1. Imebvore Aigbochie AS Media
How do Magazine Front Covers use Denotation and
Connotation to attract their intended audience?
Magazine: ‘Who Minds?’
Firstly it’s automatically apparent that this magazine is aimed at men and women who are
Childminders because it is the magazine of the national childminding association. But the magazine
still shows us this in other ways, for instance the magazine uses an image of a middle aged man and
a child smiling to show that they have a positive and fun relationship with one other which makes it
seem as though a child who is being minded will always be having fun in a comfortable environment.
We can also see that the man in the image on the front cover is slightly blurred and is positioned
behind the child, this way the focus is automatically passed onto the child which means that even
though this is a magazine aimed at Childminder’s, their focus is still on the children which is what
any childminder should be focusing on. The headline ‘Encouraging Aspiration’ must call out to
childminders or even parents; because every parent would want their child to achieve success in life
and to do that you need your child to aspire to do great in life, so by using the headline ‘Encouraging
Aspiration’ the magazine automatically catches the interest of a reader who has children. The puffs
on the front cover are also about children, for instance the ‘Building children’s’ self-esteem’ puff
once again appeals to a parent or childminder and causes them to think that if they read this
magazine they will learn how to make their child into a successful and charismatic person in the
future.
I believe that this magazine is aimed at men and women between the ages of 30-40, because these
are the people who may have had children and need children to be minded and also within that age
group is where the professional childminders would tend to be in because around that age they
would have started or might already have established a career for themselves and this magazine
would provide useful information to childminders who are just starting out or minders who feel they
need to keep up to date and get childminding tips every month. Also the magazine deliberately uses
a middle aged man and a child even though they could have used a sexy woman and a child. This
shows that the audience they are aiming at is more mature and that they are more interested in the
children and what information on children the magazine has to offer rather than the aesthetics of
the magazine itself.
The magazine is definitely aimed at working class citizens because the price isn’t that expensive for a
monthly magazine (only £3.99) and also it gives any reader the chance of winning £1400 worth of
prizes which would come in handy to any reader who can’t afford some of the things on offer. By
giving readers the chance to win prizes worth a large sum of money the magazine automatically
becomes more interesting to some readers as that might make them want to read the magazine all
the way to the end just to see how they can win the prize money.
‘Who Minds?’ has a very simple layout which consists of the mast head, a large image, a headline
and a couple of puffs with simple yet bright colours like sky blue, green and yellow. Since the
magazine is quite spaced apart and open it adds a sense of class and maturity since there aren’t a
plethora of puffs on the front cover randomly. But also the magazine still uses bright colours in
moderation to give the magazine a calm and warming aura to it since it’s supposed to contain
resourceful and healthy information inside of it.