Tuesday, 9 October 2012

Glossary Of Magazine Terminology

Below are all of the terms used in deconstructing and analysing Magazines:


  • Texts - All forms of media are a text, including TV, radio, magazine article, film etc.
  • Niche market - In terms of magazines where a magazine will be aimed towards a specific type of person, eg. a birdwatching magazine would be for a small minority of people
  • Target Audience - the people that a magazine is aimed at
  • Codes and Conventions - Guidelines that set out what a magazine cover should have in order to see what is expected from the magazine, the following are examples of Codes and conventions
        • price
        • bar-code
        • issue number/date
        • the main photograph directly relates to the main article
        • a recognisable masthead (Title of Magazine)
        • Recognisable fonts
        • various plugs (small colourful tags) to draw in the target audience with offers etc.
        • Links between colours of month, images and text
  • Semeiotics - the reading and understanding of signs
        • Signifier - the object, denotation
        • Signified - the meaning behind the object, conotation
  • Cultural psyche - your background, it is what determines your thoughts and your identity, the following are an example of things that determine your cultural psyche 
        • Personality
        • looks
        • gender
        • age
        • family
        • upbringing
        • what you wear
        • social status
        • sexuality
        • where you're from
        • religion
        • education
        • ethnicity
  • Plugs/Puffs - a feature/offer to entice the audience
  • Main Image/Celebrity
  • Pull quote from the main article as a coverline
  • The left third - the left hand side of the cover, where when stacked you can see the main pieces of the article
  • Main Coverline - main point of the magazine, usually a double page spread within the magazine

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