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PRINT MEDIA PRODUCTION SESSION 9 - MAGAZINE ANALYSIS


You are now approaching the end of Criteria P2 - You've told me about a publisher, the job roles and production process behind newspapers and mags, the way those publishers distribute their products and also the regulatory bodies (IPSO) they have to be monitored by. You've also analysed a newspaper front cover, feature article and advert telling me about the genre (tabloid/broadsheet), the content, style and target readership of that paper. 
As you can see the criteria P2 explicitly states that learners explore 'an existing newspaper AND an existing magazine' so today I want you to conduct exactly the same analysis as you did of a newspaper, but with a magazine. Go through the following stages to get this tucked away. 

1. OPEN UP A NEW POST - CALL IT 'MAGAZINE ANALYSIS'. Paste/embed in a picture of the magazine you'll be looking at. 

2. OPEN UP A HEADING 'THE SECTIONS' - Have a look through your magazine, see if you can find a contents page & tell me what SECTIONS it contains. News? Reviews? Regulars?  List them including the page numbers they occupy eg 'Reviews Section - Pages 64-73'

A typical double-page spread feature article. Pop-out quote as headline. Image & text balanced. This piece will probably go on for another couple of pages, especially if it's the cover-story. 

5. NEW SUB-HEADING - 'THE FEATURE ARTICLE' Find a FEATURE article or LEAD STORY. This should take up either a whole page or be a DOUBLE/TRIPLE/QUADRUPLE PAGE SPREAD. Take a photo of your chosen feature/spread and put it into your blogpost. Then perform a similar analysis of the feature as you did for the front cover. 

[YOU DON'T HAVE TO ANSWER ALL OF THESE QUESTIONS, JUST THE ONES THAT SEEM RELEVANT TO YOUR CHOSEN FEATURE.] 

Firstly, in a 2-d sense tell me about the LOOK of it. LOOK at it, don't read it in depth yet. How is it laid out? Is it Picture-dominated or text-dominated? Is the headline font unique to that piece or used throughout the paper for headlines (sometimes headlines in gossip/sports sections can have different headline fonts than usual)? Does the font/colour/layout selection reflect the subject matter and the target audience? Are their sidebars within the article? What do they contain? Do they also reflect main subject/target audience? Are there PULL-OUT QUOTES? 
Secondly - ACTUALLY READ IT and tell me . . . who wrote it/who's got the byline? Are they an expert? Do they show that expertise in other articles online? Have they got a twitter profile? Can you check out who they are?  What’s the tone like? Formal/serious or informal/chatty? Anything make you laugh? Anything make you cross? What’s the language like? Easy/difficult to understand? What do you think – did it keep you entertained/would you advise other people read it, or do you think it was boring/ you could’ve done better? 

Typical Magazine Ad - all about giving out information, picture dominated. 


6. Open up a new heading 'ADVERT ANALYSIS'. Find an ad, preferably either a half-page, full-page or double-page ad. Again, take a shot of it and slot the image under the heading. Then tell me about the advert, again answering only the questions you think are relevant. 

What’s the style of language? (Formal/chatty/serious/funny/young/old)? What sort of  colours and fonts are predominant – why? What kind of image features in the ad? Why? What is the images denotation and connotation? How is the meaning created through the layout – why do you think things have been placed where they have? Would you have done things differently? Does the ad actually appear close to an article that refers to what’s being advertised? Does the ad seem targeted at the same audience that the magazine has?

What you should end up with 

A blogpost analysing the front cover, an inside-article/feature, and an advert from a magazine. 


What you can be doing if you finish this

Reading magazines to give yourselves ideas about layout and look, and start thinking about the kind of magazine you would like to make. 

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