Emotive and Colloquial Language in Magazines

The article which I am going to analyse is titled "the best albums of 2016" and on the Time Out London magazine website, it is a mixture of reviews of different pop albums. Link: [x]

This critic explains that band, Radiohead, have not released an album in "yonks". Yonks (meaning 'in a long time') is colloquial language with the origin of Britain. Although it's not know in which region of Britain the word was first born, it is known to be from the 1960s and it is theorised to brew from the saying "in donkey years". James Manning continues to explain that the album was "inspired by the end of Thom Yorke's 23-year relationship". This is emotive pathos as the concept of ending a relationship which has lasted as long as 23 years easily makes the audience upset, as we can reminisce relationships we have had with friends, family, and partners, ending. When I read "heartbreaking", I thought of loads of situations where someone is quite obviously heart-broken, like someone crying or having a panic attack or someone just being completely emotionally numb, and for me thinking of all these things that are connotated with the word made me sad.

This critic, Kate Lloyd continuously used emotive language through her column where she describes the "manic" album, 'My Women' by Angel Olsen. She describes the record as one "to be miserable to". This is emotive language because the audience can identify with the notion of feeling down and listening to down music and doing nothing else. And because the audience can assimilate with this, it's quite sad to read because it reminds us of when we have been sad. The words 'sulky' and 'angsty' are also emotive words because unlike other emotions like sad and angry, these words are very specific and like the previous sentence they remind us of when we felt these ways. Lloyd says that the album illustrates "a troubling picture of love". Because love is practically always shed in a positive light,  I think this statement catches the audience off guard and reminds the vulnerable members about the damage that love can make.

James Manning, who I analysed earlier, again used colloquial language when describing Iggy Pop's album 'Post Pop Depression'. Manning exclaimed "who'd have though Iggy would outlive his old mucker Dave". Here he is addressing Iggy Pop's good and passed away companion, David Bowie. 'Mucker' is a word used in middle England and it is slang for friend.

Q. Why do magazines use colloquial language?

Magazines which are more article based than pictorial like the Guardian use colloquial language because this informality makes it seem like the journalist is writing to their friend, the magazine's occupier. Taking the article on the right as an example, "Why the Internet Loves Cats - Not Dogs", the writer Jack Shepherd tells us that he embraces "feline overlords". This informality is funny and sarcastic, and it seems like common banter between two pals which attracts the audience. Another example is when he tells us that "the cat propaganda machine is ruthlessly effective". Obviously Shepherd is not being literal however it does engage the audience by proposing that cats have a publicity machine. Another useful aspect towards colloquial language is that it sets the mood for the piece. Going back to this extract, Shepherd tells us that "media is almost completely under the sway of the powerful cat lobby". The subtle informality and humour sets an upbeat and cheery tempo, which is a positive thing to read thus attracting more customers.

A feature which is really popular in modern day is multi-modal language (e.g "nvm" - nevermind, "lol" - laugh out loud) and puncuation (emoticons like :) and (≧∇≦)/, and symbols like #, @, etc). These serve a similar purpose to colloquial language in that they make the text seem more personal and informal. This journalist uses multi-modal punctuation as he hashtags, "#AskAlan". This hashtag is effective as it seems modern and contemporary and a hashtag is an ordinary concept within youth culture, which is effective as it corresponds with the target audience of young adults. The journalist continues to say "I like his all-around game and his swagger". Swagger is colliqual language as it's a friendly and slang adjective meaning 'fashionable' or 'trendy', originating for Britain. By mentioning a word which the reader would probably use, the text seems more familiar and personal.
In conclusion, colliqual language is appreciated in magazines because it spews a sense of familiarality and friendship between the writer and the reader. It does this because ordinary people use these words in everyday speech and therefore we, the audience, recognise this dialect as how we would speak to our friends.

Task: Create coverlines for a target audience using emotive and colliqual language.

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Music Magazine Analysis: Representation

Planning:

Planning:

From this task I've learnt how effective it could be to introduce your cover model with connotative adjectives on a magazine cover (I.e: Lana Del Rey The Saddest Baddest Diva in Rock).

Design the Contents Page for your new School/College Magazine:

STILL IN PROGRESS

Design the Front Cover for your new School/College Magazine:

• When designing this cover I opted for my fourth cover design [x] because as I mentioned in that article, I find this design the most individual and creative; individual because it suits my school perfectly because we have a circular logo, and creative because a circular mastered is not totally common.
• I chose to keep the colours on my cover quite simple with only red and white. My school uniform is black, red and white so I thought these should be the central colours of the magazine. However as the background of my cover image is quite dark I found black font to be quite an unnecessary effort to read.
• I chose this cover image because one of the things I value the most about my school is the diversity it contains, and this picture shows two opposite races. Additionally, I feel my school caters a lot in particularly helping and assisting sixth-form students, and so that's something I wanted to prove in my cover. In my opinion, this also promotes the school's sixth form because the models are so happy and because they are holding a post sixth-form poster which shows the school guides students even after school.

Organise a Photo Shoot for your new School/College Magazine

13/01/17: I took these photographs this morning in my art class:

I think what is successful about these photos is that they show students committing to something creative which I found when analysing the other school magazines, this trait is essential for attracting artsy students. I also think these photos are strong because they present loads of students from various ethnic groups which advertises my school as an affluent centre for everyone of every background.

I think what is non-successful about these pictures is that they don't present a powerful message, such as Ark Academy's cover which reads "Teachers make me think about my FUTURE". I want to photograph one picture which promotes the school. I also think that these pictures are not colourful enough for my taste so I want to place more colours into future-images. Finally, in my next pictures I will be sure to also include boys, as all these pictures feature girls which seems like I favour girls.

17/01/17: Photos taken during my media lesson:

These photos featured the sign motivated by The Civitas' cover. I asked Caleb (the model) what school does to him and he said it "motivates him to think about his future" which I just remembered (while re-reading) that Ark Academy's sign says "teachers make me think about my future" which is definitely similar to my sign. Therefore I don't think I'll be able to use this picture as a cover.

This picture would of been my most victorious photograph because it displays two friends of different gender and race, being friendly. However one of the models, Tiyana, blinked which I think would make the magazine cover appear rushed.

This picture is good because the models are holding a poster about post sixth form options which obviously appeal to students of that age group. I think that possibly this could influence the audience into thinking that my school is effective for helping students create a future for themselves which would again promote the school. Again, this photo is good because it features two genders and races, being friends.

20/01/17: Taken after my lessons:

I took these pictures because I want to feature photographs without models in my magazine. What I enjoy the most about these photos is the angle which they are taken from, I think it looks exciting and refreshing because it's not the typical face-on shot I usually strive for.

Design a Questionnaire

This is my questionnaire with 14 questions. I chose to display them on a word puzzle because I thought this was interesting and slightly enticing and also suited the school concept. The questions aren't numbered, nor are they located in colonies of the same sort of question. 

Questions which will effect the content within the magazine are coloured yellow here: 

I think that with school questionnaires, it can be easy to answer as a student with answers that teachers want. Therefore most of my content questions are aimed at unearthing what students enjoy. 

This question aims at finding what exactly students like to read the most, that a school could aspire to. Obviously a school magazine couldn't full the objectives of magazines like the Rolling Stone or National Geographic, so I chose three magazines which a school could be inspired by. Wallpaper* magazine is an art, theatre, and music magazine so this could represent my school if we placed a lot of emphasis on these subjects. As well as these things, The Guardian covers some much more factual things such as politics, scientific findings, and mathematical advances, so this could represent my school if the magazine concentrated on these subjects. Finally, the community magazine which is the most diverse from both of these genres; if the majority of pupils enjoy the community magazine in comparison to Wallpaper* or the Guardian, this clearly states that pupils enjoy knowing what is going on within their local society, and that the school magazine should consider this.

This question will effect the content of the magazine for obvious reasons. If there is a large population of pupils who attend debate club for example, then it would be smart to contemplate including a political section within the magazine. This question is being asked so that I can prioritise the most popular subjects and even possibly charge specific teachers or classes to create articles based off their projects, etc.

These two questions serve the same purpose and are just aimed at finding what the expectations for the school magazine are. Due to the fact that one of these questions is a closed question, this will allow a precise clear outcome that I compare easily. These questions are all factual to ease the popularity of the magazine. The question "what style of journalism do you prefer" is neccessary because it manipulated my choice concerning the type of magazine I create, and the question "what year group are you in" is intrinsic because it will allow me to see if there is possibly a correlation between a generation, for example year 13's may think community-based articles are the most valid, whereas year 8's might think drama is the most important.

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