liiar

LIIAR Analysis

Louise Hudson

L anguage

I nstitution

I deology

A udience

R epersentation

In this front cover, direct mode of address is used with the main image of the artist, Amy Winehouse. This draws the audience in and connects them with the artist. Furthermore, the framing used in this front cover is a medium close up, which is a common convention in magazines as it uses up enough of the magazine front page without making it look clustered or empty. As for the colour scheme, the main colours are red, white and black. All of these colours when put together compliment each other very well. They are also inspired from the main image as in the image of Amy Winehouse, there are small hints of red and black. The red colour used in the colour scheme is also inspired from the Q masthead, this is very signature, being that in every issue of Q, the masthead 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 straight away. This red colour is very effective as it stands out amongst the other simple colours, this accent colour is used in many of the features to make the important aspects of them stand out. For example: In the “Why we fell back in love with vinyl” feature, the “vinyl” part of the sentence is red, meaning that it is being highlighted as the subject matter of the article. This colour red itself also contains many connotations including feelings of sensuality and lust, which is another reason it stands out on the front page.

The headline of the magazine is in the largest text compared to the rest of the articles, this obviously shows that it’s the most important and the article that they want people to buy the magazine for, plus, it’s the cover story so it goes along with the main image. Other conventional features used in this front page include: a plug, a sell line, cover lines and a tagline. The cover line “One year on Amy. New revelations about the voice of out time, and how we lost her” is extremely powerful due to the fact that it is paying tribute to a deceased artist who was widely respected for their music. The sell lines are all placed in areas of the cover where they are noticeable and it good alignment but they still provide the main image with the space it needs to let it stand out.

Language

Institution

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 Groups magazine titles amounts to 38 million magazines a week”

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”.

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




















IdeologyThere 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 Amy Winehouse. 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 Amy Winehouse to be a sex symbol and her attractiveness and seductive appearance on the cover suggests this. But on the other hand, this statement could be questioned and contradicted due to the fact that Winehouse is deceased and this issue is paying tribute to her. 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, Amy Winehouse was known for being constantly setting trends due to her unique style. 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, Amy Winehouse was seen as rebellious, which could defy social norms. Though for a change, the terminology and language used in this magazine doesn’t defy social norms, because it has in other Q issues, this has probably been omitted due to the fact that this issue is paying tribute to Amy Winehouse and it needs to be respectful.

The founders of Q Mark Ellen and David Hepworth felt the older generation of music buyers were being ignored, so instead of aiming at teenagers and young people, the target audience for Q is music buyers of over 25 years old, of both genders. The fact that the target audience is slightly older means that the magazine can afford to be a bit more expensive than if it was aimed at young people as the majority of these people have paid jobs. Also with an older audience the magazine can also contain more information about old ‘classic’ albums and music from past decades as it would suit the audience. Q features many genres of music so it is suited to all music lovers. The magazine has a mass audience as it is so popular, but could also be referred to as having a niche audience, as it is specifically aimed at only music fans.

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% ofthe 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

Audience

Representation

In this cover, the featured artist, Amy Winehouse, 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 dark hue of Amy’s hair represents her as having a rebellious and carefree personality while the sultry tone of her makeup and her eyes suggest she had 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, which in some way could support the whole reason why she is on the cover, to pay tribute to her. This choice of representation of Amy will encourage people to read the magazine, as

her life story is widely known and appealed to a lot of people. The “new revelations” on her death will make people buy the magazine as this is coveted information in the music world.

Language

In this contents page, there is a variety of images used, with all different types a framing. There is a long shot, a medium shot, a close up and a low angle shot. All of these different types of framing clearly show how it is appropriate to have them in a contents page, opposed to the magazine front page where only a medium close up is

appropriate. As this is a very complex contents page, it is very difficult to analyse all of the connotations of each image. Especially as it isn’t exactly clear which is the main image. But the image of Amy Winehouse clearly has connotations of remembrance, due to the fact that the magazine is trying to pay tribute to her and her music after her death. Q have a clear house style as a lot of features are similar and link back to the front page, this makes the magazine consistent. One of these is the signature colour scheme as they have clearly stuck to the colours of red, white and black. These colours compliment the simple page design. And like the front page, they have used successful technique of using the red colour as a colour to highlight important aspects of the page, in this case it is the page numbers and some of the article names. Another way they have kept it consistent is the use of the current front page in the “subscribe” feature of the contents page, this keeps it up to date and contemporary to the audience.

Institution



“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 Groups magazine titles amounts to 38 million magazines a week”

IdeologyAs 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. One of the artists featured in this page, Justin Bieber, 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.

Audience

The founders of Q Mark Ellen and David Hepworth felt the older generation of music buyers were being ignored, so instead of aiming at teenagers and young people, the target audience for Q is music buyers of over 25 years old, of both genders. The fact that the target audience is slightly older means that the magazine can afford to be a bit more expensive than if it was aimed at young people as the

majority of these people have paid jobs. Also with an older audience the magazine can also contain more information about old ‘classic’ albums and music from past decades as it would suit the audience. Q features many genres of music so it is suited to all music lovers. The magazine has a mass audience as it is so popular, but could also be referred to as having a niche audience, as it is specifically aimed at only music fans.



RepresentationIn this contents page, one of the featured artist, Justin Bieber, is represented by the magazine as a carefree “heart throb”. 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 Justin Bieber as he seems very flirtatious and

playful. 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 emphasizes this, his body language shows this too. Unlike the Amy Winehouse cover image, the magazine here represents Justin Bieber 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 “Teen pop”, through his pose in this photo as the majority of his songs are appeal heavily to teenage girls and are famous for being flirty and catchy. This represents him correctly and realistically and shows that the magazine has purposely done this not to represent him as something he is not.

Language

The main image used in this double page spread is a medium close-up, this is effective as it shows a good amount of the artist without being in too much detail, it also conveys a very simplistic design which compliments the layout on the

other page (right). The other image used, in a much smaller format, is a long shot, this shot allows us to see the artist in action, which is key for a music magazine. As for the colour scheme, I’ve noticed that black is definitely the focal colour for the double page spread. I feel this colour has been inspired from Amy Winehouse’s jet black hair, this was a very distinctive and striking feature of Amy’s so using it as inspiration for the colour scheme is very effective. The main image of Amy on the right page contains some key connoations, the main one being her body language, this really represents and sums up Amy’s “rebellious” and “care-free” attitude which was argued to be the cause of her downfall which lead to her death. These connotations definitely help the audience remember who she really was.

Institution




“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 Groups magazine titles amounts to 38 million magazines a week”

Ideology

As this double page spread is incredibly similar to the front page of this issue of Q in terms of ideology, I will list below some of the key points that this double page spread conveys to the reader and the widespread public who would read this music magazine.

• Amy Winehouse’s sex appeal through the use of her unique style and body language in the main photograph on the right page

• The contradiction of the above suggestion due to the fact that this issue is paying tribute to Amy after her death in 2010

• The fact that Amy’s rebellious behaviour could defy social norms as she isn’t a good role model

• Argument on how mainstream Q magazine is – it’s expensive but still the most popular music magazine in the UK

• The respectful, toned down language of this issue of Q due to the main subject matter and tribute to Amy

AudienceThe founders of Q Mark Ellen and David Hepworth felt the older generation of music buyers were being ignored, so instead of aiming at teenagers and young people, the target audience for Q is music buyers of over 25 years old, of both genders. The fact that the target audience is slightly older means that the magazine can afford to be a bit more expensive than if it was aimed at young people as the majority of these people have paid jobs.

and music from past decades as it would suit the audience. Q features many genres of music so it is suited to all music lovers. The magazine has a mass audience as it is so popular, but could also be referred to as having a niche audience, as it is specifically aimed at only music fans.



RepresentationIn this cover, the featured artist, Amy Winehouse, 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 dark hue of Amy’s hair represents her as having a rebellious and

carefree personality while the sultry tone of her makeup and her eyes suggest she had 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, which in some way could support the whole reason why she is in the magazine, to pay tribute to her. This choice of representation of Amy will encourage people to read the magazine, as her life story is widely known and appealed to a lot of people. The “new revelations” on her death will make people buy the magazine as this is coveted information in the music world.

liiar

Documents

red colour

colour red

main image

magazine expresses

image of amy winehouse

cover lines

main colours

institution q magazine