The First Thing That You See When You Pick Up a Magazine

The first thing that you see when you pick up a magazine is the cover. Consequently, it is the most important part of the magazine, and serves a number of purposes. It must attract, because if it is dull, then nobody will pick it up off the shelf. It does this with bright, vibrant colours, and a unique style, so it is not likened to any other magazine After that, it must say whether it is for male or female readers, or indeed, trans-gender. To do this, it does not necessarily have to use words, i.e. “for boys” etc., but colours, shapes, patterns, the kind of pictures on the front and, on closer inspection, the articles can tell the reader who the magazine is aimed at. The name and details of the articles and the pictures on the front of the magazine are both equally important. If an article is about, say, “a boy-bagging quiz” then it is very clear that the magazine is aimed at girls. The pictures on the front are important too, but they are sometimes not as helpful in identifying the magazine and the gender that it is aimed at. This is because both boys magazines and girls magazines can have girls, or boys on their front covers. The reason for this lies in the interests of different genders, and these will be discussed in the actu

. . .

View the whole essay, without interruption

Obviously, for girls, it tends to be more interesting than football, but it is just a comparison between the nature, and not the subject of the article. This is the first difference, and it is significant. The main things to look for are the words, any pictures, the colour scheme, and the overall approach to the writing and presenting of it. They are again, an example of the magazine showing the girls what ‘normal’ is and how they should go to any lengths to fit it. They know exactly what they are getting, and it is easy to read. This signifies that the girls are worried about what they can read about in their magazine, and the boys just get on with reading it. I have chosen to study Just Seventeen and Shoot. This shows that boys are more interested in football and the world of sport than being cool themselves. In articles, there are several things to look out for. J17 has an orange and blue theme which are contrasting colours against themselves and also with the black background. Boys, although they do like to be in groups as well, football an reading about it is more of a solitary thing. I have found that girls like to be more organised, evident in the contents, and in the article studied. This means that the ultimate difference between boys an girls is the insecurity of girls, and their need to be reassured by, advised by, and the same as all the images in their magazines. “Glory” is also a typical signifier of a boy.

Approximate Word count = 3625
Approximate Pages = 15 (250 words per page double spaced)

Simply subscribe to view this paper, and 100,000 others.