Statement of Intent

My magazine cover was aimed at a target market ranging from the ages of 4-12 years of age, KICK-OFF is mostly aimed at boys however girls can also enjoy it too, it is a child friendly magazine which is reasonable, so that means it can appeal to all children it does not affect their economic state.

I decided to create a magazine that had a retro feel to it so I made the whole magazine 8-bit and based the magazine off football. To convey my retro style I used the rule of thirds to place my strap line, iconic sign and plugs. My iconic sign are to footballers reaching for a football to draw my target audience’s attention I used  bright colors such as blue yellow to really engage my audience and have them hooked right from the beginning just from the main image. I used an indexical sign on my different color fonts for example my strap line was yellow where as my plugs had a purple back round with purple writing the idea behind this was to grab my target audience’s attention with the variation of color. The iconic sign was then images of well-known professional footballers as 8-bit characters and the back round of the magazine being a football pitch. Even though a child aged 4-8 may not know these footballers they will be intrigued with the magazine due to the cartoon element of the magazine. I gathered inspiration of many magazines such as Match of the Day for the football element of the magazine and for the 8-bit element I used ideas from magazines such as Retro and Retro Gamer for my strap line and plugs I made a similar version/layout from the Match of The day article, this really allowed me to finalize my magazine as I was able to gather inspiration on what footballer to create to add to the plugs. I used a lexis of words such as Best and exclusive for these words I added extra effect on photo shop by putting both words on bold and using bevel to really make them stand out, I also added a hook to the magazine saying ‘Enter in a prize draw to win Ronaldo’s Football shirt’; this was added as a way of the target audience to really want to purchase the magazine as they all hope to win one of Ronaldo’s shirts.

Representation: I Believe my magazine front cover is radical, i believe my magazine challenges dominant ideology as i made it a retro 8-bit magazine. The reason why this challenges dominant ideology is because in this generation games are improving and the latest technology are allowing games and their quality to be similar to real life. The first reaction the audience may have from my magazine is believing it is a bit outdated because compared to modern day games which the public are used to; it stretches modern society beliefs on how games should be made nowadays. I wanted to challenge dominant ideology by allowing the public to remember where the roots of games came from to how they evolved now, this is why my target audience is from 4-10 year old’s. As they do not critic the outdated games they play them for fun due to the wacky kid friendly play styles and the variation in color.

Audience theory: Reception theory- This is where the media re enforces a message to the audience. some believe this theory only gives the media what they want to see, linking into my magazine by adding this into the audience this may change the opinion on how some people feel about my magazine due to the media re-enforcing a message for example portraying my magazine as one of the best gaming magazines this may influence the audiences ideas, attitudes and beliefs to the comparison of retro games and 21st century games and changing their belifs on what type of game they think they should be playing.

Cultivation theory- examines the long term effect of television and media this would effect my magazine as the audience would be so used to playing certain games seeing a magazine which challenges the games these members of the massed media play they may not be willing to openly try these new retro games and sway towards the ideas of their is no better game it does not mater if its 8-bit or 21st century graphics.