Influence from real media texts

Afreen Shahid 13T

MastheadHere is an example of a masthead from an“Empire” magazine. As you can see, the word “Empire” is usually bold and coloured in bright red. I decided to follow this convention in my own magazine and put themasthead over the image which gave it a more professional look. Moreover, I also added other features along with the masthead for instance the issue number and the date of release and price of my magazine.This also made my magazine look more realistic as most “Empire” magazines have this feature on their covers. Additionally, I have also added a slogan “THE WORLD’S BIGGEST MOVIE MAGAZINE” and the link of empire’s website. I also took this idea from the original “Empire” magazine to yet again make it look more professional.

Empire’s masthead

My masthead

Main Image I decided to choose a medium shot of our main actress as the front cover image. I have researched into “Empire” magazines and have realised that most of their magazines feature the same shot as their main image. Moreover, most of their main images support an angle of gaze which makes readers feel more engaged and involved with the magazine and its features. I decided to follow this convention as my actress is looking straight into the camera. I have also learnt that facial expression is really important and that is why I decided to have my actress looking serious and not happy which reinforces the genre of the magazine which is horror.

Empire’s Magazine

Feature 1By looking at this example of an ‘Empire’ magazine, it has influenced me to put similar features on my own magazine. For instance, I added a big plus sign as I have noticed it is in nearly every ‘Empire’ magazine. Moreover, I have also added features with text explaining what will be talked about on certain pages. This is ideal as readers can easily find a specific topic they would want to read first. I have also noticed that nearly all of the text is in capitals and I have presented this in my own magazine.

My magazine

Feature 2 Another real media text that influenced my decision was another feature that caught my eye. This included a slogan in a big font saying “REVIEW OF 2011.” I changed the year to last year to make it look more appealing as readers are able to find out the most goriest and scariest films ever rated by official critics. Moreover, I have also added similar lines that come in between certain topics to separate news. This would make it easier for readers to read and it is effective as it makes my whole magazine cover look more professional due to looking organised and tidy.