Expectations Created On Covers Essay, Research Paper

An Exploration into the Expectations created by Different Magazine Covers.

Magazines are a very widespread and popular media – read by hundreds of thousands of people across the world. Why are they so well liked universally? This could be for a number of reasons; firstly magazines cover a broad spectrum of topics- there is something for everyone. (This spectrum can be split up into two different categories; Special Interest e.g. film or music publications, or General Interest magazines, e.g. FHM.) People may read them therefore, in order to obtain relatively up to date knowledge on a subject of their choice. The second reason why could be the way they are displayed/marketed specifically for a pre-determined target audience. The first main focus point of magazine is always the front cover. So it is not really too surprising that they are designed to attract and create expectations in the consumer.

I have decided to examine a collection of different covers, which are targeted at people of differing age and/or gender, in order to see how each creates the expectation in the buyer that makes them purchase it. The first on my list is Empire a magazine. Published by Emap Elan Limited, one of the biggest publishing companies in the UK.

This film magazine appears to be aimed at young teenager/early twenties, male audience due to the placing of an attractive woman (Jennifer Lopez – an actress) as the central focal point. Here, it seems that she is not wearing very much behind the musical instrument she is holding. (Focus of the male gaze? – possibly.)

Empire is constructed in such a way that you first notice the large, bold red title of the mag . Then your eyes are drawn down Jennifer Lopez in the middle of the page towards the sub-heading JENNIFER LOPEZ heavenly creature? Most of the text on the cover follows the same graphological features. It is in a white font with all the sub headings in bold and in capitals. Exceptions to this are; the text in the top left of the cover in a yellow box – here the text is black to add a contrast and also to attract attention. The text up the left side of the cover although in bold is not in capitals, this is probably because it is not deemed as important as the other main links on the front.

The main sub-heading JENNIFER LOPEZ Heavenly creature? could be another signifier that Empire is targeted at a male audience as it put the actress across as something fragile or possibly sent from heaven. It raises the question would this be worded like this if it targeted a mainly female audience? However the heading is very vague. This creates expectations in the potential buyer because they will want to know more, so will look at it – and buy it.

Another point of the magazine s cover which produces a sense of expectation is the group of points situated at the left-hand side of the cover; Sex!… Popcorn!…Armadillos! This is interesting because the latter is unexpected; to the consumer this would be intriguing. They would not know what really to expect, want to know more and (as above) probably buy the magazine.

Sky magazine is male-targeted lifestyle publication, it is published, again by Emap Elan LTD.

It has many indicators which easily show us that this is aimed at a 16 – early 20’s male audience, none so obvious the scantily clad woman in the centre of the cover (Nicola Charles, an actress). This is most likely subject of the male gaze .

When you first see this cover the thing that catches your eye is probably Nicola Charles, next would be the bold, yellow title. Then you see the name of the woman; Nicola Charles – which is written in yellow and bold like the title, the caption above it says ‘Underclad Naughty Neighbour’ (she used to act in the soap Neighbours). After that your eyes come across the sub-heading ‘SEX ISSUE’, this is written in a bold, red capital font and next you look at the column underneath (all about various sex issues). Lastly you gaze over the right hand side columns.

The first thing in which the cover raises expectations in the reader is easily the ‘model’ who stars seductively at the viewer, whom is supposed to a man. This leads the male targeted to have certain expectations about the magazine’s inner contents; namely will there be more ‘exposure’ of the model? Perhaps leading him to buy the magazine. Also the picture of Nicola Charles is placed over the full page and over the title of the mag, which may mean that the beautiful women in the magazine are more important than the magazine itself (or maybe just the way it is perceived).

Alliteration is used in the top of the left column, ‘Bigger! Better! Bouncier!’ The expectation this is here to create is something sexual, as the three words could be used to describe breasts. This also gives an insight to the views of either the writers or the target audience of the mag, as the statement can be described as ‘laddish’.

There are on this magazine, more colours used on the text than on Empire. This helps to split up the magazine into sections of importance. From the bold red and yellow used on the sub-titles to the lighter shade of yellow for the apparently less important text heading on the right hand side. The normal text on this publication is in a plain, white font.

The Column starting ‘SEX ISSUE’ raises expectations, includes it seems that it includes information that ‘every man should know’, such as ‘how to bed anyone in under five minutes’.

The last few bullet-points are less expected though; ‘Three Way Lav Love’ and ‘Eleven Way Bath Bonk’. In both cases alliteration is used. These phonological features make the text ‘catchy’ and make it attractive to the reader. The more attractive it seems the more likely he is going to buy it. Also in the cases above the situations are (most probably) new and interesting which again make the target want to buy the mag and read it.

On the right side section the text-headings give little information about what is inside and merely tease the reader into wanting to know more. Again making him want to buy and read the article.

The next I will explore is Hello! magazine. Although it is published by a HOLA S.A, it has it s own company, HELLO! LTD. This suggests that it has a high income and therefore a large reader base, i.e. it is popular. It is targeted mainly at females,16/17+ (as a stereotype women like to read more gossip,) even though I’m sure quite a few men like to read this magazine.

The lines of construction in Hello! make you look immediately to the centre of the page, which focuses on David Bowie, his wife and his new baby. You are then drawn to the title, which is comparatively small in the top left corner. Next your gaze is positioned towards the top right caption which explains the picture; WORLD EXCLUSIVE – DAVID BOWIE AND WIFE IMAN PRESENT THEIR FIRST CHILD ALEXANDRIA ZAHRA . Then you notice the articles at the bottom and their corresponding pictures (which are neatly positioned opposite and symmetrical).

All of the text on the cover is in the same white, bold and in capitals, although in different sizes. (That is all except the minor additional information such as the price etc. Which is in a black font.) This is most likely to give across the idea of order and authority, this is done because it makes the content look more official, even when it is just gossip. Also it maybe more reassuring to the reader if the information comes from an authority figure.

Hello! always uses the colour scheme of red and white that could have been done for a continuing trend that regular readers can recognise quickly and easily. Some magazines change their colour schemes every issue and this could lead to confusion or at least make the publication harder to see on the self . That could lead to the potential buyer to see a rival magazine first and purchase that instead. Now this colour scheme has become expected of Hello!

The cover on the whole does not use much in the way of fancy fonts or other attractants, however it uses the star or big name to sell copies. This can be clearly seen in this case as David Bowie, wife and child take up 3/4 of the front cover. This is a convention now in star-gossip magazines because it is the showbiz personality that the audience wants to read about, so it does not matter so much what the cover looks like as who is on the cover (-more expectations). This could a key to Hello! s success – it seems that they always get exclusives with the stars and have lots of coverage in the daytime television media. This media coverage crates popularity and therefore raises certain expectations of the magazine.

Sugar is a magazine aimed at girls between 11/12-15. It is published by *.

When you have a look over Sugar’s cover, you first see the girl’s face followed by the caption underneath, “Go Wild” and it’s subsequent bullet-points. Followed by the title (even though the girl obscures it). Then you scan down the left-hand side where information for the articles inside the mag are presented and finally into the bottom right hand corner where there is some additional things of interest.

The text on this cover is in three different colours and varies from being bold, normal and italic. This makes the front look muddled and the colours clash making the whole thing look ’sickly’, (however this maybe just because it is not targeted at me.) The four colours are black, white, yellow and fluorescent pink are used to highlight and emphasize particular parts of a sentence and create an interest/expectation in the target consumer. Some examples of this are Roswell Exclusive – An alien has landed… and he s hotter than Pacey and 21 cool looks for under 30 . On one part of the cover though is a piece of text in a box for extra emphasis; Special Report – The horrific rise of Britain s violent girls, this has been boxed due to the seriousness of it. It is still designed to provoke interest though.

From the language used it is easy to see that this is a magazine for under 15’s as uses certain colloquialisms that ‘young kids’ supposedly use so much, such as ‘wicked’. So does the subject matter for example “Cringe crisis! – Is your mum trapped in a teen time warp? The colloquialisms are meant to reassure the ‘kid’ that what they are reading is for them. The strange-sounding subjects are to interest the reader enough for them to want to buy the publication.

The picture of the girl is situated off centre (towards the right), turned slightly looking towards you and smiling. She is not famous and she is wearing some reasonably trendy clothes, this is unlike the male oriented mags where the female looks sexual but here it more like just a friend.

After looking at the aforementioned magazines I have noticed something about how magazines targeted at different people to create expectations/interest; late teenage – young adult male targeted mags tend to use beautiful women, while younger teenage girl’s mags use more colours.