Magazine Features

Magazines share a group of features to match them to a standard magazine layout/format. These features can range slightly between different magazines and publishing companies, however most use them for a familiar reading experience for the consumers.

On the front page, the following features are most common:

• One main image that takes up all of front page
• This attracts the readers attention
• Usually ties in with the main feature article to attract readers 
• Studio photographs usually in medium close-up or mid shot. A studio is used for the environment to be more easily controlled (lighting, background etc.)
• Usually uses direct address (looking directly at you) to draw readers into buying magazine.
• Title (Masthead)
• Trademark, unique font to make it recognisable to readers
• Usually one or two words for memorability. 
• Fills the width of the cover, or is in the top left corner to stand out on cover
• Positioning statement (strap line)
• Puff - offer something else to the magazine such as free giveaways
• Buzz words - Usually with the main feature article. Used to attract attention e.g “Exclusive, free, plus”
• Barcode - This will be positioned at the bottom right, or up the right side.
• Cover line and main cover - Advertising contents etc.
• Strip - across the top or bottom containing lists of items which feature in the magazine so readers can find out whats inside at a quick glance. 
• Colour - small amount used with a simple colour scheme that can vary per issue - often to tie in with the cover shot. This keeps the cover interesting and visually appealing.

• Read - Leads the viewer to tell them where to start reading. Usually shown in large, bold font. 
• Drop capital is very popular with magazines and is used to tell the reader where to start reading from
• Pull quotes, sometimes large to stand out on page
• The name of the article writer
• Usually another photo shown among the text
• Sometimes there could be an icon of some sort to make it noticeable that it is regular content.
• Facts and upcoming important information 
• The headline is the biggest text on the page to attract attention of reader and describe the subject of the article
• Sometimes the double page spread will have an insert
• Quotations within the article

Political Poster Analysis

Purpose -  links equal rights movement (which was happening at the time) to the political party in order to promote themselves and reach the female demographic

Aims - to get women to vote for the specific party in order to gain equal rights.

Techniques -

Image - Pop art style, popular at the time. Portrays women as being strong. Links well to trends at the time.

Colour Scheme - Bold colours to catch the audiences eyes , Simple solid colours excluding image.

Copy - Simple catch phrase at the top of page. First thing to be read. Small print at bottom with logo of ‘committee’

Fonts - Simple san serif fonts used for clear, easy to read text. Professional looking.

Tone - Strong tone, “We can do it!”.

Purpose - To “mudsling” labour. Portrays that labour are leaving people unemployed. “Labour” could also be used in a different context and the poster still makes sense.

Aims - To convince people to vote for the conservatives and not labour.

Techniques - Simple catch phrase to catch the eye and make the poster memorable. “Britain’s better off with the conservatives” shows that this is a deliberate mudslinging.

Image - People queuing in a line for the unemployment office .

Colour scheme - Dark, dull colours to get information across in a professional manor.

Fonts - San serif font all in caps. (common in political posters) to portray information clearly and quickly and make it more memorable.

Tone - Strong tone, “Labour isn’t working.”

Purpose - To mudsling the labour party.

Aims - To stop people voting for labour and to encourage them to vote for other parties.

Techniques - Simple catch phrase to make memorable.

Image - Simple image of labour representative, obviously altered to portray that he is “evil”

Colour Scheme - Black and white image and background with bold red writing to stand out and make it more memorable.

Font - San serif font all in caps again. Both lines starting with new. This creates a memorable phrase

Tone - Strong tone, “new labour, new danger”

Questionnaire Evaluation

We asked a demographic of 52 people aged 15-25 some questions about politics. One of the questions we asked was whether they preferred Digital or Print posters. 42.3% of people said Digital and Print, whilst 13.4% of people said both and 1 person (2%) said none. We also asked the same people how much they know about politics (between 1-5). The average answer was 2.06. 44 of the 52 people we asked said they did not support a political party (84.6%). 3 of them said labour (6%), 1 said conservative (2%), 1 said green (2%) and 2 said they supported a party (4%), but did not state a specific one. We also asked them how often they access political information. 9 people said weekly (17.3%), 14 people said daily (26.9%), 6 said rarely (11.5%), 21 said never (40.4%).

When it comes to political posters, according to our questionnaire, people are evenly divided between Digital and Print posters. This shows a huge rise in digital advertising since being introduced. Unsurprisingly, considering the demographic chosen, the average political knowledge score was 2.06 out of 5. This result is extremely low, however due to the lack of compulsory political education this is not surprising. It is also unsurprising that the majority of people we asked don’t support a political party for the same reasoning. This result could also be linked to the age of the people asked (majority not old enough to vote). The majority of people also said they never access political information, again almost certainly related to the demographic.

Spreadsheet


In todays lesson I learnt how not to assume things when writing a factual evaluation of results. I also learnt how to professionally make assumptions using the results. I also re-learnt how to calculate percentages, averages and how to analyse/use filters in Google spreadsheet documents. I have previously used spreadsheets, however before coming to college I have never used Google's online 'Sheets". I found that my previous knowledge of spreadsheets transferred easily over to the new UI and I easily gathered the results and organised them effectively.