In this piece of work I will be completing a LIAAR analysis of my final product and contents page, I will be describing how I believe my pieces of work meet the conventions of magazines and also meet the conventions an individual would usually expect from the specific example of a college magazine.
Language- I think my final product uses language very well, the first reason why I think my product uses language well is because it meets a normal convention in magazines which is the masthead being in the top left hand corner, this is done to show the reader what the magazine is called but also what the masthead says will give the reader their first clues to what the magazine is about, mine does this well because the masthead may have a very basic name but this is used well as it clearly states the establishment in which the magazine is being used for and because it is called Wyke magazine the reader is obviously going to have some sort of idea of what the magazine will include. Other language techniques used in my magazine include a consistent ‘house style’ throughout my front page and contents page, this is a red and blue theme whilst using images of buildings at the college as the background, this is good as it gives the reader the obvious impression that they’re reading one magazine and not a few magazines that have been put together, it also gives the front page and contents page a more professional look as this is a convention generally used throughout the magazine industry and can be seen in all of the examples on my blog, the house style can also be used as an identifier for the college magazine and when people see future magazines they will see the colour scheme and instantly acknowledge it as belonging to the college. On my magazine front cover I have also used ’strap lines’ these are short pieces of text on the front page that inform the reader of things that have been written about further in the magazine and also what page they should go to if they would look to see these, this is a good technique as the reader will look at the magazine and will see the ’strap lines’ that have been included and it may make them want to actually take a copy of the magazine as they may want to read further into these articles to see what they’re about in full as they have an interest to either work for the college or go to the college as part of the further education, I have used these well because I have used ’strap lines’ that are also relevant to the college and meet possible student interests, such as ’NUS on sale £11’ this is a useful one as a possible student may pick up the magazine and may not have heard about the NUS card before which will make them want to read this and then the part of the ’strap line’ which is the page number will direct them were they need to go, These lines have also been included to my contents page to make it methodical, this is because if they’re included on the front page but not in the contents page it looks unprofessional.
On my front page and contents page I have also used thumbnail images. This is good because it gives the reader another sense of what goes on at the college and they also relate to the ‘strap lines’ this is used with the image of the student stood in front of the pictures of the art work which relates to the strap line which says ‘ Art student wins award!’ this makes the reader acknowledge that the use of photos has been thought through as they link to the strap line, I think I could have done this better if I had used the strap line ‘Art student wins award’ as a caption because it would have the image above and the caption below so it made more sense.
The main image I have used meets the specifications set for our piece of work, this is because the image is a medium close up which was specified in our brief and it is used well as it shows a good image of a student at the college, the picture can be instantly recognised as a student as they’re carrying folders and books and it isn’t just a picture of a random person which has no relevance to education or a college scene. This has then been continued with the establishing image I have used for the background of the front page and contents page, these are both images of buildings at the college and will give a reader a quicker view of the sort of buildings they will be working in or studying in and also gives them an idea of the sort of environment that Wyke College is. Another thing I have done is to include a banner headline at the bottom of the page which says ‘ 100% pass rate at Wyke’ this is a good technique I have used on my final front cover because it draws the attention of the reader with large eye catching text and it also gives the reader a sort of idea of the standard of education that Wyke delivers and gives a positive perspective to potential students, parents and employees. Overall I believe the language used is very conventional and would reach the normal perceptions of a college magazine.
Institution-
The institution my magazine represents is Wyke College, this is clearly represented with the text used in the masthead and also the images used for the backgrounds. The institution that would generally distribute my media product would be probably only the college, this would be done by the magazine being in college and people being able to pick them up from there, they could also use the college website to send off for one or could also download them from the Wyke website.
Ideology-
I think that the moral values and beliefs that my magazine gives off include things like working hard and achieving great things, this is shown through the banner headline used that says ‘100% pass rate at Wyke’ this shows the reader that the college has high standards and that the students at the college meet these standards and this is an example of achieving great things. Another example of this is the strap line that says ‘Art student win award’ this clearly states the quality of the work the students produce if they’re good enough to win awards, this again clearly shows the moral values and beliefs of working hard and achieving great things in an educational and individual sense.
Audience-
The target audience for my college magazine would be people within the age group of 15-25, this is because this range of audiences would include the targets of students who are between 15 and 19 years old and then on to young professionals who have left university and want to go into teaching. This is a good idea because I think the language techniques used on my front cover would be good enough to draw in this audience, this is because I have used things that would attract all people of these ages to the college, this is because I have used things such as the banner headline ‘100% pass rate at Wyke’ which is a good technique as this would appeal to students as they would want to go to a college that achieves good grades and would also appeal to young professionals or someone looking for a job at the college as they are likely to want to work in an environment that produces good grades.
The socio economic groups I would like to target are A’s, B’s, C1’s, C2’s, D’s and E’s. I would target all of these groups because it may be parents of potential students who are interested in what sort of environment their children will be going to and also the standard of the education given. I would also want to target lower groups like D’s and E’s as students are likely to be included in these categories as they’re generally unemployed or in low paid part time jobs.
Another thing to think about when I was deciding my target audience was Value Life Styles (Val’s), this is also important as it is key to attract the sort of audience I would want to read the magazine and attend the college, these groups are in four main categories and then split into nine lifestyles. These are; 1.Groups driven by needs- survivors and sustainers.
2. Groups who are outer directed- belongers, emulators and achievers.
3. Groups who are inner directed- I am me’s, experientals, societal conscious.
4. Groups who are both inner and outer directed- integrated.
I think it is important that all of these groups are targeted by my magazine, this is because like the socio- economic groups there are people in each group who will have an interest within the college and further education. This makes it essential to target these groups because all of them will include the sort of individuals the college would like to attract as students and as staff and will also include parents who the college will want to target as they may have an interest or some say in where they send their children.
Representation-
I think my magazine cover and contents page meet the usual stereotypes of college magazines, this is because people would typically think of a college magazine to have images of the college and students who go their to show people how good the college is, I also believe it meets the stereotypical elements through the use of the language on the front cover, this would be things like the strap line ‘NUS cards £11’ which is a very ‘studenty ‘ thing and people are probably likely to expect this to have some sort of involvement in a college magazine and also the banner headline ‘100% Pass Rate at Wyke’ which is the sort of thing people would expect to see as it is clearly representing the college as a good place to go and learn or work.
I have also used denotations in my work, an example of this is the masthead ‘Wyke Magazine’ this denotes the most obvious meaning of the magazine to the reader which is to represent the college and explain in a short amount of text the sort of things the magazine will include and gives people a stereotypical idea before they even look at the magazine properly.
Questions and charts.
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