Media Studies Home work: magazine analysis

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1) The Source is a music magazine which was first published in the United States in 1988, it specifically focuses on the style of Hip-Hop and R&B.
the Source also covers politics and culture It is the world's second longest running rap periodical, behind United Kingdoms-based publication Hip Hop Connections. The Source was originally founded as a newsletter and the current president of its publication is Jeremy and it was originally started by David Mays  and Jon Shecter.

2) the sole purpose of this magazine is to promote new and upcoming Hip hop and R&B artists and keep members of the general public up to date with their lives and their music, as you can see the front cover features an image of the new Rap sensation J-Cole.

3)This magazine is aimed generally at young people between the age of  16-25 as the source is a "source" of information that keeps people up to date with the latest Hip Hop and R&B music by New and established artists, it contains interviews with artist and also includes advertisment of products branded by artist and producers such as "Monsta Beats by Dre" which is an expensive pair of headphones that are extremely popular amongst young people.

4) the front cover of this magazine uses an image of the rap artist J. Cole, by featuring him on the front cover it helps attract his fans to pick up, look at and buy this magazine. because J.Cole is such a sensation in the Rap industry it makes people not only want to buy it but read on into the rest of the magazine the image of J.cole alone works as a large promotional selling point for the Source.
The colors used are natural colors the use of lime green with a darker green mixed with a combination of yellow across the page immediately draws your eye to this magazine making it stand out in comparison to others that may be on the same shelf as it in a store. The text is easy on the eyes and clearly legible by the use of simple text ranging in size, the background is an image of mettle store shutters with a green and orange gradiant overlay.
the very top of the page is plain white, bold text of different artists featured in the magazine where immediately bellow is the title of the magazine "The Source" then Central to the page is the image of J.Cole whos head is slightly covering the title but the title is still legible; this is a common feature in most magazines where the model is slightly overlapping the title it creates the effect that the model is more important than the title. but another common feature is to have sub-heading overlap the artist.
the color scheme of this magazine suggests that the main target audience is the young black male as the colors are similar to those of the Jamaican flag.

5) the contents page further exaggerates the fact that the target audiance is young black male as immediately the first thing the reader sees is the image of the young black women lying down on her back with her legs pointed in the air. The style of the text in the contents page is very different to the front cover, the idea of changing the font is a clever idea as it it a subtle method used to keep the reader interested.
The colour scheme has also changed to a much more simple palette of colors being black and grey although the colour scheme may be dull it is yet again another subtle method of engaging the target audience.
One of the topics mentioned in this magazine is "Fashion" which shows that the target audience isn't only the young black male but also the young black female.
The contents page can operate in two ways it could either increase the sales of this magazine as it appeals to a less specific audience therefore increase the number of issues sold or it could work in the opposite way where as a young black male will pick up this magazine flick through it read the heading on fashion and loose interest as young black men tend not to be interested in fashion.

6) the values being suggested to the audience by this magazine and its contents are, money and fame, cars and clothes, a luxurious life style that every young person would desire.

7) the magazine is effective at targeting its target audience because it uses key selling points e.g the large image of famous artist on each page, as well as using text that is simple, modern and easy to read the color scheme used also adds to this by using colors that are simplistic but at the same time relate to the target audience, on the front cover the green and yellow are tropical colors whilst the contents page is a dull black and grey but the combination of the two can be construed as elegant and classy which is only further exaggerated by the choice of model being used the model used as she appears to be upper class young black women posed in a way that makes her attractive to young black men and women. 

8) i have learned that magazines use an array of subtle features to attract its target audience, i have learned that every aspect and feature on each page is done on purpose the choice of text, headlines, color scheme and images used are all done to engage attract and entice its target audience to look and and even buy the magazine.

9) i can use this in my course work because i am now able to identify the different audiences that different magazines target
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