To what extent should magazines be held responsible for the social ramifications of the representations they offer? 

All teen magazines follow typical conventions to make it appeal to the target audience, they are created to guide young women through tough stages of teenage years and help mould them into the stereotypical woman they want to become. By achieving this the target audience seek advice on health, beauty and relationships, therefore justifying why it is a common occurrence in this genre of magazine to include tag lines tackling these issues on the front. Bright colours are a popular convention for this genre of magazine particularly pink which with holds the connotation of being energetic, flirtatious, feminine and even some sexual undertones which can reflect the personality of the reader. Pink also has tinges of red which capture your attention before any other colour, furthermore more pink is immediately associated with young females as it is a playful girlie colour again readdressing the target audience. Another convention of teen magazines is tag lines and main tag lines are often about beauty and fashion, 'Fall Fashion Guide', '12 beauty bargains celebs love'. Tag lines and main tag lines are used to give short snappy information about the main features in the magazine therefore suggesting that the main content of teen magazines is about fashion, make-up, hair and buying similar products to admired celebrities. 

 Also appearance and body image is mentioned a lot on the front covers of teen magazines and includes tag lines such as  '131 Little Ways To Your Best Body', and even true life stories with tag lines including 'accidental anorexic' again associating the audience to these kind of issues and still linking with the theme of body issues. As these tag lines represent the main content of the magazine it can have a hidden meaning of stating this is what most content of teenage girls in todays society. Furthermore the topic of boys, sex and hot male celebrities frequently arise among the cover of magazines including tag lines such as 'Glees Sexiest Bad boy', 'All new Sex Bible', and 'Is he boyfriend material' which suggest that the target audience are mature before their time.

Due to these conventions they potentially have a negative effect among teenage girls in todays society. With the use of constantly feeding teenage girls information about their appearance and how to get a perfect body quickly it produces

an unhealthy image among the target audience. Girls in this age group are easily influenced and naive which mean they believe and follow the advice religiously, in some cases it can be taken to the extreme which leads to eating disorders and confidence issues therefore the media now targets the youth and are allocated a bad image due to the effects this genre of magazine produces. Many of the sub headings are of how to get a new man or 'sex bible' introducing an older approach to society which should be recognized by readers who have a mature mind set and are comfortable to read and talk about these issues without being influenced by the content of the article. However the target audience of these magazines have not produced these attributes yet and are naive to this subject which is highly talked about among the media and stereotyped young people to be clued up about this certain subject. Due to this the youth feel pressurized to learn as much as they can about the subject as they feel singled out due to the media falsely representing teenagers in this way therefore they feel the need to learn as much as they can to not be left out and unique from the typical 'teenager'. Ounce reading about this subject every month they feel mature enough to act and

dress like an idolized celebrity who is of there phycological age range instead of actual age having an effect of following strict hair, make up and body routines provided in the magazine to look as much as the celebrity as they can, therefore teen magazines make it easy to find information in achieving what you set out for. This also comes across as making it acceptable to be in this mind set about your overall image, furthermore leading back into body and image issues as you are judged if you don't fit into the stereotypical teen girl image. Enhancing this point it produces false images of how boys might want you to dress act and look, so you change your image to make yourself seem more attractive to them instead of focusing on what matters in teenage life.

Teenage magazines could be altered to prevent any of the effects from conventions becoming out of hand into extreme issues such as with holding so much information on how to loose weight quickly but provide an alternative of how to create

a healthier you. This would have a long term healthy effect as there image would be effected in the long term from bad eating habits so this could reverse it and leave a healthy mind set on how you look at food and see your body preventing various eating disorders. Teen magazines should try and provide a range of models who consume most of the page, as most of them are slim white girls brining in a racial theme and also creating images ounce again of how you think you are expected to look like. By bringing in different ranges of women for the front cover can make the readers feel accepted and see them self as normal because they have similarities to a model on a cover of a widely popular teen magazine. One of the subheadings which has a common occurrence among monthly issues is about men, and sex, this could be toned down in telling you what you have to look like or how to act to get a boyfriend and instead compromise with giving relationship advice and real life issues teenagers face around this subject. Therefore teenagers aren't completely alien when they get to this stage of there life but still have room to make there own judgment on this situation and learn from there mistakes instead of being told what to do and false; which many boys find unattractive so have completely opposite views to what you believe. Finally teen magazines should be diverse for all teenage girls as they are a 'teen' magazine and not all teenage girls are the same therefore the convention of having pink on the front cover could be changed to have a higher variety so it appeals to a wider audience and they don't feel so left out in society just because they don't like the colour pink. 

Deconstruction of a magazine cover: 

• The title is also known as the master head all the way across the cover so that the audience can see part of the title from the left hand side when looking in a shop as retailers stack them with the left hand bind showing. It will grab your attention as it is a bold black sans serif font therefore it is clean and suggests it is produced for a mature sophisticated audience. The colour also links with this theme as it is black which is associated with elegance, formality and power again linking to the personality of the target audience. 
• The main image takes up most of the magazine as this is the first thing which grabs your attention and is made up with a young celebrity which is of the time and can inspire young females who are the target audience, it also means less writing will overcrowd the front all at ounce. 
• It includes the price in a spot/ plu, which means it is an important small piece of information which is of most significance for the buyer. 
• The main cover line is distributed across most of the main image and in bright colours to make it stand out, also the start of the cover line starts on the left side as it is the place most people look to first. 
• It contains cover lines surrounding the main image and they often include main interesting stories which will appeal to the main audience as it will persuade them to buy it to read the stories included. 
• It has a dateline a month prior to the month it is to be released just like other conventions of a monthly magazine. 
• A model credit is placed next to the models name "i'm loving being engaged' which is a key quote that sumerirses what they will be talking about and as it is around the theme of weddings it attracts the audience even more as the audience are often the age group in which people who are thinking and talking about getting married. 

Magazine Design Terminology:

• Masthead- also known as the title it promotes the visual branding of the magazine, it is made to standout so that it is easily recognizable and stand out. It is either across the whole of the top or on the left hand side as it is where most people will see it. 
•  Puff/Plug- this is where there are stared pieces of information on the page, they can be in all different sizes and often contain a number or a small bit of information that stands out and informs people instantly. 
• Model Credit- usually found on fashion magazines as it is from the model or celebrity on the front, it is often a key quote that summarize what they are talking about in there article and what you would be most interested to read about. 
• Left third- this is vital for sales in shops where the magazine as a whole is not shown and only left of it is to make space therefore all of the key ideas and advertising your main content so it is recognizable in display of other competition. 
• Dateline- show the month and year of publication often with a price, monthly magazines usually are on sale a month before the cover date states.
• Main image- often takes up most of the magazine as it draws your attention instantly if it is an inspirational celebrity or someone you find of interest, this allows the writing to be kept at a minimum so you are not overcrowding all at ounce. 
• Cover lines- a lot of cover lines are usually used and distributed around the whole of the magazine cover often containing stories that will attract the main audience. 
• Main cover line- usually bigger than a normal cover line and is a color and font that stands out from the rest as it is a main feature and main priority on the cover. 
• Selling line- some magazines include a selling line underneath the magazine title as it is a sharp description of the magazines main selling point, e.g.. 'Cosmopolitan: The worlds No.1 magazine for young women'. 
• Sans serif font- this is a smooth font with no extra flourishes often seen as a sophisticated font for a title as it is clean cut and visible among a variety of different texts.
• Serif font- this is usually a font that has flourishes or extra detail on the word this makes it more girly and addresses the target audience ounce seen. 
• Barcode- on the front or back of every magazine to track sales by retailers. 
• Promotion- there are sometimes articles on the front of the magazine cover to sell products or an item that might be of interest to the audience. 

Things you can do with Blogger: 

• Update pictures, profile, and added information whenever you want. 
• Allow adds to be shown on your blog in exchange for a certain amount of money monthly. 
• you can dismantle and sell parts of your blog that are of no use for you any more. This is usually for professional bloggers who use it to make a living for them self. 
• You can merge it by adding posts from an inactive blog to an active one therefore you have more articles on your blog. 
• It can be used as a billboard so if you have something you want to promote then you can put links and adds anywhere on your blog. 
• Interact with other bloggers and members of the site. 
• Update old posts you want re blogged. 
• Update the content of popular posts you want re blogged and have high demand.
• Conduct a topic analysis so it can tell you what to write about to meet various goals. 

How I Think a Blogger will be useful for my Coursework: 

• You can edit work ounce you have already submitted it if you need something changed to it quickly and efficiently without printing out a different copy and searching for ages it is there to find easier than if you had it saved in a file or on paper.
• It can be used to inspire other students if they are stuck on an idea they can just look at my blog to get ideas and to help proceed with there work. 
• Can receive feedback from other students for peer mentoring and also lecturers can give you marks and grades as soon as they have looked at it which you might find more useful as you can then proceed to do something about it. 
• You can merge it with older posts so work from different topics don't get mixed up. 
• It will look neat and organised, also it will be easy to find as lecturers can search it in the search box. 
• It allows multi media to be shown so there are more and exciting ways to present your work. 
• It is environmentally friendly as you are not using as much handouts and print outs. 
• It ensures none of your work gets lost or misplaced as it will all be on one site.