LIIAR Analysis of Audience Feedback for the College Magazine

Language
Overall the language used on the front cover and contents page of my magazine, seems to appeal to the audience as the layout seems to be better than the final piece I had originally chosen, which was stated in some feedback I received.

Front Cover

The imagery used on the front cover is seen to be “perfect” as it doesn’t take away too much attention from the informative text. Initially I had the front of the Oak building as my front cover, however due to the feedback I soon decided to change this because the audience said it was hard to read the text. The masthead of ‘Wyke’ stands out, as it is a bold colour and very large, using the colourful masthead and the black and white imagery creates a contrast, this way the audience will be drawn to the magazine. I decided to keep a continuous flow of the theme green, purple and white, and using the two different fonts on the actual pieces of writing such as headlines, and using a different font when stating the issue and price, to show that the magazine is worth reading and not something that’s been thrown together, this also shows that house style has been used.

Contents Page

On the contents page I decided to do a heading of the articles featured then have a small description or attraction underneath to draw the reader’s attention and to make them read on, I also used two different styles of the font and colours to separate the two from one another, such as italic and bold. I added a few small thumbnails to make the page look less boring, which has been stated in the feedback, also the thumbnails relate to an article being shown on the contents page.

Institution

The institution of this magazine would be Wyke College itself, the reason for me choosing the college as my institution is because the magazine is a Wyke magazine, therefore this is an appropriate option. Also, having the college as the institution instead of an actual production company, means all the information will be accurate and the college will be represented in a true light because it will be produced by the students and possibly include the staffs input. The college is also the institution because it lowers the cost on producing the magazine, if the institution was an actual production company then the magazine would have to charge the audience to buy the magazine to cover the cost of the production, posting and printing, however as the college is the institution the magazine can be free as the only cost would be the printing.

Ideology

The ideology of my magazine was that I focused on getting an eye-catching magazine out to the school/college students. I wanted the audience to know that the magazine was free, and that they wouldn’t have to spend probably their dinner money or bus fare on the magazine; the Wyke magazine allows the audience to read the magazine without feeling like they always hear or see about doing well at school/college and getting the best grades possible, therefore the magazine doesn’t feature anything to do with higher education or getting a job after school/college consequently the audience wouldn’t feel too pressured into anything they didn’t feel comfortable with. 

Audience 

The target audience for my magazine are 15-19 years, but if I use the figures from the gender and age, my target audience would be in the 15-24 years, obviously including both genders; using the demographics my audience would be from the E band, ‘casual labourers, unemployed, state pensions,’ as not many students from the college and schools are unemployed leading them to not have an income. The reason for me choosing this group for my target audience is because it’s mainly this age group which will be choosing to go to college, and which attend college already. In my magazine I have used bright colours which will attract the audience’s attention and isn’t to ‘serious’ like adult audience magazines, such as Pride, Home&Garden and the Photoshop Magazine, which could lead them astray from the magazine. My magazine appeals to all different groups of my target audience, considering the VALS (Value Life Styles) include many different categories of which the audience could fit into.

Representation

I wanted my magazine to represent the college accurately so the audience don’t feel like they have to live up to the standards which the magazine sets, which I believe is what it has done, by including articles which can help future students for their college life and what to expect, also including articles for the students which already attend Wyke such as how to raise money for upcoming trips. My magazine doesn’t just represent the college, it also represents each social group, as it appeals to all different audiences, for example boys are stereotyped to like the colour blue and girls pink, however in my magazine I didn’t use these colours as the audience could assume that those articles or the magazine itself is only for certain people, however using the college colours it shows that my magazine welcomes all different readers.