gender.

Representation-
Is how image, texts and sounds are used to show deeper meaning to a text than that which it simply means the representation. It is how people are represented within the text on things such as social class.

Main Task

Preliminary Exercise: using DTP (desktop publishing) and an image manipulation programme, produce the front page of a new school/college magazine, featuring a photograph of a student in medium close-up plus some appropriately laid-out text and a masthead. Additionally you must produce a mock-up of the layout of the contents page to demonstrate their grasp of DTP.

Main Task: the front page, contents and double page spread of a new music magazine. All images and text used must be original, produced by you - minimum of four images.

Presentation of Your Work: The presentation of the research, planning and evaluation may take the form of any one, or combination of two or more, of the following:
-a presentation using slideshow software
-a blog
-a podcast