Magazine genres

Magazine Task:

Choose 3 magazine genres: 1) what are the conventions of each magazine genre? 2) How do the conventions differ in each magazine, why might this be? 3) What can we say about the target demographics? 4) What can we say about ‘connotation’ and overall message in magazines of each genre?

Slimming/dieting magazine genre:

The magazine ‘Slim’ uses a range of features on the front cover mainly for effect, for instance, making the magazine look good and to attract the audience. They chose not to use bold, as it would defeat the object of what they are trying to do, encouraging people to be ‘Slim’. The use of ‘Slim’ in thin font without boldness has an affect, as it does grab the audience attention by the font size being big, however doesn’t use bold to grab the audiences attention, it uses different affects than most magazines.

The magazine also uses taglines over the page to represent what’s inside the magazine. Most of the taglines are coloured and writing in different formats to grab the readers’ attention in different ways, this tells us that all the articles inside are important and effective in different ways to the magazine. The magazine also uses one image across the whole spread of the magazine, it shows a woman in a greyish blue background, in a plain white vest-top, holding a bowl and spoon with a healthy meal. By showing an image this way, presents to the readers that this look makes beauty and it brings you all the looks you desire, with the perfect body; the image shows everything about the magazine and what they believe, eating healthy is the way to be slim, beautiful and healthy. By showing an actual ‘slim’ model, rather than a skinny one, has a better affect on the readers, as they don’t have to go to extreme measures to get the perfect body; although this magazine is a dieting magazine, it actually tries to et across of having a healthy diet more than quick ways to lose weight, which a lot of magazines do, this magazine shows what lifestyle is better for you in the long run.

The target demographic tends to be women; this is shown through the use of a woman as the main image, as well as using a range of colours that tend to be quite bright and feminine.

Sport Magazine:

This magazine ‘Sky Sports Magazine’ doesn’t use much on its front cover to create the big effect in which it does. The magazine has its masthead in the top-left of the magazine; the masthead is very bold and uses colours that stand out to the readers. In addition, the magazine uses a main headline at the bottom of the front cover in big white front to stand out away from the image to attract attention and draw the audience in.  The magazine is mainly made up of a main image, this image is of the same person ‘Ryan Giggs’, used over and over again to build up a team-like image, however it shows him in different positions and different football outfits. This tells us the main story is about over time ’20 years at the top’ and shows how he has stuck with the same football team ‘Manchester United’ over a long period of time, the change of the football kit and how it has developed shows this. The image is mainly dark which makes the image stand out and be bold, as well as represent the footballer as strong and undefeated, it also relates to power and the power he has in football.  The target demographic appears to be men; this is shown through the use of a male sports man, as well as the use of colours they have decided to use. They use quite dark colours that tend to be quite bold and relate to strength and power, which tends to attract male demographics.

Food/ Cookery Magazines:

The magazine ‘food network’ uses a variety of features to attract its audience, mainly using a variety of bright colours to grab people’s eyes. Different colours are used all over the page, blending them on top of each other, yet allowing individual colours to stand out for themselves. Unlike most magazines, they keep their masthead to the top-left of the screen, with a big image covering the majority of the page. This shows that the contents inside the magazine is actually more important than their masthead; they want to attract people more into reading the magazine than just looking at the title. Their plan is to get people focused on the content and what’s most important; the name of the magazine doesn’t matter to them, but getting people reading it and attracted to it does. They use taglines down the remaining left of the page (under the title), to show what else is in the magazine through text; they use a wide range of fonts to represent parts of the magazine in different ways and to show that every part of the magazine is important in its own way. They use three pictures across the top of the magazine, showing men women and a couple, this shows that the magazine is aimed at a variety of demographics, not specifically men or women.