Analysis Of Bodmin College Magazine

Target Audience:

The Bodmin college magazine is a magazine mainly created for students, therefore it is suppose to cater or ages between 12-19. The population of Bodmin mostly fall into social groups C1-E so the magazine has to cater for/represent this group.

The secondary target is older people such as teachers, parents and governors. They fall into similar social groups but do not have to represented themselves through images because there needs are represented through stories relating to the students they teach etc.

Masthead

The masthead is a poor example to appeal to the audience. The text is very unclear and difficult to read, the typography is also terrible for the youth because of the almost 80’s like text. The coloring of the masthead is also very dull and doesn’t stand out like it is suppose to. The masthead is also too small in comparison to how it should be. The corn also has no relevance to today’s youth and in fact just supports stereotypes of Cornish people.

Layout

The layout is very dull it features 3 main pictures that are all dull long shots that are poorly taken. The pictures do not link apart from the fact they are all featuring in a dance platform. The main layout it SHOULD be 1 main image to center and catch attention and then extra smaller pictures around the side to appeal to a larger target audience could be aloud based on the context of the magazine.

Colour

The main colouring is about 20 different colours… this doesn’t help the magazine as the designer obviously though it would. The fact it uses so many colours is a massive downfall for the magazine as the reader does not know where s/he should be looking. the different scale of colours doesn’t appeal to either primary or secondary audience and is basically just a rainbow been beaten into submission and thrown onto the page.

Imagery

The main pictures on the front are all mainly focusing on the female cast (Mulvey (1975). Maybe the producer thought this would appeal to both male and female audiences ,as the male audiences could look at the females in a erotic way, and the females may be interested in the dancing. However this does not apply to elder as 6formers as they are ‘little kids’. The magazine does not apply to the normal conventions of magazines whereby they have 1 mid-shot/ close up of a main star.

Typography/Text

An initial denotation shows there are no teasers or strap line and so therefore it doesn’t promote and different story then ‘dance’. Like afore mentioned the 80’s like text appears to be comic sans a text that should NEVER be present on a magazine even if it is only for school. None of these things apply to either target audience and in fact it sections out anyone not included in dance.

In terms of common conventions the magazine doesn’t apply to either the target audience or the magazine theme, it does not even have an issue number, so in all it is just a bad example of what a magazine should be and in fact should not even bare the name magazine.