Analysis 1: Contents page

For this task I looked at the contents page of NME magazine. This was done to see how magazine's use certain features and for inspiration with my own contents page. I learnt how all of the listed features below are used and the reasons why.

Composition

• The page is very spread out with certain page numbers with their related story lines and images in seperate sections. The numbers are not in a chronological order which is because the editor wants the reader to be interested in the whole magazine before they even look at the first story. This is effective because there are images of celebrities which will catch the attention of the reader and draw them to certain pages.
• There are seperate sections of text columns the first showing 3 stories down the left hand side, then there is the main story in the centre which is in it's seperate box to show that it's the most important. There's a column down the right with 2 stories in and there is 1 story in the bottom section with the rest of the pages listed with the stories that are on the pages, and there is also an advert for subscribing to the magazine at the bottom right corner.
• The supporting images are contained within the text boxes and they are fairly big and clear to see.

Image

• There is a main image of Johnny Marr who is a popular music artist at the moment. It's a medium shot of him wearing every day clothes looking as though he's been photographed just on an average day, and this was chosen because the readers will feel involved in his own life. This will attract readers to the magazine more because a main story about a popular music artist will interest them.
• There are supporting images for each of the featured artices on the contents page. The articles are widespread some are interviews and some are just new information about the artists. Images were chosen for every article here because it is more interesting than seeing just words on the paper. It shows some of the artists in action on stage or performing which will help the reader to get even more involved.
• There isn't many effects on the images, the majority are in colour and there are 2 images which are black and white and I think this is just for variation. The images are mainly all coloured because it makes the photos seem like they were naturally taken and the readers can get a full idea of what their favourite artists look like.

Graphics

• There is little icons or logos apart from the advert in the bottom right corner. This is an illustration with small versions of the magazine printed into it.

Text

• There is a headline in bold black writing saying "Inside this week"
• The page is defined as the contents because of this headline saying what's going to be in the magazine. There are also bold red page numbers on each story which are bright and eyecatching meaning they will be seen first, this shows that it's a contents page.
• The same font is used throughout, however it is presented in about 4 different ways. They are shown in different sizes some large, small and medium. They are also presented in bold, italic and fine. Each section contains different types of text for example one has small, bold text and large, italic text. This stops the page from looking boring because it is a plain layout.

Theme

• The colours are red, black and white. It creates a house style by having the plain white background, black text and red feautured things such as the page number. This is carried on throughout the magazine.
• It relates to the front cover because the name of the magazine (NME) is in bold writing, and it continues to use the same type of font which is black. The two are recognisably part of the same magazine.