Exploring the Media ( pages 116- 128 )

Over the holiday, the task for our class had been to read through one of the chapters about the magazines from Exploring the Media and to analyse and pick up any useful information that could be included either on to the blog or the written exam.

There are many different aspects of the chapter which I have not only found interesting to read but also learnt something new about this specific topic.  The chapter itself largely concentrates and tries to understand the ways in which the magazines target and appeal to their audiences and the ways in which different audiences respond to different magazines.

To get a better understanding about the magazine, there was  a direct comparison done with another source of media- newspapers. These differences include: Magazine coverage is often more detailed but with less timely information. Furthermore, magazines are weekly, fortnightly, or monthly while newspapers are daily and cover topics of general interest for a specific geographical area.  The biggest point is that the magazines content and audience are more specialised and focused.

 I have not done an analysis of the cover page or the content page yet, but one of the pages from the chapter, would seriously help to complete the task. In order to analyse the cover page these are the aspects, which the audience should look at:
- The title of the magazine
- The strap line or tagline
- The fonts and the colours used
- The main image
- The anchorage and cover lines

Furthermore, there are other tactics that may range from the use of stars and celebrities and cover- mounted ‘freebies’.

Shall I consider of including a free CD inside, an interview with the ‘star’?

In the previous blog, I have undertaken a research about of the magazine called MIXMAG and the production compoany. The magazine industry is dominated by major publishers, with a few notable exceptions like the Big Issue and Private Eye. IPC ( American owned company)- publishes the magazine which include NME, Nuts, Loaded etc. Bauer is the German company, with the second highest circulation levels, publishes magazine which included FHM, Empire, Heat etc.

‘’Many popular commercial magazine titles are global and are published in different countries. FHM, publishes 28 international editions and Cosmopolitan has 59 editions worldwide. This globalisation of the magazine industry suggests that the magazine producers make stereotypical assumptions about their audiences.’’ I found the paragraph, quite fascinating as on how larger publication companies were able attract large target audience from all over the world, with the same product.

The chapter goes on discussing and comparing three different magazines able to attract the customers and how they were able to achieve the objectives being set.

The chapter looked at these particular magazine- Total Film, Grazia and 2000 AD. But I am going to concentrate only on Total Film.

How the magazine able to achieve to achieve high circulation levels?

T   The content of the magazine is well structured and includes five main chapter

<     A lot of finance comes from advertisement, which also target at similar audience with similar needs ( games, gadgets and technology)

     The mode of address in Total Film is playful, masculine and youthful- specifically aimed at male customers in average age of 26.