Using Ideology to create appeal.

Look at these contents pages which analyse layout conventions accurately. To make this even better, the student could have commented on the ideology of the magazine and how it appeals to the target audience. Pick your own contents page and look at the subject matter of the articles listed, the language register and the mise-en-scene in the images. How is representation being used to sell to the audience?

Task: Write your own analysis to include in your research and planning section of your magazine coursework. Using a music magazine would be a good idea, as this will help inform your own planning for your magazine production work.

Using Ideology to create audience appeal

UK Tribes was born in 2005, when Channel 4 commissioned Crowd DNA (then called Ramp Industry) to run a project called TV Glue, which looked to measure how TV could remain relevant in the face of media fragmentation (audiences looking elsewhere for their media consumption).

The project looked at youth culture and offered a tribal breakdown based on the social glues (music, sport, fashion, technology etc) around which young people gather. Whenever presented to media and marketing people, this section proved a big hit; a real conversation starter.

UK Tribes was born, with a brief to extend this research; to explore youth in honest terms and as described to us by young people themselves; to acknowledge that whereas once it was about monolithic youth tribes that stomped on all before them (punk, rock 'n' roll, acid house etc) now it's more about fluidity, a menu of options.

The findings of this research is available for you to use as part of your pre-production research and planning for your own magazine. In today's lesson, you can look at the different groups categorised by the researchers and think about what kind of magazines would appeal to them.

Click on the image at the top of this post to find the UK Tribes website and then complete the tasks below:

1. Watch the clip at the website and read through the different descriptions of 'groups' of young people. 
2. Consider who you might identify with, based on your own interests. Create a moodboard of images that illustrate your own tribe, linked to the music, sport, fashion and technology that appeals to people like you.
3. Download the handout here to organise your notes. Match the magazine title with a group and explain why you think this tribe may consume this product. This can be part of your research work for your Making Media portfolio so include as much explanation as possible. 

Who reads Magazines?

You are part of the powerful 14-18-year-old audience, and media producers are keen to know what you like and what you want. Can you think why your age group is so powerful? The main reason is that, even though you don't usually earn large sums of money, what you do earn is virtually all disposable income - there is only you to spend it on. Producers also want readers with spending power to attract advertisers who subsidies the cost of production. The money advertisers pay for space in print-texts is used to reduce the selling price. Without subsidy, print-based texts would cost too much.

Why do people consumer media texts?

Some media theorists have suggested that media audiences make active choices about what to consume in order to meet certain needs (Uses and Gratification Theory).

Task: The X-Box magazine above is a specialist computer games magazine aimed at 16-35-year-old males. Look at the conventions on the front cover and how they might appeal to the target audience. Can you explain how the cover has been designed to appeal to its target audience, using media terminology? Working in pairs, discuss your ideas and label your copy of the image.

Here is an example of students work. They were asked to do the same task based on a different magazine.

Values and Lifestyle.

Values and Lifestyle - sometimes called ideology - are terms for the way people think about themselves, about others and about the world in which they live. Ideology is a system of values, beliefs and ideas that is common to a specific group of people.
Magazines reflect the values and ideology of their readers because they want readers to feel they can identify with the magazine.
Understanding ideology is helpful when it comes to investigated the ways in which magazines and other media texts are constructed to appeal to their target audiences, by offering them material that they will enjoy, understand and aspire to.

Here are two descriptions of the target readers of two lifestyle magazines as presented on the magazines' websites:

The Elle reader is spirited, stylish and intelligent; she expects to be successful at everything she does. She takes the lead and breaks the rules. Click on the image of the website to take a look.

The Sight and Sound reader is a film buff who expects to be given intelligent information on all film releases, not just Hollywood mainstream movies. Click on the image of the website to take a look.

Task: Look at the two front covers of these magazines and consider the following:

• typography (choice of font style, colour, placement)
• use of images
• how the page is laid out to attract the eye
• the use of language - look out for special words that the reader will understand, use of informal address 'you'
• promises connected to values, ideology and/or pleasure

Make notes in your book. Use each bullet point as a sub-heading.