Analysing Existing Media (Textual)

After annotating the image of the front cover of 'Glamour Magazine', I decided to write an account of what I found from looking at the cover and the features that it uses. Each one is used for an effect, to draw intended audiences' attention and to sell the magazine successfully. Here is my written account of what I interpreted from the magazine cover.

The Connotations of:

The Title:

·         Masthead – Bold, vibrant sans serif large font

·         Catches attention easily – appeals to a younger target female audience

·         Partially covered by main central image – so well known and still recognisable – modernised feature

·         Vibrant blue – imitates the sea as it is an August/Summer issue

·         Catches attention – appeal s to all areas of target readers.

·         Become the magazine image’s logo and unique selling point

·         Main headline in centre of first-third – Most emphasis upon this coverline, as it the main focus of the issue.

Main Image:

·         A well known TV star and celebrity (Blake Lively) – draws attention to magazine

·         She is a role model for fashion – appealing to a young female audience, readers of the same age as the celebrity.

·         Attractive, glamorous image – readers can aspire to be like her.

·         Photo has direct eye contact with the audience – draws them to it

·         Women and teenage girls want to know the gossip about her and her TV show, Gossip Girl

·         She is dressed in a revealing, high-fashion and expensive dress – portrays focus on fashion of the magazine and directly links to magazine title and masthead; Glamour.

·         Image takes up whole of the centre-third – forming the main focal point of the cover

Colour Scheme:

·         Strict colour scheme – Rule of Three – black, vibrant yellow and blue

·         Reflects the idea of sun, sea and sand – Summer themed to suit issue date (August)

·         Vibrant, warm and cool colours that stand out and appeal by drawing attention

·         Slightly shadowed background – simplistic/professional and places emphasis on the model image and the vibrant text, giving it a sophisticated appeal to female readers

Font Types:

·         Same sans serif font used for all main story/cover lines

·         Stands out and can be read from afar – draws attention

·         Smaller and italic fonts are used for quotes and smaller strap lines alongside coverlines, to add information and engage potential readers

·         Drop shadowing used on some text to place emphasis upon it

Coverlines:

·         All relevant to a modern-day female audience – fashion, celebrity news, sex and love, dieting, real life stories and shopping

·         Numbers are used for main coverline to entice readers; ‘544 New Season Looks’

·         Famous names used to draw attention; ‘Katy Perry, Kylie’ etc.

·         Language/text used is casual, flirty and colloquial – all appeals to nature of female readers

·         Persuasive words used to draw attention; ‘all-new, real-life, new season looks, sexy stomach and bum plan’ etc.

·         Quotes used from real-life stories – catches attention with shock-tactics

Selling Points:

·         Plug/Puff: Number used to make it seem superior than other magazines of the same target audience and genre

·         E.g. ‘544 new looks’ and ‘glossy mag only £2’ – this draws attention and persuades readers as they can spend less money than some higher-rank fashion magazines e.g. Marie Claire, but still get a good quality and story-rich magazine, at an affordable price for a monthly issue.

·         Above masthead banner – ‘No 1 women’s magazine’ – This gives it status over other magazines and appeal to readers – persuasive selling point

·         Smaller, compact size magazine – ‘handbag’ size – convenient for female readers

·         Website featured with masthead- places attention to it – appeals to our modern-society and dependency on the internet and computers 

·         Barcode not on cover – gives more space for coverlines - appealing

Audience:

From analysing all the key features of the cover of this ‘Glamour’ magazine, I have inferred that the main target audience for this magazine is female and could range from teens (16,17,18 etc.) and range up to young women aged 20s for example. All the main features of this cover i have analysed seem to be aimed at appealing to a female audience, and it effectively does so as a result, as it is a widely popular magazine, and had been voted ‘Britain’s Number 1 Women’s magazine’. As a keen reader of this magazine myself, I can see how it appeals and why the editors have used the features in this particular cover example.