Different Types of Magazines
Within the advertising and magazine industry, there are various genres that are published which have different target audiences, some examples of magazines are shown below, you can see the different techniques that they use on each cover and how it applies specifically to the genre.
Sport Food
Lifestyle Music
Teen Fitness
News Fashion
Why Are Language Devices Used?
Language devices such as:
Mode of address - This is the ways the text address the reader, for example; if they say 'you' they're addressing you, making the audience feel subjective to the author and grabs the attention. This is how the media interacts with their audience.
Alliteration - This is the occurrence of the same sound or letter; this is used to focus the attention on a particular section of text, it creates rhythm and emphasises certain words.
Power of 3 - This is used as humour because things that come in 3 are typically a funny gesture. It is an effective way of getting information across because helps the audience remember it.
Colloquial - This is used to set a different tone, its usually uses an informal and more personal tone which engages the audience even more because you're instantly connecting with your readers.
Emotive language - This is used to create emotion among the readers; words can provoke either positive or negative responses depending on what the topic of the magazine is.
Monosyllabic - These words are usually short and snappy therefore are effective to the reader.
Personal pronouns - Used to emphasise what the character is feeling, it shows that the person is sharing personal information with the audience.
Abbreviation - This is used to shorten a word or phrase so that it sounds more exciting.
Rhetorical questions - This is used to allow the reader to make their own decisions and by doing this it also emphasises the point that they're trying to make because you have to process an answer yourself.
Exclamation marks - These are used to display a strong or urgent feeling; they also express excitement because they add emphasis.
Repetition - This is used to reinforce a key idea and drive home a message to a reader.
Rhyme - This helps makes phrases more catchy and interesting which captures the readers attention. It also helps the phrase become well known because they may say it in casual conversation.
All of these techniques are used on the majority of magazine covers, but why?
I just used one as an example. The fact that I asked you a question and as my audience, it intrigued you in to thinking about the answer. That is the primary reason as to why magazine publishers use a combination of all of these techniques; to engage their audience and get them to want to read on further. This then maximises the company's profits if more people are buying the magazine and ultimately, the two goals both are based on popularity and profits.
Analyse Glamour Magazine
This glamour magazine is a good example because it uses a lot of the language techniques.
This Look magazine used exclamation marks in the quote 'Amp Up Your Look!'. There's also repetition within that sentence because the magazine is called 'Look' and it refers back to its name to engage their audience and keep them aware of what the magazine is called. The magazine also uses colloquial language, rhyme, personal pronouns and a rhetorical question all in one quote; "Are You A Rinsta Or A Finsta?". Due to the direct invitation of speech used ('You') it makes the audience feel somewhat special as if the magazine is talking directly to them. Abbreviations are used on the magazine cover where it says 'It's LBD Season!'. LBD is an abbreviation for little black dress and usually only people interested in fashion would understand this term which shows the magazine publishers reaching out to their target audience. The other techniques this magazine cover uses are: alliteration, power of 3, emotive language and monosyllabic. The example for alliteration is 'Best style & Beauty hacks' the repetition of the 'B' makes it easy for the words to be remembered as they roll easily off of the tongue. An example for power of 3 and monosyllabic is 'NYC, London, Milan' 3 well known places of fashion which also relates to the target audience. The last example would be for emotive language; 'The heath scare that's changed my life'. This changes the whole mood of the magazine, showing the audience that there is other things that go on in the world that would affect people.
Magazine of Choice
This vogue magazine demonstrates many advertising techniques such as: mode of address; the magazine cover says 'Dress up with YOUR hair'. This is directly addressing the audience and making it seem as if the magazine was made specifically for them. Alliteration; 'Fashions most fabulous florist' the repetition of the 'F's' emphasise the point that they're trying to make. This may be an opportunity to get someone's name out into the industry which is why they're trying to make their point stand out. Power of 3; 'Princesses, dresses and silver shoes' this was put in a group of 3 because they all relate to one another, there's also a slight rhyme with the endings of the words (es). Monosyllabic; the actual name of the magazine is monosyllabic 'VOGUE' and that's partly why the magazine is so famous because it has one syllable that just rolls of the tongue. Exclamation marks: 'Oh so pretty!' notice that this is one of the first things you see when you look at the magazine, not only because of the exclamation mark but because it is in a large font which makes the text stand out. Rhyme; 'More dash than cash' - this is a catchy saying that anyone can easily remember, it is also slightly colloquial and they would also remember where they saw it which is why they used it on their magazine, they want to make their product unique and memorable to the customer therefore that's why they use all of these techniques to interest the audience and keep them interested. Baring in mind this is just the front cover and as the saying goes 'first impressions count'.
