Unit 6: Assignment 2

Selection of Content
The content of any magazine or publication is one of the most important
aspects to producing a successful article. This is because the magazine
will ultimately be judged by what is included in the magazine. The
magazine I will be analysing will be the free handout magazine Life. The
magazine is sponsored by the British charity Age UK. The magazine
covers various topics from ones that range from problems relating to
aging people and the elderly, which is what you would expect from a
magazine with its main sponsor as an elderly related charity such as Age
UK. The actual content in the magazine ranges in subjects and is a very
diverse magazine in the sense that it covers many topics in more than
enough detail. Some of these topics are related to age and the elderly,
whilst some content can be found in many other magazines.
In the Age UK magazine, there is a question and answer (Q and A)
column. Like an agony aunt column in other types of magazines like teen
magazines and other lifestyle magazines, people can write into the
magazine and ask a range of questions to a single person who tries to
give the best advice possible and maybe even completely answer there
question depending on the question itself.
As is the case in many other types of magazines, my Age UK magazine
has a standard layout when speaking about the magazine as a whole. This
is because my magazine includes a content page on the first couple of
pages, as well as an index on the last couple of pages also.
What is notable about the magazine is that there is many advertisements
found within the magazine. These advertisements range from new
products to subscriptions to memberships for different societies.

Words
The words as a whole in my magazine are quite mature and the editors of
the magazine have used mature language. The main reason for the
wording and mature sentence structure in the magazine is the main target
audience of the magazine, which I would say is probably around 50 year
olds and over.
There are some complicated and sophisticated
wording used in the magazine, to try to appeal to
the target audience more and make reading the
magazine a lot more interesting. Because of the
target demographic of my magazine, the sentence
structure of the text within my magazine is quite
mature and in some cases can only be understood
by people over a certain age with developed
English reading and writing skills.

Images
In my magazine there a quite a few images and graphics of various things.
Images can be found across most if not all pages within my magazine, this
can range from full-page graphics or small thumbprint icons.
The front page of the magazine features a large graphic of the
former actress Julie Walters. A lot of magazines tend to include a
large scale graphic on the front cover. This could be done to
attract attention to the magazines cover for people that
havent read the magazine fully (or first time readers).

Sequences
There are numerous sequences, which can be seen in my Life
magazine. There are a number of pages, which follow a very similar
layout. Most of the pages will begin with a column on a particular subject;
the article will then be followed by an image related to the topic. The
article will then go on to explain in further detail about the subject and will
then finish with another graphic or type of imagery. Sometimes, articles in
my magazine will include a large graphic in the middle of a double page
spread. The double page will then also include columns of text on either
side of the graphic and there can even be text horizontally along the
bottom of the pages.

Colours
The magazine I have chosen includes many different varieties of colour. As
well as images, text is also coloured in the magazine. For example on the
front cover, the magazines name is in a large font size and brightly
coloured in blue. This makes the title of the magazine stand out on top of
the image seen on the front.
Colour is seen throughout the magazine with different coloured text found
across all pages of the magazine as well as
variously coloured images, large and small.

Fonts
The fonts in the magazine vary greatly
depending on where they are found within
the magazine and what the context is about. An example of this is on the
front cover Life is written in large bold text on the front and placed in the
top left of the cover. Then there are also headings and sub headings that
are also quite large in size but not as large as the main title. Some
subheadings can be found on the front cover as well, with some text also
coloured blue and white.

Construction of Content
The content in the magazine is constructed differently across most of the
pages. This means that not all the content is put together the same way
throughout the article. On one a double page spread in the middle of the
magazine, there is a large scale graphic that takes up a whole single page.
On the other page there is only a small thumbprint image ion the bottom
right. However, the rest of the page is covered in text.
In contrast to this double page spread, a few pages after this is an advice
page on how to effectively deal with benefits and debt. This is also a
double page spread but instead of a whole page taken up by a large
graphic, the layout is noticeably different. This is because on this double
page spread there is a graphic that spreads across both pages and is
placed centrally so each half of the graphic are on both pages. However
this graphic doesnt take up all the page and instead only takes up a small
portion of the double page. Seen all around the image is text. Also, along
the bottom of the page there is a horizontal column that features some
top tips about how to deal with your benefits and claim correctly.
Narratives
There are not many narratives found within my magazine, however not
many. This is because my magazine tells some stories of real life people
and experiences they have been through.
As mentioned before, the Life magazine features a weekly column where
people write into a type of Agony aunt of sorts. The public write in to the
person with a range of problems which
can be on any range of topics. Only a
few of the people that write in are
featured in the magazine because of
the large demand of responses that
the magazine collects weekly.

Layout
As mentioned previously, the layout is different across all of the pages.
This depends on what each page is about and the context of the
information included. Even though the layout of information is different on
most pages, the layout overall is not dissimilar from many other
magazines. This is because the magazine includes all the basic content
that would be expected from a professionally produced magazine. For
example, the magazine has a suitable front and back cover, a contents
and index page as well as a number of advertisements and sponsorship
promotions seen throughout the magazine.

Captions
Quite a few captions can be seen in this magazine. Captions can be used
for various purposes like giving more detail on a particular topic or it can
also be used as a speech bubble to show what a person is saying or
thinking in a more interesting way.
The most common way captions are used in my magazine is through the
speech method. This shows what certain people are saying through a
number of captions only found on a selection of pages.
Anchorage

Codes and Conventions

Linguistic codes
The linguistic codes of a magazine refers to the words and sentences that
the magazine uses. The target audience determines the linguistic code of
a magazine. As, for example, with a magazine targeted at young children
there will most likely be no words that are too complicated or have
complicated meanings as the readers will not even understand the
magazine.
The words as a whole in my magazine are quite mature and the editors of
the magazine have used mature language. The main reason for the
wording and mature sentence structure in the magazine is the main target
audience of the magazine, which I would say is probably around 50 year
olds and over.
There are some complicated and sophisticated wording used in the
magazine, to try to appeal to the target audience more and make reading
the magazine a lot more interesting. Because of the target demographic
of my magazine, the sentence structure of the text within my magazine is
quite mature and in some cases can only be understood by people over a
certain age with developed English reading and writing skills.
Visual
My magazine would probably be seen as visually appealing to its own
target audience of elderly people. This is because my magazines front
cover features Julie Walters a now retired actress who was and still is
quite popular, but is most well known for performing certain roles on the
west end as well as staring in on- screen films as well as television shows.
It is for this reason, that older people would be interested in this magazine
almost straight away as they would see the front cover which would
hopefully trigger memories of the actress staring in plays and shows. The
magazines developers would hope that this would make people pick up
the magazine and read it.

Audio
N/A

Symbolic
My magazine cannot really be seen as a symbolic type of magazine
because it is supposed to be an informative type of magazine, to give the
audience more information on particular topics related to the magazine,
which is called Life. The magazine focuses on issues related to life and
health especially in the elderly and older people.
Technical
On the technical side of the magazine, my magazine is
relatively similar when compared to other types of
magazines that fall into the same category. This is
because the overall layout of my magazine is almost the
same as most other magazines.
My magazine also features many types of
advertisements and endorsements. These advertisements are mainly
related to the magazine itself. For example in my magazine, there is an
advert for a stair lift for the elderly. This is relevant to my magazine
because the magazines target audience is older people (probably around
50 years and over).
Modes of address
The magazine that I have chosen uses a single mode of address. The
mode of address used in my magazine is pretty much the same for most
mainstream magazines and most popular articles on a specific topic. My
magazine addresses the audience in third person. For example one line in
the magazine says If you go on holiday make sure you take out a suitable
insurance scheme to cover you from lost property damage or theft.

I think this is the most suitable mode of address because of the purpose of
the magazine. The purpose of my magazine is meant to be informative.
This means that the magazine is supposed to talk to the audience directly,
to give the reader as much information as possible on a particular topic.

Questionnaire
Questionnaires provide a relatively cheap and efficient way of obtaining
large amounts of information from a large group of people. Data can be
collected relatively quickly because the researcher would not need to be
present when the questionnaires were completed. This is useful for large
populations when interviews would be impractical and less time effective.
Often a questionnaire uses both open and closed questions to collect data.
This is beneficial as it means both quantitative and qualitative data can be
collected.

Focus Group
A focus group is a useful method that can be used to measure the reaction
of customers to a companys new product or to the companys strategies.
Focus groups usually provide immediate ideas for the improvement of
particular products or concepts. They also help identify the product
requirements of end-user as well as the other needs not addressed by the
company and its competitors. In addition, focus groups provide insights on
the current position of the companys competitors in the mind of the
customer, as well as measuring the reaction of customers to a products
design, packaging, price and message.
Film developer for them to help produce a film that is most wanted by the
public could use a focus group. It can also help film developers include
features in a film that is wanted by both the developers and the actual
audience itself.

Reviews
Reviews of a magazine is a good way for developers of a magazine to look
at what the readers of the magazine have said that is good and bad about
the magazine overall. The developers of a magazine can then make
alterations to the magazine to help it suit the needs of the readers more
and make the magazine more successful and popular.
As well as this, reviews are also good for telling other members of the
public what the magazine is all about, this can help people decide if a
certain magazine is for them or not.

Complaints
Similar to reviews, complaints can help the magazines developers as well
as the readers and the public. Complaints can be handled by the
developers of a magazine to help them improve the magazine further or
even cut out certain parts of a magazine that the readers dont like or
remove contents of a magazine that arent seen as appropriate. C
This can work the other way, to help people that havent read the
magazine before, decide if they should begin to read it or not.
Magazine covers

There are many ways in which a magazine cover can

be organised and can also be put together in various
ways in terms of what the front cover includes and
what features are shown on the front cover and where
they are placed on the page itself. As seen on all of the
magazine covers I have included here, the main title of
the magazine is displayed in a large, bold font and
stretches horizontally across the top of the front cover.
As is the case with most if not all magazine covers,
colour is usually included in different ways. Some
magazines, like the Empire magazine seen here,
chooses to go for a plain white background which is fairly basic and hasnt
got a lot to it. However, the Complex magazine shown above includes an
all coloured background (black) which isnt that complicated either. But,
the use of the pink/ red colours make the cover more interesting and
visually appealing as the colours work together to create a certain effect.

The GQ magazine also has a plain white background like

Empire. This magazine also includes its title across the
top. However, instead of stretching across the whole of
the top strip of the page, the title is confided to a single
corner and parts of the letters are cut off to create the
effect that the letters flow onto another page.

All of these magazines include a famous celebrity or

musician/ artist on the front in a large graphic. This is
because the general target audience of these magazines
are younger people around 16- 22 year olds.
It is also notable that only a single graphic is seen on the front covers and
multiple images are not used. This could be so that the front cover is not
overly complicated and only one graphic is needed to draw attention to
the magazines cover.