Magazine Analysis Practice; Part 2

2. (a) Study the front cover for GQ magazine, suggest two different audiences for this magazine.

The first and most obvious audience for this magazine to me is the young female audience members, especially because this magazine cover constantly reinforces the statement that they are displaying the 'men of the year' of course that would appeal to women. Not only that, one of the cover lines mention a person this magazine is 'obsessed with' that 'all the girls are gossiping about' this reminds me of a female succeeder who needs to know who this 'obsession' is. Another audience for this magazine is obviously the one it aims to appeal to, the metro-sexual male. Metro-sexual males are all about not being ashamed of looking after themselves, knowing whats fashionable whats 'in' and researching how to better themselves metro-sexual male audience members would be interested in finding out what other males are doing well in the world and would appreciate seeing a legend like Clint Eastwood on the cover of this magazine.

(b) Study the front cover for Saga Magazine aimed at people over 50. Explore how this audience has been targeted.

Firstly the word 'Saga' is a word signifying old, long, heroic importance. Almost signifying that the older audience members who read this magazine are an elite group of elderly heroes. The celebrities featured in this magazine, Michael Caine, Delia Smith, Vera Lynn etc are all well known elderly role models. This magazine celebrates how successful these people are still no matter their age. The magazine is very simplistic and doesn't scream at the audience. With simple colour schemes and minimal cover lines it is relaxed reading which the target audience would be looking for. The cover lines also hit relevant issues for older people today, for example Michael Caine being scared to go outside and the BBC with Ageism. The magazine provides chances for older people to be involved and relate, as these are things many older people experience today.
 Although touching on the more serious problems, it does vary with its content, talking about christmas present dilemmas, recipe's and gardening it provides a wide range of content. Unlike gossip or chat magazines which are mostly focused on shocking stories throughout. The cover doesn't dramatise or mislead audience members about what is inside, instead it explains clearly what each story is about. Older audience members aren't reading this magazine for their expectations to be challenged - in fact the very opposite. They will know what to expect from Saga, but that is not a bad thing.

(c) With reference to your own detailed examples, explore how media texts target different audiences.

Pick Me Up magazine is a chat/gossip magazine targeted at the young adult female audience members. Often the audience members who spend a lot of time at home, this magazine isn't designed to have a strong dedicated fan base - but the devices it uses ensure that every edition is read by many people. The magazine uses very bright and bold colour schemes, the fonts are very bold and all in capitals and the cover lines take up 70% of the page. This mode of address is used to attract the bored reader, the misleading over dramatised captions ensure audience members read on, when their expectations of the story are not met they are not disappointed however because audience members know this is not a magazine to be taken completely seriously. The use of an anonymous average looking model on the cover signifies the idea that it is normal average people who read this magazine and if she reads it then so can you. 

Django Unchained is a text i think is meant to appeal to the young male audience members particularly explorer types. This film begins by meeting the typical conventions of a western film but as we see in the trailer it is riddled with light hearted comedy paired with extreme violence. These juxtapositions create a whole new film type and challenge audiences expectations which is what the explorer wants in a media text.

This PrettyLittleThing.com ad is designed to appeal to the teenage/young adult female audience. The large bold text saying 'Live, Laugh, Party' is often associated with teenagers. The models in this ad aren't particularly showing off the actual clothes very well but it is still effective because it uses the idea more that if you buy clothes from here, you can be like these gorgeous girls who are living, laughing and partying. With clothing brands like this which have to compete with so many other young teenage brands it is important that they get their 'reputation' up first, so they are trying to appeal out as the reckless 'cool' choice for clothing.