How does the school magazine 'Plumline' construct and reflect its intended audience?

 

The school magazine 'Plumline' has many ways of attracting and reflecting its intended audience. The magazine is aimed at Plumstead Manor school children, as it is a school magazine.

The use of the school logo showing a picture of the school in the top right hand corner reflects the school to be an official, smart school as the picture shows the front of the school. It also says "a performing arts, applied learning & humanities college." This reflects the school as a whole, and the people in it (the intended audience). Referring to the performing arts status again, on the front of the magazine there is a picture of some plumstead manor students performing, therefore again reflecting the intended audience as skilled, performing arts students, and attracting the intended audience of students who are interested in performing arts.

The article next to it shows another story about a year 10 drama student, yet again reflecting the schools status as a performing arts school, and attracting an audience of people who are interested in performing arts. The use of a red background behind the title 'Plumline' and behind the address of the school on the back suggests that red may be a significant colour at the school and again, reflecting the intended audience of

Plumstead manor students.


The magazine uses subtle pastel colours to highlight different articles throughout the magazine. Pale colours such as mellow yellows and baby blue are used. This reflects the intended audience as it auggests that the students at Plumstead manor are very mature, calm and collected, as the pale pastel colours reflect peace and calm attitudes in comparison to a bright pink, which could suggest wild and bubbly attitudes.

The quotes students give in various articles also reflects the school. One quote says "I'd like to thank Ms.Sneddon for giving me a chance to have such a great experience!" This reflects the school and gives an overall view of the students in it to be very thankful and polite.

Top of the Pops Double Page Spread

This double page spread i have chosen is from Top of the Pops magazine. The article is directed young teens and mainly girls, as it talks about the film camp rock, which features the pop/rock band The Jonas Brothers, who have a main fan base of young girls. The colour scheme of the page is mainly pink, red, yellow and blue. The yellow and red colours apply to the film 'camp rock' and its logo, therefore attracting their target audience. The large, brightly coloured font stating 'Come to Camp Rock!' is eye catching to the audience and will achieve their goal to entice their target audience. The image has been placed over one whole page, and is of the Jonas Brothers. This is very bold and stands out, which will therefore attract Jonas Brother fans and their target audience of young girls. Much like Kerrang! magazine, Top of the Pops has selected a quote from the interview and placed it in eye-catching font and colouring for the audience to see. The quote says 'We want the girls we date to be our biggest fans!'. This quote, if seen by the target audience, will entice them to read further, as young girls who are fans of the Jonas Brothers, and possibly even are attracted to them, will want to read further into their relationship status and love life. The article uses clear, cropped images of some of the characters from the film in the bottom right hand corner. This is used so the article will gather a more varied fan base from all different characters fans, instead of just fans of the jonas brothers, so this will therefore attract their target audience.

After looking at this double page spread, i have decided that i will edit my magazine using not only images that i have taken, but logos from specific bands as a mode of address; it will entice my target audience as they will recognise the logo of the bands.

Kerrang! Double Page Spread

This double page spread I have chosen is from Kerrang! magazine. Kerrang! is a rock/metal music magazine. The article shows an informal interview with ‘Rolo Tomassi’, which are a fairly heavy rock band. Firstly, the image of the band is very eye-catching, as it takes up a whole page of the article, and will attract fans of Rolo Tomassi and their target audience. The image shows the band to be kicking and making fun of someone in a rabbit costume. This conforms to the stereotypical view of the music featured in Kerrang!; violent, destructive, loud, abusive etc. even if not all the music featured is. The title of the article is written in bold, large, white font contrasting to the red background to make it stand out to the public. The article is titled ‘TEEN SPIRIT’ which will entice Kerrang!’ target audience of teens and the younger generation, as they can relate to the article title. The font in which the article title is written in, is dishevelled and appears to be broken and jagged. This type of font conforms to the stereotypical view of the genre of rock/metal; uncontrollable, messy, loud, destructive etc. The editors have used a quote from the article said by the band featured, and placed it in bold, eye catching font to entice the target audience. This is a technique used by numerous magazines, and the quote is usually a quote that has been taken out of context to shock the audience and encourage them to read further. In the bottom right hand corner, there is a section called ‘WHAT ARE ROLO TOMASSI MADE OF?’, and images used in an arithmetic sense to show the outcome of the band and what they are essentially ‘made up of’. The images show ‘anger’ and ‘the dillinger escape plan’ (who are another band who have been featured in Kerrang!). The images will entice fans of ‘the dillinger escape plan’ and the stereotypical view of Kerrang!’ target audience; angry, destructive, loud teens.

For my music magazine, I am going to touch on the genre of rock, and hopefully it will be a mix between NME and Kerrang! magazine. This double page spread has encouraged me to consider using a large image of the artist/band featured, to capture the audiences attention.

NME Double Page Spread

This double page spread I have chosen is from NME magazine. The article talks about a new band called ‘The Teenagers’, and their overall image and music. The colour theme of white, black and blue keeps the article looking very neat and tidy, conforming to the ‘Indie’ stereotype of NME magazine. The headline for the article is in very bold print, and on a blue background contrasting to the black writing, which makes it stand out for the audience. The article using numerous pictures all over the page which stand out against the small, plain coloured text, and attracts the audience. The banner which says ‘NME LOVES’, stands out on the page and attracts NME’ target audience, as the indie NME followers and going to listen to or pay attention to what NME recommends. On the right hand of the page, NME have placed a comment space for the audience to recommend or review some of NME’ most famous bands at the moment. The bright white text against the black background instantly makes it eye catching to the public, but upon realising that it is a band review, reviewed by people of the average age of their target audience, it would entice buyers and their target audience.

NME magazine is roughly the same genre of magazine that I will be creating, and from NME, I have decided to edit my magazine in such a way that it is very neat, and clear to the audience, hopefully conforming to the indie, clean cut stereotype and enticing my target audience.