Task 4: IPC Case Study, Research

IPC Media are a media brand in which produces over 85 iconic media brands with in the UK, with our print brands alone reaching almost two thirds of UK women and 44% of UK men - almost 27 million UK adults - while our online brands collectively reach 20 million users every month.

This is my in depth research about the british publishing company IPC Media:

I researched about the history of the magazine, associations amongst the media company, what sort of genres of music/types of magazines might they be likely to publish, their current portfolio of titles and the structure of the company and current news about them.

I found out that IPC is a diverse printings and digital portfolio making company in which offers something for everyone, with a focus on three core audiences: men, mass market women and upmarket women.

Magazine history:

IPC media company was founded in 1963 and is owned by Time Inc. (in which is a conglomerate toTime Warner technically making IPC an american owned company) however the company originates and remains in London,UK. This means with

IPC Media publishes a variety of magazines to appeal to the 3 different target audiences they aim at:

Their men's portfolio (IPC Inspire) comprises a wealth of leisure brands including Country Life, Horse & Hound, Rugby World and Decanter, as well as lifestyle brands including Nuts, Mousebreaker and NME.

The mass market women's division (IPC Connect) comprises famous women's weeklies including Look, Now, Chat and Woman; TV entertainment brands including What's on TV, TVTimes and TV & Satellite Week and, online, the goodtoknow network.

And finally their upmarket women's division (IPC Southbank) comprises luxury fashion brands including Marie Claire and InStyle, lifestyle brands including woman&home and essentials they also publish home interest brands including Ideal Home, Livingetc and houseandhome.

Other than childrens/young teen magazines these audiences are the most popular/ mass audiences in the magazine publishing industries. This shows that IPC media try to appeal to the mass audience to get as many readers and sales as possible. Fitting in with the 'something for everyone' criteria.

Preliminary Task: Brief - Initial Ideas

• Produce the front page of a new school/college magazine, featuring a photo of a student in medium close-up plus some appropriately laid out text and a mast head.
• Produce a mock up of the layout of the contents page 

My Initial Ideas:

Task 3: Essay- To what extent should magazines be held responsible for the social ramifications of the representation they offer?

There are several social ramifications from magazines aimed at the teenage girl audience can affect their readers:

• Promoting plastic surgery or changing yourself by using make-up etc.
• Showing the relationships celebrities encounter and teenage boys. 
• Showing almost 'perfect' celebrities and promoting 'the look'.
• Pressuring parents into affording new fashions and trends, to help their children fit it.
• Issues that can come from teens reading these magazines - anorexia, bulimia. 

All of these can all affect a teenager’s view on society.

Plastic surgery is one major ramification that comes from teens reading these magazines. Many teenagers are easily influenced and feel although they must change themselves or make something about them better if they see others are doing it in magazines. Many young adults can be introduced to plastic surgery from a young age by just seeing it on the TV however they can feel that magazines are encouraging them to change to help them fit in, or feel pretty. Many teenagers also don’t realise that the cover girls on the magazine are just photo shopped, and that they don’t actually always look like how they do, it is unrealistic for anyone without being photo shopped or had permanent procedures to look perfect. Young teens shouldn’t be thinking that they are unhappy with their body and want to have surgical procedures but some magazines have changed the way they think.

Many teenage magazine magazines have article headings on the cover of their magazine with advice on boys and some on celebrity boys. The way they represent boys and relationships can be naive and sometimes a bit too advanced. Some magazines choose to show articles like this:

This can develop a state of mind to the young teenager in which they believe that having a boyfriend etc is all about what he looks like, and as long as he’s good looking and has the physical attraction it doesn’t matter about anything else. Also articles like this:

 on the cover can encourage teens to become more sexualised and encourages inappropriate behaviour. When the magazine is aimed at young teens aged between 11-15 these articles may be suitable for some readers but not all readers- it can influence the way they see themselves and how they fit it. Some teens may feel pressured to get a boyfriend, and flirt like it says in the magazine.

Many magazine covers also choose to include the celebrities that all look and are pretty much the same; they will all have the same job – either a well known singer or an actress often well known to the target audience e.g. Disney Channel stars, pop groups and female solo artists. They often have the same features, pretty, white, good figure, smiling and good clothes. If they have imperfections during the editing stage of the images for the magazine cover these will be fixed using Photoshop and other various techniques.  All these qualities can make the reader feel pressured into looking a certain way, if every time the next edition of the magazine comes out and the cover girl has exactly the same features as before the reader will begin to believe that’s the way to look, not always understanding that the cover girl is probably older, and things have been edited to ensure she looks almost perfect. This can also influence the child too feel although they must change to fit in; getting thinner, wearing makeup, using skin creams, more prettier clothes all of which is promoted on the cover.

Another social ramification that can come from these magazines can be pressure- pressure for parents to buy their children the more expensive clothes from the magazines, pressure on the teens to look good, and fit in and be what they see in the magazines. Often the teens with wealthier families can afford to buy the clothes in the magazines which are often more expensive than other clothes as they are from certain shops like New Look, River Island and Topshop. And the teens who can’t afford these clothes are often singled out, and sometimes bullied for not being up to date and ‘trendy’. This can create a status/class division which shouldn’t happen, especially not at such young ages. Also the fact that the trends are always current in the magazines and are constantly changing can make it hard for the parent to keep up, and for the child always to have the most recent products in the magazine.

Finally articles such as this:

Can introduce teens to weight loss and dieting which can sometimes get out of control, I personally think that this is the most influential topic, teens can be left feeling fat and in some cases suffering with body dysmorphia cutting down on what they eat, watching what they eat – in which can be good, but only to a certain extend. It’s good for children to be taught what’s healthy and how to look after their body, however teenage magazines promote it in every magazine with fad diets. The magazine’s are always showing women of the same body type and rarely introduce diversity and variety. This can have a social ramification of how the teens see themselves and others; it also introduces them to anorexia, bulimia and obesity. They always emphasis the ‘good’ and ‘best’bodies to have but never show that some people can be different.

Finally to conclude I think that most teenage girl magazines of today are very biased, they need to show the other side of everything. I think they are very focused around physical attraction and the way we look and they need to show diversity in people. One thing i would like the be removed are all the articles about ‘getting into shape’ and for them to be replaced with ‘eating healthily’ instead of being taught how to get thin teens need to be taught how to be healthy and how to go about it. I would also like to see fewer stereotypes on magazines – a wider variety of cover girls to show teenage girls that different is good.

Task 3: RESEARCH To what extent should magazines be held responsible for the social ramifications of the representation they offer?

This magazine’s main generic conventions in which suggest it is a magazine aimed at teenage girls are:

·         The colours used: Pinks, pale blues, and ice whites, partially to suggest the theme of the magazine; light colours as it is the Christmas addition. Also to had a girly appeal/attraction.

·         The font used on the cover varies the name ‘Pixie’ is written in serif typography and other than the title, the font is the largest. This makes it stand out and also links to the articles on the magazine and the cover girl.

·         Informal writing and slang words used such as ‘SNOG SWAPS’ ‘XMAS EVE TRAGEDY’ this is language that is familiar with the teenage female target audience.

‘Seventeen’ magazine is an American magazine but has the same generic conventions to appeal the teenage girl target audience these include:

target audience these include:

·         Like the magazine cover above the celebrity Selena Gomez is the centre focus however unlike Bliss’ cover the celebrity on the cover’s name isn’t the largest text on the page.

·         The main focus headline is ‘Get Prom Pretty’ in bright pink capitals matching the name of the magazine and various other articles. This suggests that Prom is the main theme for this edition of the magazine, which appeals to the teenage girl’s audiences.

·         Once again there is a reduced palette of colours, this time to match the bright summery theme; bright yellow, blue and pink has been used which all co-ordinate and match each other.

·          A variety of styles of fonts have been used to make each article stand out in different ways.

·         Slang teenage terms such as ‘chic’ and ‘funky’ have been used to appeal to the audience once again.

·         A brightly coloured strip at the top of the page attracts and persuades you to buy and read the magazine as it is drawing you in to read a certain page with a line that would appeal to teenage girls.

·         Finally once again puffs have been used to make items/articles stand out etc.

  

 

On the cover of Cosmo-girl the conventions of the magazine relate to the target audience by:

·         Unlike the other magazines this cover has a wider variety of colours used but the colours are still reduced and co-ordinating.

·         The colours all attract and appeal to the target audience too.

·         Unlike the other magazines this cover has a coloured background which makes the background stand out but the writing blend in slightly, this could be so you have to pick the magazine up to read it all, or to make it stand out as the bright pink is eye catching.

·         The font over almost the whole magazine is the same it just varies in capitals and lower case. The fact that all the font is the same means that the whole magazine coordinates.

·         All font are in white, orange and yellow and is all san serif, however some articles are written in larger font, which shows which articles are more important to others.

·         Once again like the Seventeen magazine cover the black roller at the top of the page makes the line ‘YOUR NEW FAVORITE JEANS- FIND THEM ON PAGE 39’ persuades you to turn the page and read magazine– convinces you to buy the magazine.

·         Summery colours used in the autumn season means that all the other magazines will be using more autumnal colours- this magazine will stand out on the shelf and draw in teenage girls.

·         Informal language used to appeal to the target audience- same as the other magazine covers.

·         Puff used to stress and enthuse point – ‘Your guide to gorgeous’ followed with the 3 main articles – ’50 ways to get sexy hair’ ’10 secrets to perfect skin’ ‘ 5 moves to a hotter body’ all these points appeal to the stereotypical teenage female, possibly body conscious or want to look/ feel better etc.  The puff leads you on to continue reading.

Shout magazine:

·         The colours used: White, yellow, and pink; summery colours, but not as bright as the hot pinks and oranges used in the other magazines.

·         Variety of fonts used for the headline of the cover stories and the small description of the cover stories – easier to read, eye-catching.

·         Informal style of writing used – slang words to relate to target audience.

·         On this cover similar to the first the main story is about the cover girl, and this magazine have tried to promote this and draw readers in by making the font stand out the most, however still using co-ordinating colours.

·         Once again like the other magazines this cover has a strip of text at the top of page however this time the strip is not coloured differently from the background  to make it stand out however this still stands out to the reader.

My 5^th magazine I have chosen is Sugar:

·         Reduced palette of colours on the magazine cover- pinks, black and white. Simple and girly with a white back ground.

·         On this magazine the puff is one of the most eye-catching conventions to appeal to the target audience, filled with fashion advice which also attracts teenage girls.

·         Variety of font ‘Glee’s Rachel, 1 hot new celeb, 1 exclusive interview, 1 AMAZING day’ is the only article with this font which makes it stand out and links to the celebrity cover girl.

·         Once again a line at the top of the page that persuades you to read/open the magazine.

·         Contrasting colours used on every cover headline and description below pink against black.

·         Another puff used at the top of the page ‘2 mags for price of 1’ suggests that the reader is getting a good deal.

·         Informal slang terms used such as ‘celeb’ ‘gobby’ and ‘tees’ appeals to the target audience.

After studying the covers of 5 magazines with the target audience of teenage girls i have learnt that the generic conventions for these magazines are:

·         A reduced palette of co-ordinating colours; usually pinks, oranges, yellows and lilacs.

·         A well known celebrity as a cover girl (usually American).

·         The colours often match the month/ season the edition of the magazine is brought out in; bright colours in the summer etc.

·         Informal text is used and slang words to appeal to the target audience.

·         Puffs are used on every magazine cover to draw attention to at least one point.

·         Font varies on every cover, e.g. Sugar uses a variety of fonts unlike Cosmo-Girl which uses the same font over the whole of the magazine cover.

·         Majority of the magazine covers have a strip of text at the top of the page which persuades you to turn the page.

Task 2: Magazines and Audiences, Part 2

The magazine cover I have chosen is June 2011’s Cosmopolitan. Cover girl for the magazine this month is Lea Michele. The target audience for Cosmopolitan is usually mid/late 20s – early 30s females, however I think because Lea Michele is on the cover it changes the target audience and includes older teenagers, this is because teens are more likely to recognise Lea as Rachel Berry from American TV series Glee.

I think that Cosmopolitan have tried to vary, expand and appeal to their target audience by using: relatable articles, bright pinks and coral colours, bold lettering/ font and celebrities well known to the target audience and all these components attract majority of female readers. The article ‘368 love-your-body bikinis, super-sexy shoes and dresses to die for’ relates and appeals to the target audience, it makes readers want to read the article and the bright style of font is attractive and eye-catching.  Also the tagline ‘ For Fun Fearless Females’ suggests the target audience and is written in bright pink against a white background on the binding of the magazine which makes it stand out. Another way which the cover has attempted to appeal to the target is by  using a Puff, they have filled in a shape with the same bright pink used on the cover and written ‘28 Celeb men strip naked for you!’ in bold, white capital letters.

One generic convention of the magazine is the bright, bold text/ font which have been used in the body text and the headline text’s font. It’s eye-catching and all the colours are girly, bright and fun which also relates to the target audience. Another generic convention of Cosmopolitan is the fact that there is only one main photo and all the rest of the information is text, on the cover of magazines such as ‘Take A Break’ there are many smaller photos in which link with the text/ articles however this magazine is purely text, which could suggest there isn’t many relatable photos, or it could draw the reader in to turn the page and see the photos along with the article. Some of the font on the magazine cover enhances specific parts of the magazines articles for example the article title ‘love-your-body bikinis, super –sexy shoes and dresses to die for’ the words bikinis, shoes and dresses are all in black font against a white background surrounded by other pink font makes each item that appeals to the audience stand out. Finally the line in the article ‘super-sexy shoes’ stands out as it is an alliteration which is a way language has been used to have an affect on the way it is said and the way it has an affect on the audience.

Task 2: Magazines and Audiences, Part 1

Magazine Terminology Glossary

Barcode – Used in stores, alway found somewhere on a magazine cover

Bodytext Font –  Bodytext is the large areas of font found inside a magazine and the font it is written in and how it is appropriate to the magazine and article

Colours – The colours used and how they work with the target audience, magazine and article

Contents – The contents page in which shows the contents of the magazine

Coverline -

Drop Cap – when a letter is written in a large font to begin the article

Font – the style/type of writing

Formal/Informal – the type of language used (usually  based on who the target audience is.

Headline Font – Main headlines on a magazine and how the fornt accociates with the article

Language – The language used e.g. Formal, slang etc

Puff – A shape in which is filled with text to promote something or enhance/stress the point

Puns – Words/Phrases used in different ways.

San serif – Uncurled writing like this.

Serif – Curly styled writing like this

Style - The style of the whole magazine; the layout, font, text, photos

Tagline- The slogan or catch - prash, often helps you remember the brands name.

Target Audience – who the magazine/media is aimed at, e.g female? Male? Teen? OAP?

Typography- The way the text/typing is arranged and printed.