LIIAR Analysis Of A Front Cover

LANGUAGE: The main image of this front cover, is a well known band (Mumford and Sons) and they are all looking directly into the camera. This means they can interact with the audience and it allows the audience to feel more connected with them. The magazine title ‘NME’ is short and memorable, which is a convention of magazine front covers. As it is the biggest piece of text on the page, it’s dominant and clear that it is the title of the magazine. The red from the masthead goes with the red of the banner going across the main image, this links the two together. In the top right corner there is a thumbnail of a free poster to attract the audience. They also have other main stories that will be featured in the magazine underneath the main story. It also has the price and barcode linked together in the bottom corner, which is another convention. And teasing contents and free gifts on the top cover line to attract the audience.

IDEOLOGY: The name of the magazine NME, stands for New Musical Express. This gives the belief that this magazine gives it’s audience new music updates, and the use of the word ‘express’ means quickly, so the audience knows that they will be updated quickly (so weekly or monthly). With the main image subjects not looking all polished, it shows that they care more about the music then they do their appearance. With the banner headline going through their outfit as well, it gives the audience the belief that (to them) the music is more important than how they look.

INSTITUTION: On this front cover, the institution shown are the bands that the magazine are advertising. So when they advertise bands new albums and festivals coming up, it benefits the institution that runs these as it gets them known to the public.

AUDIENCE: The target audience for this magazine, would probably be teenagers/young adults who enjoy indie/rock music. By using all males on the front cover and using dark colouring, it looks like it is trying to attract males more than females. However, that doesn’t say that females cant read it, as they have used a young, popular boy band on the front, that could be there to attract a female audience.

REPRESENTATION: The way they have represented the subject of the main image is looking directly at the camera so they can engage with the audience (this is a convention of magazine front covers). The band are quite young, so the audience can relate to them and could appeal to the female audience and the male audience because they might look up to them or see them as role models. By representing them looking not very smartly dressed it gives the audience the idea that they care more about letting people know about their music than they do about how they look.