Textual Analysis of Q Magazine Contents Page

This is the textual analysis of the contents page in Q magazine.

Textual Analysis of Q magazine Contents Page

Colour Scheme: The colour scheme on the contents page of Q magazine is red, black and white. Q has chosen these colours to use as they are the typical colours found in an indie music type magazine. With a colour scheme like Q, it makes the magazine instantly recognisable. The colour scheme is repeated throughout the rest of the magazine too. This makes it look professional and connotes danger and rebellion. The colour scheme is also used on the front cover. Out of the three magazines I have analysed this is the only magazine that keeps the same colour scheme throughout. This means the magazine is unique and has something different to offer the audience.  The colour red connotes rock and independency. The colour black connotes a simple and cool lifestyle and the use of white balances out the colour scheme on the pages so that it is easier to read. 

Photography:  The photography on the contents page has lots of images of different bands and artists that are featured in the magazine. They  also have used screen shots of some pages in the magazine to show what they are referring to. This is a completely different way of doing a layout for a contents page. It is also a double page spread and on the photographs there are large numbers which show you which page they are on instead of writing what is on the page they use visual images. This makes it more fun and shows the audience they are targeting. The audience would be teenagers or young adults. They have also used a picture of the front cover of that magazine at the top showing what magazine is. On the photographs they have used a close-up shot, medium long shot, high angle shot and long shot. This gives a different range of camera angles and makes it more visually interesting. The expressions on all of the artists faces seem serious and natural. All of them look posed.

Writing Style: The writing style used on this contents page is modern and for older teenagers. It has a relaxed connotation. They use an informal tone which makes the reader feel closer to the writer. They also use humour. The audience would like to read something that is funny because they would enjoy reading it and it wouldn’t feel like a chore. The language used is chatty and fun. Words like “bah!” humbug!, “shit” and “gadget heaven” are used to make the reader feel as though they are talking to a friend. They also use quotes from different artists and write as though they are talking directly to you.

Overall Look: The overall impression given to the audience is that it is a chatty and a fun magazine that you can find out about all the latest bands and artists. The way it is set out makes it look like its a website page on the internet. Instead of all the pages being written out, they have made it more visual with photographs then with the page number on them. It has a very easy design to follow and the audience can read what they want to quickly and simply.

Text/Picture Ratio: There is more picture than text which appeals to that type of audience they are targeting which is young people, who usually do not want to read a lot of text and would rather look at pictures instead. The pictures take up most of the page and the text goes around the edges.

Fonts: Simple typing text for most of the information and for the bolder titles they have used a rock style font. The title is in the same font as the bolder titles in the main text. The font is black and the background on the title is red. They have used a black font for the main text because they have a white background.