3. Codes and conventions
• CODES AND CONVENTIONS OF A WOMEN’S LIFESTYLE MAGAZINE COVER
• •The masthead on the cover is conventionally located at the top of the magazine cover. It is also often in a women’s mainstream lifestyle magazines to have a bold masthead that is larger than any
other, which can be in an either serif or san serif font, for example the ‘Elle’ and ‘Grazia’ magazine has a serif font, whereas ‘Cosmopolitan’ and ‘Glamour’ has a san serif font.
• •The date also conventionally around the masthead in a small, capitalised typography, e.g. either just above the masthead in a pug, or just underneath the masthead, on the right hand side.
The price is either located in a puff, e.g. on cosmopolitan magazine, or under the masthead on the left hand side, the opposite side to where the date may be located.
• •The headline is also most commonly larger than any other text, other than the masthead, and its focus is often on the celebrity on the main image. The headline is also most commonly located in
the centre or just under the centre, on the right hand side. Often the key term in the headline is more bold than and other in the headline, or in a different colour, such as the celebrity’s name.
• •The main image is located centrally on the magazine cover, down the centre of the page. It is conventionally a person, and most often a well-known celebrity that will entice the fans of the
celebrity to read the magazine. Most often this celebrity is giving a direct mode of address though their concentrated direct eye contact with the camera and therefore the audience. Often on
mainstream women lifestyle magazine has seductive body language, such as their hands in their hair, or with their hand holding their opposite elbow. Their costume also often is fairly revealing,
therefore conforming to Van Zoonen’s Feminist Theory, on how women are sexualised in the media.
• •The cover stories are located surrounding the main image and are based on feature articles inside the magazine cover such as hair, beauty and fashion segments, which link to the genre of the
magazine. These cover stories conventionally give the audience an idea about what the article may be about, to attract audiences that will have an interest on the topics of the magazine, but without
giving too much information, ensuring the audiences feels they need to read on. Alike to the headline the cover stories conventionally include different typography and fonts as well as text size,
within each of the cover stories to emphasise the key terms in the story, drawing the reader to the general topics that may be discussed in the issue.
• •Also it is conventional of women’s lifestyle magazines to have seasonal colours on the house style, e.g. blues and yellows on summer copies and orange, black and red around autumn. Also it is
conventional for women’s lifestyle magazines to have pink tones on the cover, to establish stereotypically the female target audience.
• •It is also conventional for some women’s magazines to have discounts or vouchers promoted on the front in a puff. This gives the audience an incentive to buy the magazine, and is often related to
the topics discussed in the magazine. Or puffs may include hints at exclusive content; again giving the audience more of an incentive to purchase the magazine
4. Magazines
• Magazines I looked at / notes
• - looked at vogue lifestyle as I believe the target age range would want something that appeals to be
aesthetically pleasing with the likes of vogue and cosmopolitan taking an interest amongst young girls the
classy look , would help girls who struggle between the ages of being a child an an adult as the content would
still be tailored to more teen veiwers whilst having the look of an older magazine
5. Color connotation's
• Color
• Neutral Color Symbolism
• Neutral colors can be cool or warm but are more subtle than blues and reds. Neutral colors
help to put the focus on other colors or serve to tone down colors that might otherwise be
overpowering on their own. To some extent, blacks, browns, tans, golds, and beige colors are
considered warmNeutrals and browns are the epitome of nature and are used abundantly in
design (so much so that many natural tones may go unnoticed). Brown and neutral tones can
represent anything from peace and calm to wholesomeness and reliability or even
boredom. Neutrals like white, beige and grey can also make you feel calm. The fewer colors
you combine and the more simple and pared back a design is, the more calming it will feel.
6. Convenntions
• Media products follow certain rules of design, appropriate to the audience of the
product. These rules are often called generic conventions. Conventions are
necessary as they help consumers understand the genre of the product they are
looking at and to judge whether it is of interest to them or not. The design informs
the reader whether the product is for them and what they will get from it. There
are always clues in the design about the social demographic appeal of the
product and the need the product will meet. DVDs, adverts, games, dramas,
magazines, all genres of films, newspapers all have generic conventions. All
newspapers look the same – even this German one (Bild) looks the The Sun:
7. Examples
• Example 1: Bild, along with The Sun, The Star in the UK follows a typical tabloid newspaper
generic convention with the name of the newspaper (the masthead) in red. A large amount of
space is devoted to the main headline so much so that there is little space for the actual news
story itself. The headline is often in capitals or written in black on white / white on black for high
contrast. Most front pages are now in colour. The front page frequently features a bikini model,
celebrity or other reality TV star to attract the ‘male gaze’. The core readership of tabloid
newspapers is C2DE – that is semi or unskilled or unemployed workers.
• Example 2: High end fashion magazines look the same all over the world. Vogue is an
upmarket fashion magazine, published around the world. Copies of this magazine look the
same, even in Russian:
8. • Example 2: High end fashion magazines look the same all over the world. Vogue
is an upmarket fashion magazine, published around the world. Copies of this
magazine look the same, even in Russian:
9.
10. • High end women’s magazines, such as Elle, Vogue and Cosmopolitan conform to
their own generic convention. The cover always features a glamorous
supermodel or famous actor wearing designer clothes. The masthead is clear
and prominent. There are numerous coverlines spread around the page linking to
the contents of the magazine. A range of font styles are used but a limited range
of colours is only ever seen. Their appeal is to wealthy AB graduates with high
disposable incomes that can afford the expensive clothes and lifestyle
represented in these magazines.
• Example 3: Beauty adverts look the same no matter where you are:
11. • Beauty adverts typically feature glamorous, young youthful models or a well
known celebrity. The focus is on the facial features of the model – often careful
lighting and retouching effects are applied to provide an image of perfection. The
models in the adverts represent perfect human beings – they represent to the
reader something users should aspire to, to look younger, more beautiful. The
text makes statements about the effect the makeup will have on the viewer – extra
long lashes, fuller lips, thicker hair.
12. Magazines aimed at women
• Magazines like Heat and Closer are aimed at women. These have their own
genre conventions – busy pages, stuffed with content with the masthead often
obscured by the main image. Content on the cover focuses on reality TV, soaps
and the lifestyles of minor celebrities. Colour schemes are warm with lots of use
of hot pinks and blues.
13. Uses and Gratifications Theory
• Uses and Gratifications Theory
• Katz, amongst others, said that audiences put media products to different uses and
for different pleasures:
• Entertainment
• Relationships
• Information
• Identity
• Maslow suggested people have a variety of needs, as shown in the diagram
below. Newspapers can help meet these needs:
