LIIAR AnalysisLIIAR Analysis

Louise HudsonLouise Hudson

LL anguage anguage

II nstitution nstitution

II deology deology

AA udience udience

RR epersentation epersentation

LLanguageanguage

The main image used in this cover is a close up and It contains many connotations, the most obvious being the sex appeal of the cover. Florence is a sex symbol already but the seductive pose of her on this cover emphasises this even more, which will convince people to purchase the magazine. The design of the magazine masthead is very signature, being that in every Q magazine, the mast head is red and white, in the same font, the same size and in the same position. This way people will be able to recognize the magazine straightaway. The magazine cover has also based it’s design and colour scheme around the main image, which is Florence’s bright red hair and her bright blue and green eyes. This has inspired the rest of the magazine’s colour scheme In many ways as all of the text is white, this is used because it compliments the fiery red colour of Florence’s hair while still standing out amongst the bright colour. The other part of the colour scheme is the icy blue colour that was inspired by the eye shadow around Florence’s eyes. Even though all of the text is white, there are accents of the icy blue colour in the cover, such as the bullet points and around the plug. This gives the magazine a bit more depth and variety in terms of colour scheme and the way the colours compliment each other. The colour red used in the magazine through the use of Florence’s hair and the masthead again give the magazine a very seductive feel as red is seen as an attractive and fiery colour.

The headline of the magazine is In the largest text compared to the other headlines featured obvious to show that it’s the most important and it’s the one that the creators want the public to buy the magazine for, plus it is the cover story so it goes with the main image. Other conventional elements used in the magazine cover include: a plug, a sell line, cover lines and a tagline. The cover line; “I feel so alone” is very powerful and persuasive as it convinces the audience to read the magazine. The sell lines are all placed in areas of the cover where they are noticeable and in good alignment but they still provide the main image with the space to let it stand out.

IInstitutionnstitution

Q magazine is published by Bauer Media group:

“Bauer Media Group is a multinational media company headquartered in Hamburg, Germany which operates in 15 countries worldwide. Since the company was founded in 1875, it has been privately owned and under management by the Bauer family.

Worldwide circulation of Bauer Media Group's magazine titles amounts to 38 million magazines a week”

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bauer_Media_Group

From the information quoted above, I can tell that Bauer Media Group is a large global company as it operates In “15 countries worldwide” and the worldwide circulation of its magazine titles amounts to “38 million magazine per week”.

IIdeologydeology

There are many values that this magazine expresses and communicates to the reader, the first being the need and desire for beauty that is expressed through the image of Florence Welch. As she looks very desirable and attractive this may influence the readers, mainly female, to look like her. They may be inspired in some way to use this image as an idea of how they want to appear. Another value that this magazine expresses and communicates to the reader is the need for sex, some of the male readership of Q may find Florence Welch to be a sex symbol and her attractiveness and seductive appearance on the cover suggests this.

This magazine is mainstream and not in the sense. In terms of it’s popularity, this magazine is mainstream because it is the UK’s most popular music magazine. But it’s also not mainstream because it is specifically a music magazine so it won’t appeal to everybody, only those interested in music. The price and the content of the magazine also stop it from being mainstream as the content appeals more to the older generation than the young. The price of the magazine is £3.50, which is considered expensive for a magazine, this will not appeal to people of a lower social class which stops it from being too mainstream.

The magazine seems to set trends as the cover star, Florence Welch is also known for being constantly setting trends due to her unique style and look. As for the magazine itself, It sets trends due to the fact that it’s the leading music magazine in the country so it is bound to influence other music magazines in terms of content.

From what I know, Florence Welch isn’t seen as rebellious, just unique. But some of the terminology and language used in this magazine does convey defiance of social norms, for example: “Heroin, hookers” and “bastard” are used in some of the features on the cover of the magazine.

AAudienceudience

Although it is stated that the target audience for Q magazine is the “older generation”, recent readership reports have shown that more people aged 15-24 now read the magazine. 38% of the readers for Q are aged 15-24 while 25+ is 53%, this shows that the readership for Q is becoming more suited to the younger generations.

Source: http://magazines.bauermediaadvertising.com/magazines/detail/Q

RRepresentationepresentation

In this cover, the featured artist, Florence from Florence and the Machine is represented by the magazine as having a certain sex appeal to the target audience due to her seductive pose and sultry choice of hair and makeup. The bright colour of Florence’s hair represents her as having a fiery personality while the cool tone of her makeup suggests her having a much more sensitive and deep emotions. The magazine in some way also represents her as being vulnerable due to the fact that she has a very gormless look on her face, the quote above the headline, “I feel so alone”, also supports this, as well as her eye makeup which is blue and significantly brings the focus to her eyes, this colour often is linked to sadness and tears. This choice of representation of Florence will encourage people to read the magazine, celebrity gossip appeals to a lot of people.

As for the music genre, it is represented by the magazine to be significantly different to Florence’s usual. Florence and the machine music is described as “Indie rock”. But the magazine represents a new kind of genre for Florence’s music as most of her songs aren’t deep and emotional as how she appears on this cover. The magazine successfully suggests a whole new side of Florence which will appeal to people who are fans of her, as well as the public.

LLanguageanguage

The main image used in this contents page is a close-up and it contains some connotations. The main one being is the emotion and vulnerability of the image. The featured artist, James Blunt seems to be giving some connotations about his personal life through his emotion which may link to the story/interview that is in the magazine. Despite the fact that the article this photo is linked to is unknown. I believe the connotations of this image to be linked to those of the article. The design of the contents page is very simplistic and basic which makes it easier to read. Previously stated, the image of James Blunt is the focus of this page, so the design and the text fit itself around it in a way that gives the image the main focus, but yet still makes the text viewable. The masthead in this page is the use of the Q logo, the date and obviously the title, contents. Each one of these things is in a different colour so all of them will be noticeable to the reader. As for the colour scheme of this page, it doesn’t really take much colour scheme from the main image as its so simplistic,

instead it has just stuck with the Q signature colours, which is red, black and grey. The use of putting the most important information in the brightest colour is also a successful technique, as the page numbers are in red, this is the most eye catching information on the page. The colours also compliment the design and each other very well in the sense that they are all viewable while pieces of information are still more eye-catching than others. This colour scheme helps this page fit with the simple and basic design which the editors were aiming for .

Q magazine is published by Bauer Media group:

“Bauer Media Group is a multinational media company headquartered in Hamburg, Germany which operates in 15 countries worldwide. Since the company was founded in 1875, it has been privately owned and under management by the Bauer family.

Worldwide circulation of Bauer Media Group's magazine titles amounts to 38 million magazines a week”

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bauer_Media_Group

From the information quoted above, I can tell that Bauer Media Group is a large global company as it operates In “15 countries worldwide” and the worldwide circulation of its magazine titles amounts to “38 million magazine per week”.

IInstitutionnstitution

IIdeologydeologyAs a contents page, I don’t feel that this expresses and communicates any values due to the fact that I don’t know the story that goes with the focus image. Also, I know that the cover of the magazine is always the most exaggerated and expressive in terms of values as the cover that is the primary thing that often encourages someone to buy the magazine.

This magazine is mainstream and not in the sense. In terms of it’s popularity, this magazine is mainstream because it is the UK’s most popular music magazine. But it’s also not mainstream because it is specifically a music magazine so it won’t appeal to everybody, only those interested in music. The price and the content of the magazine also stop it from being mainstream as the content appeals more to the older generation than the young. The price of the magazine is £3.50, which is considered expensive for a magazine, this will not appeal to people of a lower social class which stops it from being too mainstream.

As for the magazine itself, It sets trends due to the fact that it’s the leading music magazine in the country so it is bound to influence other music magazines in terms of content. The artist featured in this page, James Blunt, is not seen as rebellious in anyway and this page doesn’t suggest any of this either due to the fact that all of the conventions that defy social norms are featured on the front cover. As more people will see that than the contents page.

AAudienceudience

Although it is stated that the target audience for Q magazine is the “older generation”, recent readership reports have shown that more people aged 15-24 now read the magazine. 38% of the readers for Q are aged 15-24 while 25+ is 53%, this shows that the readership for Q is becoming more suited to the younger generations.

Source: http://magazines.bauermediaadvertising.com/magazines/detail/Q

RRepresentationepresentation

In this contents page, the featured artist, James Blunt, is represented by the magazine as very serious and deep. This is shown by the simplistic design of the image as it is not loud and as eye-catching as images displayed on the cover of the magazine. This is also shown through the expression of James Blunt as he seems very emotional and vulnerable. Like most images used in magazines, the eyes are the main focus of the image as it is that feature on the face that shows the most emotion, the use of a close-up image successfully emphasises this. Unlike the Florence and the machine cover image, the magazine here represents James Blunt in a way that most people are familiar with as he is not edited and made up into someone that he is not, in other words this

image does him justice unlike most magazine images. The magazine also successfully represents his genre of music correctly, as his music is classed as “Folk-Rock”, through his pose in this photo as the majority of his songs are slow and famous for being deep, heartfelt and emotional. This represents him correctly and realistically and shows that the magazine has purposely done this not to represent him as something he is not.