Georgie Jackson Nash

Media AS Home Work

For media we as a class were asked to research magazine front covers and analyse them. We had to analyse who was the target audience, how the cover has attempted to appeal to them and what conventions of the cover are evident.

I had chosen this magazine front cover as it is well known and respectable magazine, and has an iconic celebrity on the front which is one of the main conventions of a magazine, especially if the magazine genre is music or celebrity. I believe the target audience for this genre of magazine is 15-35 and musicians, as the celebrity on the front page is a part of our generations.  Q, the magazine is generally appeals to both genders, however with this particular image of Lady Gaga may appeal to the males more than female for obvious reasons.  It is clear that the magazine’s main story is of Lady Gaga from the picture, as well of the large sans reversed-out text of her name.  Another convention that may attract an audience is the feature boxes on the front page which have quotes from the magazine and other famous names such as ‘Jimi Hendrix’. With his name on the front cover this will instantly gain and attract their audience as Jimi Hendrix is a huge icon and inspiration to young musician’s etc. With his name in bold sans font it clearly stands out.

With almost three hundred music magazines in the United Kingdom alone, there is a huge competition , however Q clearly have a huge mass audience as they have such big celebrities on their cover, so people instantly want to consume the magazine has it has great expectations. So as you can see on the front of the magazine, the letter ‘Q’ instantly stands out, as it is the logo for the magazine.  Including it also has a headline on top of the magazine saying ‘THE UK’S BIGGEST MUSIC MAGAZINE’ which is a convention that attracts musicians and people who are interested in music.

               It has another feature box in the front page with big bold sans font quoting ‘100 most SHOCKING MOMENTS in MUSIC’, as we as the viewer can see the words shocking is in capitals to create more of an effect on the font and to intrigue the audience to find out what is so shocking.  The front cover mainly consists of feature boxes to fill up the page to interest the reader and to attract an audience.

 Another convention which we have seen is the feature box once again. We can see a well known name in it, and also a 5 star rating which attracts.

In conclusion the main conventions which have attracted the targeted audience of 15-35 and musician’s, is the logo, the main image of an icon and the many feature boxes of famous celebrities.