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 magazine is focused on fashion and contains articles on the latest fashion trends, hair health, and an interview with actress Florence Pugh on growing up in the industry. People are likely to read it if they are involved or interested in the fashion industry because that is vogues main focus.
This exercise is likely to elicit responses which focus on:
The visual elements, such as figure, costume, colour, pose, typography. Layout- model takes up the whole cover page, wears colorful patterned clothes to give contrast to plain grey background and grab attention.
Linguistic elements – the title, lexicon, use of ‘teasers’- Uses big subtitles with interesting text to summarize the articles.
Lifestyle – what kind of lifestyle is ‘on offer’? How is it offered?- Health and Beauty lifestyle focusing on women's fashion.
Representation – how are people and places constructed and presented through these technical elements?- The model on this cover is presented as very beautiful and natural. You can tell she is wearing very little to no makeup on her face. There is no text covering her face so that readers can focus on her beauty and innocent look.
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?- A reader is encouraged to see themselves as the addressee because they are presented with a model who is beautiful and kind. She is seen as a role model and since on the cover she is portrayed as beautiful and natural, This makes other believe she is the beauty standard.
Rhetoric – what is the potential reader being persuaded to buy/accept? How?- The reader is persuaded to buy all of the clothes and products featured because they believe they will look like the model on the cover if they do make these purchases. The readers have the mindset of "If I follow all of these trends I will get to be beautiful like the model."