Thursday, 7 May 2020

Researching Current Affairs Magazines: Private Eye

The front covers of private eye magazines contain images taken of political figures or who ever is the key subject in the news at the time but with words edited on to them as a joke. (Like a comic book strip). This is a different approach than to what other magazine publishers do and gives them a more unique style. This theme some what runs throughout the magazine as some articles contain jokes and the titles can sometimes be puns at what happened. Despite this, the Private Eye is the UK's number one current affairs news provider and has been going since 1961.

Like other current affairs publishers, the Private Eye website has a top story's section which is the first thing you see, followed by smaller stories and links to other news articles from Private Eye. The Private Eye magazine covers more general larger topics about current political events and important stories with fewer small less important stories.

Private eye also has many different social media accounts so fans can view their news and posts anywhere. This is very beneficial as it broadens who can access their content and let's more people see their latest information.

Monday, 4 May 2020

Researching Current Affairs Magazines: The Spectator


The front covers of The Spectators magazines are similar to those of The Weeks. They are often mostly white with an exaggerated cartoon depiction of something that has recently happened. They slightly resemble chapters / covers of story books. The mast head is in the top middle of the cover in a bold red font. There is a slim red banner at the top that often contains titles of other topics that are going to be mentioned in the magazine. Compared to the rest of the front cover, there is usually only one image that takes up 70 to 80% of it.

The stories mentioned and included are usually social concerns or current debates in the news (usually political). The magazines and website are aimed at adults as they are about politics and most things included would not appeal to or be appropriate for children.

The contents of the magazines contain a mixture of exaggerated cartoon images and real images with no relation to the importance of the related news article. The news is still serious and goes into detail on some subjects that others may overlook. On their website, the main articles are first then the smaller ones are in rows below them. The website also promotes their podcasts and other ways you can access and stay up-to-date with their news. They also have featured news stories, these are often the most important ones or the ones that people need to be aware of (currently it is updates and situations related to the coronavirus). The featured stories are displayed first so people notice them. Some issues of the Spectator magazine have interesting layouts, using stories or themes and incorporating them into the layout of the news.

Research Of Current Affairs Magazines

Current affairs magazines contain the latest information on politics and cultural topics. They can be brought as print magazines or viewed online.

Some examples of current affairs publishers are:
- The Spectator
- The Week
- New Statesman
- Private Eye

The cover of a current affair magazine is usually either a political image, an exaggerated image that has something to do with a recent event, or an altered image that often has a deeper meaning.

Current affair magazines and websites often have a variety of articles inside. These cover current important news and events as well as other recent things such as discoveries, inventions, technology, etc. Most websites have a large variety or articles down the side with a few main stories at the top. Some, such as The Week, have a section of daily information about important topics (currently about the coronavirus). Inside the magazine and on the website, the articles are accompanied by images of whatever is being talked about. The size of the image often reflects on the importance of the article e.g a large image of people with masks on as coronavirus is an important and serious topic, then a smaller image of something else less important.

The target audience for most current affair magazines are more mature people such as older teenagers and adults, however, there is a junior version of The Week called "The Week Junior" aimed at younger children and covered less serious but still relevant topics.

Research Of The Week

Front cover:
The covers of The Week magazines are exaggerated cartoon recreations of events that have happened or current topics, making it very easy to understand what you are about to read as soon as you see the magazine. The banner at the top contains important articles included inside, this helps maintain some seriousness as the picture associated with the banner articles are often real.
The masthead is late and bold with a red banner and white text. It only contains the title and appears very clean, it separates the main image from the banner at the top.
There is often a splash on the main image, it is usually a pun or joke about what has happened or what is depicted in the image.
(There is also a barcode and website link at the bottom right corner)

Contents page:
The contents page of The Week often starts with a page showing the !ain story's that are going to be covered, with a few paragraphs on what they are about as well as an image. The next page of the contexts is how they're covered and more information on them. The descriptions often contain quotes or information from other news papers and websites such as The Sun or The Guardian.