Case study
Front cover
The picture on the front cover of the issue of NME I analysed is Liam and Noel Gallagher from the rock band Oasis. The picture taken is a medium shot. (Something missing - therule of thirds). Liam’s hand is in his pocket, but Noel hand is outside his pocket which suggests that Liam might have something in his pocket that might threaten his brother. His red jacket connotes the anger he is giving out towards his brother. Liam looks with his face straight down in an angle showing his “I don’t care attitude” whilst Noel looks towards him with a concerned and wanting him back face. Liam has a sturdy relaxed posture; on the other hand Noel has a sad posture as the black jacket is a symbolic sign for sadness. The image on the front cover is important, because without that we wouldn’t know what to focus on in the picture. The front cover attracts the audience by placing Liam & Noel at the side making the audience focus on the headline Oasis black eyes & smashed guitars. They used different font to focus the audience attention on it. Front cover information is arranged by: Masthead, tabloid, Title etc... The information has been arranged in this way to show the different things the front cover of a magazine needs to have. The colours that have been used are red, black and white to please the rock style image for mostly men but also woman. It is also to show the row between Liam and Noel not to be able to work together. The word Oasis is iconic for the rock band. The picture of Liam and Noel is symbolic of the rock band Oasis. Liam’s face looking down is an indexical sign that he doesn’t care anymore. Noel’s face looking straight at him is an indexical sign that he wants to be reunited with his brother. These representations appeal to the rock music world as fighting; drinking sex and drugs is the life of the wild. The masthead is red. It is significant as it appeals to the style of rock and it stands out as a colour. The font used is bold. To make the word stand out and look more important. The website referred to is www.nme.com. The reason why they did this is to publish the magazine online and to enable people to buy magazine online and to get them to trust NME. The magazine cost £2.30. We are told how much it is besides the barcode. The reason why the magazine is £2.30 is because the paper used isn’t too expensive and the company that owns it is IPC. IPC owns NME and has cross media companies working for them. That is how the magazine prize can be made cheaper as they have a large production line. The barcode is used for stock marketing to check how many people buy NME magazine and how much they need to produce or reduce the stock of the magazine. The representational issues are that only negative mediation has been used to describe Liam and Noel. Not the whole band of Oasis is on the front cover showing the unfairness of the media on the band, just so they can have an interesting story to attract the public eye. The opinions given on the front cover are of a males view point not female which shows the information given is biased. The language used is interesting and different, but uses quite some swear words in a disgusting manner which keeps the audience attention. NME is producing this magazine. Institutional factors affect the magazine, because the mediation of the magazine will be evaluated in that sense. The audience that are going to read this magazine are going to be predominantly male but there will be some females. The age range will be from 18-40.
Contents page
The denotative description of the layout of the contents page is that it goes with the colours red, black and white continuing the theme of rock and roll. There is a black guy putting his hands together like someone who is praying on the top left. You have a kid in his teens smoking in the middle of the magazine page under the title INSIDE THIS WEEK. The rock band Oasis showing a picture of 2 of its members (Liam & Noel) middle right. A group of people doing a gig bottom left of the magazine. A performer on the right top of the magazine. 4 adults sitting on the couch middle left of the magazine. You got 5 people standing on grass of which one person is on the for front of the picture at the bottom of the magazine besides the coupon. There is a contents box that is called plus splitting the gig picture of the people standing on the grass. There is a coupon at the bottom right of the magazine. Every picture has a number beside it ranging from 9-36.
The connotative analysis of this contents page layout is that they use a lot of offensive words to9 represent a fast, aggresive rock n roll lifestyle. Example: “People were shagging walls”. The language used goes with the rock and roll life which is sex, booze and drugs. The page is given in 3 columns which separates the eye views of the reader. NME is smart as they use the tagline: INSIDE THIS WEEK. Which is an interesting title making us interested into what we are going to read? They have a coupon which is smart as it promotes the magazine and everyone likes cheaper magazines as they don’t pay the full price. The Plus is an addition to the contents layout page making it easier for us to read the things which we want to read and what page it is. The fonts that have been used are Bold and different theme fonts (example: Arial). Different font colour: Red, different font size. In total 4 have been used they have been used to keep the reader interested as a variety of fonts appeal to our eyes. The images that have been used are of people who are either in a rock group or have a rock lifestyle. This appeal to the target audience which are people who like to listen to rock and roll and want to know the people that are representing that genre and theme. The representational issues in the images are that none of them have a woman in it which shows again that men must have mediated this hegemonic imagery for their own promotion of men as more superior than woman. The language targets the audience as rock music isn’t soft, but loud and makes great noise so should the language be offensive and stand out from the ordinary. An example of that is: “I fucking hate that twat”. The use of colour is quite clever as they use the red as a background for the coupon but white for the writing which makes the coupon stand out from all the other pictures. The colour used in itself are quite dark colours as black and red are quite strong colours but white is neutral. This attracts the audience because it is all quite abstract and different and gives a variety which is interesting to read and see.
Double Page Spread
There are 2 massive pictures of Liam and Noel at the side. The colours used on this page are red, black and white with a bit of grey. NME uses a house style as the colours red,black and white are mainly used in this magazine so that makes an easy production for them.There are 2 box outs. Liam wears a green jacket while Noel wears a black one. The page has a title which is Oasis. In the grey box out you have 2 pictures one of a woman and one of a man. In the other box out you have the colour red and white writing. Liam looks relaxed in his picture on the other hand Noel looks sturdy and refined. There is a red underline writing which shows the hatred the brothers have for each other. On Noel jacket there is a big number 1 in red which suggest there might be a violent side inside him. The lady comments and the man comments on the grey box out are about the row that Liam and Noel are facing and how that affected the band. The box out in red addresses the same line, but in a more violent way this is the reason why it’s being given in red background. The fonts that have been used: Underline, bold, font colour and theme of font. 4 fonts have been used again to keep the variation of the magazine going and using different fonts slightly than the ones used for the contents page. The image of Liam and Noel have been used again to keep up with the theme that they don’t like each other after the argument they had and they put pictures of the 2 people representing the audience to see their own view from this situation. The issues with the images used are that the whole band Oasis is not involved but just Liam and Noel who are having the argument which is biased as the whole band suffers and should be involved. The use of colour is quite clever again like the contents page the red background and white writing makes the bottom right box out stand out of the whole page and the colours used thorough out the whole theme is black red and white with an exception f this having a bit of grey. The grey background shows the annoyance of the people representing the audience as they are not happy with the situation that has happened to Oasis. The content targets the audience by it being brief straight to the point and having rock elements to it so it shows the market for who this magazine is for in the world.
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