Exercise: Look at a magazine cover. What can you tell about the type of magazine it is; what kinds of articles it contains; who is likely to read it? Why?
This is a fashion/makeup type of magazine, it likely contains articles about fashion designers and makeup brands, fashion fanatics and makeup wearers are likely to read it due to the eye catching portrait on the cover and the cover lines that include popular fashion brands.
This exercise is likely to elicit responses which focus on:
The visual elements, such as figure, costume, color, pose, typography. Layout
Linguistic elements – the title, lexicon, use of ‘teasers’
Lifestyle – what kind of lifestyle is ‘on offer’? How is it offered?
-This magazine protrays a glamorous lifestyle by showing a very pristine, high class woman wearing editorial makeup and hair curlers.
Representation – how are people and places constructed and presented through these technical elements?
-It lures readers in with fancy headlines like "travel to paris", "vera wang fashion legend", "runway couture", and "dining with sharon osbourne", to grab its target audiences' attention and draw them in.
Mode of address – how is a particular audience being addressed by these elements? How is a potential reader encouraged to see her/himself as the addressee?
-The addressee is drawn in by familiar names and brands they take interest in (sharon osbourne, vera wang, etc.) and then feel a sense of familiarity which makes it easier for them to see themselves among them.
Rhetoric – what is the potential reader to be persuaded to buy/accept? How?
-The reader is to be persuaded to buy makeup and luxury items like high fashion clothes from expensive brands because these items are being shown in a very familiar way by using popular celebrities and names to sell them.