The First Thing That You See When You Pick Up a Magazine
The first thing that you see when you pick up a magazine is the cover. Consequently, it is the most important part of the magazine, and serves a number of purposes. It must attract, because if it is dull, then nobody will pick it up off the shelf. It does this with bright, vibrant colours, and a unique style, so it is not likened to any other magazine After that, it must say whether it is for male or female readers, or indeed, trans-gender. To do this, it does not necessarily have to use words, i.e. "for boys" etc., but colours, shapes, patterns, the kind of pictures on the front and, on closer inspection, the articles can tell the reader who the magazine is aimed at. The name and details of the articles and the pictures on the front of the magazine are both equally important. If an article is about, say, "a boy-bagging quiz" then it is very clear that the magazine is aimed at girls. The pictures on the front are important too, but they are sometimes not as helpful in identifying the magazine and the gender that it is aimed at. This is because both boys magazines and girls magazines can have girls, or boys on their front covers. The reason for this lies in the interests of different genders, and these will be discussed in the actu
There is as much of a difference between boys and girls, in my opinion, as there has ever been, and political correctness does not really come into this. In fact, girls appear to be the more dominant gender, with many general interest magazines specifically for them. This means that the ultimate difference between boys an girls is the insecurity of girls, and their need to be reassured by, advised by, and the same as all the images in their magazines. Boys, on the other hand, like to be more independent, and although they enjoy the images and footballers in their magazines, they do not copy them so much. Because boys tend to have specific subjects that they like, there are not so many general interest magazines for them. J17 had split up its contents into eight sections, all different. They are sections such as "Juicy Stuff" and "Fashion and Beauty" The girls magazine has a lot of stuff in it about how girls should look, and talks about other peoples lives and problems a lot. especially to do with love. This signifies that girls take a lot of notice of how other 'cool' people dress, so that they can do the same, and fit in with everybody else. They also believe in sharing their problems a lot, such as in the problem pages, and enjoy hearing about other peoples lives, especially when it is to do with celebrities. This is further evidence to indicate that girl try to be like other people far more than boys do. It also shows that they are nosy. Shoot, on the other hand, is not split into different sections, and there are far fewer articles mentioned in the contents, in fact, there are only five, and a list of the posters that can be found in the magazine. This is not due just to the fact that Shoot has about half the number of pages that J17 has got. It is mostly down to the fact that the media presume that boys are not as bothered or attentive to detail as girls are. The final study area of the magazines is adverts. They are in magazines for a good reason; many people read them , and it is therefore possible to target a wide range of people very effectively. There are many codes, signifiers, and anchors in adverts, more so than in any other part of the magazine, and so these all have to be studied very carefully indeed. The pictures in the articles are very similar in their purposes. In J17, there are bright cartoon pictures of the various girls. They are again, an example of the magazine showing the girls what 'normal' is and how they should go to any lengths to fit it. In this respect, the pictures are worshipped. In Shoot, the pictures are all photographs Owen, and so these are the kinds of images that boys look up to as their heroes, but not necessary copy exactly. Here, again, is an example of the fundamental difference between boys and girls; girls go in groups, boys are more individual. Finally, the words on the front covers are very different, and signify the kinds of things that the media 'expect' boys an girls to be interested in, and again, there are lots of examples of stereotyping. J17 has article titles such as "Lush looks and great gear to beat the back-to-school blues", "I chucked Peter Andre", "Discover your Pulling Potential", "The Juiciest Advice", "The Hottest Gossip" and "In Bed with Celebs". Shoot, on the other hand, has some very different offerings: "Hanging out with Michael Owen", "Glory, Glory, Tottenham Hotspur!", "The Poster Zone" and "Everton Slaven Bilic, Exclusive Chat". The J17 article descriptions are all about things associated with girls, i.e. the stereotypical views that girls are into love, boys and image more than anything, (all things to do with themselves). Evidence of this is "Lush looks and Great Gear" for image, "Pulling Potential" for boys and to do with love, there is "Hot Gossip", "Peter Andre" and "In Bed with Celebs". All these articles have words normally associated with girls too. For example "Gossip" is usually referred to as what women do a lot, especially when they ge
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Approximate Word count = 3625
Approximate Pages = 15 (250 words per page double spaced)
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