Magazine code and conventions-4 PDF

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Looking at the codes and conventions of the large business Dance Magazine....

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Codes and conventions/audience The front cover consists of a large, bold title “DANCE” allowing the customers to know what the magazine is about without reading anything inside. The title goes behind the image as it is classed as a well-known magazine in the dance industry, and by only having one letter hidden by the model it wouldn’t be hard for someone who is new to the magazine to figure out what it says. By having the text behind the image also allows the eyes of the reader to go to the dancer, as they want her to be the main focus point. She is there to inspire the readers and show the elegance of the magazine, due to her minimalistic look. The people who will buy this magazine will have a passion for dance meaning that they would know the well-known dancer on the front cover and she could be seen as an inspiration to some of the audience. The front of the magazine has used a tight text wrapping to accentuate the models figure, again drawing attention the model. The magazine also has a colour scheme running through the front cover, for example in this one black, red and pink are used. This is done to create the sense of organisation and to help draw our eyes to certain things. By having the name of the dancer on the front in a bright red, large, font shows that she will be a large part of this article and possible suggests you will get to learn more about her. The red contrasts with the white background allowing it to stand out and give the reader a deeper understanding on what will be in the magazine before they actually buy it. The red could also connote the passion the dancers feel when performing, since the dancers name is in red it will stand out more but I believe they have used this colour to show how much affection she has for her career. Although red, black and pink are the main colours used in this front cover, the colour scheme does not run throughout all the dance magazines as they change the colours to show different emotions and meanings. One of the main conventions of the dance magazine front covers are high image to text ratio, although it changes when inside the magazine to high text to image ratio, there is always a picture to give the reader a quick view of what they are about the read. However since this magazine doesn’t have a large target audience, due to it being based on one sport, it informs people on smaller topics, all based around the genre of dance. The writing is direct as it is using personal pronouns to attract and interest the readers to buy the magazine and find out answers. “What’s your time worth?” is in capital letter, using a personal pronoun to question the reader, making them feel more connected to the magazine. Time is a very important thing for anyone who does a sport as they will feel that it could take over their life, when a magazine specific to the sport is talking about it, it shows you are not allow and could possibly be given answers on how to improve you time management. Meaning that they would be more intrigued with what it will say inside. The magazine also has a direct address as the model is staring straight into the camera, addressing the audience with a natural face but stern eyes, showing the beauty and power dancers have. The model is also in a costume allowing people to spot the magazine amongst others very easily, as most other magazines usually have normal clothes on. The dancer is in a plain black costume, which blends with the conventions of the front cover, but has mesh cutouts, giving the magazine some style and edge. The magazine also uses a synergy in the top left hand corner linking to the website showing information for the magazine, this shows that this magazine has been affected by technology influence and know they could possibly get more customers by having extra information about it online.

The target audience of this magazine would be young adults, typically women, as dance is sport, stereotypically, enjoyed by women more than men. The magazines audience is more likely to be based on young adults as that is the age where they will be in a great dance school, or beginning to be noticed as professionals. Institutions Dance Magazine is a monthly performing arts magazine featuring all forms of dance. It has been published by Macfadden Communications group since 1927. Macfadden Communications Group is a publisher of business magazines, who also owns other dance magazines, for example; Pointe, Dance spirit, Dance teacher and Dance retailer news. Not only does the company own a lot of the well-known dance magazines they also published over 20 other magazines not related to dance. Most of the magazines were produced for a female audience, linking to the audience of the dance magazine, as 89% of the 300,000 people who buy the magazine are women.

Codes and conventions/ audience Codes and Conventions: Fashion magazines usually uses mid shots or close ups to clearly show idealistic people who have featured in their magazine. Vogue have used a mid-shot on the front cover of an idol to many people. Most magazines consist of highly photo shopped images of celebrities however this is a simplistic image which could be showing that vogue is trying to change the image the public sees and makes the people on the front cover more relatable. Since May 2013, when this particular magazine was released, an Australian editor explained that vogue is no longer looking for the very young, very thin girls. Beyoncé is a perfect role model for that as she is very successful and goes against the stick thin model that we were used to seeing on magazines. By using white, grey, black and red on their front cover, the reader’s eyes go straight to the bold red text, making the reader notice certain words which would intrigue the public to buy it. Having the large number “618” in the red font draws the reader the question of what is this large number for? When they realise that it is how many pages are in the magazine, it would sell them more as a basic magazines that are in competition with vogue usually only have 100200 pages. Since the price of this magazine is usually more than the typically fashion magazines the use of informing the buyer of how many pages they would be getting for that price, makes it look like the price is worth it. They also use different sized texts to draw the reader’s attention to certain parts of the cover and places the writing over the model so you cannot look at the image without noticing the writing informing the buyer of what is included inside. The magazine also puts their title behind the dominant image as it is a well-known magazine so they expect the audience to be able to automatically identify the magazine without the title. Although they expect the audience to know vogue only hides one full letter at the most, so it gives the audience a chance to work it out if they aren't sure on what the brand looks like. This is a convention which flows throughout almost all vogue titles. Having the model in front of the title also takes the audiences eyes off the words and too the model. Since the model is almost guaranteed to be recognised by anyone, they will be a large reason to buy the magazine. Without looking at any of the text the image will make the public assume they will get a chance to read about the model on the front. By having a famous figure on the front it would increase sales by a huge amount. The model on the front cover also has an outfit which is very simplistic and sophisticated which then matches the conventions of the magazine. The colours used on the outfit are the colours used in fonts, this stops the model from clashing with the conventions of the text and background and allows the magazine to look put together and tidy. Although there is no personal pronouns used it is direct due to how the model is looking straight into the camera, at the audience. This draws the audience in and gains their attention as they feel connected to the magazine. One of the main conventions of the dance magazine front covers are high image to text ratio, although it changes when inside the magazine to high text to image ratio, there is always a picture to give the reader a quick view of what they are about the read. Vogue also has a technology influence as it has a website which uses the same simple design which the magazine uses. Institutions

Vogue is an America fashion magazine that is published by Condé Nast monthly in over 23 different nations. Condé Nast is an American mass media company founded in 1909. The company owns 18 brands and mediums including: vogue, glamour, the New Yorker, teen vogue, brides and allure. Vogue does not have a strict colour scheme running throughout all of the magazines, however they usually use a solid colour background, with fonts on the front page consisting of different colours depending on which issue. However they normally only use two or three colours that will work well with each other. Usually in Vogue the colour of the fonts will match the clothes which the model is wearing. Vogue uses the same fonts over the front cover with the headings in bold to allow them to stand out and inform the reader what is included in the issue. The font throughout is simple and thin to give the magazine a simplistic, high end look. Vogue campaign

Vogue has used a double page spread to inform the reader on a campaign. The campaign uses a title with a different font and a larger text size in ratio to the other text in the article. Not only this, they use two different colours to fit in with what the title is saying, “Altered images”. The magazine has used high image to text ratio which fits with the codes and conventions of vogue as they prefer to use more images to interest the reader and make the magazine seem more luxury. The image shows a women in a wheelchair, surrounded by many bright colours. Due to the high key lighting and bright colours it suggests that this is going to be a happy article and the women shows no weakness despite her disability. This image would touch the hearts of the reader and make them want to read and find out more about the campaign. The text is very plain with only black and white colours used with the fonts. They have used minimal colours in the text to stop it from clashing with the bright image. They do this to still show their sophisticated, elegant and well put together designs. The text which says “Melanie Reid” has been placed in a larger text size and in bold a bold font. This is the name of the women in the picture, she is a famous journalist which may be recognised by some of the audience. Putting the start of the text in bold draws the readers eyes to her name and making them want to read on as they are intrigued on what she has to say.

POINTE The front cover consists of a thin font title with all letters in capitals saying, “POINTE”. This allows the potential customers to identify it as a dance magazine due to their knowledge that pointe is a style of dance. The image is placed in front of the writing, drawing the attention of the reader bringing their eyes to the dancer, as she is the main focus point on the cover. She shows the elegance of the magazine by wearing a simple blue costume which matches the colour scheme of the background. She also wears pointe shoes which would also reassure the audience that it is a dance magazine if they had not read the title yet. The magazines colour scheme which runs through the front cover is mostly blue, black and white, however it also uses yellow and pink to contrast the basic colours and get the audience’s attention drawing them to read certain parts of the cover. The woman on the front cover is a professional ballet dancer who has an article about her in the magazine. Her name is in a large blue font next to a yellow colour which contrasts the blue allowing the audience to spot her name out of the text easily. By having the name of the dancer on the front in a large font it shows that she will be a large feature of the article. For a dancer she could be classes as an inspiration to many young dancers wanting to become professional, by having her name and image on the front cover it could persuade more people to buy it due to a popular dancer possibly speaking about her life and success inside the magazine. Using blue as their main colour creates a relaxed feel with the magazine, and connotes that their magazine could give a dancer the relaxing time they need and persuade them to buy it. This particular colour scheme does not run throughout all of the point magazines, however they usually use dim colours and not many bright backgrounds to not over power the dancer. Pointe magazine does use lighting and shadows in all of their backgrounds, usually having the light on the right side of the model and the shadow behind her/him. Another main convention of the Pointe magazine is high image to text ratio throughout all the covers. This makes it easy for the readers of the magazine to recognise it as there isn't many magazines based for the dancing genre. Although the magazine cover does not used many words, it involves the audience by letting them know “tips and tricks” will be in the magazine. This could convince unsure potential buyers to get the magazine as getting tips off a professional dancer would look like a large advantage. They also used questions on the cover to allow the customer to read it and answer it themselves, automatically they are then connected to the magazine as they will feel the magazine has directly asked them a question. The magazine also uses a direct address to the audience with the model starring straight into the camera. Having the dancer looking into the camera instead of looking away draws your eyes to the image when looking at the cover as it feels more direct. The reader then feels more connected to the magazine. Although the direct address of the dancer isn't a convention of the magazine the natural faced dancers, with simplistic costumes are shown on each front cover. This shows the elegance of the dancer and the magazine, giving it a more professional feel. One of the main ways to buy this magazine is a subscription for a paper or online copy of the magazine every month. This shows that the magazine has took into an account that the public will be familiar to online reading and technology. By them selling their

magazine as an online copy it could attract a larger audience to buy the magazine, as people could read it on the go. The target audience of the magazine would be trained dancers, mostly young adults. The institutions are 93% female, showing the target audience would be based around them, due to it being a Pointe magazine, it would not be based for men as they do not do this type of dance. 64% of the total readership are dance students, these will be in their late teenage years going on to be an adult. The magazine will used vocabulary usually only known by dance students or professionals, this would restrict the audience even more as people who don't do the sport would not understand the vocabulary used inside. Institutions Pointe is an international magazine aimed towards ballet dancers and students. The total leadership is 120,000. It was published by Macfadden Communications group, but in their performing arts media section. The company owned over 30 different magazines in all different genres, however it has now shrunk it’s publications to only 10, where half of these are based in the genre of dance. Pointe has many sister companies including: Dance magazine, Dance spirit, Dance teacher and Dance retailer new. Pointe does not have the same colour scheme which runs through all of the magazines, however they typically use a solid background for all of their front covers, to create a simplistic look and not over power the audience with too many colours. Inside the magazine doesn't follow the same colour scheme as the front cover as different topics inside will have different colours to help explain the emotions behind the what they are trying to say.

Print media: Intentions I will create the front cover and two double page spreads for the magazine “Dance Magazine”. The main article will be a campaign about two dancers who were sick of being turned down from auditions and how they turned it around to create something wonderful. The target audiences will have the psychographics for younger dancers with self-disbelief. The demographics of the magazine article would not be as important as the psychographics because of the whole point behind being anybody can dance no matter what their background is or their appearance. On the front page of my magazine, I will have one main image, which will be a long shot of a dancer. This will act as the dominant background and the main focus point for the audience. The model would have natural hair and makeup to not distract from the main focus of their dancing ability, and allowing the front cover to look as natural as possible. The image of the dancer will also overlap the magazines title, which will be placed at the top of the front cover. By doing this it follows the conventions of “dance magazines” front covers. This will not affect being able to read the title since it is a popular magazine read by many dancers it will be easy to assume or work out what it says. At the bottom of the page there will be a photo-shopped picture of some wooden flooring where the dancer will be played upon, this will allow it to seem more realistic and natural. There will be text outlining the rim of the dancer, alerting the reader on the main issues that will be inside. This will be one of the main points of persuasion when trying to convince the reader to buy the magazine. It will say if there are any exclusives inside and mention well-known dancers in the industry to show it’s a popular magazine. The background and text colours will revolve around the colour of the outfit worn by the dancer. This would allow the front cover to look more professional and follow the conventions of the magazines I have researched. In case the dancer gets washed out by the background, I will use a gradient effect as my background colour to stop this and hopefully create a professional, clean image which would allow the magazine to look put together. However, a lot of dance magazines use solid coloured backgrounds instead, I think by adding it in it will bring uniqueness and help it to stand out. On the double page spread there will be the main article and campaign that I need to complete. There will be a large image of the dancers covering the first page with the headline over the top of it. It will be an action shot of the dancers to try and show them at their best ability. Since the campaign is about a dance group called “The Individuals” the image will be of the two dancers who opened it. Neither of them will be looking at the camera and will have a look of concentration in their face. This will show the power and determination to the audience, this is important because it is the main message the campaign is trying to get across. The following page will consist of two columns containing the powerful campaign on the dance group; with a sub-heading, in bold, just above it. The heading, sub-heading and the solid background colour will fit the conventions of the front cover allowing the theme of the magazine to flow throughout. The main article will be small writing and a thin font, whereas the heading and sub-heading will be in bold to stand out from the rest of the page. At the bottom of the page there will be text showing what month the magazine was released. This will be in a light grey colour to show it isn’t part of the article however it can be seen as useful information. The final page will be an advertisement for a ballet shoe company. I want an advert in my piece as each magazine I have researched had a great percentage of advertisements linking to the topics you were reading on. It will be a very simple page allowing the audience to not be over powered by too much text. It consists of a plain white background and an image of a pair on point shoes in colour. The colourful pointe shoes will stand out from the white, making it bold and noticeable when flicking through the magazine. Over the top of the image there will be the name of the company in calligraphy. This makes...