Stereotypes and general representation in magazines

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Nazia Begum                10L

Ms Sharma        05/01/2008

English        Media C/W

Comparing two magazines covers:

Stereotypes and general representation in magazines

The word magazine comes from the Arabic word meaning “storeroom” (originally ‘Majalla’). This is the precise job for a magazine- for it to store information for readers about a variety of things depending on their age, group they are in and the interests they have. The majority of magazines these days are mainly aimed at female readers aged from 13 and above. Most women at this young age prefer to read magazines than to read books because of the profound influence of what is deemed popular culture upon the youth of today and in particular, their desire to emulate celebrities in one form or another. The purpose of a front cover is to provide the reader with a taster of what the magazine would contain and reflects the editor’s choice what they feel is perhaps the channel for furthering the interest of the it’s readers. Furthermore, it show what to expect inside and what gossip they will be provided with, and implies that the readers money would be well spent if they were to purchase the magazine. Magazines differ both in their genre and the audience they are targeting, which in turn differ, in terms of gender, age and even ethnicity. At the front of a teen magazine you would more likely expect to see a very cute, pretty women or female models posing as they are the kind of people or celebrities that girls would be attracted to due do the readers wanting to be like their role models. This is essentially part of a wider cultural phenomenon that has arguably affected teens from all backgrounds, a natural result of the ‘MTV generation’ (associated with cultural globalisation), where American culture (loosely defined) permeates into the thinking of today’s youth. This in practise means a greater significance being attached to material values without which one is deemed ‘un-cool’. Thus, not wearing particular designer labels, not having the latest phone etc is not feasible for the average teen. The aim they have is to sell and to attract people -especially young women/girls, as they do not tend to have specialist magazines to read.

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This paper will explore how two magazines covers, explaining the purposes they have and why they are such big influences on whether we choose to buy one or not.

The first magazine is Real People. It has bright colours, which attract the attention of readers who enjoy reading about those like themselves. Examples of colours that do this, which create this impact are the usage of bright pink, bright yellow and a huge swathe of blue. The pink also has added effect as it seems to be feminine and mainly young women would like to read a ...

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