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How do magazines use denotation and connotation to attract their intended audience?
The October 2003 Rolling Stone magazine cover, issue no. 93, uses denotation and connotation to attract their intended audience. It is a music magazine and therefore aimed at music lovers. This front cover is aimed at both sexes as it has the popular female artist Britney Spears looking sexy to attract men but yet not sleazy so as to attract women as well. The age of the audience is likely to be, but not limited to, 16-30 years of age due to the provocative photo on the cover as well as the reference to what is going on in the world outside music toward the bottom of page titled ‘Special Report’.
This front cover uses a specific colour scheme which is made up of mainly blue, orange, black and white. This works because the title of the magazine is blue and white and the background is mainly white, The Blue and Orange text contrast each other whereas the black and white are neutral and this therefore catches the intended audience’s eye and attracts them to this magazine. Underneath the main title, to the left hand side of the paper is the word Britney is bold black letters. Other than the main title this is the largest word on the cover and therefore the reader would expect this to be the main article and perhaps the double page spread. This is further expected due to the image of Britney on the cover. If a Britney Spears fan sees this cover she will be attracted to it because she wants to read an article on Britney Spears. Towards the bottom of the page there is a description of another article in the magazine about ‘America’s Dirty War’, because this is an important issue that people would be interested in the title for this article is in capital letters and it will therefore be something the audience is drawn in by which will increase attraction to this magazine.
To the right hand side of the page there is insight to another article that will be in the magazine called ‘The 2003 Hot List’. The words ‘hot list’ are in bold and are of a larger font in order to attract the audience. Men will want to read this because they can look at hot women and women will want to read this because they want to look like these hot women. The fact that the image of Britney on the front is sexy or ‘hot’ will attract the audience to want to see more hot women inside the magazine.
The Language used isn’t gender specific or genre specific. This is done to attract a wider range of audiences and this use of language and images that are not specific to any certain type of person is what makes the Rolling Stone’s audience so large. There are different types of articles advertised on the front page; Gossip, Music, Looks and Politics. This attracts so many different types of people and is done in such a manner that it still looks very professional and by just using denotation (the literal meaning of words and pictures) and connotation (the idea/feeling that a word invokes) a large audience is attracted and the magazine is very successful.
Evaluation of my newspaper cover
For my newspaper cover I decided to use the newspaper ‘The Daily Telegraph’. This is a daily morning broadsheet paper. It’s a right winged paper which means it is supportive of the conservative party. This paper also costs £1 which suggests that this paper is aimed at a high social class with conservative political views as they can afford a relatively expensive paper. This type of audience will be interested in real, detailed news and the political issues; they’re unlikely to be interested in reading celebrity gossip and other tabloids. The Paper must therefore be professional, formal and informative.
The image used on my front cover is a picture of a burning building set in Croydon. Underneath the picture is a caption to briefly explain what is going on. This huge fire is a dramatic, eye catching image and therefore draws in the reader. An eye catching image on the cover is essential as it encourages the reader to read on and therefore purchase the magazine.
For the main article I used the title ‘London Burns’ in big bold letters. I used the font ‘Times New Roman’ because it is a very formal, professional font. The title relates to the picture of the burning building and also relates to the historic event ‘The Great fire of London’ and marks this as another tragic historic event. The text used in the main article is also ‘Times New Roman’ and it is size 9. It is a small size because the newspaper is aimed at a high social class and also people of a high intellect. The language would be formal and polite. This article also unusually has 3 subtitles which relate to the subject of the riots. This is common for the daily telegraph. The first subheading I used was ‘Police struggle controlling London’s Streets’, This would catch the reader’s attention as a higher social class of people would be very worried about this lack of control as they are very concerned about the economy and know that their tax is what pays these policemen. The second subheading used was ‘Cameron ends holiday early to deal with crisis’, This kind of heading is expected from the daily telegraph because of their strong conservative views, They would be expected to tell the reader what the conservative president was doing to handle the situation. The final subheading relates to the picture saying ‘Hundreds of shops destroyed’.
A second smaller article is placed underneath with the title ‘Bring in the Water Cannons says head of police’ I used this title because It was an important event during the riots and made the crisis a lot more real. The fact that this was an important event would draw in the reader and increase the likeliness of them purchasing this paper.
Underneath the smaller article is a bar code and a brief economy related section with a small graph. This would encourage a higher class of people, who are interested in money, to buy the newspaper and read on about the economy.
In the middle of the main article there is also a political cartoon to create some kind of humour but still an intelligent type of humour with political references and a small preview of the contents to draw the reader in and persuade them to buy the newspaper and read on. To the bottom right hand corner there is an expensive advertisement. This advertisement will bring the paper more money but placing it in the bottom right corner means it will be the last thing the reader sees as they will mainly read left to right and from the top to the bottom.
The fact that my newspaper cover puts across the point that Cameron is ending his holiday early puts the government forward as doing the right thing. The sub article also shows that the police are doing all they can. This therefore places the blame for the riots on the rioters themselves.
