Key Conventions

We started this course by focusing on magazines, what they include and what effect this has on the audience. We began by looking at a range of magazine front covers and analysing them. I have learnt that every magazine made has a specific target audience which they consider when producing and creating each issue. The target audiences are always thought about whilst creating the codes and conventions of a magazine. Some of these codes and conventions are mastheads, sell lines and colour schemes. For example, if the target audience of a magazine is young boys, the colour scheme would not consist of pinks and purples but primary, darker colours. I have found that target audiences are important when creating a magazine because the audience are the people who are interested in it and who will buy it, therefore, without one the magazine will not be successful. This means that it is important that the product appeals to the specific target audience.

Example: Target audience - young girls aged 8-13
Here there is a pink bubbly masthead which attracts the target audience as it is big and eye catching and is stereotypically girly.
There is a pink, white, purple and yellow colour scheme. Again, this is very stereotypical to appeal to young girls as these are the colours that come to mind when you think of their age group.
There are many sell lines on the cover of this magazine such as "fashion A to Z" and "Who is Justin Bieber's new BF?" Both of these sell lines appeal to the target audience as they have used topics that young girls are interested in such as fashion and boys.
They have used a MSL (Medium Long Shot) for the main image of this magazine, this appeals to the target audience as you can see the clothing and style of the main celebrity as that is what young girls want to see. There is also direct address from the celebrity which draws in the audience as she is looking straight at them.