1. Genre and Representation!

2. Generic Characteristics
Style- The magazine has a distinctive
and recognizable look to it, This is
because of the house style used. The
house styles that are kept the same are
that of the title where this uses the
same size, colour and font on every
edition printed out. Here on this
magazine the yellow border is always
the same, not changing in width or
adjusted. The White words used
throughout the magazine are used as a
house style but more so to stand out
from the images. These house styles
are used to keep the identity of the
magazine, thus meaning to keep the
loyal customers.
Content- Typical content of
National Geographic is that of a
much greater amount of images
then text. The images are always
high quality as this is the main
attraction. The Articles are
relatively short however they have
pure information about the topic
and nothing else such as
interviews with people.
Technical- Every type of magazine
has a set of conventions in order to
keep ‘normal’ This can be From size,
to the amount of pages produced in
each edition to even the ration of
words to images. When looking at
the National Geographic it becomes
clear it is based on Photographs and
that of a high quality. Therefore the
ration of words to images has to be
over 70% of images. You can
understand what the conventions will
be when looking at the magazines
front cover. Having a full image
covering the first page is an
indication what the reader will see on
each copy.
Symbols- Symbolism is the way
something in the magazine is
represented, For example the way
someone dresses can have a deeper
meaning. Using animals or humans
in this case to go with the title
makes the magazine look more
professional as everything is easy to
look at, and when considering the
target audience it is important to
have detail in the work.
Cultural-Codes such as symbols, clothing
and certain words can go hand in hand with
what the magazine is trying to get a across to
the reader. The culture of that target
audience may share the same codes as the
makers. An example can be using specific
words that only people who have read the
previous magazines or have interest will
understand. It is from this culture it is
important to retain the current audience as
they will be the only people who will buy the
magazine. From this is becomes more clear
why House styles are used.

3. Changes over Time- How has the magazine
changed?
Magazines are always changing their
genre and ultimately their audience .
This is because the world always changes
and people change their habits. An
example can come from newspapers and
how the sales have rapidly fallen,
therefore they adapted and started
working online. This can relate to the
National Geographic magazine. The
magazine used changed from a text
oriented publication, to a scientific
journal to now what is a extensive
pictorial content magazine that has
become well known for its style
Here on this first publication of 1888 it
is clear that the target audience was
first that of a similar age group if not
older. The material is almost the
opposite from each magazine however
the target audience of men aged 50+
remains. The simplistic Colour and the
formal manner of who it is laid out
makes the reader think it is not exiting .
This latest copy shows how far the magazine has come
throughout the years. The way the magazine has
adapted to look at a new genre is a huge risk, however
with the high quality images taken by some of the
worlds best photojournalists and the unique way of
how the magazine is put together will start to make
the magazine look more appealing. Which is why the
media producers have started to broaden the market
by producing many types of National Geographic, from
family editions to solely ones for men.

4. Generic Characteristics- Comparing two magazines
Content- The content of ‘The
Countryman ‘ Magazine is
that of a similar nature to
National Geographic. The
share the same approach to
looking at the text in the
magazine, as well as having
the same Genre and
therefore same target
demographic. The text is
minimal when looking at the
pictorial content. The genre is
clearly nature and the
environment.
Cultural/ Symbols- Codes such as clothing are
used to represent something in this magazine.
As the magazine focuses on farming and
agriculture as well as nature, Pictures of men
wearing farming clothes relates to the people
reading, as only the target audience reads it, it
becomes more important to retain the
customers. This again, like National Geographic
uses house styles for that exact reason.
Style- This magazine is not as
recognizable as the multi-national
selling National Geographic however
does share some of the typical house
styles used. The use of the name being
kept the same is a good way of having
an identify and making sure customers
continuously buy the magazine. Having
the same white text and the same font
for the title let’s previous customers
know that they can keep purchasing
the product. The way the picture is
used to go with the title is clever way
to let people keep reading.
Technical- The conventions this magazine
contains are that of the way the layout is
retained such as the size of the image on
title, the size of the pages, like double page
spreads of animals or the topic in hand. In
comparison to National Geographic it keeps
the same way how the title, name and sub
heading are in different fonts in order from
the biggest to be read first.

5. Changes over Time- How has magazine changed?
On the copy of the old
publication there is one
similarity, that of the house
style. The title is almost
what it is to this day. The
placement of how it is at
the top of the magazine
and the font has been
attempted to retain. The
black colour used for text is
used instead of white
because there is not image
to make it stand out from.
Here since the first copy of Countryman it is clear that again it
does not look like the latest one in any sense. There is no
colour to attract a target audience, nor pictures to split up the
huge amount of text, nor is there any different fonts or sizes
like the image on the right. In comparison with National
Geographic both have developed rapidly since they first
started publications. Changing in style as well as audience.
The changes on the latest
magazine is that of the way it has
a unique nature about it. With so
many competitors making new
magazines, it needs something to
make people choose this instead
of another rival. Using the same
layout and having interesting
images that apply to the reader
will give it a good chance.

6. Representation
Negative: This is where the representation created is to
give a negative impression. To use an Example that is not
part of the Nature genre is FHM. The female magazine. A
negative impression is created through the magazine as this
has an influence on the readers behaviour. A woman would
pick the magazine up and look at the Celebrities are
presented, from this they will want to be like the people
they have seen. This is negative on both genders because
the women will result in bad self –esteem whereas the
males will see all women as those they have seen in
magazines and therefore have a lack of respect towards the
other gender. In relation to this example it can bee seen in
magazines such as National Geographic , because they
might have strong views on certain topics when reporting a
topic from around the world, this may have a negative
impression on the person reading as it may cause offense.
Such as this image on the right. As the Magazine is famous
around the world it may be seen as negative to certain
readers. From this we can see that there will always be
negative impressions taken from every magazine

7. Positive
This is where the representation created by the media
producers is designed to give a positive impression towards
the reader. Here the Magazines looked at of National
Geographic and The Countryman can apply as both are seen
as positive. This is because they rely on providing a service.
To put information down on a magazine and explain it
further with the heavy use of images. The way the give a
positive impression is that of they can give important
information that can be relevant to those reading. As the
typical reader is a male over 46, they are stereotypically seen
to have grandchildren. And they would want to know what
life will be like for when they get older. Such as rising sea
levels. It can provide a way of finding out information that
would hard to investigate for the readers. The magazines
goal was to always go where no one else would go to deliver
knowledge. For example in 1905 the magazine produced
several pages on Tibet. The 11 pages produced by the
governor included some shocking scenes of Lhasa in Tibet.
This could have been seen as a negative impression but
copies sold. Proving that the target demographic were
interested in other cultures.

8. Social Groups & Social Issues
Groups of people can be represented in many
ways. When looking at the magazines in hand
it is clear those groups of people are that of
an older population. The National Geographic
had a dominant gender of Males as the 56%
shows, However women of the age group 2454 did have 44% of that 100%. This says that
the magazine is popular with both genders as
this is not focusing on social matters, nor
pushing one gender aside. The people that
read the magazine in that specific social
group will be seen as that of a positive
manner. This is because they care about the
natural world. And when looking at
psychographics this group can be seen as
Socially conscious type A
Social issues when looking at magazines
such as The countryman can be seen as
the things that affect the farming life and
how certain social behaviour can result
in lack of crops or damage to the farming
life. This information applies to the
target audience. When looking at
National Geographic the issues can be of
a much larger scale as looked at before,
such as a changing climate and this can
result in social issues such as losing jobs
or other matters that natural disasters
can make. The loss of homes is another
thing that can happen. People buying
the magazines feel that it is important
knowledge.

9. Stereotyping & Presence and Absence
Stereotyping can be looked at when considering
representation. When looking at the magazines seen before
you can see one clear similarity of the two that fit into the
stereotypical way of thinking. The way the producers assume
that the older generation are the only ones that are interested
in the magazines. They almost see Younger people to be into
gossip and Sport magazines. Looking back to the research of
Audience readership figures they did not ask the younger
viewers meaning the age group of 24-50+ may be starting
from a lower age. This is possible because of the development
of teachers, they can tell students about the environment to
get their attention. Also to add to that, since the increase in
photographs they can keep the readers attention for a long
period of time.
The images chosen have been looked at thoroughly because
of how they can relate to the target audience. Because the
people reading are supposed to have been to or know the
places featured it is giving the impression that they are the
target audience without considering younger people. This
Stereotype of assuming the younger generation will not
understand is not acceptable as it is putting people into one
category. The target audience will more then likely be the right
one however to have a full understanding and valid way of
knowing the younger generation should have been asked.
This man would be a
stereotypical reader. From
this the media producers
would say that the reader
is highly intellectual, a
manager of some sort and
has the money and
interests to buy the
magazine.