'Woman' Magazine

'Woman' Magazine is a British magazine that was first published in 1937, it is targeted towards 30-40 year old women. It encompasses the female beauty and fashion industry, celebrity gossip, TV, News and real life stories that the target audience might take interest in.This cover of 'Woman' is from the 23rd-29th of August 1964. The title and brand 'Woman' is in a very curly font that establishes the informal address to the audience of which also easily establishes the target and dominant audience as 'Woman' suggests a more mature audience then perhaps 'Girl'. The main image and title takes up the majority of the layout suggesting that it has great importance. The model chosen has particularly white teeth, nice hair, makeup and a dress. This presentation of women is very typical of the 1960s, women at the time were taught that they were constantly voyered by men and that they should always be seen in full makeup and nice clothes, during the end of the 1960s however the Women's liberation began to change this. The Yellow strapline at the bottom of the page covers over the woman making it more prominent and suggesting that it is of more importance. The text written on it in full capitals 'Seven Star Improvements for your kitchen' suggests that the audience posses a kitchen that they would like to improve. During this time after the WWII very few women could get jobs and so society enforced a new ethos for the lives of women. Women were taught that their purpose was to become a mother and to act as a housewife instead of getting a job, this Magazine reinforces this idea. It further shows a typical 'keeping up with the jones' ideology of having the next best household equipment and kitchen.

The use of the pull quote from Alfred Hitchcock who was a the rather famous film director of 'Psycho' and 'Vertigo'. In many of Hitchcock's films women play interesting and different heroine roles, however in Shakespeare-like fashion the women in his films are all either killed by the end or given a brutal lesson for stepping out of place in society.

Magazine – Codes and Conventions

Here are some of the codes and conventions which encapsulate the audience of a magazine simply on the front cover:

Layout - The design of a page of a magazine, including the composition of written text, images, graphics etc

Headline - Written text that indicates the content of an article, usually in a large font, and positioned at the top of the page

Masthead - The title of the magazine, usually positioned at the top of the front cover and the contents page, it establishes a a sense of the magazine's brand identity.

Sidebar - A brief article or story on a page - may be placed in a box or written in a different font to separate it from the main article

Feature - A key visual element on the front cover that usually dominates the page. It could be a model/celebrity or other picture that is relevant to the magazine content.

Pull quotes - Key phrases from an article that are featured in a larger font to attract attention.

Anchorage - Where text is used to 'pin down' the meaning of an image.

Strap-line - Short phrase encapsulating the essence of the magazine, usually positioned below the masthead

Brand identity - This communicates a clear message about the magazine to the target audience, it includes the image of the magazine (masthead, style, design etc). as well as its ethos and values.

Some other codes and conventions:

Cover (featuring masthead, strapline, main image, cover lines, banner, date, barcode and price)

Editor’s letter - Introduction to the magazines -ideals and ethos

Publishing information page - Authors information, ISBN, title of book etc

Readers’ letters - Letters given in by readers perhaps asking for specific content-gives a sense of community

Regular features (relevant to the sub-genre of magazine)

Feature articles (double page spread or extended features over several pages, including headline, 

stand first, pull quotes/ sidebars, images etc.)

Advertising, including advertorials -First person account of a product.

Competitions - draws in audience for chance to win

Consistent house style across the magazine - a reoccurring 'internal' style e.g red borders, common logo, reoccurring text font.

Newspapers-Audience

Stuart Hall - Reception Theory

Another of Stuart hall's theories is the Reception theory. It asserts that media texts are encoded with messages and values by the produces which are decoded by the audience. Different audience members will decode the media in different ways and possibly not the way the producer originally intended. 

The theory states that the members of the audience will adopt one of three positions when decoding the text:

Dominant or Preferred reading - How the produces of the text want the audience to decode/view said text. They will assert thus position if the messages are clear to them; they can follow the narrative; they can recognise age and culture cues and the themes shown are relevant to said audience.

Oppositional Reading - When the audience reject the Producers intended message and create their own meaning of the text. This can occur when the text deals with controversial themes that the audience has an opposite view upon. It may also occur when members of the audience are unable to receive age and culture appropriate cues which leads them to decode the text in a different way to the intended way.

Negotiated Reading - When the audience compromise between dominant and oppositional reading; the audience will decode some of the messages in the intended way and then others unintentionally. This could occur when the audience understand the age and culture cues but the narrative is to complex which inhibits a misunderstanding.