Conventions Analysis Contents Page

Conventions Analysis Contents Page

Descriptions

Main Title

The main title is very important on a contents page because it allows the reader to know that the page they are on is the contents page. Putting a title on this page also allows the reader to know what is going to be said on the page and what kind of information will be on the page. The main title should always be bold and colourful so that it will be eye catching and it would be the first thing the reader would see. As soon as they see the title they will know they are on the contents page. When creating the title, the creator has to make sure that it is going to blend in well with the colour scheme and that the colour will be right for the genre of the magazine. For example, this is a Rock magazine which means a lot of dark colours would be used, but if the title was a dark colour than it wouldn't be seen as easily because it wouldn't fit in with the rest of the page, so this creator has made the title yellow so that it would stand out. The use of these contrasting colours makes the page look more interesting.

Published Date and Issue Number 

The published date and issue number was shown on the front cover, so why is it shown again on the contents page? It is shown again because the reader doesn't always see it on the cover page as it is usually small because it isn't the most important information that needs to be put across. However, when the date and issue number is put on the contents page it isn't always that obvious either, this is because (again) it isn't the most important piece of information that the reader needs to know, mainly people that collect magazines look at the date and issue number. Although the date and issue number isn't very eye catching on the contents page it is still seen more easily than on the front cover as the text is usually bigger . The date and issue number is shown under the title of the page in this magazine, this is because the editors have tried to keep this information away from all of the features that are going to be inside because they know it isn't that important but they have to put it on so that when people come onto this page they will look at the title and then see that there is something underneath so they will look at it. The creators didn't put it here to make the reader know what the date and issue number is, they put it here so that the reader would know this information if they wanted to, because if the reader couldn't find the issue number then they wouldn't be able to organize their magazines into a certain order. 


Main Image

The main image is important on a contents page, this is because it gives the reader a sense of what this magazine issue will be like. The main image should also be related to the main feature which means the reader will be able to get an idea of what kind of information is going to be said in the magazine. Furthermore, if there was no image then the page would seem very boring as there would be a lot to read and the reader doesn't want to read all the time as they will want to see some images that are related to whatever the magazine is talking about. The main image on this contents page takes up about half of the page, meaning it will be one of the first things that the reader will see as it is quite large. This image also has a small subheading with a page number at the bottom of it, this means the reader will be able to find out what page this story will be on and also they are able to get a sense of what it is about by the name that it has been given. Lastly, when putting a main image on the contents page it again has to be relevant to the genre of the magazine and also the colours in the photo should be similar to the colour scheme of the page so that it won't look messy and instead would look professional. 

Continuous Colour Scheme 

This is very similar to the house style on the front cover of the magazine. If the colour scheme wasn't continuous then it would look like there is too much on the page and it would look unprofessional so the reader may not want to look at it. Plus, sometimes when there are contrasting colours that are different to a great extent then it may make the reader not want to look at the page because there would just be too much going on and they wouldn't know where to look first. The colour scheme always has to be relevant to the genre of the magazine. For example, if you were creating a Heavy Metal magazine then you wouldn't want to add pink to it because it would straight away tell the reader that the magazine isn't going to be about Heavy Metal and it will probably be about Pop music. Moreover, the colour scheme of the contents page has to have the same colour scheme as the cover page, this is because if the colours were different to the contents page, then it would look completely different from the cover and it would look like the two pages shouldn't be together so the colour scheme has to be consistent. 


Page Numbers

Page numbers are always needed on a contents page. These numbers allow the reader to know what page each article is going to be on, if there were no page numbers than the reader would have to look at each page individually to see what page the certain article they are looking for is on. Page numbers aren't just important on a contents page, they are important to all pages in the magazine. For example, if none of the pages were numbered but there were numbers next to different articles on the contents page than the reader wouldn't be able to find what article they are looking for and they would have to count the pages themselves to try and find the article that they want. When showing the page numbers they have to be very clear so that the reader will be able to see them clearly and also they should be able to easily tell which number is with which article. Lastly, most magazines put their page numbers in a chronological order on the contents page, this is useful for the reader because it means that when they are looking at all the articles they will know what order they are in so when they are looking for a certain page in the magazine they will see a certain article and they will know if that article is before or after the one they are looking for, so they can either turn the pages forwards or backwards to find the article they want. 


Subheadings

Subheadings are very important because they allow the reader to know what information is going to be said. For example, this magazine has a subheadings that says 'NEWS', this tells the reader that all the information under that subheadings is going to be about any news on Rock music or maybe news on the magazine itself. Without subheadings the contents page would look very unorganized as there would just be writing anywhere on the page and the reader wouldn't know where to look when they are looking for a certain article. Furthermore, if there were subheadings then the reader would easily be able to find the information they are looking for because they would be able to look for a certain subheading and would know that the information they are looking for would be under that subheading. When creating subheadings they also should be bold and the text should be bigger than most of the other pieces of text on the page because then it would stand out more and it would be easier for the reader to see. The subheadings on this contents page are the same colour as the title which shows that the creators tried to make all the main headings stand out so that people would easily be able to see them and find any information out quickly. 

Contact Information

When contact information is given it is very useful for the reader, this is because if they wanted to get in contact with the magazine producers or editors then they would be able to. This is also useful because some magazines advertise prizes and try to persuade the reader to get involved with these prizes, so participate you would have to contact the magazine company and this is positive for the creators because it means they would earn more money. Contact information isn't important to everyone so when it is shown on the contents page it is usually in a corner and the text is usually small. For example, on this contents page the contact information is in the bottom right hand corner and it is quite small so it is noticeable but it isn't taking up most of the page which shows that it isn't as important as everything else on the page. Furthermore, the contact information on this contents page is a different colour from all the others texts which shows that the creator wants it to stand out because they know that some people would want to know that information but they have kept it small for the people that don't find it that important. Most front covers have a small amount of contact information on them, most of the time it is just a website address, so this is why the contact information is put on the contacts page in more detail. 


'Features' Section    

The features section is one of the main subheadings that are usually on a contents page. This subheading tells the reader what stories are going to be inside the magazine and may sometimes tell the reader what will be happening in each story. Most magazines have content pages that have many different subheadings and they all have stories under the subheadings, but usually the main stories and most popular ones would be under the features subheading. Furthermore, some magazines have the subheadings 'Cover Lines' on the contents page and under this subheading is all the stories that appeared on the cover of the magazine, there would also be a page number next to it telling the reader what page each article would be on. Most magazines try to make the 'Features' subheading more eye catching than the other subheadings because they want the reader to be able to see what all the main stories are before they look at all the other pieces of information on the page. Lastly, when the creators are putting different articles under the features subheading they don't put every singe article under it because then it would take up most of the page, instead they just get the articles that they think the audience would like and the ones that they think would be most popular so that when the reader opens the magazine they will be able to see that they will enjoy reading it because there is a variety of good stories. 

Names Of Each Article

This is very important on a contents page, because this is information that is mainly in the magazine so if there wasn't a title for each article then the reader wouldn't know what is going to be inside the magazine except from the stories that they got from the front cover. Next, if there were no names of articles under each subheading then all there would be on the contents page would be a subheading with nothing under it so the reader wouldn't know what will happen in the magazine as they have been given no information. Furthermore, each article has to be given a title because then the reader would be able to talk about a specific article by using the title that it was given, if they didn't have a title then it would probably just have a small description instead about what would be in that article. This would be a bad idea because it is hard to describe a full article in a few lines, so if the creator only wrote a few lines then the reader still may not have any idea what the article will be about, but if the creator wrote too much then there would be a lot on the page and it would look unorganized and would make it hard for the reader to read as there would be too much going on. 


Editors Letter

Not all contents page's have an editors letter, but the ones that do usually make the page look better. Editor letters aren't really important, it is just a message from the editor saying what they have done to create the magazine, their plans and that they hope the reader will enjoy the magazine. Most people don't read this area because it may mean nothing to them because they bought the magazine to read about the genre of the magazine. For example, if I bought this magazine that I have analysed then I would have bought it to read about Rock music and not to read about someone explaining how they had created it. The editors try not to write a lot because they don't want to take up the whole page but sometimes editors do take up a lot of the page and this is usually a bad idea because the reader bought the magazine to read about whatever genre it is and not about how it was made so it should usually be kept small. The editors usually add a photo of themselves so that the reader can see what the editor of the magazine looks like. I personally think that having an editors letter makes the contents page look better because it changes it up a little bit and there is a small amount of colour change but the colours are usually contrasting so they work well together and they make the contents page look more interesting and it doesn't look as overcrowded. 


Original Mast Head 

Most magazines will have their Mast Head on their contents page. They do this because it allows the reader to know what magazine they are reading because it may be the first time they have read that certain magazine and they may enjoy it so the editors want the readers to remember the name of the magazine. Furthermore, by putting the Mast Head on the contents page it also shows that this magazine has a continuous colour scheme which expresses to the reader that the magazine is very professional as they are trying to keep the same colours throughout. On this contents page the words 'THIS WEEK' are shown next to the Mast Head, this shows that the creators are trying to make the contents page look like it should be with the cover page because it is showing the Mast Head that is on the content page and then it is saying what is going to be in that weeks issue. Lastly, the Mast Head has been put in the middle of the page which shows that it is important and is relevant to everything that is in the magazine.

Images From Articles

Images from different articles are often shown on a contents page. By having different images it allows the reader to see what each article is going to be like because they are able to get a sense of what it will be like by looking at the image. Images that are on their own usually have page number and a title next to them so that the reader would know what page to go on to find the article and also they would be able to see what the article will be about by looking at the title of the article. When putting these types of images on a contents page you have to make sure that they aren't going to take up a lot of room because if they do then they will take up most of the page which will mean there wouldn't be a lot of room for subheadings with different articles and also if the images are quite big then they could be mistaken for the main feature, so people may think that there will be a lot of information on whatever the image is but there actually isn't that much information when they actually look at the article. Again, like the main image the colours of the image should relate to the genre of the magazine and should be similar to the colour scheme so that it would look good and professional. Lastly, on the contents page I have analysed you can see that it doesn't matter what the image is as long as it is related to the story. For example, this contents page has an image of a double page spread which is in the magazine so it is showing the reader what they would actually see and there is another image which is just of someone on stage which tells the reader that the story is going to be about that person on the stage. 

Here is a LIIAR analysis of the contents page I have chosen: