Magazine Front Cover Analysis

Language

The conventions of this magazine cover a bold and easily spotted this is so the target audience is captured by the main features.

The masthead or logo for the magazine is very captivating and its attention is drawn to you therefore you are more likely to notice it when your browsing through other magazines. The word ‘ROCKS’ on the bottom relates to the main image, a celebrity with a high profile, the one word also makes connotations such as implying danger, ‘coolness’ and envy. The single letter in the name of the magazine is ‘Q’ this is completely unique and therefore different to other mastheads on other magazines, also there is a large contrast in colours between the ‘Q’ and its background. White and red shows a good vs. evil kind of feeling and creates an enigma as you don't really know whats inside.

The image is medium close up, this is shows a revealing image and the expression along with emotion on the main image, the celebrities connotations tend to reflect on the magazine, so in this case the image is saying that Cheryl Cole is  quite abstract. The image has a certain sexual appeal to it and this is to attract the male audiences. There is a green tint in the background displaying envy as many girls would like to be her and many men would want to be with her, meaning that they want what they can’t have. The main image also like the masthead has a contrast to it, black and white with an abstract red lipstick shows how everything is linked in to the masthead to keep the main theme.

The tag line of this issue is simply ‘Cheryl Cole Rocks’ so people instantly are looking and recognising the name and the people that are likely to buy this magazine listen to the pop and rock genre. It is also a statement that not everybody will agree with so Q’s target audience are probably going to want to read more to find out why this statement is true or where the thinking comes from.

The tag line is placed at the bottom to get the most attention off potential buyers this is important as they need to maximise their views and sales. It is also like a title, its there to say what the main article is about in this issue and this is because they need to appeal to as many audiences at possible this will do that as she is a well known celebrity and well liked by most people.

Institution

COMPLETE

Source: http://www.slideshare.net/GemmaLouiseDavis/q-magazine-research

Date Used: 03/10/12

Ideology

When people look at this image they see a high profile celebrity and therefore a high profile magazine, this is one of the reasons that the magazine sells so well. The magazine has low morals and publishes some gossip in the music world and this is because it is what people want to hear. There is a low moral issue in the main image that the magazine shows; it is almost as if it has to rely on a sexual denotation of the front cover to sell more copies of the magazine.

Audience

COMPLETE

Source: http://www.slideshare.net/joetrost/q-magazine-5611560

Date Used: 03/10/12

Representation

This magazine represents the woman of Cheryl Cole’s age on the front cover. I think this is demoting women’s values and is leading to a stereotype of women of a young age. It also represents people of the older generation, as some of the cover lines and teasing content is for people of that age range as it mentions John Lennon and U2 these are old bands and the audience aged 30-50 are most likely to understand the articles more.